Harvard/Hauser/Wiego, Fundacion Avina, CWG-Collaborative Working Group on Solid Waste Management in Low and Middle- Income Countries, KKPKP India, ANR, ARB, Ford Foundation, Natura Cosmetics
DAY 1 of the Conference celebrated
the National Day of the Waste-picker in
Colombia, with the participation of nearly
700 people, including participants from other
countries and a large representation of waste-pickers from all corners of
Colombia. This day featured different plenary presentations that shared
the Colombian experience but also situated the waste-picking activity in
the world panorama. Presentations were made by Colombian authorities,
the Environment Minister and a former Judge of the Constitutional Court
of Colombia, and representatives of waste-picker organizations from
around the world. An interesting presentation by Adriana Ruiz Restrepo
shared the experience of Colombian waste-pickers in using the law to
defend their role in the public solid waste management system, and their
access to the waste.
A general overview of the situation of recycling and of waste pickers in the
world – from the very origins of the activity in past centuries, through to the
present – was given by Martin Medina, who has recently published a book
about waste-pickers worldwide. Other presentations covered the fi nancial
dimensions of the informal activity of waste-picking and presented cases
of alliances with enterprises, forged under principles of Corporate Social
Responsibility (CRS). The day was closed by Bernardo Toro, special
Advisor to Avina Foundation, whose intervention followed a structured
methodology to prove that the waste-picker profession is one of the most
important professions of the 21st century
In the experience of Bogotá waste-pickers, law was useful to defend
their right to work when private interests on waste, the second most
profitable industry in the world, were taking away their access to waste.
Adriana Ruiz Restrepo, Pro Bono lawyer for the ARB
Adriana Ruiz Restrepo, pro bono lawyer to ARB,
The Fight Against Poverty through Law: the Experience of the
Bogotá Waste-pickers Association as an example of Legal
Empowerment
“In 6 months the new world agenda for the fight against poverty through
law will be released. Law is similar to a coffee bean: it has two sides
that mutually complement each other, laws and by-laws on the top, and
human rights on the bottom. Legal empowerment means that vulnerable
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populations can have access to justice, through law. In the experience of
Bogotá waste-pickers, law was useful to defend their right to work when
private interests on waste, the second most profitable industry in the
world, were taking away their access to waste. Waste-pickers showed
that they could move 700 tons of solid waste per day, when there was
a strike in the city. They were determined to do it on a more permanent
basis, participating in the Municipal tender as entrepreneurs. The law
forbade them to do it, as only a particular type of enterprise, stock firms,
could be public services providers. They took the case to Court and it was
determined that waste pickers could also be part of tendering processes
for public services.
The Constitutional Court then issued a writ
of human rights protection to protect the
income of waste pickers. This was done when
tendering processes required firms to have
5 years in the business, operating in cities of
more than 500 thousand inhabitants. After this,
the Court established that it was against the
law to carry out any tendering process related
to solid waste management without consulting
with waste-pickers in the first place and
allowing them to tender. This is the use that
can be given to Law. Law was also used to
criminalize waste-pickers for accessing waste.
The law stated that once waste was brought
outside buildings, it became private property
of the waste management contractor assigned to the zone. This law was
also changed. In life, there is no one solution, there are forces. Those
forces have to be created and the solution follows. No big cameras are
needed when one can load images in U-tube, Facebook and Myspace.
The UN Commission for the “Legal Empowerment of the Poor” was
very impressed with the use given to law by the Bogotá waste-pickers
association, which, in an executive, managerial and entrepreneurial way,
used the constitutional route to empower themselves in their activity,
being poor themselves. This case will be used at universities abroad to
illustrate how law can help the fair causes of the poor”. Ms. Ruiz thanked
the lawyers who helped with these cases in Colombia, pro bono.