8º Anniversary of the Protests of June of 2013

                        Last 20th of June one of the biggest protests in Brazil history completed eight years. The reason why this protest is studied until now and others are not, it was its character totally spontaneous, unexpected and non-partisan. And this movement called by some as "June Revolution," must be always remembered. And it is good also to remember what the protesters were asking for and what has changed after so many years. In 2013 the Brazilian people realized that they deserve a better governance, a better return for so many taxes we pay. Besides, we want respect for our basic human rights and justice when they are violated. We want a country where goodness and integrity are exalted and evil and injustice combated.  We want a more transparent and inclusive electoral and political systems.  We want honesty, efficiency, solidarity and accountability from our politicians and authorities. In short, we want a country that really works for the progress of its citizens. In short, we want a governmental system that make the most of our human and material resources. And so Brazil can reach its true potential and finally stop being known as 'the eternal country of the future' and becomes what its potential can make for its citizens. This post is a summary of the three articles. The first with the title of, "How Fighting Corruption is Also Good for Human Rights: The Legacy of the Office of the Prosecutor in Brazil." Published https://www.academia.edu/29450673/How_fighting_corruption_can_also_be_good_for_human_rights_The_Legacy_of_the_Office_of_the_Prosecutor_Brazil. The second was published at  https://blog.softtek.com/en/decreasing-purchasing-power-and-endemic-corruption-fueling-brazil-protests. The third was published at https://www.france24.com/en/20130622-brazil-rousseff-reforms-protests

                       "Corruption is an enormous obstacle to the realization of all human rights, as well as the right to development. Corruption violates the core human rights principles of transparency, accountability, non-discrimination and meaningful participation in every aspect of life of the community. Conversely, these principles, when upheld and implemented, are the most effective means to fight corruption." said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. During the month of June of 2013, Brazil experienced an intense wave of public protests that targeted a number of controversial political and socio-economic policies. Among them, one in particular served to catalyze and focus widespread dissatisfaction with corruption: the movement against the PEC 37. It would have limited the investigative powers of the Office of the Prosecutor (ministerio publico)  in criminal cases including corruption. In Brazil, The Office of the Prosecutor has been particularly active in investigations into irregularities and cases of corruption involving high public officials and politicians. The anti-PEC 37 movement was able to win the hearts of protesters on the streets, who rose in defense of the Office of the Prosecutor and Congress vote down PEC 37 guaranteeing investigative powers to the Office of the Prosecutor. The mission of Office of the Prosecutor is to promote social justice by bringing actions against individuals, businesses and governments agents in the defense of civil society in general. Because of these vast responsibilities, it has become common practice in Brazil for  citizens to seek out the Office of the Prosecutor whenever they felt their rights have been violated. Brazilians have protested against corruption many times before. The law relating to administrative improbity that defines administrative corruption was signed into effect on June 1992 amidst intense pressure and accusations of corruption that resulted in an impeachment process and the resignation of President Collor. From 2005 to 2012 there were a number of parliamentary investigations, but the investigations of the Office of the Prosecutor were more successful. A strong Office of the Prosecutor is an important pillar for the consolidation of democracy and promotion of human rights.                                                                                                                                                                       The massive public demonstrations that erupted across Brazil in mid-June were sparked by a regional protest over an increase in public bus fares. These protests were not about the tyranny of a despot as in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, but rather boiled up from the loss of purchasing power, coupled with huge government expenditures on projects leading up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics and a perception that the political elite are taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves, leading to public discontent. The catchphrase of the protests, "it's not just about 20 cents," emerged after a week of evolving demands from the protesters. Like most of the spontaneous protests, Brazil's movement has no cohesive central leadership, and after their initial demand that the bus hike be rescinded was met, protesters offered a variety of reasons for their protests. Protesters have mentioned a number of grievances beyond bus fares, including inadequate education and health systems, ubiquitous corruption, government spending on events like the World Cup and Olympics as well as an increasing cost of living. The Brazilian government was clearly surprised by the protests and the response to them has been somewhat schizophrenic. When their heavy-handed tactics against the initial protests backfired and the social media enabled protests spread like wildfire, Dilma Rousseff backed off and announced plans to convene a constituent assembly, but then changed her mind and offered a plebiscite to ask Brazilians what political reforms they want. Several bills cracking down on corruption have also been fast-tracked in Brazil's notoriously slow Congress.                                                                                                                                                          Brazilian President Dilma Roussef spoke about her generation's struggles in battling a dictatorship during a prime-time speech. The 10-minute address ended Rousseff's much-criticized silence in the face of the protests. She promised to make improvements in urban transportation and to battle corruption, but offered few details as to how that will happen. She also reiterated her backing for a plan before congress to invest all oil revenue royalties in education and a promises she made earlier to bring in foreign doctors to areas that lack physicians. The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops came out in favor of the protests. "This is a phenomenon involving the Brazilian people and the awakening of a new consciousness," church leaders said in the statement. 

Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Latin America (2015-2020)

               This report is a really good text to read. I'd like to congratulate the authors, Vegard Bye and Peder Ostebo for such a good human rights report about the situation in Latin America. And also to thank them for their work and also the Chr. Michelsen Institute for its work for democracy, human rights and justice. We all need to embrace this fight for a fairer, democratic, transparent and inclusive world. This post is a summary of the report with the incomplete title above published in 2020 at   https://www.cmi.no/publications/file/7264-literature-review-democracy-and-human-rights-in-contemporary-latin-america-2015-2020-trends.pdf

               The attitudinal development of Latin America citizens has raised widely discussed set of topics in the region throughout the last decades, namely the issues of citizenship, political participation, and the relationship between citizen and government. Centre-left and left-wing governments promoted different mechanisms to deepen participation beyond electoral channels. The legacy of these efforts survive in citizen understanding of democracy. There are, however, inherent problems with these mechanisms. Participatory democracy has in several countries been misused by authoritarian leaders, a tendency which has likely led to both an erosion of faith in democratic institutions and reduced support for the idea of participatory democracy. Many Latin America countries face a multitude of problems impeding effective governance, including economic decline, political instability, diminishing political trust, and polarization. Lack of effective governance is, however, also a cause underpinning many of these problems. While L.A. countries face an array of different governance challenges, a topic that has proved to be particularly acute is the problem of corruption. More than any other event, the corruption scandals concerning the Brazilian companies Petrobras and Odebrecht have contributed to transforming domestic and regional politics. Moreover, corruption scandals have received public attention as an indirect consequence of the rise of political leaders hostile to democratic governance. The combination of a more potent effort to tackle corruption, combined with increased access to information may for instance prove relevant in revealing corrupt practices. The introduction of human rights discourse was a key element in the L.A. transitions to democratic governance. International human rights standards have been a common framework for political and social claims in L.A. societies. This is as true in L.A. as elsewhere. The transition to democracy opened up a wave of constitutional acknowledgement of human rights, and spurred the creation of both national human rights institutions and judicial mechanisms for compliance with international human rights convention. There is, however, a vast gap, between the legal framework and the capacity, or in some cases willingness, of governments to comply and improve the situation. Like the panorama of causal explanation of violent crime are complex. In scholarly literature, crime is often thought of as a determinant of declining political trust, thereby impeding both democratic and economic development. Combinations of high levels of violence, corruption, delegitimization of political regimes, and the presence of strong illegal economic actors (illicit drugs, mining, illegal logging) with capacity to influence the state apparatus and control populations is an example of such a pattern. In many cases, understanding such patterns is key to understanding attacks against human rights defenders and activists. Since the introduction of contemporary human rights discourse in L.A., protection of political activists and promoters of human rights has been a key issue in the region. Moreover, several scholars have highlighted the connection between the influence of activists and the maintenance and effectiveness of human rights institutions. This is perhaps especially relevant for L.A., where human rights activists have played a vital role in pressuring justice, specifically for the adoption of stronger legal framework for prosecuting human rights violations. Summarizing and presenting an overview of democratic development and human rights in L.A. is a highly difficult task. The authors of this report recognize that any such attempt will lead to an incomplete overview. This is partly because of regional diversity, partly because existing literature is only beginning to grasp the complex societal developments that have been taking place over the last half-decade. Understanding past developments is especially acute during the current coronavirus crisis. While the crisis has thrown the region into turmoil, the dynamics deciding its outcome will be shaped by existing capacities, cleavages and conflicts. Protests against corruption and broader protests waves against the functioning of democratic regimes tap into two overarching and connected topics that L.A. political leaders must address to change political dynamics. Firstly, that of performance, transparency, and lacking delivery of welfare policies. Secondly, a more open and including political system. Human rights and the nature of democratic rule are intimately connected. While the human rights agenda has expanded, and continues to expand still, many human rights actors see political rights as threatened. This must be seen in light of weakened regional mechanisms and decreased international presence and pressure by international actors truly committed to human rights work. The current complex political landscape, economic conjunctures, and the sudden and unexpected outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic makes it difficult to make reasonable and credible projections for the coming five-years. It is, however, possible to suggest some key factors that will greatly influence the development of democracy and human rights in the region. 1) Basic human rights are under serious threats, including right to food and right to health. But also security and right to life. Political rights, may again be threatened if authoritarian trends continue, with Brazil as the most worrisome case. 2) When it comes to a more effective promotion of human rights, a key factor will be civil society's capacity to create a climate in which rights discussions thrive and political polarization is prevented from overtaking rights. 3) On an international level, the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S.A. and China and Russia, will have an important effect on political development. In this situation, European countries may have to take a vital role in facilitating conflict resolution and the promotion of human rights and democracy.  

