A) Statement of Facts
1. Our claimant, Jesús Ernesto Rosario Quintana, is not in possession of his passport but of his driving license and claims to be of Colombian nationality.
2. The claimant is member of the ACIEM Colombian engineer association.
3. Our claimant has a chemical company called Quintana-Chem placed in the city of Cali that trade oil and oil products.
4. His mother lives in El Carmen since his father’s death, a city in the North Western part of the Norte de Santander Province.
5. His company was successful and able to buy small businesses.
6. He is friend of the manager of ECO PETROL.
7. On 26th of July 2006 in the evening our claimant received a called from somebody he did not know asking him to send them chemicals for their cocaine production.
8. The person who called did not say his name nor which company or organization he did represented.
9. The claimant did not reported the call to the police.
10. Three days later another person called him saying he was a member of a grupo de autodefensa and asking for chemicals for their cocaine production.
11. The claimant told him to call a week later. He did not call the police to report the call.
12. Fifteen days later the same man called again. Our claimant said he could not do what they were requesting.
13. The man said that if he refused to cooperate he would become a military objective.
14. On August 18th he found his car on fire. Nobody, nor the guards, saw anything. Our claimant went home by taxi. When he arrived home he found the windows of his house broken with stones. Our claimant took another taxi to an hotel in the other part of the town.
15. The next day he had a business meeting with his very friend Miguel Ángel Días to whom he told everything that happened to him. His friend recommend him to abandon Cali.
16. The next day our claimant went to Bogotá and left his deputy in charge of his company. He rented a flat in the Teusaquillo district. From there he called his deputy quite often.
17. On August 24th he received a call in his apartment in Bogotá. The voice told him that if he did not cooperated he would be killed as a military objective.
18. On August 24th, after the call he immediately left the flat and went to El Carmen by bus.
19. He did not called his company anymore because there was no phone at home.
20. He remained at his mother’s house for three months.
21. While he was living in El Carmen he develop a stomach problem that lasts until today.
22. During that time he did not try to find a job nor asked her mother to help him to find a job.
23. On November 28th our claimant left his mother’s house. On November 30th he arrived to Cartagena by a rented car.
24. In the port somebody took him to the captain of a ship that was going to Spain. He agreed with the captain the he would be in the ship and he would pay him.
25. He was hidden in a small cabin full of boxes for eight days.
26. When the ship arrived two men threw him into the water near the cost.
27. When he arrived to the shore two guards told him he was not in Spain but Asylia.
28. Then he went to the Office of Immigration to ask for protection.
B) Country of Origin Assessment
Since the decade of the 1960’s, the internal armed conflict in Colombia is full of violations of Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law. As have been proved by the organization Human Rights Watch[1] , the three parties of the conflict: guerrillas, paramilitary groups and Colombian armed forces commit serious abuses such as kidnappings, killings and massacres as well as creating an atmosphere of terror among the civil population.
According to this report, the Colombian army continues to commit violations of the international humanitarian law and do not show interest to investigate and sanction the responsibles. The most remarkable fact being that they cannot, or refuse to, distinguish between civilians and combatants. In the parts of the country where the paramilitaries are present, the Colombian army tolerate their violations and, moreover, provide information to facilitate their operations.
The National Police has incorporated human rights and international humanitarian law to its discourse topic. It has, also, start training their official according to these international norms. However, there are still policemen involved in violations. The most frequent cases being those in which they arrest and kill suspects. In occasions they have provided with internal information to the paramilitaries to help them with their black lists. The police has not intervened when the paramilitaries select and kill civilians. Sometimes, the police has considered, in public, a whole community as sympathizers of the guerrilla and deprived them from police protection, thus violating their responsibility of protecting civilians in dangerous situations according to the Colombian and international law.
Both paramilitary groups and guerrillas continue to be well-financed through resources from the drug business. Paramilitaries have also become increasingly involved in large-scale corruption schemes, infiltrating national governmental institutions, controlling local politicians, and diverting funds from state agencies.[2]
The Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) consist of, at least, seven paramilitary groups. Even though the AUC usually operate jointly with the Colombian security forces, they also act independently. The leader of the AUC, Carlos Castaño, has declared his willingness to conform his forces to respect humanitarian international law. However, he says this is very difficult to comply because of the characteristics of the Colombian conflict by which it is not possible to distinguish between combatants and civilians- there are many combatants without uniform nor identification. In general terms, the AUC depend on the violation of these international norms to make the war. They have killed civilians and combatants out of combat, forced displacement, torture, dead threats, among other violations.
With respect to the FARC, the biggest Colombian guerrilla, they have not tried to adapt their behavior according to the international norms. They only show their respect to the international humanitarian law when there is a political benefit in it. There have been proved massacres, planned killings to civilians, torture, attacks to non military objectives, such as ambulances, among other violations.
C) Issues
If our claimant goes back to Colombia, does he have the risk to be persecuted? As the present situation is in the country with the internal conflict and the well-founded fear he presents there is a risk of being persecuted and killed and so it would be violated his human right of being able to have right to freedom and life.
Is it our claimant able to receive protection from the authorities if he goes back to Colombia? The probability to receive an effective protection by the Colombian authorities is limited and even can be reverted and be detrimental to his right to freedom or life.
Is there a Convention reason for the claimant to be persecuted? As he refused to cooperate, the perception of the agent of persecution is that he is a political opposite because he is perceived as a supporter of the other part of the conflict.
D) Summary of Arguments
Our claimant, according to the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, which Asylia is party to, satisfies the definition of refugee established in the Art. 1 (2)[3] of the aforementioned Convention. He presents a well-founded fear of being persecuted if he goes back to Colombia because of perceived membership to a political group by the agents of persecution; he is since 8th of December 2006 out of Colombia and living in Asylia; and he is unwilling to avail himself to the protection of the authorities of his country because of the well-founded fear he suffers.
Even though our claimant is an asylum-seeker without the refugee status he should enjoy the human rights which are respected in the convention or treaties signed by Asylia, such as asylum if he may be persecuted, tortured, or deprived of freedom in his home country.
E) Arguments Section
A) Being Asylia party to the 1951 Geneva convention relating to the status of refugees and of its 1967 Protocol, we are going to present the grounds which our claimant Jesús Ernesto Rosario Quintana satisfies regarding the Convention Refugee Definition.
Well-founded fear. This is the key phrase of the definition of refugee. Our claimant is a businessman who possess a company called Quintana-Chem , we have evidence of that because he has a company magnetic security card to get into that company. Having this as a premise he should not be wanting to abandon his company nor his country at least he had a “well-founded” fear of being persecuted. He has fear because there is a future risk of being persecuted again, together to the facts that will be exposed in the next point. There is no need to prove he was persecuted but that there exists the risk that he can be in a future. Due to the dynamicity of the Colombian internal conflict, there was no alternative internal flight to consider, as the paramilitary groups may operate everywhere. The fact that he was the owner of a successful company makes him well-known and, thus the possibility of persecution may be greater. Our claimant also has evidence of similar situations that could happened to him. His friend, Miguel Ángel Días, told him about the brutal murder of his businessman friend that asked the police to protect him but they could not. This “may well show that is fear that sooner or later he also will become a victim of persecution is well-founded”. [4] There is not necessity for the claimant to show he sought and was refused protection because of the humanitarian law violations that are taking place in Colombia. Colombia is not respecting the Article 3 common to the four Conventions and Protocol II, thus defending the international humanitarian law. The development of stomach problems while living with his mother I El Carmen shows the stress and fear our claimant was and is suffering.
Persecuted. As a result of his refusal to co-operate with the group of autodefensa that called him, he was threatened of becoming a military objective and, thus existing a threat for his life. After that first threatening call, his car was set fire and somebody threw stones to the windows of his house. (We are going to consider this facts as true as they cannot be proved as there were no witnesses, but let us give the claimant the benefit of the doubt, as it is impossible for him to prove every single part of his case.) They were not isolated facts and are a clear evidence that somebody was following him. After a friend’s advice he went to Bogotá, however, he received another call there from the group of autodefensa, which scared him and evidences that the group was well connected and could find him easily. Normally those groups receive intelligence information from the Colombian forces to help them with their operations.[5] That is, as the paramilitary groups are provided with information from the State forces, it is probable that wherever he goes, he is going to be found easily, because the Colombian forces cover the whole country.
So, he made his best to reallocate himself into other parts of the country but with no success, that is why he wanted to come to Europe. He was persecuted by this paramilitary group and that together to the impossibility of making his livelihood because of the fear he suffered and the “general atmosphere of insecurity in the country of origin”[6] makes our claimant to have a well-founded fear of persecution on “cumulative grounds”.[7] He suffered persecution and has a risk of future persecution in the country because there are proves of the unwillingness or refuse of the authorities to offer effective protection to its citizens as exposed in the country of origin assessment section.[8]
Ground. Mr. Jesús Ernesto Rosario Quintana had a very successful chemical company, one day he received a call from a paramilitary group asking for his cooperation by providing them with chemicals for their cocaine production. He refused to cooperate and as a consequence of that he became a military target. According to the protection categories applied to Colombian asylum-seekers we may consider that the ground satisfied by our claimant is political, even though he stated in the interview that he had never been involved in drugs, politics or crime:
“Irregular armed actors often kidnap and/or extort persons deemed to hold an opposing political opinion. They also use kidnapping and extortion to finance political / military objectives, targeting anyone seen as a possible source of funds, regardless of the victim’s social status or political activity. Due to the significance of the income derived from ransom and extortion to fund political-military activities, refusal or inability to pay is viewed as an act or indication of political opposition, resulting in persecution and violence. This is reflected in letters written by the irregular armed groups demanding payment of a “war tax” (the so called “vacuna”) and a threat to mark victims as a military target upon failure or refusal to pay”.[9]
What it is important here is that the paramilitary group- the agent of persecution- considers him as a political opposite – imputed ground- and as such as a military target, even though he has no political involvement in the conflict.
Outside the country of nationality/former habitual residence. Even though our claimant is not in the possession of his passport, he possess his driving license and we also have the evidence of the claimant that he is from Colombia.
Owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country. Our claimant rejected the idea of calling the police after any call he received. He trusted more his friend Miguel Ángel Días who advice him not to call the police and abandon Cali. The situation in Colombia regarding the protection of its civilians by the national authorities is not effective, thus our claimant was afraid to call the police as this could have any kind of connection with the paramilitary group he wanted to avoid. “The mere fact of refusing to avail himself of the protection of his Government, or a refusal to return, may disclose the applicant's true state of mind and give rise to fear of persecution.”[10]
B) As the subsidiary protection with which or claimant was granted with the first instance decision- one-year residence permit, is not enough in order to find protection our claimant can also seek for asylum in other international and European instruments Asylia is party to. The asylum-seeker should enjoy also human rights even though he does not enjoy the refugee status.
1. As Asylia is party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), this state should respect article 14 which says that in cases of persecution everybody has the right to enjoy asylum in other country.[11]As explained in section A 2 our claimant has a well-founded fear of persecution, so he should enjoy asylum and not just one-year residence permit.
2. Asylia is party to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment (CAT) since 1985. As such, it should respect the convention and cannot return our claimant to Colombia if there are “substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”[12] The actual situation in Colombia is chaotic and seems non probable that in the period of one year , the risk of being tortured by part of our claimant is expired. So, it should be taken in consideration the mass violations of Human Rights in Colombia since the last forty years.
3. In the Art. 13 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of which Asylia is party, it is specified a protection for aliens lawfully in the territory of a signatory member. According to Art. 7, states must not expose our claimant to torture, cruel or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on return to another country by extradition, expulsion or refoulement.[13]
4. As party to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), Asylia should not expel our claimant when the one-year residence permit expires if his presence in Colombia presents the same persecution risks as in the present (Non-refoulement principle).
F) Submissions
The present situation in Colombia, due to the instability and chaos of the internal conflict, makes not probable that he could receive effective protection in his country in case of being persecuted. Moreover, the level of corruption in the institutions of the country is very high as they reject to investigate wrongdoings of their officials and tend to do fair trials to military suspects of massacres and selective killings to the civil population. In addition to this, our claimant could not continue his life normally which could have strong effects in his physical condition with risk to get worse his stomach problem because of the stress of constant fear for his life, nor carry on with his work as owner of his company because he would be at risk of more threatening calls extorting him or being killed. That is why, as our claimant satisfies all the requirements of the definition of refugee, we ask the tribunal to grant him with such status determination because the one-year residence permit is not enough to provide him with minimum standards of living.
