Social Panorama of Latin America • 2017
Chapter IV
Box IV.1 Social rights are not optional: indicators of compliance with the San Salvador Protocol Following the guidelines of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Working Group on the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, known as the San Salvador Protocol, developed a series of progress indicators to measure the economic, social and cultural rights referred to therein, which were approved by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) on 4 June 2012 (AG/RES. 2713 XLII-O/12). These gender-mainstreamed indicators must be applied by the States when submitting their San Salvador Protocol compliance reports, and are of three types: (i) structural, which track measures related to institutions, laws or plans; (ii) process, which measure the coverage of programmes and management improvement, for example; and (iii) results, which evaluate the impact of policies on the exercise of the right in question. The indicators are organized in three conceptual categories —reception of the right, State capacities and budgetary commitment— and three cross-cutting principles that are crucial for guaranteeing women’s rights and autonomy: equality and non-discrimination, access to justice, and access to information and participation (OAS, 2015). Indicators of equality and non-discrimination in the right to social security are shown in the following table. Indicators of the right to social security: equality and non-discrimination Reception of the right Structural indicators Ratification of: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ILO Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons (1954) Inter-American Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among others Incorporation of the right to social security in the Constitution
Process indicators
Results indicators
- Average time to gain recognition of the right to pensions by activity status and gender
- Proportion of economically active population by gender, age, education level and income quintiles
- Percentage of the population insured under contributory systems by gender, ethnicity/race and education level
- Population covered by a pension by age group, gender and income quintile
- Percentage of the population covered under non-contributory systems by gender, ethnicity/ race and education level - Percentage of population affiliated to special regimes by gender, ethnicity/race and educational level - Percentage of adults aged over 65 covered by old-age care programmes by gender, ethnicity/ race and educational level
- Percentage of population insured under a contributory regime, by gender, age and income quintile - Number of beneficiaries contributing to the pension system by gender, age and income quintile - Total unemployment subsidies for people not affiliated to contributory systems
Specific legislation that contemplates the right to social security Signs of progress: percentage of beneficiaries who consider the level of social security coverage to be satisfactory Equality and non-discrimination Structural Process Results - Requirements to access the social security system - Requirements for indigenous peoples, Afrodescendants, refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons to access the system - Requirements for domestic workers to access the system - Requirements for rural workers to access the system
- Basis for calculating social security benefits for men and women - Extension and ways of using actuarial tables to calculate the pension benefit (pension credit) - Extension, coverage and jurisdiction of inclusion mechanisms for persons performing reproductive or domestic care work
- Pensioned (retired) population by gender, age and education level, by jurisdiction - Percentage of beneficiaries who receive a pension or subsidy, by gender, age, ethnicity and race, by jurisdiction - Percentage of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons with social security coverage - Percentage of rural workers with social security coverage
Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Uruguay have all submitted their reports to OAS on the implementation of the first group of rights (social security, health and education) under the San Salvador Protocol, using these indicators. They are also making a major effort to report on progress and pending challenges for mainstreaming gender and incorporating women’s rights and autonomy in the regulation and operation of pension systems. Source: Organization of American States (OAS), Progress Indicators for Measuring Rights under the Protocol of San Salvador, Washington, D.C., 2015.
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