The Human Capital Index 2020

                 This post is a summary of the book with the title above published in 2021 at   https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34432

                        The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that benchmarks key components of human capital across economies. The HCI was launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project, a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Over the past decade, many economies have made important progress in improving human capital. Today, however, COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse many of those gains. Urgent action is needed to protect hard-won advances in human capital, particularly among the poor. Human capital consists of the knowledge, skills and health that people accumulate over their lives. Human capital also enables people to realize their potential. The five components of the HCI do not cover all the important aspects of the accumulation and productive use of human capital. In particular, the index is silent on the opportunities to use accumulated human capital in adulthood through meaningful work. In many economies, a sizable fraction of today's young people may not find employment in jobs in which they can use their skills and cognitive abilities to increase their productivity. By bringing salience to the productivity implications of shorfalls in health and education, the HCI has not only clarified the importance of investing in human capital but also highlighted the role that measurement can play in catalyzing consensus for reform. What explain these variations in human capital outcomes? Despite a strong correlation between the HCI and GDP per capita, human capital does not always move in lockstep with economic development. Economies like Burundi, Estonia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam have HC outcomes that are higher than predicted by their GDP per capita. Conversely, in a number of economies HC is lower than per capita income would suggest. Among these are several  resource-rich countries in which HC has not yet matched the potential that one would anticipate, given these economies' wealth. The HCI is based on outcomes that typically change slowly from year to year. Some of them, such as stunting and educational tests scores, are measured every three years. Health, education, social protection, and other complementary policies informed by rigorous measurement can take countries' human capital beyond the levels previously achieved, opening the way to a more prosperous and inclusive future. The Human Capital Project is a global effort to support human development as a core element of countries' overall strategies to increase growth. The main objective is progress towarda world in which all children can achieve their full potential. For that to happen, children need to reach school well-nourished and ready to learn, attain real learning in the classroom, and enter the job market as healthy, skilled and productive adults. The resulting HCI quantitatively illustrates the key stages in a child's human capital trajectory and their consequences for the productivity of the next generation of workers, with three components: 1) survival from birth to school age, measured using under-5 mortality rates.   2) Expected years of learning-adjusted school, combining information on the quantity and quality of education.   3) health.  Ceará is a northeastern state in Brazil that improved its education outcomes much faster than the rest of Brazil. Almost all of Ceará 184 municipalities had low levels of quality in teaching and had very limited resources, spending about one-third less in per-student education than wealthier states such as São Paulo. Among these municipalities is Sobral (with 200,000 inhabitants), which in the late 1990s suffered from a highly fragmented school system, with many poorly maintained small school, most in rural areas and with multigrade classes. Despite a reorganization of the school system, a 2005 diagnostic found that 40% of grade 3 children were not able to read. and 21% of lower-secondary school students dropped out. Between 2005 and 2015, Sobral managed ro achieve remarkable progress in educational outcomes. It ranked first among 5,570 municipalities in the country in both primary and lower-secondary education. Ceará's approach was driven by a mix of the following elements, whose effectiveness is supported by international evidence: the provision of fiscal and nonmonetary incentives for municipalities to achieve education outcomes; technical assistance to municipal school networks to enhance teacher effectiveness and achieve age-appropriate learning; the regular use of a robust monitoring and evaluation system, following by adequate action; and giving municipalities autonomy and accountability to achieve learning. Sobral organized its education policy under four pillars: continuous use of student assessment, a focused curriculum with a clear learning sequence and prioritization of foundational skills, a pool of well-prepared and motivated teachers, and a system of autonomous and accountable school management with school principals appointed through a meritocratic technical selection process. Continuity of commitment and effort over successive governments is key to reaching any long-term goals, but especially in growing human capital, which can take decades. HCI 2020 arrives at a time when policy makers across the world face urgent choices. Strategic decisions made now have the power to protect and strengthen countries' human capital and, with it, their economic future. Below the HCI 2020 from the highest score to the lowest, the list in the left is for PanAmerican countries and in the right for the rest of the world. Again, for no reason my post is being messed up. The letter became smaller and the two vertical lists that I did as I did on the GDP growth post is totally mixed. 

PanAmerican Countries                                         Rest of the world

Canada   0.80                                                                Japan   0.80                                                              U.S.A.    0.70                                                                 South Korea   0.80                                                   Chile   0.65                                                                   Sweden   0.80                                                          Costa Rica   0.63                                                            Ireland   0.79                                                          Mexico   0.61                                                                  U.K.   0.78                                                             Peru   0.61                                                                      Norway   0.77                                                       Argentina   0.60                                                              Australia   0.77                                                       Uruguay   0.60                                                              Portugal   0.77                                                        Colombia   0.60                                                               France   0.76                                                          Ecuador   0.59                                                                Germany   0.75                                                      Brazil    0.55                                                                    Italy   0.73                                                          Paraguay   0.53                                                              Spain   0.73                                                        Nicaragua   0.51                                                          Vietnam   0.69                                                  Panama   0.50                                                             Russia   0.68                                                   Guyana   0.50                                                                Turkey   0.65                                                    Dominican Republic   0.50                                                      China   0.65                                                   Honduras   0.48                                                               India   0.49                                                    Guatemala   0.46                                                              South Africa   0.43