[1] http://hrw.org/spanish/informes/1998/guerra.html#resumen
[2] http://hrw.org/englishwr2k7/docs/2007/01/11/colomb14884.htm
[3] http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect?id=3c0762ea4
[4] Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Par.43
[5] http://hrw.org/spanish/informes/1998/guerra.html#resumen
[6] Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Par.53
[7] Par 53
[8] Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Par.65
[9] http://www.unhcr.org/country/col.html International Protection Considerations Regarding Colombian Asylum-Seekers and Refugees. Par 96
[10] Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Par. 83
[11] http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
[12] http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
[13] http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
miércoles, 21 de noviembre de 2007
Pensions and Demography in the European Union
1.- Introduction
The population ageing in Europe is increasing dramatically and future projections by 2050 are astonishing. There are four demographic factors that are responsible for this increase. However, it is necessary to emphasize that these factors have a different magnitude in each EU country. The first factor is that fertility rates are below the rate required to stabilize the population. Secondly, there would be an increasing old-age dependency ratio which would affect detrimentally GDP growth and, consequently, would pressure the public pensions spending. Third, life expectancy at birth is expected to rise for both males and females by 2050. And fourth, the annual migration inflows are expected to decrease from 1.3 million in 2004 to 800,000 people by 2015. [1]
Thus, the European population by 2050 would be reduced and much older. The great key economic impact would be felt in the decrease of the working population which will shrink sharply to 16%. Even though there would be a temporarily increase of the employment rate of the EU 25 from 63% in 2004 to 67% in 2010[2]; it will not be enough to counteract the weight of the demographic change.
In this paper we are going to analyze the effect this demographic change brings to the public pensions systems of most of the European governments. Thus, we will present several measures these governments may considered as future options to tackle the ongoing problem derived from the growing older population. Among these alternatives it may be found a progressive move from an unfunded pension scheme towards a funded one together with the transition deficit that comes tied with it. And four other political options intended to avoid that transition deficit, by maintaining the established PAYG system.
In the last part of the text we will present the particular case of Spain and analyze its national pension system. We will show the proposed future projection of the public budget concerning pensions and, finally we will present measures to avoid the worse.
2.- Impact of the Ageing Population on Social Security and Public Finances.
Although the situation in the different member states may be different, the increasing ageing of the European population may lead to pressures on public spending. From the period 2004-2010 it is expected a rising in public expenditures related with age factors that will represent an increase of 10%.[3] This pressure status will start to be felt from 2010 onwards and more dramatically between 2020 and 2040. This pressure would be strongly felt in pensions, services and health for the elderly.
The risk of unsustainable public finance in many countries of the EU alerts the future equilibrium of the system in general. “Allowing public spending linked to ageing to create budget deficits would lead to an intolerable spiral of debt”.[4] This situation would be detrimental for the overall economic growth and the functioning of the single currency, and would lead to a consideration in depth of the system of pensions and the social benefits which would, consequently, have a negative impact on the welfare of the older population.
That is why there is a necessity to act now and not to delay the reforms, so that every generation, including the baby-boomers, would participate as well in the process of change. The EU governments did not remain inactive and started several reforms in the areas of pensions, employment, health and education systems. However, the emphasis these reforms add is a transference of responsibility from the government and corporations to the population itself. The role that the individuals will have to play regarding to the pension they will enjoy in the future will be determined, somehow, by personal choices such as savings and deciding when to retire from work.
The increasing ageing of the European population would also mean more public spending in long-term care and health care. In this aspect, the new technologies may be relevant in helping to adapt healthcare services and to improve a preventive treatment for chronic diseases. We are enjoying nowadays the highest life expectancy rates than ever. If this improvement in longevity could be combined with healthier life style and without disability, the public spending regarding the old population would be reduced to the half.[5]
3.- Guaranteeing Sustainable Public Finances in Europe
In the great majority of the member states there is a problem with the sustainability of public finance under present policies. In order to get a consolidate budget, there must be joint efforts to raise the participation of the population in the labor market. This is the way to increase the government returns and deal with expenditures due to ageing without having to increase the tax rate.
There have been made retirement reforms that will alleviate, somehow, the actual imbalance in the pension system, however, some countries may need additional reform. Among these we may find keeping ageing population active in the labor market for longer, raising the age of retirement, providing benefits to those who want to stay at work after the retirement age and offering the possibility to increase their income by means of an additional pension, all this obtained at the same time than an equilibrium is found between individuals contributions and benefits.
There are also appearing new initiatives to develop private savings and funded systems. In this sense it is of relevant importance to develop “efficiently functioning financial markets and to create stable and secure conditions for individuals to save and invest”.[6] There should also be enhanced the possibility for individuals to decide about the income they want to enjoy during their retirement age, by developing private savings and capital. There should be promoted, as well, an increasing knowledge of the
population in financial matters and its information to give them the tools to adapt to the future changing circumstances.
We are going to present now some possible solutions to escape from the problem of ageing population in the pension system in Europe.
3.1- Shifting from PAYG to funded systems
“Because of demographic imbalances, unfunded state pension schemes are unlikely to be sustainable, unless the real growth rate in pensions is severely constrained or the effective working life is increased substantially.”[7] In contrast, the profits available in the capital market makes more probable to obtain the wished pension scheme through funded systems.
The majority of state pension schemes are PAYG, that is, the one based on the contribution of the working population. In order to have the PAYG system balanced, there should be enough people in the labor market to pay for the pensions of those who are retired. In fact, this system is justified by the growth of the working population and productivity. However, the picture in Europe is changing dramatically. Europe’s population growth is diminishing vertiginously. In addition, life expectancy is getting rates never seen before due to the advances in medical technology. In this demographic time bombing, the real dilemma is, who is going to pay the pensioners if there is no younger working population to pay taxes?
Up to now, the United Kingdom is the only major country that has tried to reduce its pension costs. However, other European countries are raising the share of state pension’s costs as a proportion of GDP, as for example, Italy which is rising by 61% and more than doubling in the case of Portugal. There has been made estimates about the future liabilities of the pension systems, based on “present values of promise future pension payments and expected future contributions”.[8] If these liabilities were considered as part of the national debt, no country of the European Union would meet the Maastricht criteria of having less than 60% of GDP national debt.[9]
All this factors lead us to the conclusion that unfunded pension schemes are not feasible in any major country in the European Union. They would be viable only if the real growth rate were zero in the long run. It could also be practicable if there were an increase in the age of retirement, however this would be useless in a system in which people go on retirement even earlier of the established age.
As the state unfunded system PAYG seems to be unfeasible, the governments have no other alternative than to transfer the burden to funded pensions schemes that are more likely to be in the private sector rather than in the public one. In the long horizon, funded pension schemes seem to provide more efficient results than the unfunded ones. This is because they can provide higher profits by investing in other economies in the world which are experiencing rapid economic growth, instead than in Europe.
There is another reason for funded schemes to be superior to unfunded ones and it is because of the “dynamic efficiency”[10] of the economy. This is so, because saving through a pension fund favors the process of capital accumulation and, consequently influences in the increasing productivity of employees in the labor market. However, there exists a risk of converting this situation in counterproductive by getting the economy to be “dynamic inefficient” and thus, making it unsustainable in the long horizon. This is so because the accumulation of capital is so high that people start saving less and consuming more.
The funded pension system, although it may seem a plausible solution to the current increasing demographic problem, it is not a perfect cure to the disease. The funded pension system may provide the illusion of security because of the absence of political risks, as ministers may change their plans and move the right of pension funds to other areas in need. There are other added types of risks about the increase of contributions due to unemployment, illness, disability or death in the working place during the life time and also uncertainties derived from the insecurity of asset returns as the pension fund accumulation rises. These kinds of risks are very difficult to be transferred to private companies. As Diamond states, the mandatory unfunded systems are the ones that can deal with these risks collectively[11], but, as we affirmed before, the time bombing brings certain risks that the funded systems do not suffer. A last negative aspect of the funded pension systems is that, may be they are not feasible for poor workers, because the state unfunded services provide them with the minimum welfare benefit that the private funded sector cannot.
3.1.1- The Transition Deficit
Even though it may be recognized that a change from a PAYG to a funded pension system is desirable there is a major problem to solve: the transition from one scheme to the other. The point is that, although there was a change to a funded system, there would be still pensioners from the previous system to cover.
As those pensions are paid by the active workers, it could not be like that any longer as the workers contributions should be invested in a fund. So, to remedy this contributive gap, that is called transition deficit, there have to be levied extra taxation or by the “recognition funds” by the government, that is a “form of deferred taxation that formally `recognizes´ the unfunded liabilities of the state PAYG system”.[12] The resulting effect would be that the transition generation would have to pay double taxation: direct contributions to invest in their own fund and an extra tax to cover the pension of the retirees covered by the old PAYG state model.
Thus, there raises the question if the switch from unfunded to funded pension system is Pareto improving or not. The main aspect is if the transition generation would be rewarded according to the disadvantage they would have in comparison to previous generations enjoying the unfunded pension provision. That is why some critics would consider more profitable other measures to deal with the population ageing and the pension system rather than altering the established pension scheme.
Among the other political options we may find measures to maintain stable or increasing the working population, one of the main tools for the PAYG pension system to be viable. The government can achieve this by means of counteracting population ageing, rising the established age of retirement or reducing public pension benefits. We will cover this topic in the next section.
3.2- Other Policy Options
Due to the dramatic unprecedented increase of the old population European governments see a need to reform the current pension systems; otherwise, the increase of the accumulation debt would be detrimental to the European economies in general. In the past, they tended to raise public pension tax rates to cover the rising costs of maintaining public pension benefits. However, this is not longer viable as the contributions paid by the workers are already at very high levels and now, the objectives they want to cover are the ones allowing to a reduction in the budgetary expenditures. Another reason for the pressing situation in dealing with the problem is due to the legislative precedence needed to get present results and also to give time to the workers and retirees to adapt to the new policies.
We are going to go through four policy options intended to “reduce or end the growth of public pension expenditures”.[13] These options are divided into four groups depending on the four factors that determine public pension disbursement.
3.2.1- Counteract Population Ageing
To control or reverse the increasing older population in the future is one of the main measures to counteract a future weakening of the monetary balance of the public pension schemes. We may find two demographic ways to help a rising in the European population.
3.2.1.1- Encourage higher fertility
“United Nations projects population declines between 2000 and 2050 in Germany (from 82 to 79 million), and Italy (from 58 to 45 million)”.[14] If the fertility rates are increased, that would lead to an average of younger groups in society, thus declining at the same time the old-age dependency ratio of the old population per employee. There have been made projections from 2000 to 2050 by the UN[15] to estimate the impact on public expenditures if there were added half a birth per woman. As it was supposed, that increase of population by adding half a child per woman would lead to a lowering in the pension expenditures ratio. What these projections enhance is that with higher fertility rates the costs of public pensions would be reduced significantly for each country.
3.2.1.2- Permit more immigration
According to studies made by the UN in 2001[16], the average age of the immigrant population in Europe is lower than the European population. So, an increase in immigration would lead to a rejuvenation of the average of the European population and a decline of the old-age dependency ratio. In the same projections study presented before, they estimated an increase in the net migration rate by 2.5 net migrants per 1000 inhabitants.[17] As a result of this addition of 2.5 per 1000 of the projection, the public expenditures would be reduced considerably in comparison with the reference projection.
So, an increase in both the fertility and immigration rates would have a positive reduction in government expenditure due to the increase of young population to bear the burden of the pension systems.
3.2.2- Increase Labor Force Participation
A second political option aiming to increase the employment rates in Europe would not be by adding new born or immigrant population, but by encouraging already existing European population to participate more eagerly in the labor market. The female sector of the European population is the one that represents the bigger gap in the labor market. In Italy, for example, there is a big gap between male and female employment. The male ratio is 0.70 whereas the female one is 0.40 leading to one of the lowest employment rates in the European Union.[18] Any means to increase the employment ratio would be favorable to a reduction in the ratio between the pensioner and the worker. The employment increase would lead to “reduce the pensioner ratio by raising the number of workers above the minimum age of pension eligibility”.[19]
3.2.3- Raise the Age of Retirement
There has been a trend in the last decades in which the age of retirement was decreasing. There were two main factors for this to be like that. The first one is that the pension systems are more charitable than ever and there is only a slightly difference between the retiree and worker income. The second factor is that there are not enough incentives for the old working population to remain at work instead of retiring at the established age. Even though they keep on working they still will have to pay the same amount of taxes as before and that will not have a positive effect in their future pension income.
“An increase in the age at retirement reduces the pensioner/worker ratio by simultaneously reducing the number of retirees and raising the number of workers”.[20] We can get to this statement if we make a future projection increasing in five years the extra time at the labor market of a worker in contrast as it is now. The estimates of the UN report show an overall decline of the public expenditure ratio in OECD countries. Therefore, there should be proposed policies to facilitate older workers to stay at work by means of tax-exemption benefits, or by increasing the retirement age.
3.2.4- Reduce Public Pension Benefits
The level of public pension benefits varies from country to country. However, most countries have earning-related pensions, that is, pensions whose value depend on the period worked (number of years) and on the level of past wages adjusted for inflation.
The pension tax is treated differently in each country, depending on its adjustments, regulations and cuts of the type of population they want to target. Any reduction in the pension system benefit would be of relevant importance for the overall public expenditure reduction. If this attempt to balance expenditures with contributions does not work, there are another two options: to increase contributive tax or accept a deficit and accumulate debt. However, none of them are attractive for governments. The first one, because the great majority of countries already experience high tax rates and an increase would not be welcomed by the voting population. Even in United Kingdom, where the tax rate is not so high would not be wise to apply such measure.
