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Equatorial Guinea: Oil but No Rights, 2
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Feb 1, 2011 (110201)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"Obiang's eldest son, Teodorin, bought a $35 million property in
California in 2006. In 2004, he spent about $8.45 million for
mansions and luxury cars in South Africa. His only known income was
a $4,000 monthly salary as a government minister. His $43.45
million in spending on his lavish lifestyle from 2004 to 2006 was
more than the $43 million the government spent on education in
2005." - Human Rights Watch
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a report on
economic and social rights in Equatorial Guinea, by the Center for
Economic and Social Rights, and the press release for a
comprehensive 2009 report from Human Rights Watch on Equatorial
Guinea.
Another AfricaFocus Bulletin sent out by e-mail today, and
available on the web at
http://www.africafocus.org/docs11/eq1102a.php, contains the country
summary on Equatorial Guinea from the Human Rights Watch World
Report 2011, and excerpts from a December 2010 article by Abena
Ampofoa Asare in Foreign Policy in Focus, on President Obiang's
strategies for promising reform and evading international
criticism.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Equatorial Guinea, and other
related links, see http://www.africafocus.org/country/eqguinea.php
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note++++++++++++++++++++
Equatorial Guinea
Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) individual submission
to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the
occasion of the sixth session of the Universal Periodic Review
December 2009
A selective submission on compliance with economic, social and
cultural rights obligations
Center for Economic and Social Rights
[Excerpts. Full report with footnotes available on
http://www.cesr.org]
I Introduction
1. The Center for Economic and Social Rights (an ECOSOC accredited
nongovernmental organization) hereby contributes this individual
submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
on the occasion of the Universal Periodic Review of Equatorial
Guinea's fulfillment of its human rights obligations.
2. This submission focuses in particular on Equatorial Guinea's
compliance with its obligations in relation to the fulfillment and
realization of economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights).
It presents and analyzes key indicators relating to the
enjoyment of the rights to health, education, food, water and
housing, as well as selected indicators of state policy efforts.
The analysis highlights key areas of apparent noncompliance
by the state of Equatorial Guinea with the principles of
progressive realization according to maximum available resources,
prioritization of minimum core obligations and the duty of
non-discrimination.
This submission is based on the most accurate and up-to-date
data available from both national statistical sources and
international organizations, particularly the World Bank and
UNICEF. It should be noted that the last comprehensive national
household survey was carried out in 2000 and that no reliable
national census has been conducted since 1994. The lack of
up-to-date official data on key indicators relevant to ESC rights
is itself a key concern which raises questions about the political
will to address the economic and social rights situation in the
country.
II Key concerns regarding economic and social rights
i) Progressive Realization of Rights According to the Maximum
Available Resources
4. Equatorial Guinea has become the richest country in Sub-Saharan
Africa, but the majority of its people remain extremely poor and
retrogression in the realization of the rights to food, health and
education is apparent. Since the discovery of oil and natural gas
reserves in the 1990s, Equatorial Guinea has become the richest
country in Sub-Saharan Africa, in terms of GDP per capita, which is
now over US$26,000. Yet almost two-thirds of Equatoguineans still
live on less than US$1 a day, insufficient to meet their minimum
calorie requirements and basic non-food needs and compromising
their right to food. Rather than improving economic and social
rights outcomes, the country's increased wealth has instead been
accompanied by a retrogression in the realization of the rights to
health and to education, especially for the country's children.
Child survival is threatened as infant and child survival rates
deteriorate. Between 1990 and 2006, the number of infants who
survived their first year fell from 897 per 1,000 live births to
876 and the under-5 survival rate fell from 830 to 794. This
suggests a retrogression even in the context of rising resources.
A retrogression in the realization of the right to education is
also evident, with a drop in the proportion of children receiving
basic primary education, as primary school enrollment fell from
93.1% in 2001 to 87.1% in 2003.
5. Low government expenditures indicate a failure to invest the
'maximum of available resources' to realize economic and social
rights and to meet core obligations regarding the rights to
education and health. Levels of public expenditure on health and on
education are much lower than the average expenditure of countries
in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2004, public expenditure on health made
up 7% and on education 4% of total government expenditure, - much
lower than the regional average of 10%
and 17% respectively.
