Dignity and freedom are focus of new aid charter

DONOR states and aid agencies should not "force" foreign models of development on recipients, and the role of the overseas aid worker should be clearly defined, according to a new charter.

The charter, which has been published by the Irish El Salvador Support Committee, calls for a partnership approach to overseas assistance, and says there should be a complaints procedure where problems arise.

It was inspired by the committee's successful campaign to have international aid restored to the El Salvadorean community of Segundo Montes, following a dispute with aid workers there.

The charter defines a set of principles, obligations and responsibilities, and states that it does not attempt to address the issues involved in crisis or disaster intervention.

However, it says that all aspects of aid intervention should be reviewed, and should be publicly accountable in terms of impact on local community development, political structures, environmental factors, Improvement in living conditions and global development.

The main emphasis should be on capacity building, supported by education; but where serious and systematic human rights violations occur, a total suspension of aid may be required, it says.

Quoting from the 1993 Vienna Declaration on Human Rights, the charter says that the yardstick of success should be promotion of social justice and equity. Aid agencies should work towards coherence in the policies and practices of their own governments, if credibility is to be maintained.

The charter pays tribute to the many aid workers who have asked, and sometimes lost, their lives while working to alleviate distress in war torn situations.

However, it says that aid workers must respect the dignity and freedoms of the people with whom they work and their own life skills and local knowledge. They must never occupy roles of authority, save in emergencies, and should not manage their own projects, the charter says.

The charter pays tribute to Irish NGOs, and says that co funding from government should not be allowed to limit their independence.

Commenting on the charter, Mr Brendan Butler, chairman of the Irish El Salvador Support Committee, said that the absence of mechanisms for recipient communities to air their grievances was unacceptable.

In the case of Segundo Montes in El Salvador, a community of 6,000 returned refugees had been forced to live in almost total isolation, without adequate electricity, for three years because of this. Aid had now been restored, which represented "an out standing victory" for all those who had worked to highlight the situation, both in Ireland and El Salvador, he said.

The committee welcomed submissions on the charter from those interested in the wider aid debate, Mr Butler said.