In order to expect a decline of 10% in the public pensions expenditures there should be a combination of the aforementioned policies, that is, there should be an increase of 0.27 births per woman, increase of 1.8 net migrants per 1000 population, increase of employment of 9% and an increase of 1.6 years in the mean age of retirement.[21]
The most possible option adopted by EU countries would be to avoid the large public expenditures projected by means of a combination of several or perhaps all the measures, depending on the country. There should be levied taxes in some countries apart from adopting those policies.
4.- The Case of Spain
The demographic change that is and will be affecting Europe in the short and long horizon, is and will also have an impact in Spain. Spain’s evolution regarding to the reduction of young groups and increase of old groups in society is noticeable as it is shown in the table from the Central Statistical Office. The start of the decline in the 1980’s was mainly due to the transition from the dictatorship to democracy in which it begun to be allowed the use of contraceptive measures forbidden during Franco’s regime. The increase of the old group, however is mainly due to the generous pension benefits together with the increase of life expectancy.
[22]
Following, we are going to analyze the Pension system in Spain, budgetary constraints due to population ageing and the possible options to reduce a future public debt.
4.1- General Framework of the Pension System
The Spanish pension system is based on “public earnings-related schemes that cover the almost entire population (both employees and self-employed)”.[23] There were reforms in the pension system in the years 1997 and 2001, both influencing the three pillars of the Spanish system. There exists a social wage provided by autonomous regions to act as a safety net to those people unable to get other source of income. Other benefits are given to other people with necessities and long-term unemployed people.
The first pillar, which is mandatory and it is established by the state, consists of different stipulations. There is a basic universal provision based on non-contributory pension and a “Guaranteed Minimum Contributory Pension (GMCP)”[24] intended to those pensioners with low pension income. There is also the pension related to past earnings, forming the second part of the first pillar, that is maintained by contributions of the workers. As in the majority of the European countries the system is administered in basis of the PAYG method. The calculation of the pension income is made following certain parameters: the income is calculated according to the one obtained in the last 15 years in the labor market or the full pension is conceded if the worker contributed at least 35 years and retires with 65 years old. According to the 2001 reform, there is a possibility to keep on working after the retirement age by means of part-time contracts. Under certain conditions it is allowed early retirement at the age of 61.
The second pillar, consist of additional funded pension provisions; however, they are not well-known by the Spanish population. In the year 2003 the government and social partners signed an agreement to make mandatory this complementary system but their efforts do not encouraged enough people to opt for the supplementary alternative.
[25]
The third pillar, it is private and consists on voluntary “accumulation for old-age to pension funds or insurance companies”. [26] The retiree obtains benefits from this system by means of lump-sum or regular payments intended to cover invalidity, retirement, or any other scarcity detrimental for survival.
4.2- Projected Public Expenditures
The increase of the old population in Spain is mainly the cause of the negative projections estimated until the year 2050. The future projections of the Spanish old-dependency ratio is suppose to rise from 25% to 66% (from 2004-2050), what would suppose the highest increase in comparison with other member states of the European Union. This situation would lead to an economic growth expectation of decrease from 3% in the period 2004-2010 to 2% in the period 2011-2030 and a 0.6% from 2031 until 2050 [27].
The projected overall public expenditures related to age are going to be higher than the average of the EU, specifically, there would be an increase on pensions and health-care which will be higher than the average expectation of the European countries; however, long-term expenditures increase is not going to surpass the EU average.
The Spanish public finances have gone soundly in the past few years, with a surplus of 1.1% of GDP corresponding to the year 2005. However, this surplus is expected to continue until the year 2008 in which it will be reducing gradually until the figure of 6% of GDP.[28] Even though the government counts with that surplus, in the long run, the ageing of the Spanish population would have a negative effect on the government budget, estimated to surpass the average of the EU, due to the projected spending on pensions. However, Spain is considered by the European Commission as a medium-risk country regarding the sustainability of its public finances.
4.3- How to escape?
The current situation of the social security in Spain follows what was established in the Pact of Toledo in 1995, in which they considered the need to continue with the improvement of certain pensions such as the ones of widowers, enforcing the sense of equity and adding new factors of contribution and proportionality. They are dealing also with the problem of the pre-retirement by which an old worker -but not in retirement age- is forced to leave by the company he/she is working for with the consequent negative effect on the pension he/she is going to receive later on as a retiree. Another aspect they are discussing is the question of early retirement, by which only those workers who have accredited contributions before January 1 1967 can retire at the age of 61, otherwise they will have to wait until the age of 65.
However, the Spanish government sees a need to continue with the reform of the pension system to attain, through the social dialogue, the goals set by the European Union. In order to stabilize the projected future deficit there has to be made the following alterations:
a) Promoting measures to incentive the permanence of workers in the labor market, as this would mean longer contributions and shorter pension benefits to pay.
b) Improve the already existent partial retirement measure to facilitate a gradual transition from the active to passive status of the worker, at the same time that contributing in the labor market.
c) Refrain early retirement among those who are not at the established age of retirement.
d) Facilitate women integration in the labor market by means of measures that reconcile private and working life.
e) Implement measures that allow a stricter calculation of the pension system based on equity and other factors of proportionality as well as to increase the base period that is determined by the 15 years prior to retirement.
f) Consider the increase of smaller pensions, those which are at the minimum level, especially those of the surviving spouses.
g) “Progressing in the separation of financing sources so that the amount of the
complements for minimum pensions have greater financing through the State General Budgeting, which will allow improvement of outcomes at the contributory level and aid in the maintenance in the coming years of the Social Security System surplus”.[29]
h) Continuing the accumulation of the Reserve Fund that started in the year 2000, guaranteeing the balance of the system that pays costs for future negative projections.
i) The government should provide incentives to those companies/employees contracting, voluntarily, a supplementary funded pension scheme, to enhance their popularity and encourage other people/companies to adopt them.
5.- Conclusions
In these changing demographic times the majority of countries of the European Union will have to face pressures in their public expenditures. As the fact that the growing older population will exist in the future it should be enhanced and implemented measures to reverse the trend or consider the possibility of changing from an unfunded pension system to a funded one, even though the latter would include the consequent transition deficit. There is no more time to waste but to act accordingly in the legislative level, at the EU and national level to start changing the rules as there is a need to adapt to the changes.
In the particular case of Spain, the demographic factor would influence the public budget significantly, that is why the government should consider the proposed options to deal with the problem efficiently without affecting negatively on the respective future working and retiree generations.
Sources
Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), pp. F46-F81.
Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions
Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), pp. 1-23.
European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf
European Commission. Directorate- General for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Long-term Sustainability of Public Finances in the European Union, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2006/ee406_en.pdf
Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social. The Pension System in Spain. 2001. Pp. 12. www.urban.org/pdfs/eu_event_spain.pdf
Natali, David. Spain, The Pension System. Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale, 2004. www.ose.be/files/mocpension/SpainOMC.pdf
[1] European Commission. Directorate- General for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Long-term Sustainability of Public Finances in the European Union, 2006. Pp. 23. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2006/ee406_en.pdf
[2] European Commission. Pp. 23.
[3] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 6.
[4] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 6.
[5] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 7
[6] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 12
[7] Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), pp. F46
[8] Blake, David. Pp. F48
[9] Blake, David. Pp. F48
[10] Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), Pp. F51.
[11] Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), Pp. F52.
[12] Blake, David. Pp. F52.
[13] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), pp. 14.
[14] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), Pp. 15.
[15] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 14.
[16] Bongaarts, John. pp. 14.
[17] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 15.
[18] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), Pp. 17.
[19] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 16.
[20] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 17.
[21] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), Pp. 19.
[22] Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social. The Pension System in Spain. 2001. Pp. 12. www.urban.org/pdfs/eu_event_spain.pdf pp.9
[23] Natali, David. Spain, The Pension System. Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale, 2004. www.ose.be/files/mocpension/SpainOMC.pdf pp. 1
[24] Natali, David. Pp. 1
[25] Natali, David. Pp. 2
[26] Natali, David. Spain, The Pension System. Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale, 2004. www.ose.be/files/mocpension/SpainOMC.pdf pp. 1
[27] European Commission. Directorate- General for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Long-term Sustainability of Public Finances in the European Union, 2006. Pp. 112. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2006/ee406_en.pdf
[28] European commission. Pp. 112.
[29] Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social. The Pension System in Spain. 2001. Pp. 12. www.urban.org/pdfs/eu_event_spain.pdf
The population ageing in Europe is increasing dramatically and future projections by 2050 are astonishing. There are four demographic factors that are responsible for this increase. However, it is necessary to emphasize that these factors have a different magnitude in each EU country. The first factor is that fertility rates are below the rate required to stabilize the population. Secondly, there would be an increasing old-age dependency ratio which would affect detrimentally GDP growth and, consequently, would pressure the public pensions spending. Third, life expectancy at birth is expected to rise for both males and females by 2050. And fourth, the annual migration inflows are expected to decrease from 1.3 million in 2004 to 800,000 people by 2015. [1]
Thus, the European population by 2050 would be reduced and much older. The great key economic impact would be felt in the decrease of the working population which will shrink sharply to 16%. Even though there would be a temporarily increase of the employment rate of the EU 25 from 63% in 2004 to 67% in 2010[2]; it will not be enough to counteract the weight of the demographic change.
In this paper we are going to analyze the effect this demographic change brings to the public pensions systems of most of the European governments. Thus, we will present several measures these governments may considered as future options to tackle the ongoing problem derived from the growing older population. Among these alternatives it may be found a progressive move from an unfunded pension scheme towards a funded one together with the transition deficit that comes tied with it. And four other political options intended to avoid that transition deficit, by maintaining the established PAYG system.
In the last part of the text we will present the particular case of Spain and analyze its national pension system. We will show the proposed future projection of the public budget concerning pensions and, finally we will present measures to avoid the worse.
2.- Impact of the Ageing Population on Social Security and Public Finances.
Although the situation in the different member states may be different, the increasing ageing of the European population may lead to pressures on public spending. From the period 2004-2010 it is expected a rising in public expenditures related with age factors that will represent an increase of 10%.[3] This pressure status will start to be felt from 2010 onwards and more dramatically between 2020 and 2040. This pressure would be strongly felt in pensions, services and health for the elderly.
The risk of unsustainable public finance in many countries of the EU alerts the future equilibrium of the system in general. “Allowing public spending linked to ageing to create budget deficits would lead to an intolerable spiral of debt”.[4] This situation would be detrimental for the overall economic growth and the functioning of the single currency, and would lead to a consideration in depth of the system of pensions and the social benefits which would, consequently, have a negative impact on the welfare of the older population.
That is why there is a necessity to act now and not to delay the reforms, so that every generation, including the baby-boomers, would participate as well in the process of change. The EU governments did not remain inactive and started several reforms in the areas of pensions, employment, health and education systems. However, the emphasis these reforms add is a transference of responsibility from the government and corporations to the population itself. The role that the individuals will have to play regarding to the pension they will enjoy in the future will be determined, somehow, by personal choices such as savings and deciding when to retire from work.
The increasing ageing of the European population would also mean more public spending in long-term care and health care. In this aspect, the new technologies may be relevant in helping to adapt healthcare services and to improve a preventive treatment for chronic diseases. We are enjoying nowadays the highest life expectancy rates than ever. If this improvement in longevity could be combined with healthier life style and without disability, the public spending regarding the old population would be reduced to the half.[5]
3.- Guaranteeing Sustainable Public Finances in Europe
In the great majority of the member states there is a problem with the sustainability of public finance under present policies. In order to get a consolidate budget, there must be joint efforts to raise the participation of the population in the labor market. This is the way to increase the government returns and deal with expenditures due to ageing without having to increase the tax rate.
There have been made retirement reforms that will alleviate, somehow, the actual imbalance in the pension system, however, some countries may need additional reform. Among these we may find keeping ageing population active in the labor market for longer, raising the age of retirement, providing benefits to those who want to stay at work after the retirement age and offering the possibility to increase their income by means of an additional pension, all this obtained at the same time than an equilibrium is found between individuals contributions and benefits.
There are also appearing new initiatives to develop private savings and funded systems. In this sense it is of relevant importance to develop “efficiently functioning financial markets and to create stable and secure conditions for individuals to save and invest”.[6] There should also be enhanced the possibility for individuals to decide about the income they want to enjoy during their retirement age, by developing private savings and capital. There should be promoted, as well, an increasing knowledge of the
population in financial matters and its information to give them the tools to adapt to the future changing circumstances.
We are going to present now some possible solutions to escape from the problem of ageing population in the pension system in Europe.
3.1- Shifting from PAYG to funded systems
“Because of demographic imbalances, unfunded state pension schemes are unlikely to be sustainable, unless the real growth rate in pensions is severely constrained or the effective working life is increased substantially.”[7] In contrast, the profits available in the capital market makes more probable to obtain the wished pension scheme through funded systems.