Despite the constitutional promise of free basic education,
government budget allocation to education is well below the
regional average and insufficient to ensure universal access to
primary education. Equatorial Guinea devotes one of the lowest
proportions of total education expenditure on primary education of
all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (only 26.8%, whereas the
average for all Sub-Saharan African countries is 46%), despite a
rate of less than 60% of pupils finishing primary education. This
suggests that the state is not giving priority to the minimum core
obligation to ensure that its citizens achieve at least a primary
education.
6. The lack of transparency in government revenues and expenditure
heightens concerns that corruption is diverting resources away from
economic and social rights fulfillment.
The distribution of oil wealth is reportedly considered a "state
secret." Numerous studies and several corruption investigations
outside Equatorial Guinea have documented the alleged
misappropriation of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues by
the ruling family with the collusion of foreign companies,
including the documented diversion into secret bank accounts of at
least $2.1 billion. There is also a clear lack of transparency in
the government budget - according to the Open Budget Initiative of
the International Budget Partnership, Equatorial Guinea scored 0 on
the 2008 Open Budget Index and is one of the few countries in the
world that did not publish its 2008 annual budget after approval by the legislature (along with
China, Saudi Arabia and Sudan).
ii) The Right to Health
7. An apparent retrogression in the realization of the right to
health of women and children appears linked to inadequate
provision of child and maternal health care services. Equatorial
Guinea now has a higher child mortality rate than four of SubSaharan
Africa's poorest countries, with the number of children
dying before they reach age five increasing significantly between
1990 and 2006 (from 170 to 206 children out of
1,000 live births). Equatorial Guinea also has the highest infant
mortality rate of its region (124 per 1,000 live births) as well as
high maternal mortality rates - both of which appear to be related
to the lack of reproductive health services. Only 65% of women
receive skilled assistance from a qualified health professional
when giving birth, even though this assistance is key to ensuring
both maternal and infant survival. This raises
serious concerns about the government's commitment to make adequate
services essential for the health and survival of women and
children available and accessible.
8. Most child deaths are due to diseases that are preventable and
treatable, but access to preventive measures or treatment appears
woefully inadequate. Malaria, which is both preventable and
treatable, is a leading cause of child death, causing about
38% of infant deaths11 and 24% of under-5 deaths (compared to an
average of 16% in Sub-Saharan Africa). About 98% of Equatoguineans
live in areas with endemic risk of malaria, but only 1% of children
under- sleep under insecticide-treated nets, far less than in
other countries with similar malaria risk (in comparison
Guinea-Bissau's population also lives predominantly in areas with
endemic risk, but has an insecticide-treated net coverage of 39%).
...
iii) The Right to Education
9. Less than 60% of EquatoGuineans finish primary school,
suggesting that Equatorial Guinea is not meeting its minimum core
obligation to ensure a basic level of education for its citizens.
...
v) The Right to Water and Sanitation
11. Despite having the highest GDP per capita in Sub-Saharan
Africa, less than half the population has access to safe water and
only just over half has access to adequate sanitation. Less than
half (45%) of Equatoguineans living in urban areas have
access to an improved water source, which is the lowest proportion
of any urban dwellers in all Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average
is 85%. In rural areas, only 41% of the
population has access to safe water. ...
III Conclusions and Recommendations
12. Despite having the highest GDP per capita in the region,
Equatorial Guinea is failing to meet the requirements to use "the
maximum of available resources" to realize ESC rights, as required
under Article 2(1) of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The exploitation of the
country's natural resources has brought great wealth and economic
growth, yet the benefits are not being enjoyed by
the majority of the population, two-thirds of which continue to
live in extreme poverty with barely enough to eat. This demands
that the government of Equatorial Guinea be fully held to account
for its use and distribution of the country's wealth.
...
Equatorial Guinea: Account for Oil Wealth
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/africa/equatorial-guinea
Here is a country where people should have the per capita wealth of
Spain or Italy, but instead they live in conditions comparable to
Chad or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights
Program at Human Rights Watch
July 9, 2009
(Madrid)- The government of Equatorial Guinea has set new low
standards of political and economic malfeasance in handling its
billions of dollars in oil revenue instead of improving the lives
of its citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a report released
today.
