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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.
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- Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples
- Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation
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UN Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights
- follow up
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Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples
James Anaya
A/HRC/18/35/Add.8
Country visit: 25 - 27 April 2011
Report published: 11 July 2011
No mention of children's rights.
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Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Ms. Caterina de Albuquerque
(A/HRC/12/24/Add.1)
Country visit: 19-27 March 2009
Report published: 23 June 2009
Inequalities in access to water and sanitation for indigenous communities: Indigenous peoples and people belonging to other marginalised and vulnerable groups, including Afro-descendants and migrant workers, often have limited or no access to potable water and adequate sanitation. The vast majority of indigenous peoples living in the 24 reserves in the country do not have access to safe drinking water or sanitation services. In its report submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Costa Rica acknowledged that indigenous peoples' access to safe drinking water was constrained, mainly by their geographical and cultural circumstances, and that, in some indigenous territories, minimal sanitary conditions were lacking, with the resulting problems of diarrhoea, parasites, malnutrition and other diseases, especially among children. Both the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged Costa Rica to take all appropriate measures to remove the obstacles that currently prevent indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and migrant workers access to basic services, including safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. (paragraph 48)
The independent expert, while acknowledging the efforts made by Costa Rica to improve their access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, expresses her concern that the majority of indigenous peoples living in traditional communities continue to have no access to potable water and adequate forms of sanitation. The expert also notes that indigenous communities have not systematically been involved, as provided by the Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (Convention No. 169) of the International Labour Organization 9 (to which Costa Rica is a signatory), in the development of strategic plans aimed at improving their access to water and sanitation. (paragraph 70)
Recommendation
The independent expert urges Costa Rica to take immediate steps to develop, in close consultation with the communities concerned, strategic plans aimed at providing access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation to indigenous peoples living in traditional reserves. Such plans should take into account the customs and traditions of the communities concerned and specifically include capacity-building measures aimed at ensuring the participation of community members in the development, management and maintenance of aqueducts and sanitation systems. (paragraph 84)
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UN Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights, Mrs Fatma-Zohra Ksentini
(A/HRC/12/24/Add.1)
Country visits: 17-20 November 1998
Report published: 23 June 2009
Particular cases brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur:
People expressed their disquiet about the massive influx and intensive use of dangerous products, including agricultural chemicals, which constitute a serious threat to the environment, as well as to the life and health of persons who come into direct or indirect contact with these substances. (paragraph 56)
The use of dibromochloropropane (DBCP) was often mentioned, since it had caused the irreversible sterility of more than 11,000 workers on the banana plantations of the American firms United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company. DBCP is a nematicide developed in 1951 by Shell Oil and Dow Chemical. The first toxicological studies carried out by these companies in the United States with a view to obtaining a licence to market the product showed that it was extremely poisonous. Contact with small doses could damage vital organs like the lungs, liver and kidneys and cause atrophy of the testicles; in large doses DBCP causes sterility. A study conducted in 1958 by the National University of Costa Rica and passed on confidentially to Shell Oil and Dow Chemical confirmed the toxicity of DBCP. (paragraph 57)
Between 1967 and 1979, the certification and use of this product in the banana plantations of Costa Rica were authorised regardless of its toxicity and the effects it had on the environment and human health, nor were the banana companies required to adopt health and safety measures to protect workers. Although the United States banned the production and use of DBCP in their territory in 1975, Standard Fruit continued to import it into Costa Rica until 1979. The Costarican Government did not prohibit its import until 1988 (Executive Decree No. 18346 MAG of 8 October 1988). (paragraph 58)
Case studies indicate that employees of the banana plantations mixed the product with their bare hands and manually injected it at the root of plants. Moreover, they worked bare-chested, their feet were in contact with DBCP and they inhaled it. Excerpts from the report of the Defensora de los habitantes de Costa Rica (ombudsman) on this subject testify to the fact that they received no training in the proper use of this product. (paragraph 59)
Since 1982, more than 9,000 workers from the banana plantations have lodged complaints with courts in the United States (in Texas and New Jersey) against Shell Oil, Dow Chemical, Standard Fruit and United Fruit. 6,000 of these workers have also applied to Costarican public institutions (the Social Security Institute and Health Services Department) for compensation for industrial risks and injury. With the assistance of joint teams of lawyers from Costa Rica and the United States, these workers have claimed compensation, but have still not obtained satisfaction. The lawyers are said to have taken advantage of the situation by reaching agreements with the firms in question, under which one thousand workers have been offered trifling amounts of compensation, in an attempt to break the victims' solidarity. The ombudsman has therefore decided to take up the matter in order to help the victims and organize the appeals. (paragraph 60)
The case proves that the effects of a toxic or dangerous product are not always immediate and that even when they are known beforehand, the product can be marketed in order to satisfy financial interests. (paragraph 62)
Possible effects on children:
The people to whom the Special Rapporteur spoke do not think that all DBCP victims are yet known, because banana plantation workers are extremely mobile. Furthermore no cause and effect link has been established between the physical malformations of children born in the families of workers and the use of this product. No study has yet been made of the effects of DBCP on women working in the plantations or on the wives or children of the labourers, who were exposed to the product when they carried meals to their husbands or parents in the plantation. The harmful effects do, however, appear to manifest themselves through a variety of symptoms which should be investigated more thoroughly. (paragraph 61)
Conclusion and recommendation
The Special Rapporteur notes the positive steps taken by the Defensora de los habitantes in Costa Rica to help workers in banana plantations belonging to the American companies United Fruit and Standard Fruit to obtain compensation for their sterility brought about by the use of DBCP. She expresses her hope that just compensation will be awarded to the plaintiffs and that any person who considers that they are a victim, including the women and children exposed to this product will be able to avail themselves of effective remedies. She recommends that legal aid be granted to the victims and that a national or international expert's survey be conducted in order to determine all the effects on health of the use of the product in question. The Special Rapporteur expresses her gravest anxieties in view of information that DBCP and paraquat are still being used, under different names, in other Latin-American countries. (paragraph 124)
E/CN.4/2000/50
The Costa Rican Ombudsman informed the Special Rapporteur that the request for assistance to the World Health Organization for an epidemiological study into the effects of DBCP on the female population of the banana plantations had met with no response, although the study was necessary to obtain compensation for thousands of the workers' companions, spouses and daughters. (paragraph 105)
The Special Rapporteur states that WHO should provide technical assistance in order to produce chemical data concerning the state of health of women who have been in contact with DBCP. The Special Rapporteur states that she is awaiting developments on the case. (paragraph 106)