The majority of state pension schemes are PAYG, that is, the one based on the contribution of the working population. In order to have the PAYG system balanced, there should be enough people in the labor market to pay for the pensions of those who are retired. In fact, this system is justified by the growth of the working population and productivity. However, the picture in Europe is changing dramatically. Europe’s population growth is diminishing vertiginously. In addition, life expectancy is getting rates never seen before due to the advances in medical technology. In this demographic time bombing, the real dilemma is, who is going to pay the pensioners if there is no younger working population to pay taxes?
Up to now, the United Kingdom is the only major country that has tried to reduce its pension costs. However, other European countries are raising the share of state pension’s costs as a proportion of GDP, as for example, Italy which is rising by 61% and more than doubling in the case of Portugal. There has been made estimates about the future liabilities of the pension systems, based on “present values of promise future pension payments and expected future contributions”.[8] If these liabilities were considered as part of the national debt, no country of the European Union would meet the Maastricht criteria of having less than 60% of GDP national debt.[9]
All this factors lead us to the conclusion that unfunded pension schemes are not feasible in any major country in the European Union. They would be viable only if the real growth rate were zero in the long run. It could also be practicable if there were an increase in the age of retirement, however this would be useless in a system in which people go on retirement even earlier of the established age.
As the state unfunded system PAYG seems to be unfeasible, the governments have no other alternative than to transfer the burden to funded pensions schemes that are more likely to be in the private sector rather than in the public one. In the long horizon, funded pension schemes seem to provide more efficient results than the unfunded ones. This is because they can provide higher profits by investing in other economies in the world which are experiencing rapid economic growth, instead than in Europe.
There is another reason for funded schemes to be superior to unfunded ones and it is because of the “dynamic efficiency”[10] of the economy. This is so, because saving through a pension fund favors the process of capital accumulation and, consequently influences in the increasing productivity of employees in the labor market. However, there exists a risk of converting this situation in counterproductive by getting the economy to be “dynamic inefficient” and thus, making it unsustainable in the long horizon. This is so because the accumulation of capital is so high that people start saving less and consuming more.
The funded pension system, although it may seem a plausible solution to the current increasing demographic problem, it is not a perfect cure to the disease. The funded pension system may provide the illusion of security because of the absence of political risks, as ministers may change their plans and move the right of pension funds to other areas in need. There are other added types of risks about the increase of contributions due to unemployment, illness, disability or death in the working place during the life time and also uncertainties derived from the insecurity of asset returns as the pension fund accumulation rises. These kinds of risks are very difficult to be transferred to private companies. As Diamond states, the mandatory unfunded systems are the ones that can deal with these risks collectively[11], but, as we affirmed before, the time bombing brings certain risks that the funded systems do not suffer. A last negative aspect of the funded pension systems is that, may be they are not feasible for poor workers, because the state unfunded services provide them with the minimum welfare benefit that the private funded sector cannot.
3.1.1- The Transition Deficit
Even though it may be recognized that a change from a PAYG to a funded pension system is desirable there is a major problem to solve: the transition from one scheme to the other. The point is that, although there was a change to a funded system, there would be still pensioners from the previous system to cover.
As those pensions are paid by the active workers, it could not be like that any longer as the workers contributions should be invested in a fund. So, to remedy this contributive gap, that is called transition deficit, there have to be levied extra taxation or by the “recognition funds” by the government, that is a “form of deferred taxation that formally `recognizes´ the unfunded liabilities of the state PAYG system”.[12] The resulting effect would be that the transition generation would have to pay double taxation: direct contributions to invest in their own fund and an extra tax to cover the pension of the retirees covered by the old PAYG state model.
Thus, there raises the question if the switch from unfunded to funded pension system is Pareto improving or not. The main aspect is if the transition generation would be rewarded according to the disadvantage they would have in comparison to previous generations enjoying the unfunded pension provision. That is why some critics would consider more profitable other measures to deal with the population ageing and the pension system rather than altering the established pension scheme.
Among the other political options we may find measures to maintain stable or increasing the working population, one of the main tools for the PAYG pension system to be viable. The government can achieve this by means of counteracting population ageing, rising the established age of retirement or reducing public pension benefits. We will cover this topic in the next section.
3.2- Other Policy Options
Due to the dramatic unprecedented increase of the old population European governments see a need to reform the current pension systems; otherwise, the increase of the accumulation debt would be detrimental to the European economies in general. In the past, they tended to raise public pension tax rates to cover the rising costs of maintaining public pension benefits. However, this is not longer viable as the contributions paid by the workers are already at very high levels and now, the objectives they want to cover are the ones allowing to a reduction in the budgetary expenditures. Another reason for the pressing situation in dealing with the problem is due to the legislative precedence needed to get present results and also to give time to the workers and retirees to adapt to the new policies.
We are going to go through four policy options intended to “reduce or end the growth of public pension expenditures”.[13] These options are divided into four groups depending on the four factors that determine public pension disbursement.
3.2.1- Counteract Population Ageing
To control or reverse the increasing older population in the future is one of the main measures to counteract a future weakening of the monetary balance of the public pension schemes. We may find two demographic ways to help a rising in the European population.
3.2.1.1- Encourage higher fertility
“United Nations projects population declines between 2000 and 2050 in Germany (from 82 to 79 million), and Italy (from 58 to 45 million)”.[14] If the fertility rates are increased, that would lead to an average of younger groups in society, thus declining at the same time the old-age dependency ratio of the old population per employee. There have been made projections from 2000 to 2050 by the UN[15] to estimate the impact on public expenditures if there were added half a birth per woman. As it was supposed, that increase of population by adding half a child per woman would lead to a lowering in the pension expenditures ratio. What these projections enhance is that with higher fertility rates the costs of public pensions would be reduced significantly for each country.
3.2.1.2- Permit more immigration
According to studies made by the UN in 2001[16], the average age of the immigrant population in Europe is lower than the European population. So, an increase in immigration would lead to a rejuvenation of the average of the European population and a decline of the old-age dependency ratio. In the same projections study presented before, they estimated an increase in the net migration rate by 2.5 net migrants per 1000 inhabitants.[17] As a result of this addition of 2.5 per 1000 of the projection, the public expenditures would be reduced considerably in comparison with the reference projection.
So, an increase in both the fertility and immigration rates would have a positive reduction in government expenditure due to the increase of young population to bear the burden of the pension systems.
3.2.2- Increase Labor Force Participation
A second political option aiming to increase the employment rates in Europe would not be by adding new born or immigrant population, but by encouraging already existing European population to participate more eagerly in the labor market. The female sector of the European population is the one that represents the bigger gap in the labor market. In Italy, for example, there is a big gap between male and female employment. The male ratio is 0.70 whereas the female one is 0.40 leading to one of the lowest employment rates in the European Union.[18] Any means to increase the employment ratio would be favorable to a reduction in the ratio between the pensioner and the worker. The employment increase would lead to “reduce the pensioner ratio by raising the number of workers above the minimum age of pension eligibility”.[19]
3.2.3- Raise the Age of Retirement
There has been a trend in the last decades in which the age of retirement was decreasing. There were two main factors for this to be like that. The first one is that the pension systems are more charitable than ever and there is only a slightly difference between the retiree and worker income. The second factor is that there are not enough incentives for the old working population to remain at work instead of retiring at the established age. Even though they keep on working they still will have to pay the same amount of taxes as before and that will not have a positive effect in their future pension income.
“An increase in the age at retirement reduces the pensioner/worker ratio by simultaneously reducing the number of retirees and raising the number of workers”.[20] We can get to this statement if we make a future projection increasing in five years the extra time at the labor market of a worker in contrast as it is now. The estimates of the UN report show an overall decline of the public expenditure ratio in OECD countries. Therefore, there should be proposed policies to facilitate older workers to stay at work by means of tax-exemption benefits, or by increasing the retirement age.
3.2.4- Reduce Public Pension Benefits
The level of public pension benefits varies from country to country. However, most countries have earning-related pensions, that is, pensions whose value depend on the period worked (number of years) and on the level of past wages adjusted for inflation.
The pension tax is treated differently in each country, depending on its adjustments, regulations and cuts of the type of population they want to target. Any reduction in the pension system benefit would be of relevant importance for the overall public expenditure reduction. If this attempt to balance expenditures with contributions does not work, there are another two options: to increase contributive tax or accept a deficit and accumulate debt. However, none of them are attractive for governments. The first one, because the great majority of countries already experience high tax rates and an increase would not be welcomed by the voting population. Even in United Kingdom, where the tax rate is not so high would not be wise to apply such measure.
In order to expect a decline of 10% in the public pensions expenditures there should be a combination of the aforementioned policies, that is, there should be an increase of 0.27 births per woman, increase of 1.8 net migrants per 1000 population, increase of employment of 9% and an increase of 1.6 years in the mean age of retirement.[21]
The most possible option adopted by EU countries would be to avoid the large public expenditures projected by means of a combination of several or perhaps all the measures, depending on the country. There should be levied taxes in some countries apart from adopting those policies.
4.- The Case of Spain
The demographic change that is and will be affecting Europe in the short and long horizon, is and will also have an impact in Spain. Spain’s evolution regarding to the reduction of young groups and increase of old groups in society is noticeable as it is shown in the table from the Central Statistical Office. The start of the decline in the 1980’s was mainly due to the transition from the dictatorship to democracy in which it begun to be allowed the use of contraceptive measures forbidden during Franco’s regime. The increase of the old group, however is mainly due to the generous pension benefits together with the increase of life expectancy.
[22]
Following, we are going to analyze the Pension system in Spain, budgetary constraints due to population ageing and the possible options to reduce a future public debt.
4.1- General Framework of the Pension System
The Spanish pension system is based on “public earnings-related schemes that cover the almost entire population (both employees and self-employed)”.[23] There were reforms in the pension system in the years 1997 and 2001, both influencing the three pillars of the Spanish system. There exists a social wage provided by autonomous regions to act as a safety net to those people unable to get other source of income. Other benefits are given to other people with necessities and long-term unemployed people.
The first pillar, which is mandatory and it is established by the state, consists of different stipulations. There is a basic universal provision based on non-contributory pension and a “Guaranteed Minimum Contributory Pension (GMCP)”[24] intended to those pensioners with low pension income. There is also the pension related to past earnings, forming the second part of the first pillar, that is maintained by contributions of the workers. As in the majority of the European countries the system is administered in basis of the PAYG method. The calculation of the pension income is made following certain parameters: the income is calculated according to the one obtained in the last 15 years in the labor market or the full pension is conceded if the worker contributed at least 35 years and retires with 65 years old. According to the 2001 reform, there is a possibility to keep on working after the retirement age by means of part-time contracts. Under certain conditions it is allowed early retirement at the age of 61.
The second pillar, consist of additional funded pension provisions; however, they are not well-known by the Spanish population. In the year 2003 the government and social partners signed an agreement to make mandatory this complementary system but their efforts do not encouraged enough people to opt for the supplementary alternative.
[25]
The third pillar, it is private and consists on voluntary “accumulation for old-age to pension funds or insurance companies”. [26] The retiree obtains benefits from this system by means of lump-sum or regular payments intended to cover invalidity, retirement, or any other scarcity detrimental for survival.
4.2- Projected Public Expenditures
The increase of the old population in Spain is mainly the cause of the negative projections estimated until the year 2050. The future projections of the Spanish old-dependency ratio is suppose to rise from 25% to 66% (from 2004-2050), what would suppose the highest increase in comparison with other member states of the European Union. This situation would lead to an economic growth expectation of decrease from 3% in the period 2004-2010 to 2% in the period 2011-2030 and a 0.6% from 2031 until 2050 [27].
The projected overall public expenditures related to age are going to be higher than the average of the EU, specifically, there would be an increase on pensions and health-care which will be higher than the average expectation of the European countries; however, long-term expenditures increase is not going to surpass the EU average.
The Spanish public finances have gone soundly in the past few years, with a surplus of 1.1% of GDP corresponding to the year 2005. However, this surplus is expected to continue until the year 2008 in which it will be reducing gradually until the figure of 6% of GDP.[28] Even though the government counts with that surplus, in the long run, the ageing of the Spanish population would have a negative effect on the government budget, estimated to surpass the average of the EU, due to the projected spending on pensions. However, Spain is considered by the European Commission as a medium-risk country regarding the sustainability of its public finances.
4.3- How to escape?
The current situation of the social security in Spain follows what was established in the Pact of Toledo in 1995, in which they considered the need to continue with the improvement of certain pensions such as the ones of widowers, enforcing the sense of equity and adding new factors of contribution and proportionality. They are dealing also with the problem of the pre-retirement by which an old worker -but not in retirement age- is forced to leave by the company he/she is working for with the consequent negative effect on the pension he/she is going to receive later on as a retiree. Another aspect they are discussing is the question of early retirement, by which only those workers who have accredited contributions before January 1 1967 can retire at the age of 61, otherwise they will have to wait until the age of 65.
