Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

On 26 October, Radio Nederlands Training Center (RNTC) and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) together with Radio Nederlands Worldwide (RNW), the Central American University (UCA) of El Salvador, the Inter American Institute for Human Rights (IIDH) and the Netherlands Embassy organised a debate entitled "Human Rights, Social Cohesion and Inclusion" in San Salvador.

Human rights and the media

Proceedings were opened by the vice president of El Salvador, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, who saw the debate as "an opportunity to share and discuss a situation that is in our interests. For our government the most important issue is human dignity. For years and years the focus has been only on economic development, excluding the majority of the population; now our government focuses on inclusion and reducing levels of marginalisation to ensure the development of the people."

NIMD’s Heleen Schrooyen stressed that human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, the right to education and health care, are still very much relevant today, and need to be explained by the media. In fact, the UNDP report on Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean states that "inequality is an obstacle for the region in the advancement of human development and its reduction should be explicitly incorporated in the public agenda."

The Netherlands ambassador Matthijs van Bonzel paid special attention to the way we educate young people in human rights. He mentioned the example of a play about Anne Frank that is touring through the different countries in the region and that especially relates to young people.

Producing and disseminating news is no longer exclusively managed by the media, according to Carlos Cortés, Director of RNTC for Latin America. According to Cortés social networks contribute to information sharing and consensus building that is so important for political reform and true regional integration.

Realities on the ground

In her main presentation, Mayra Falck presented the development indicators for Central America that continue to show huge inequalities and worrying amounts of people living in poverty and extreme poverty.

She mentioned that public policies have mostly been designed top-down, while the only way to promote development at all levels is to take into account the needs and realities on the ground. She also stressed the fact that Central America is often seen as a single region, and that cultural and geographical differences are not sufficiently taken into account by policy makers.

Journalist Luis Laínez of La Prensa Gráfica (El Salvador) presented a video about how the media cover issues such as human rights and social cohesion. This video showed images of the wars of the 1970s and 1980s and the signing of the peace agreements in Latin American countries. It also showed images of the current violence in Central America.

Laínez stressed the fact that the media will always focus on presenting the latest news. However, he also showed in his presentation that the media are more and more giving background information. Laínez requested attention for those countries in the region that encounter difficulties with the freedom of expression.

Debate and conclusions

In the subsequent debate participants asked the media to pay more attention in providing analysis and urged politicians to ensure inclusion of young people in the design of new development policies, as they are the majority in Latin America.

Three main conclusions came out of the debate and subsequent activities organised with students and professors from the University of Central America of El Salvador.

Firstly, in order to reduce persistent inequality, policies have to be developed bottom-up. Further, policy makers and university professors and students should be in contact with the reality on the ground in order to be able to support pro poor development with scientific investigations.

Secondly, the media can play an important role in holding government and political parties accountable: increased access of to internet and mobile phones with cameras makes every citizen a reporter. This allows for news items to be included in the media that in the past could not have been covered.

Finally, the web provides accessible information for all. A project such as Wikipedia could not have been realised by one single company as the costs involved are too high, but has been made possible by thousand of volunteers across the globe. There is much we can learn from this example.