Search Tips
sorted by
300 shown of 1289 entities
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31c
- Paragraph text
- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A supplemental basic income involves the introduction of a modest basic income alongside the existing social security system. Some commentators do not distinguish between partial and supplemental income. A Finnish pilot project, for example, describes partial income as involving a level of benefit that is “substantially lower” and not aiming to replace other current transfers “to the same extent as in full basic income”. Partial and supplemental basic income approaches can also overlap. The Finnish pilot provides €560 over a two-year period (2017-2018) to some 1,500 randomly selected individuals who are aged between 25 and 58 years and are already receiving a labour market subsidy or basic unemployment allowance. The payment is automatic, unconditional and not means-tested. Consistent with Van Parijs’s approach, the basic income payment substitutes only for existing benefits that are lower than it. It can therefore be cumulated with existing earnings-related benefits and housing allowances. Thus, the Finnish model is partial in the sense that it has been targeted at a specific recipient group on the basis of age and income, and it is supplemental in the sense that it does not completely replace the existing social security system. The preliminary report concluded that the deficiencies of the partial basic income are that it would not substantially change the current system or reduce bureaucracy, it would not solve incentive problems arising from a generous housing allowance, and it is a low amount, especially for single parents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31d
- Paragraph text
- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A full basic income involves the characteristics set out above in part II, section A — namely an income that is basic, individual, cash, regular, universal and unconditional. Nowhere in the world has such a scheme yet been implemented. One was considered in Finland, at a level of €1,000 per month, but concern was expressed about “possible work disincentives, conflicts with earnings-related unemployment security, political controversies, high costs, regional differences in housing costs and possibly the lack of legitimacy”, with the level “too high for some groups and too low for the others”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- While Van Parijs and Vanderborght write in the liberal-egalitarian tradition, basic income also has strong support from libertarians. Matt Zwolinski argues that in order to justify the system of property rights, it is necessary, as John Locke wrote, to leave “enough, and as good, in common for others”. Thus, a State-financed social safety net might be necessary. For that purpose, a basic income scheme would be preferable to the welfare state because the latter incentivizes wasteful competition among interest groups and is costly and invasive. He avoids addressing questions of the design and implementation of a basic income system but is supportive of the approach developed by another libertarian, Charles Murray.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- All developed societies have welfare states in one or other of the three principal forms. First, welfare for the poor in the form of non-contributory means-tested programmes. Second, social insurance, social rights and social services, which include a wide array of institutions from contributory pension and unemployment schemes to public education and health insurance. Third, and the least familiar, is the role of the government in the economy, through regulatory, fiscal, monetary and labour-market policies and “in shaping markets, promoting growth, providing employment, and ensuring the welfare of firms and families”. While some see these three conceptions as competing, David Garland argues that none “of these three sectors can exist in that form without the others as structural supports”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- There is a strong risk that when confronted with the challenge of addressing economic insecurity the human rights system will proceed in zombie mode. It will keep marching straight ahead on the path mapped out long ago, even as the lifeblood drains out of the enterprise. Its supervisory and monitoring organs will address themselves ever more insistently to State actors that have made themselves marginal, and they will continue to demand respect for standards that have long since been overtaken by the grim realities of global supply chains. For the most part, the human rights machinery is cumbersome, lacking in agility, and poorly placed to develop new thinking in such contexts. But it will need to do so if it is to remain relevant.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31a
- Paragraph text
- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A bonus basic income is akin to a royalty scheme in which resource-based dividends are distributed directly to citizens annually. Funding comes directly from an external source, such as mineral royalties. Thus, the Alaska Permanent Fund annually distributes dividends from investment earning on mineral royalties to people who have lived in Alaska for at least a year and intend to remain there indefinitely. Some commentators consider this to be a poor example of basic income, because it is predistributive as opposed to redistributive, and involves a small sum and a fluctuating level of payment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8d
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The rapid and seemingly unstoppable growth in inequality across the globe, captured by Oxfam’s statistic that the richest 1 per cent of humanity already controls as much wealth as the remaining 99 per cent, and by the detailed national-level economic analyses of Thomas Piketty and others;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66a