However, the Spanish government sees a need to continue with the reform of the pension system to attain, through the social dialogue, the goals set by the European Union. In order to stabilize the projected future deficit there has to be made the following alterations:
a) Promoting measures to incentive the permanence of workers in the labor market, as this would mean longer contributions and shorter pension benefits to pay.
b) Improve the already existent partial retirement measure to facilitate a gradual transition from the active to passive status of the worker, at the same time that contributing in the labor market.
c) Refrain early retirement among those who are not at the established age of retirement.
d) Facilitate women integration in the labor market by means of measures that reconcile private and working life.
e) Implement measures that allow a stricter calculation of the pension system based on equity and other factors of proportionality as well as to increase the base period that is determined by the 15 years prior to retirement.
f) Consider the increase of smaller pensions, those which are at the minimum level, especially those of the surviving spouses.
g) “Progressing in the separation of financing sources so that the amount of the
complements for minimum pensions have greater financing through the State General Budgeting, which will allow improvement of outcomes at the contributory level and aid in the maintenance in the coming years of the Social Security System surplus”.[29]
h) Continuing the accumulation of the Reserve Fund that started in the year 2000, guaranteeing the balance of the system that pays costs for future negative projections.
i) The government should provide incentives to those companies/employees contracting, voluntarily, a supplementary funded pension scheme, to enhance their popularity and encourage other people/companies to adopt them.
5.- Conclusions
In these changing demographic times the majority of countries of the European Union will have to face pressures in their public expenditures. As the fact that the growing older population will exist in the future it should be enhanced and implemented measures to reverse the trend or consider the possibility of changing from an unfunded pension system to a funded one, even though the latter would include the consequent transition deficit. There is no more time to waste but to act accordingly in the legislative level, at the EU and national level to start changing the rules as there is a need to adapt to the changes.
In the particular case of Spain, the demographic factor would influence the public budget significantly, that is why the government should consider the proposed options to deal with the problem efficiently without affecting negatively on the respective future working and retiree generations.
Sources
Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), pp. F46-F81.
Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions
Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), pp. 1-23.
European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf
European Commission. Directorate- General for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Long-term Sustainability of Public Finances in the European Union, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2006/ee406_en.pdf
Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social. The Pension System in Spain. 2001. Pp. 12. www.urban.org/pdfs/eu_event_spain.pdf
Natali, David. Spain, The Pension System. Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale, 2004. www.ose.be/files/mocpension/SpainOMC.pdf
[1] European Commission. Directorate- General for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Long-term Sustainability of Public Finances in the European Union, 2006. Pp. 23. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2006/ee406_en.pdf
[2] European Commission. Pp. 23.
[3] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 6.
[4] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 6.
[5] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 7
[6] European Commission, Communication on The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity, 2006 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2006/oct/demography_en.pdf pg 12
[7] Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), pp. F46
[8] Blake, David. Pp. F48
[9] Blake, David. Pp. F48
[10] Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), Pp. F51.
[11] Blake, David. Does It Matter What Type of Pension Scheme You Have? The Economic Journal, Vol. 110, No. 461, Features. (Feb., 2000), Pp. F52.
[12] Blake, David. Pp. F52.
[13] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), pp. 14.
[14] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), Pp. 15.
[15] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 14.
[16] Bongaarts, John. pp. 14.
[17] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 15.
[18] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), Pp. 17.
[19] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 16.
[20] Bongaarts, John. Pp. 17.
[21] Bongaarts, John. Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions. Population and Development Review, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Mar., 2004), Pp. 19.
[22] Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social. The Pension System in Spain. 2001. Pp. 12. www.urban.org/pdfs/eu_event_spain.pdf pp.9
[23] Natali, David. Spain, The Pension System. Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale, 2004. www.ose.be/files/mocpension/SpainOMC.pdf pp. 1
[24] Natali, David. Pp. 1
[25] Natali, David. Pp. 2
[26] Natali, David. Spain, The Pension System. Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale, 2004. www.ose.be/files/mocpension/SpainOMC.pdf pp. 1
[27] European Commission. Directorate- General for Economic and Financial Affairs. The Long-term Sustainability of Public Finances in the European Union, 2006. Pp. 112. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2006/ee406_en.pdf
[28] European commission. Pp. 112.
[29] Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, secretaría de Estado de la Seguridad Social. The Pension System in Spain. 2001. Pp. 12. www.urban.org/pdfs/eu_event_spain.pdf
Blacks & Hispanics, Coalition or Competition?
1.- Introduction
When the two largest minorities in the United States, Blacks and Hispanics, enter into contact, what kind of behavior is expected between them? The first reaction to this question may be that they could try to help each other, as they, somehow, share disadvantages in comparison with the major white population. They should fell sympathetic to the other minority’s problems, as somehow, these may resemble their owns. Actually they share common difficulties and goals regarding to gaining the same status as white citizens in all major areas. However the general attitude concerning the other minority is not as cooperative as desired.
In this paper we are going to analyze the relationship between these two ethnic groups in the North American society context. The first part of the paper will be devoted to discover the origins of this competitive attitude and try to figure out the reasons why one of the groups is more reticent to establish a collaborative attitude towards the other.
In the second part of the paper we will expose some major areas which are the main points of conflict between both groups, in which the benefit for one of them may be detrimental to the other. Among the most relevant areas we will mention are employment, housing, social benefits and the political arena.
In the last part of the document, we will present facts and figures to show how this rivalry escalates into violence among these minority groups, being this problem one of the most important issues the national government needs to fight.
2.- Historical Roots of the Rivalry
In order to be able to get a whole picture of the situation between Blacks and Hispanics, it is necessary to look back to certain aspects of the origins of both ethnic groups to understand where does the rivalry come from and how deeply rooted is. The origin of both African-American and Hispanics groups are considered to have similar background from Africa, the West Indies, and the Caribbean. However the reasons why they ended up in The United States vary. The major difference being that the Blacks were among the non-white population that involuntary immigrated into North America, whereas the recent Hispanic immigrants moves to North America as the result of a spontaneous and voluntary act. Moreover, the kind of subjugation and racism the Blacks had to suffer at the hands of White Europeans Americans was never practiced before. It is also remarkable to say that the advantages and disadvantages involuntary African immigrants and recent voluntary Hispanic immigrants brought with them when they disembarked are different. We are going to describe them in the next paragraphs.
Popular literature suggests that the Latin American immigrants “success and apparent functional assimilation might be attributed to their strong family ties and values”.[1]Hispanics have a very solid family organization in which the male role is of predominant importance. However, the whites have always seen the African-American families as fragmented and the position of their men, in comparison to their women, has been considered weak.
There is a considerable difference between these two groups and that is not only their willingness to go to the States as immigrants, but the fact that Hispanics, when going voluntary to North America brought something else than their belongings. Their traditions, languages and culture were moved with them, something which favor their adaptability to their new environment. In the case of the initial African immigrants, they were not allowed to take with them their traditions, languages nor inherited affiliations. As Parrillo says, “other ethnic groups recreated in miniature the society they left behind, but Africans were not allowed to”.[2] This is not to say that the type of discrimination and hostility from the Whites did not affect the Hispanics, but the degree of restraint that the African-American community endured is different in many ways in comparison to those of the recent Hispanic immigrants.
Another factor that influences negative attitudes towards the other sector is economics. The popular American press and White politicians do recognize the economic improvements the Hispanic group is achieving. They often say that, in comparison to the African-American community, they have talent for business. But there are reasons for that to be so. The first one is that the Hispanic population did not arrive impoverished when crossing the border. They did not arrive as poor neocolonial immigrants but as “invited and assisted political pawns of the ideological war between capitalism and communism”.[3] Since the year 1975 the waves of Hispanic population included people from different professional backgrounds such as military officers, doctors, scientists, and businessmen. They already possessed “marketable skills”, and some of them also brought prosperity and investment opportunities.
There were some other things that contributed to the economic growth of the Hispanic community within the States. Among these we find the sense of “intragroup survival practices” which main traditions were hiring people from the same group or the creation of family-owned enterprises. An aspect of these practices was that the Hispanic population normally located their business in typical African-American neighborhoods, thus, making competence to already established businesses, being even able to get higher profits than those from the black community.
A third aspect that may be mentioned is the educational achievement. Education was the only medium by which the African-American community improved from slavery to the present status held in the American society. In the 1970’s the college enrolment was as high as the one of the Whites, however, this rates diminished with Ronald Reagan and his anti-affirmative action. In fact the future implications for education of African-Americans are not that optimistic. And one of the reasons for that is that education is linked, somehow, with family income. All those income related to areas such as engineering, science and technology are going to be higher than other fields which include the majority of professions taken mostly by the Black population and getting lower incomes than the former.
As the Hispanic population is increasing at a very high speed, the Black population should worry no more for competing against the Whites in education; instead they should focus all their concerns towards getting a parallel achievement in educational matters with other ethnic groups.
3. Areas of Competition
During the 1960’s, Blacks and Hispanics shared some common concerns, such as poverty, what lead them to form alliances to fight for their common goal. However, this coalition began to disappear when policies to promote equal rights and equity begun to clash. When both minority groups started to have different goals, to feel distrust towards the other group, or the size of one of the groups began to diverge from the other, so that no further coalitions were necessary, the gap between both ethnic groups was such that there emerged hostility between them and no more cooperation was going to be expected. Moreover, both groups’ attitudes towards each other were going to get high hate rates not seen before.
The Black-Hispanic conflict is considered of importance for all citizens due to the impact recent immigration has on the American society. The main reason for the clash of these groups is because of their fight for scarce resources. There are four major areas in which both minority groups seem to clash. They, increasingly, compete for job’s scarcity, adequate housing, social amenities and political implications. We are going to deal with each area to have a general overview of the roots of the problem, whose main base is economic.
3.1- Labor Market Discrimination
“In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefited less or been harmed more than the African-American population”.[4] In the 1980’s, due to the internationalization of the world economy, technological innovation and global movement of workers, less-skilled workers were the main affected by the sliding demand of their services. This fact was more detrimental in the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The worse result of all this was the rise of the unemployment rate among people already living in the United States, specially, among the Black community. Thus, during that decade, wage inequality increased for those people without university education, for the young people and for the Blacks. The shifts in manufacturing were responsible, in part, for this decline in the salary, because the jobs it offered were carried out mainly by high school graduates. So, immigration started to cause important costs to the United States, especially to those less-skilled workers.
The reasons for the negative assumption of the Latin community by the Blacks is due to the so called “higher is better”[5]. This is because, as the U.S. economy was in decline, it was considered that if the immigrant population earned higher wages, this could be beneficial for the American society in general. This was so because with higher salaries they could pay higher taxes to the state; at the same time this implied less expenditure in social and unemployment benefits; a third good point was that, as they got the skills outside the States, this meant no preparation costs for them. However, this was only applied for the so called “good immigrants”[6]. In respect to the low-skilled immigrants things were different.
“Less-skilled immigrant workers are more costly, they undercut the position of domestic labor-although for consumers and businesses they are also a source of cheap labor and less costly goods- suggesting a redistributive image that is positive for some and negative for others.”[7] However, the general effect is less optimistic, as the negative political and social consequences of redistributive effect was high. This context of declining economy of the 1980’s could only lead to a widespread feeling of distrust and suspicion towards the immigrants recently arrived. This “browning of America”[8] enhanced the differentials between the minorities already living there and the newcomers.
There are a few instances to show how the Hispanic immigrants affected the Black community regarding employment, thus, affecting their economic status. One of those are the hiring practices carried out by employers, by which they showed their preference for hiring immigrants as they were “cheaper and less troublesome workers”.[9] Immigrants were also preferable in comparison with blacks and, even whites, to work in hotels and restaurants because the latter were considered to be idle. There is a clear advantage for Hispanics in the working place in comparison to the Blacks, leading to an intense competition between both ethnic groups.
As regards to more recent dates, the status of the black community regarding employment is quite the same as a decade or two ago. Statistics show that the young Black population is having problems in the labor market. Unemployment among young Blacks nationwide is 40 percent. “For blacks, the growing presence of immigrant workers adds to the formidable obstacles they face in finding a job”.[10] Among Blacks, 78 percent say jobs are difficult to find in their community compared to only 55 percent of Hispanics.
As a result of all this facts, Blacks had a general feeling of antagonism, even though, Black elites had supported originally all immigrant efforts. They had a general feeling of intolerance towards all newcomers, basically, because the new Latino “undercut Black workers by taking jobs at subminimum wage”[11]. That is why Blacks, generally, favor immigration restrictions even more than the white population, and they do that, not because they reject the immigrant’s culture but because they feel afraid of losing their jobs. The Latino community answered to this statement saying that the Black community did not share the benefits obtained of the civil rights struggle with other minorities.
