12
35.
In this view, growing poverty is the result of primarily economic and financial
decisions taken by private actors in agreement with public actors, with far greater
power than the States of developing countries. Responsibilities of multi-national
firms and of multilateral bodies regarding abridgments of economic, social and
cultural rights are addressed in this framework; thus, when the Human Rights
Commission asserted that poverty abridges the fundamental right to life, it requested
an analysis of the policies of the World Bank, of the World Trade Organization, of the
International Monetary Fund, and of other international bodies. 32
36.
Progress of International Human Rights Law requires that the international
community acknowledge that poverty, and especially extreme poverty, is a form of
abridgment of all human rights, civil, political, economic, and cultural, and that it act
accordingly so as to facilitate identification of the internationally liable perpetrators.
The economic growth system linked to a type of globalization that impoverishes
growing sectors constitutes a “massive, flagrant, and systematic violation of human
rights”, 33 in an increasingly interdependent world. This interpretation of the right to
life, attuned to evolving times and current living conditions, must pay attention to
the causes of extreme poverty and to their perpetrators. From this standpoint, the
international responsibility of the State of Paraguay and of other Signatory States of
the American Convention does not cease, but it is shared with the International
Community that requires new instruments.
37.
It is also necessary to take into account, in addition to what was stated in
previous paragraphs, that Article 46(1)a of the Convention asserts that for a petition
or communication filed before the Inter-American Commission pursuant to Articles
44 or 45 of the Convention to be admissible, it is necessary to have filed and
exhausted domestic remedies, which did not happen in the instant case.
With regard to the deceased members of the indigenous community, it is necessary
to assert that if complaints had been filed in a timely manner under domestic venue
regarding possible negligence that could lead to avoidable deaths, it would have
been possible to correct, or at least to attenuate, said health problems; this path
would have enabled an investigation of abridgments of the right to life, punishment
into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable
distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.” E/CN.4/1995/101. para. 64.
32
E/CN.4/Sub 2/2004/25. Likewise, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights has asserted in international fora that Intellectual Property rights as reflected in the Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization are contrary
to human rights treaties, conventions and agreements. E/CN.4/Sub 2/204/44 para. 11, 17, and 19. The
Social Forum held in the framework of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, in 2004, highlighted
the growing need to include a human rights dimension in international economic decisions, such as those
pertaining to debt payment, trade, and free trade agreements, as a way to avoid generating poverty.
International Conference on Poverty and Social Exclusion, held in San Jose, Costa Rica, in
January 1997; General Assembly Resolution (A/RES/55/106) of 14 March 2001, Resolutions of the
Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly of the United Nations state that both poverty and
social exclusion are a “violation of human dignity”. Paragraph 1; E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/13, Final report on
human rights and extreme poverty, submitted by the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Leandro Despouy; UNDP,
Poverty reduction and human rights, a practice note (March 2003).; J. Bengoa, Implementation of existing
human rights norms and standards in the context of the fight against extreme poverty
(E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/17.
33