The 107-page report, "Well Oiled: Oil and Human Rights in
Equatorial Guinea," details how the dictatorship under President
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has used an oil boom to entrench and
enrich itself further at the expense of the country's people. Since
oil was discovered there in the early 1990s, Equatorial Guinea's
gross domestic product (GDP) has increased more than 5,000 percent,
and the country has become the fourth-largest oil producer in
sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, living standards for the
country's 500,000 people have not substantially improved.
"Here is a country where people should have the per capita wealth
of Spain or Italy, but instead they live in conditions comparable
to Chad or the Democratic Republic of the Congo,"* said Arvind
Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human
Rights Watch. "This is a testament to the government's corruption, mismanagement, and
callousness toward its own people."
For example, infant and child mortality actually increased from an
already-dismal 103 deaths per thousand in 1990 to 124 per thousand
in 2007. Similarly, under-5 mortality rates increased from 170 per
thousand in 1990 to 206 per thousand in 2007. The government's
failure to provide basic social services violates its obligations
under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, Human Rights Watch said.
The country has had a series of corruption scandals involving
government officials and their families. In 2004, a US Senate
investigation into the country's dealings with the now-defunct
Riggs Bank detailed how President Obiang used the country's oil
wealth to finance numerous personal transactions, including
spending $3.8 million to buy two mansions in a suburb of
Washington, DC. That investigation led to one of the largest fines
against a bank in US history, and ultimately the bank's takeover.
Obiang's eldest son, Teodorin, bought a $35 million property in
California in 2006. In 2004, he spent about $8.45 million for
mansions and luxury cars in South Africa. His only known income was
a $4,000 monthly salary as a government minister. His $43.45
million in spending on his lavish lifestyle from 2004 to 2006 was
more than the $43 million the government spent on education in
2005.
The people of Equatorial Guinea have no ability to hold their
government accountable. The government severely curtails press
freedom and independent civil society, and the political opposition
is weak and faces constant government harassment, intimidation, and
arrests.
Obiang has been in power since 1979, when he deposed his uncle in
a coup. His uncle, Francisco Mac¡as Nguema, took control of the
country when it gained independence from Spain in 1969. His rule
was brutal and, by the time his nephew overthrew him, as much as a
third of the population had been killed or exiled. In the most
recent parliamentary elections in May 2008, Obiang and his allies
won 99 out of 100 seats.
"Obiang controls the oil, the government, and the country," Ganesan
said. "Without meaningful international pressure, the immense
wealth of Equatorial Guinea will continue to be a private cash
machine for a few instead of the means to improving the lives of many."
The bulk of investment in the country's oil industry comes from
US-based oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, Amerada
Hess, and Vanco Energy. The significant interests of US companies
have also meant that the US government is a key interlocutor with
the government of Equatorial Guinea, along with Spain. Under the Bush administration, relations with
Equatorial Guinea warmed, despite the Riggs Bank corruption scandal
and ongoing human rights violations. For example, former Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice publicly told Obiang during a 2006 visit
to Washington: "You are a good friend, and we welcome you."
"The Obama administration should take a different approach than its
predecessor," said Ganesan. "Instead of ignoring corruption and
human rights in favor of energy interests, it can make it clear
that good governance and respect for human rights is essential for
energy security."
The international community may be in a good position to push for
change because the government has joined the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI), an effort to make natural resources
benefit everyone by setting a global standard for openness in oil,
gas, and mining. However, Human Rights Watch has serious concerns
that the government may not be fully committed to it because it
still has not guaranteed that civil society can operate freely in
the country and has been very slow to implement the initiative's
standards.
"This is a key test for the government," Ganesan said. "But it is
also a test for the credibility of the initiative, which risks just
endorsing a slightly more transparent dictatorship."
Human Rights Watch called on the government of Equatorial Guinea to
carry out policies for complete public disclosure of how it manages
its oil wealth, including: making its budgets public; identifying
all of the government's foreign bank accounts; implementing the law
that requires government officials to declare their assets, and
verifying those declarations; and conducting an audit of government
accounts and making those results public.
Human Rights Watch called on foreign governments such as the US and
Spain to: put concerted pressure on the government to improve human
rights; deny visas to the country's officials who have been
implicated in corruption; and identify any assets held by those
officials in their countries, with the intent of seizing the
proceeds of corruption and eventually returning them to the people
of Equatorial Guinea.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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