3.2- Adequate Housing
After talking about the most obvious point of conflict between both communities, employment, we are going to talk about other issues of competitiveness. One of them is the question of housing. During the 1960’s and 1970’s Blacks remained less likely than whites to own homes and to live in older and crowded inadequate housing.[12]Results support a stratification perspective of inequality for both Blacks and Hispanics. Blacks and Hispanics continue to lag significantly behind whites in housing wealth. Access to adequate housing is a strong indicator of inequality between whites and minority groups. The government, through the Federal Housing Acts, has tried to go against this trend of discrimination in home rental and ownership; however, there still exists a big gap to save.
According to human ecology thinkers, the social and economic factors of a minority group are determining to establish the place where they are going to live. In the case of Blacks and Hispanics both factors make a difference. Even though both minority groups share discrimination and inequality based on social and economic factors, regarding to suburban housing both groups differ. The main reason for this is that the majority white population still has preferences towards one of these ethnic groups, and consequently having a negative effect on the spatial assimilation of the rejected one.
According to ecological theory, occupational status is the main factor to determine if a group is going to live in the metropolitan area or in the suburbs. Following this theory, the professional sector- the highest-status group- is going to be the type of people most frequently found to be living in the suburbs. “The higher the occupational level, the greater the distance a group will live from the central business district”.[13]So, according to this assumption, the group with higher percentage of professionals is going to be the group more likely to live in the suburbs. However “access to suburban housing is clearly a function of color”.[14] This is like this because 75 percent of the Afro-American professionals still live in the metropolitan area. Moreover, the group more likely to live in suburbs, after the white majority, is the Hispanic population and not the Black one. The white population is more willing to share their suburb area with Hispanics than with Blacks. So, the correlation of professional status with suburbanization must be left aside. Race still represents the main obstacle for the Black population to get access to housing in the suburbs.
This color determinant of suburban access may have detrimental consequences for the African-American population as their opportunities for economic and social progress are reduced. The main relevant one being the lack of job opportunities as, since 1948, “suburban areas have received over 80% of the new employment in manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and selected services”.[15] It is expected that this pattern of better jobs distribution towards the suburbs will continue, what will increase the already high rates of Black unemployment.
3.3- Government Services
There is another area which is reinforcing the conflict between Blacks and Hispanics in most cities of the United States. This other relevant point of conflict is the municipal welfare state, which, instead of favoring towards the coalition of both ethnic groups is getting just the opposite. There are two main reasons for this respect. The first one, due to the status of the urban governments based on “spoils system that offers jobs, contracts, favors and other perks to the well connected”[16], fans the rivalry of both groups. Urban Hispanics and Blacks have organized separately to the fight for those precious opportunities the government offers.
Secondly, “Hispanics increased as the country's largest minority group, at 14.4% of the population, compared with 12.8% for Blacks”.[17] Due to this increasing Hispanic population, the African-American group starts to be troubled as the welfare state transfers or benefits are finite, because of the actual budget cuts. That is the reason that, as the other group grows in number, their possibilities to get the same benefits diminishes.
3.4- Political Implications
According to the survey Paula D. McClain about the political competition between Blacks and Hispanics there are some interesting findings. First of all we need to emphasize the aspect that the surveys were made mainly in cities which a high percentage of Black population in comparison to the Hispanic one. So, this may be taken into account.
The first statement he makes is that every time Blacks or Hispanics have any kind of political success is at the expenses of the white population. “Political competition between blacks and Hispanics is evident only when controls for white political outcomes are introduced”. [18]That is, as the political success of both communities increase, the competitiveness also increases, mainly because this success is due to the lack of white population in those cities with minority majority representation. The survey also states that, as the black community increases, the Hispanics seem to fare less well politically, due to the less political representation they may have.
This less political representation in comparison to the other group may have negative consequences for the disadvantaged group. The main implication being less opportunities to find a job in the public sector, for example. Also socioeconomic factors influence in the political arena. “If Hispanics (or blacks) do not receive a fair share of economic resources, they may not have the wherewithal to increase their political representation”.[19]
In the findings there may be assumptions to justify the possible alliances between both groups in the political issue. This necessity for coalitions may appear in cities where the Black and Hispanic are minority groups in comparison to a white majority population. In these cases, both communities would be likely to form coalitions to increase the minority share of political representations. However, in cities where the black population is bigger than the Hispanic, coalitions are not likely to occur.
4.- Racial Hate Crime
Contrary to general opinion, hate crimes committed in the United States, especially in Los Angeles, “are not primarily white-on-black.”[20]According to the 2005 Hate Crimes Report, race-related hate crimes jumped 46%.[21] In schools, 82 percent of the hate crimes were racially motivated. Blacks and Hispanics are fighting each other in schools and prisons as they compete for low-skilled jobs and “preferred minority status”.[22] It is relevant to mention that there is one hate sector that is growing in comparison to the other. Crimes committed against the Blacks increased by 47 percent. Also noticeable that of the hate crimes committed by gangs, 80 percent were committed by Hispanics against blacks. It is also noticeable how the Hispanic-on-black violence increased in schools.
In the report is mentioned another factor for the racial crime, apart from the fight for resources, and it is that of “anti-immigrant sentiment”. “The increase of anti-Latino crimes for the second year in a row may be related to heated public debate over immigration from Latin America”.[23] That is, certain groups opposing illegal immigration such as Minutemen and S.O.S (Save Our State), organized protests, went to the Mexico-US border to hold rallies to demonstrate their dislike towards this growing Latino population. These actions could have moved the Hispanic population to react and defend themselves, by means of gang violence.
5.- Conclusions
Even though both communities, the Black and the Hispanic, have shared goals in the American society of non discrimination and the opportunity to enjoy the same rights, benefits and chances to progress socioeconomically, both destinies seem negatively intertwined. As social Darwinism promulgates, “competition between individuals drives social evolution in human societies through survival of the fittest”[24], the relationship between both ethnic communities seem to be like a survival in the area of employment, housing, social benefits and politics. Only the group that attains better results in these arenas, socioeconomically speaking, would be the fittest. Is there any chance to alter the negative course of the present and future of both communities? We do not know the answer for sure but, both groups should look at each other and jointly fight for their disadvantages as minorities were heard and politically changed.
[1] Anderson, Talmadge. Comparative Experience Factors Among Black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans: Coalitions or Conflicts? Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Sep., 1992), pp. 31.
[2] Anderson, Talmadge. Pp. 32.
[3] Anderson, Talmadge. Comparative Experience Factors Among Black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans: Coalitions or Conflicts? Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Sep., 1992), pp. 33.
[4] http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/finance/clash061306 30/04/2007
[5] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites1984, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Sep., 1999), pp. 18.
[6] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Pp 18.
[7] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Pp 18.
[8] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Pp 19.
[9] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites1984, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Sep., 1999), pp. 20.
[10] http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/finance/clash061306 30/04/2007
[11] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites1984, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Sep., 1999), pp. 21.
[12]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7067869&dopt=Abstract 30/04/2007
[13] Darden, Joe T.. Differential Access to Housing in the Suburbs. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, The Emerging African-American Environment. (Sep.,1990), pp. 16.
[14] Pp.18.
[15] Darden, Joe T.. Differential Access to Housing in the Suburbs. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, The Emerging African-American Environment. (Sep.,1990), pp.21.
[16] http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_sndgs02.html 30/04/2007
[17] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4793955.stm 12/05/2007.
[18] McClain, Paula D. & Albert K. Karnig. Black and Hispanic Socioeconomic and Political Competition. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 84, No. 2. (Jun., 1990), pp. 542.
[19] McClain, Paula D. & Albert K. Karnig. Black and Hispanic Socioeconomic and Political Competition. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 84, No. 2. (Jun., 1990), pp. 543.
[20] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/ 01/05/2007
[21] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/
[22] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/
[23] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
When the two largest minorities in the United States, Blacks and Hispanics, enter into contact, what kind of behavior is expected between them? The first reaction to this question may be that they could try to help each other, as they, somehow, share disadvantages in comparison with the major white population. They should fell sympathetic to the other minority’s problems, as somehow, these may resemble their owns. Actually they share common difficulties and goals regarding to gaining the same status as white citizens in all major areas. However the general attitude concerning the other minority is not as cooperative as desired.
In this paper we are going to analyze the relationship between these two ethnic groups in the North American society context. The first part of the paper will be devoted to discover the origins of this competitive attitude and try to figure out the reasons why one of the groups is more reticent to establish a collaborative attitude towards the other.
In the second part of the paper we will expose some major areas which are the main points of conflict between both groups, in which the benefit for one of them may be detrimental to the other. Among the most relevant areas we will mention are employment, housing, social benefits and the political arena.
In the last part of the document, we will present facts and figures to show how this rivalry escalates into violence among these minority groups, being this problem one of the most important issues the national government needs to fight.
2.- Historical Roots of the Rivalry
In order to be able to get a whole picture of the situation between Blacks and Hispanics, it is necessary to look back to certain aspects of the origins of both ethnic groups to understand where does the rivalry come from and how deeply rooted is. The origin of both African-American and Hispanics groups are considered to have similar background from Africa, the West Indies, and the Caribbean. However the reasons why they ended up in The United States vary. The major difference being that the Blacks were among the non-white population that involuntary immigrated into North America, whereas the recent Hispanic immigrants moves to North America as the result of a spontaneous and voluntary act. Moreover, the kind of subjugation and racism the Blacks had to suffer at the hands of White Europeans Americans was never practiced before. It is also remarkable to say that the advantages and disadvantages involuntary African immigrants and recent voluntary Hispanic immigrants brought with them when they disembarked are different. We are going to describe them in the next paragraphs.
Popular literature suggests that the Latin American immigrants “success and apparent functional assimilation might be attributed to their strong family ties and values”.[1]Hispanics have a very solid family organization in which the male role is of predominant importance. However, the whites have always seen the African-American families as fragmented and the position of their men, in comparison to their women, has been considered weak.
There is a considerable difference between these two groups and that is not only their willingness to go to the States as immigrants, but the fact that Hispanics, when going voluntary to North America brought something else than their belongings. Their traditions, languages and culture were moved with them, something which favor their adaptability to their new environment. In the case of the initial African immigrants, they were not allowed to take with them their traditions, languages nor inherited affiliations. As Parrillo says, “other ethnic groups recreated in miniature the society they left behind, but Africans were not allowed to”.[2] This is not to say that the type of discrimination and hostility from the Whites did not affect the Hispanics, but the degree of restraint that the African-American community endured is different in many ways in comparison to those of the recent Hispanic immigrants.
Another factor that influences negative attitudes towards the other sector is economics. The popular American press and White politicians do recognize the economic improvements the Hispanic group is achieving. They often say that, in comparison to the African-American community, they have talent for business. But there are reasons for that to be so. The first one is that the Hispanic population did not arrive impoverished when crossing the border. They did not arrive as poor neocolonial immigrants but as “invited and assisted political pawns of the ideological war between capitalism and communism”.[3] Since the year 1975 the waves of Hispanic population included people from different professional backgrounds such as military officers, doctors, scientists, and businessmen. They already possessed “marketable skills”, and some of them also brought prosperity and investment opportunities.
There were some other things that contributed to the economic growth of the Hispanic community within the States. Among these we find the sense of “intragroup survival practices” which main traditions were hiring people from the same group or the creation of family-owned enterprises. An aspect of these practices was that the Hispanic population normally located their business in typical African-American neighborhoods, thus, making competence to already established businesses, being even able to get higher profits than those from the black community.
A third aspect that may be mentioned is the educational achievement. Education was the only medium by which the African-American community improved from slavery to the present status held in the American society. In the 1970’s the college enrolment was as high as the one of the Whites, however, this rates diminished with Ronald Reagan and his anti-affirmative action. In fact the future implications for education of African-Americans are not that optimistic. And one of the reasons for that is that education is linked, somehow, with family income. All those income related to areas such as engineering, science and technology are going to be higher than other fields which include the majority of professions taken mostly by the Black population and getting lower incomes than the former.
As the Hispanic population is increasing at a very high speed, the Black population should worry no more for competing against the Whites in education; instead they should focus all their concerns towards getting a parallel achievement in educational matters with other ethnic groups.
3. Areas of Competition
During the 1960’s, Blacks and Hispanics shared some common concerns, such as poverty, what lead them to form alliances to fight for their common goal. However, this coalition began to disappear when policies to promote equal rights and equity begun to clash. When both minority groups started to have different goals, to feel distrust towards the other group, or the size of one of the groups began to diverge from the other, so that no further coalitions were necessary, the gap between both ethnic groups was such that there emerged hostility between them and no more cooperation was going to be expected. Moreover, both groups’ attitudes towards each other were going to get high hate rates not seen before.
The Black-Hispanic conflict is considered of importance for all citizens due to the impact recent immigration has on the American society. The main reason for the clash of these groups is because of their fight for scarce resources. There are four major areas in which both minority groups seem to clash. They, increasingly, compete for job’s scarcity, adequate housing, social amenities and political implications. We are going to deal with each area to have a general overview of the roots of the problem, whose main base is economic.
3.1- Labor Market Discrimination
“In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefited less or been harmed more than the African-American population”.[4] In the 1980’s, due to the internationalization of the world economy, technological innovation and global movement of workers, less-skilled workers were the main affected by the sliding demand of their services. This fact was more detrimental in the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The worse result of all this was the rise of the unemployment rate among people already living in the United States, specially, among the Black community. Thus, during that decade, wage inequality increased for those people without university education, for the young people and for the Blacks. The shifts in manufacturing were responsible, in part, for this decline in the salary, because the jobs it offered were carried out mainly by high school graduates. So, immigration started to cause important costs to the United States, especially to those less-skilled workers.
The reasons for the negative assumption of the Latin community by the Blacks is due to the so called “higher is better”[5]. This is because, as the U.S. economy was in decline, it was considered that if the immigrant population earned higher wages, this could be beneficial for the American society in general. This was so because with higher salaries they could pay higher taxes to the state; at the same time this implied less expenditure in social and unemployment benefits; a third good point was that, as they got the skills outside the States, this meant no preparation costs for them. However, this was only applied for the so called “good immigrants”[6]. In respect to the low-skilled immigrants things were different.
“Less-skilled immigrant workers are more costly, they undercut the position of domestic labor-although for consumers and businesses they are also a source of cheap labor and less costly goods- suggesting a redistributive image that is positive for some and negative for others.”[7] However, the general effect is less optimistic, as the negative political and social consequences of redistributive effect was high. This context of declining economy of the 1980’s could only lead to a widespread feeling of distrust and suspicion towards the immigrants recently arrived. This “browning of America”[8] enhanced the differentials between the minorities already living there and the newcomers.
There are a few instances to show how the Hispanic immigrants affected the Black community regarding employment, thus, affecting their economic status. One of those are the hiring practices carried out by employers, by which they showed their preference for hiring immigrants as they were “cheaper and less troublesome workers”.[9] Immigrants were also preferable in comparison with blacks and, even whites, to work in hotels and restaurants because the latter were considered to be idle. There is a clear advantage for Hispanics in the working place in comparison to the Blacks, leading to an intense competition between both ethnic groups.
As regards to more recent dates, the status of the black community regarding employment is quite the same as a decade or two ago. Statistics show that the young Black population is having problems in the labor market. Unemployment among young Blacks nationwide is 40 percent. “For blacks, the growing presence of immigrant workers adds to the formidable obstacles they face in finding a job”.[10] Among Blacks, 78 percent say jobs are difficult to find in their community compared to only 55 percent of Hispanics.
As a result of all this facts, Blacks had a general feeling of antagonism, even though, Black elites had supported originally all immigrant efforts. They had a general feeling of intolerance towards all newcomers, basically, because the new Latino “undercut Black workers by taking jobs at subminimum wage”[11]. That is why Blacks, generally, favor immigration restrictions even more than the white population, and they do that, not because they reject the immigrant’s culture but because they feel afraid of losing their jobs. The Latino community answered to this statement saying that the Black community did not share the benefits obtained of the civil rights struggle with other minorities.
3.2- Adequate Housing
After talking about the most obvious point of conflict between both communities, employment, we are going to talk about other issues of competitiveness. One of them is the question of housing. During the 1960’s and 1970’s Blacks remained less likely than whites to own homes and to live in older and crowded inadequate housing.[12]Results support a stratification perspective of inequality for both Blacks and Hispanics. Blacks and Hispanics continue to lag significantly behind whites in housing wealth. Access to adequate housing is a strong indicator of inequality between whites and minority groups. The government, through the Federal Housing Acts, has tried to go against this trend of discrimination in home rental and ownership; however, there still exists a big gap to save.
According to human ecology thinkers, the social and economic factors of a minority group are determining to establish the place where they are going to live. In the case of Blacks and Hispanics both factors make a difference. Even though both minority groups share discrimination and inequality based on social and economic factors, regarding to suburban housing both groups differ. The main reason for this is that the majority white population still has preferences towards one of these ethnic groups, and consequently having a negative effect on the spatial assimilation of the rejected one.
According to ecological theory, occupational status is the main factor to determine if a group is going to live in the metropolitan area or in the suburbs. Following this theory, the professional sector- the highest-status group- is going to be the type of people most frequently found to be living in the suburbs. “The higher the occupational level, the greater the distance a group will live from the central business district”.[13]So, according to this assumption, the group with higher percentage of professionals is going to be the group more likely to live in the suburbs. However “access to suburban housing is clearly a function of color”.[14] This is like this because 75 percent of the Afro-American professionals still live in the metropolitan area. Moreover, the group more likely to live in suburbs, after the white majority, is the Hispanic population and not the Black one. The white population is more willing to share their suburb area with Hispanics than with Blacks. So, the correlation of professional status with suburbanization must be left aside. Race still represents the main obstacle for the Black population to get access to housing in the suburbs.
This color determinant of suburban access may have detrimental consequences for the African-American population as their opportunities for economic and social progress are reduced. The main relevant one being the lack of job opportunities as, since 1948, “suburban areas have received over 80% of the new employment in manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and selected services”.[15] It is expected that this pattern of better jobs distribution towards the suburbs will continue, what will increase the already high rates of Black unemployment.
3.3- Government Services
There is another area which is reinforcing the conflict between Blacks and Hispanics in most cities of the United States. This other relevant point of conflict is the municipal welfare state, which, instead of favoring towards the coalition of both ethnic groups is getting just the opposite. There are two main reasons for this respect. The first one, due to the status of the urban governments based on “spoils system that offers jobs, contracts, favors and other perks to the well connected”[16], fans the rivalry of both groups. Urban Hispanics and Blacks have organized separately to the fight for those precious opportunities the government offers.
Secondly, “Hispanics increased as the country's largest minority group, at 14.4% of the population, compared with 12.8% for Blacks”.[17] Due to this increasing Hispanic population, the African-American group starts to be troubled as the welfare state transfers or benefits are finite, because of the actual budget cuts. That is the reason that, as the other group grows in number, their possibilities to get the same benefits diminishes.
3.4- Political Implications
According to the survey Paula D. McClain about the political competition between Blacks and Hispanics there are some interesting findings. First of all we need to emphasize the aspect that the surveys were made mainly in cities which a high percentage of Black population in comparison to the Hispanic one. So, this may be taken into account.
The first statement he makes is that every time Blacks or Hispanics have any kind of political success is at the expenses of the white population. “Political competition between blacks and Hispanics is evident only when controls for white political outcomes are introduced”. [18]That is, as the political success of both communities increase, the competitiveness also increases, mainly because this success is due to the lack of white population in those cities with minority majority representation. The survey also states that, as the black community increases, the Hispanics seem to fare less well politically, due to the less political representation they may have.
This less political representation in comparison to the other group may have negative consequences for the disadvantaged group. The main implication being less opportunities to find a job in the public sector, for example. Also socioeconomic factors influence in the political arena. “If Hispanics (or blacks) do not receive a fair share of economic resources, they may not have the wherewithal to increase their political representation”.[19]
In the findings there may be assumptions to justify the possible alliances between both groups in the political issue. This necessity for coalitions may appear in cities where the Black and Hispanic are minority groups in comparison to a white majority population. In these cases, both communities would be likely to form coalitions to increase the minority share of political representations. However, in cities where the black population is bigger than the Hispanic, coalitions are not likely to occur.
4.- Racial Hate Crime
Contrary to general opinion, hate crimes committed in the United States, especially in Los Angeles, “are not primarily white-on-black.”[20]According to the 2005 Hate Crimes Report, race-related hate crimes jumped 46%.[21] In schools, 82 percent of the hate crimes were racially motivated. Blacks and Hispanics are fighting each other in schools and prisons as they compete for low-skilled jobs and “preferred minority status”.[22] It is relevant to mention that there is one hate sector that is growing in comparison to the other. Crimes committed against the Blacks increased by 47 percent. Also noticeable that of the hate crimes committed by gangs, 80 percent were committed by Hispanics against blacks. It is also noticeable how the Hispanic-on-black violence increased in schools.
In the report is mentioned another factor for the racial crime, apart from the fight for resources, and it is that of “anti-immigrant sentiment”. “The increase of anti-Latino crimes for the second year in a row may be related to heated public debate over immigration from Latin America”.[23] That is, certain groups opposing illegal immigration such as Minutemen and S.O.S (Save Our State), organized protests, went to the Mexico-US border to hold rallies to demonstrate their dislike towards this growing Latino population. These actions could have moved the Hispanic population to react and defend themselves, by means of gang violence.
5.- Conclusions
Even though both communities, the Black and the Hispanic, have shared goals in the American society of non discrimination and the opportunity to enjoy the same rights, benefits and chances to progress socioeconomically, both destinies seem negatively intertwined. As social Darwinism promulgates, “competition between individuals drives social evolution in human societies through survival of the fittest”[24], the relationship between both ethnic communities seem to be like a survival in the area of employment, housing, social benefits and politics. Only the group that attains better results in these arenas, socioeconomically speaking, would be the fittest. Is there any chance to alter the negative course of the present and future of both communities? We do not know the answer for sure but, both groups should look at each other and jointly fight for their disadvantages as minorities were heard and politically changed.
[1] Anderson, Talmadge. Comparative Experience Factors Among Black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans: Coalitions or Conflicts? Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Sep., 1992), pp. 31.
[2] Anderson, Talmadge. Pp. 32.
[3] Anderson, Talmadge. Comparative Experience Factors Among Black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans: Coalitions or Conflicts? Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Sep., 1992), pp. 33.
[4] http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/finance/clash061306 30/04/2007
[5] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites1984, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Sep., 1999), pp. 18.
[6] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Pp 18.
[7] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Pp 18.
[8] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Pp 19.
[9] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites1984, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Sep., 1999), pp. 20.
[10] http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/finance/clash061306 30/04/2007
[11] Thornton, Michael C. & Yuko Mizuno. Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites1984, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Sep., 1999), pp. 21.
[12]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7067869&dopt=Abstract 30/04/2007
[13] Darden, Joe T.. Differential Access to Housing in the Suburbs. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, The Emerging African-American Environment. (Sep.,1990), pp. 16.
[14] Pp.18.
[15] Darden, Joe T.. Differential Access to Housing in the Suburbs. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, The Emerging African-American Environment. (Sep.,1990), pp.21.
[16] http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_sndgs02.html 30/04/2007
[17] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4793955.stm 12/05/2007.
[18] McClain, Paula D. & Albert K. Karnig. Black and Hispanic Socioeconomic and Political Competition. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 84, No. 2. (Jun., 1990), pp. 542.
[19] McClain, Paula D. & Albert K. Karnig. Black and Hispanic Socioeconomic and Political Competition. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 84, No. 2. (Jun., 1990), pp. 543.
[20] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/ 01/05/2007
[21] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/
[22] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/
[23] http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/black-and-hispanic-hate-in-la-county/
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
DISASTER IN DARFUR AND THE RESPONDABILITIES OF MY COUNTRY
The facts that happened and are still happening in the region of Darfur represent the biggest humanitarian crisis in the XXI century. As a legal advisor of the Spanish government I will interpret the conflict and suggest the legal rights and duties of the parties involved in it and based on legal principles. Later on, I will deal with the obligations of the Spanish government in three different steps of the genocide. After that, I will offer an alternative legal obligation to the Spanish government if the events that happened in Darfur are not recognized as genocide.
First of all, I will briefly highlight the points that lead to the present situation in the area of Darfur. Disputes between nomadic and sedentary groups emerged because of the increase of competition for natural resources; the nomadic Arabic groups from the north came frequently to the Darfur region to obtain food for their survival. Changes in the amount of natural resources in the area made unviable this situation anymore. In February 2003 the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) attacked the government security forces to complain about the marginalization of Darfur and the lack of protection from these nomadic Arabic groups. The Sudanese government reacted by supporting Arabic nomadic groups that attacked African farming ones. Janjaweed is the name of the Arabic group that perpetrated the facts and that seems to be assimilated into a government paramilitary force called the Popular Defense Force (PDF). It has been seen to operate coordinately with the Sudanese government in their attacks against the civilian farming population. In doing this they have deliberately violated innumerable human rights. Also ethnic implications are remarkable because there is a clear connection between the crimes committed to a concrete African Sudanese ethnic group.
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide (CPPCG), Sudan, as a contracting party since October 13rd 2003, should intervene in the actions carried out by the Janjaweed to stop the killings, rapes, mutilations, destruction of villages in whole, etc. Moreover, it should allow the UN peacekeepers to enter into action to diminish the massacre. On 5 May 2006 a peace agreement was signed between the Sudanese government and one of the militia groups in Darfur. This agreement has not been put into action because the attacks are still taking place with impunity. According to article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 which establishes pacta sunt servanda the Sudanese government is not fulfilling the obligations and as such it is breaching the pact. It is his duty to maintain the peace in the area being his behavior justifiable only by the existence of jus cogens, which is not the case. As the article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1966 states, Sudan should respect and ensure “to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights…, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”. That rights are the ones reflected in this legally-binding UN HR convenant such as: article 1 (2) and article 47, in which Sudan should provide its population with all possible means of subsistence; not being deprived of their natural wealth and resources – as it happened with the sedentary farming groups in Darfur, which are being dispossessed of their cattle, wells…etc, inflicting damaging consequences in their physical destruction. Article 6 (1) dealing with the right to life and not to be arbitrarily deprived of it. Article 7 no torture or cruel treatment shall be applied to anyone. Article 8 should be complied in which no one shall be held in slavery – as sedentary African women have been taken as sexual slaves. Article 24, every child shall have the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor – which has not been complied because more than 1 million of children are under risk of undernourishment in Darfur. In the article 11 (2) of the International Covenant of Economic, social and Cultural Rights of 1966, states the duty of states to recognize the “right of everyone to be free from hunger”- in Darfur, more than 180.000 persons of the civil population has died of illness or hunger. According to the African Human Rights System, whose main instrument is the African Charter on Human and People´s Rights of 1981, which provides for collective rights and for state and individual duties, Sudan has been violating articles 4, 5, 12, 16, 17, 18, 21, and 23. Sudanese government should ensure the safety of the inter-displaced population (IDP) is guaranteed by preventing the Janjawid from operating inside and on the peripheries of the IDP camps; acknowledge the severity of the humanitarian situation in Darfur and take all necessary measures to allow full and free access to Darfur to ensure that the IDP population is provided with humanitarian relief (following the article 18 of the Protocol II).
Third parties should be ruled according to article 1of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, in which it is specified that they should prevent and punish the crime of genocide recognized in international law. This “genocide convention is undeniably considered part of customary international law…Thus, punishment of the crime of genocide did exist in Rwanda in 1994, at the time of the acts alleged in the indictment; and the perpetrator was liable to be brought before the competent courts of Rwanda to answer for this crime…” (Steiner & Alston). As already happened in Rwanda, it should be created after the conflict, an ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal, International Tribunal for Sudan (ICTS), or bring criminals to the ICC in the Hague, (which, in fact would be something less costly and due to the urgency of the situation much more immediate) to have the power to prosecute persons committing genocide. This tribunal should be acting under chapter VII of the UN Charter. The International Criminal Court can only exercise its jurisdiction when the Sudanese court is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. Primary responsibility to exercise jurisdiction over alleged criminals is therefore left to Sudan.
When large scale violations of human rights, not only individual states, but the whole world community through its more important political organ should energetically react. States have the obligation not only to prosecute the perpetrators, but also to act on behalf of the victims. That is why it should be created a Compensation Commission that would restore the rights of the victims of serious violations committed in Darfur. The international responsibility would be of the state on whose behalf the perpetrator was acting. This international responsibility forces the state to pay a compensation to the victim.
It is also relevant to mention the spreading to international grounds of the conflict in Darfur. It began in the Darfur area and then moved to the east Chad, due to the waves of refugees that flee from the Janjaweed. Sudan must prevent cross-border attacks against civilians in Chad by the Janjaweed, and disarm them in accordance with the Darfur Peace Agreement. Chad must deploy military forces to protect civilians, and seek the assistance of an international force if necessary. The situation is changing and we are passing from a non-international armed conflict to an international armed one. That is why it is so urgent that the international community take part in the conflict. Third states should pay attention that the article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions and by Protocol II are fulfilled. Relevant as well to guarantee the protection of the hundreds of refugees according to 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.
Regarding to the obligations of Spain when it was aware that the genocide was being planned, its way to react is through article 8 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948. By this principle Spain can make aware of the situation to the competent organ of the United Nations to prevent the genocide by applying the articles of the UN Charter. This action should be enough to make react the international community, because now genocide is a peremptory norm due to customary law in previous conflicts.
The obligations of Spain when it knew that the genocide was taking place - after making aware the united Nations and its resolution to intervene militarily-, according to article 43 of the chapter VII of the UN charter, it should make available its “armed forces, assistance, and facilities, including rights of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security”.
Once the genocide is over, the only possible thing to do by the international community (if the Sudanese judicial system is unable to deal with it) should prosecute the perpetrators of the massacre and bring them to the ICC. In doing this, Spain must take into consideration article 88 of the Protocol I in which “the High Contracting Parties shall cooperate in the matter of extradition”. In general terms Spain should attach to article 89 of Protocol I in which all contracting parties undertake to act in cooperation of the United Nations and in conformity with the UN Charter.
It has been confirmed by article 7 of the Statute of Rome, that the murders, mutilations, cruel treatment, rape, torture and hostage keeping occurred in Darfur are acknowledged as war crimes. In the case it could not be proved that the Darfur conflict was a genocide, there are enough humanitarian breaches committed for not to react. Sudan resulting in the unlawful killing of over 85,000 civilians, the raping of thousands of women, and the forcible displacement of more than two million people. These acts are war crimes and, as part of a widespread, as well as a systematic, attack on the civilian population also crimes against humanity. Due to all these facts, together with the breaching of the Fourth Geneva Convention, all states have the duty to exercise their jurisdiction in persecuting the perpetrator, irrespective of where the crimes were committed. That is, all states will be subject to Universal Jurisdiction.
SOURCES:
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/z1afchar.htm
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR540892004?open&of=ENG-SDN
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-index-eng
http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b3ccpr.htm
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
ICRC. International Humanitarian Law. Answers to yours questions.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm
http://www.walter.gehr.net/wvkengl.html
Steiner; Alston. International Human Rights in Context Law, Politics, Morals. Oxford University Press, 2002.
www.unhcr.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/protect/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PROTECTION&id=3b66c2aa10 –
www.un.org/News/dh/sudan/com_inq_darfur.pdf
First of all, I will briefly highlight the points that lead to the present situation in the area of Darfur. Disputes between nomadic and sedentary groups emerged because of the increase of competition for natural resources; the nomadic Arabic groups from the north came frequently to the Darfur region to obtain food for their survival. Changes in the amount of natural resources in the area made unviable this situation anymore. In February 2003 the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) attacked the government security forces to complain about the marginalization of Darfur and the lack of protection from these nomadic Arabic groups. The Sudanese government reacted by supporting Arabic nomadic groups that attacked African farming ones. Janjaweed is the name of the Arabic group that perpetrated the facts and that seems to be assimilated into a government paramilitary force called the Popular Defense Force (PDF). It has been seen to operate coordinately with the Sudanese government in their attacks against the civilian farming population. In doing this they have deliberately violated innumerable human rights. Also ethnic implications are remarkable because there is a clear connection between the crimes committed to a concrete African Sudanese ethnic group.
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide (CPPCG), Sudan, as a contracting party since October 13rd 2003, should intervene in the actions carried out by the Janjaweed to stop the killings, rapes, mutilations, destruction of villages in whole, etc. Moreover, it should allow the UN peacekeepers to enter into action to diminish the massacre. On 5 May 2006 a peace agreement was signed between the Sudanese government and one of the militia groups in Darfur. This agreement has not been put into action because the attacks are still taking place with impunity. According to article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 which establishes pacta sunt servanda the Sudanese government is not fulfilling the obligations and as such it is breaching the pact. It is his duty to maintain the peace in the area being his behavior justifiable only by the existence of jus cogens, which is not the case. As the article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1966 states, Sudan should respect and ensure “to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights…, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”. That rights are the ones reflected in this legally-binding UN HR convenant such as: article 1 (2) and article 47, in which Sudan should provide its population with all possible means of subsistence; not being deprived of their natural wealth and resources – as it happened with the sedentary farming groups in Darfur, which are being dispossessed of their cattle, wells…etc, inflicting damaging consequences in their physical destruction. Article 6 (1) dealing with the right to life and not to be arbitrarily deprived of it. Article 7 no torture or cruel treatment shall be applied to anyone. Article 8 should be complied in which no one shall be held in slavery – as sedentary African women have been taken as sexual slaves. Article 24, every child shall have the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor – which has not been complied because more than 1 million of children are under risk of undernourishment in Darfur. In the article 11 (2) of the International Covenant of Economic, social and Cultural Rights of 1966, states the duty of states to recognize the “right of everyone to be free from hunger”- in Darfur, more than 180.000 persons of the civil population has died of illness or hunger. According to the African Human Rights System, whose main instrument is the African Charter on Human and People´s Rights of 1981, which provides for collective rights and for state and individual duties, Sudan has been violating articles 4, 5, 12, 16, 17, 18, 21, and 23. Sudanese government should ensure the safety of the inter-displaced population (IDP) is guaranteed by preventing the Janjawid from operating inside and on the peripheries of the IDP camps; acknowledge the severity of the humanitarian situation in Darfur and take all necessary measures to allow full and free access to Darfur to ensure that the IDP population is provided with humanitarian relief (following the article 18 of the Protocol II).
Third parties should be ruled according to article 1of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, in which it is specified that they should prevent and punish the crime of genocide recognized in international law. This “genocide convention is undeniably considered part of customary international law…Thus, punishment of the crime of genocide did exist in Rwanda in 1994, at the time of the acts alleged in the indictment; and the perpetrator was liable to be brought before the competent courts of Rwanda to answer for this crime…” (Steiner & Alston). As already happened in Rwanda, it should be created after the conflict, an ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal, International Tribunal for Sudan (ICTS), or bring criminals to the ICC in the Hague, (which, in fact would be something less costly and due to the urgency of the situation much more immediate) to have the power to prosecute persons committing genocide. This tribunal should be acting under chapter VII of the UN Charter. The International Criminal Court can only exercise its jurisdiction when the Sudanese court is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes. Primary responsibility to exercise jurisdiction over alleged criminals is therefore left to Sudan.
When large scale violations of human rights, not only individual states, but the whole world community through its more important political organ should energetically react. States have the obligation not only to prosecute the perpetrators, but also to act on behalf of the victims. That is why it should be created a Compensation Commission that would restore the rights of the victims of serious violations committed in Darfur. The international responsibility would be of the state on whose behalf the perpetrator was acting. This international responsibility forces the state to pay a compensation to the victim.
It is also relevant to mention the spreading to international grounds of the conflict in Darfur. It began in the Darfur area and then moved to the east Chad, due to the waves of refugees that flee from the Janjaweed. Sudan must prevent cross-border attacks against civilians in Chad by the Janjaweed, and disarm them in accordance with the Darfur Peace Agreement. Chad must deploy military forces to protect civilians, and seek the assistance of an international force if necessary. The situation is changing and we are passing from a non-international armed conflict to an international armed one. That is why it is so urgent that the international community take part in the conflict. Third states should pay attention that the article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions and by Protocol II are fulfilled. Relevant as well to guarantee the protection of the hundreds of refugees according to 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.
Regarding to the obligations of Spain when it was aware that the genocide was being planned, its way to react is through article 8 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948. By this principle Spain can make aware of the situation to the competent organ of the United Nations to prevent the genocide by applying the articles of the UN Charter. This action should be enough to make react the international community, because now genocide is a peremptory norm due to customary law in previous conflicts.
The obligations of Spain when it knew that the genocide was taking place - after making aware the united Nations and its resolution to intervene militarily-, according to article 43 of the chapter VII of the UN charter, it should make available its “armed forces, assistance, and facilities, including rights of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security”.
Once the genocide is over, the only possible thing to do by the international community (if the Sudanese judicial system is unable to deal with it) should prosecute the perpetrators of the massacre and bring them to the ICC. In doing this, Spain must take into consideration article 88 of the Protocol I in which “the High Contracting Parties shall cooperate in the matter of extradition”. In general terms Spain should attach to article 89 of Protocol I in which all contracting parties undertake to act in cooperation of the United Nations and in conformity with the UN Charter.
It has been confirmed by article 7 of the Statute of Rome, that the murders, mutilations, cruel treatment, rape, torture and hostage keeping occurred in Darfur are acknowledged as war crimes. In the case it could not be proved that the Darfur conflict was a genocide, there are enough humanitarian breaches committed for not to react. Sudan resulting in the unlawful killing of over 85,000 civilians, the raping of thousands of women, and the forcible displacement of more than two million people. These acts are war crimes and, as part of a widespread, as well as a systematic, attack on the civilian population also crimes against humanity. Due to all these facts, together with the breaching of the Fourth Geneva Convention, all states have the duty to exercise their jurisdiction in persecuting the perpetrator, irrespective of where the crimes were committed. That is, all states will be subject to Universal Jurisdiction.
SOURCES:
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/z1afchar.htm
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR540892004?open&of=ENG-SDN
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-index-eng
http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b3ccpr.htm
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
ICRC. International Humanitarian Law. Answers to yours questions.
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm
http://www.walter.gehr.net/wvkengl.html
Steiner; Alston. International Human Rights in Context Law, Politics, Morals. Oxford University Press, 2002.
www.unhcr.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/protect/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PROTECTION&id=3b66c2aa10 –
www.un.org/News/dh/sudan/com_inq_darfur.pdf
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