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Discouraging laziness and incentivizing work;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, the implications for gender equality from growing economic insecurity are almost unremittingly negative. It remains true that “the average woman’s career remains shorter, more disrupted and less remunerative than the average man’s”, and the consequences flow through into social security and related arrangements. Proponents of women’s human rights need to become more involved in debates over social protection and basic income.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Van Parijs and Vanderborght admit that a universal basic income at 25 per cent of GDP per capita would result in “far higher rates of taxation because of the need to keep funding other public expenditures”. They then proceed to point to some (relatively small-scale) basic income experiments, negative income tax experiments and econometric models, none of which provides a clear answer on affordability. After discussing alternative financing models, such as taxes on capital, nature, money and consumption, they conclude that “none of these alternative sources offers a panacea, or any robust assurance that a generous basic income is economically sustainable, or any reason to believe that, in the short run at any rate, we can dispense with the income tax”. That leads them to explore alternatives to their core idea of a universal basic income — including a categorical basic income, a household basic income and tax surcharge, and their preferred alternative, a partial basic income: “one that makes no claim to being sufficient to live on if one lives alone”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- But these contrasting views accurately reflect the conclusion that emerges from a comprehensive survey of the many different utopias the world has known, which is that “utopias are essential but potentially dangerous”. In this case, the danger is that the single-minded pursuit of basic income as a magic bullet, capable of resolving many deeply troubling challenges, will distract attention from the deeper underlying complexities and values. But the utopian vision may also provide the much-needed impetus to rethink the optimal shape of social protection explicitly designed to achieve universal realization of the human right to an adequate standard of living in the twenty-first century. At a comparable watershed moment, Lord Beveridge introduced his 1943 report that laid the groundwork for the British welfare state by insisting that a “revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- Thus, the basic income concept should not be rejected out of hand on the grounds that it is utopian. Policymakers at the national and international levels need to develop the sort of creativity in social policy that is capable of matching and responding to the technological innovations and other developments that have brought us to this crossroads. Despite the magnitude of the challenge and the breathtaking scope of the proposed solution, there is an option, which Van Parijs seems to have subtly embraced, to move in an incremental fashion towards the overall goal. As Anthony Atkinson has observed, inspired by Amartya Sen’s work, “the aim is progressive reform rather than transcendental optimality”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- The most prominent path chosen to date has focused on respect for labour rights. But significant questions arise as to whether the tools used to tackle economic insecurity in that context have been, or are likely to be, effective in responding to the emerging conditions in the global labour market. For example, in its general comment No. 18 (2005) on the right to work, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights calls on States “to reduce to the fullest extent possible the number of workers outside the formal economy”, “to ensure that privatization measures do not undermine workers’ rights”, and to ensure that enhanced labour market flexibility does “not render work less stable or reduce the social protection of the worker”. All of these important objectives are grounded in human rights law, but the question is how best to respond to the reality that the trends in most industries seem to be heading rapidly in the opposite direction.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, an ILO report entitled Decent Work in Global Supply Chains responded to the “negative implications for working conditions” of “the dynamics of production and employment relations within the global economy” by proposing a series of steps such as promoting international labour standards, closing governance gaps and promoting inclusive and effective social dialogue. Unsurprisingly, after lengthy debate on the report, the 2016 International Labour Conference expressed its “concern that current ILO standards may not be fit for purpose to achieve decent work in global supply chains”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- In its comprehensive and ideal form, a basic income is explicitly designed to challenge most of the key assumptions underpinning existing social security systems. Rather than a system where there are partial payments, basic income guarantees a floor; instead of being episodic, payments are regular; rather than being needs-based, they are paid as a flat rate to all; they come in cash, rather than as messy in-kind support; they accrue to every individual, rather than only to needy households; rather than requiring that various conditions be met, they are unconditional; rather than excluding the well off, they are universal; and instead of being based on lifetime contributions, they are funded primarily from taxation. And simplicity of design promises minimal bureaucracy and low administrative costs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- In Canada, two basic income approaches have been the subject of macroeconomic modelling: a full basic income for all Canadians, and a negative income tax under which the richest receive nothing and the poorest receive the maximum income supplement. Neither payment is adjusted for age. In terms of poverty, the conclusion was that: Cancelling existing income transfer programmes in favour of a single basic income results either in dramatically higher levels of poverty, or ethically and politically unsupportable compromises where seniors are pushed into poverty to lift up adults and children. The more acceptable and feasible approach would be to set up a new basic income on top of the 33 transfers that already exist, thus creating only winners, though the main beneficiaries would be middle-aged Canadians.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Broader political support is suggested by former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who suggests that basic income could possibly be financed out of the profits coming from labour-replacing innovations, or perhaps even from a revenue stream generated by the underlying intellectual property. And a book by the former President of the Service Employees International Union, Andy Stern, also calls for a universal basic income to address a new economy characterized by high unemployment, stagnant wages, declining trade union power, and decreasing job security.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66d
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] The right to work, either in the sense of promoting full employment for the community or of the individual being able to choose satisfying work;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- The starting point is to acknowledge that economic insecurity represents a fundamental threat to human rights. It is not only a threat to the enjoyment of economic and social rights, even though they are a principal concern. Extreme inequality, rapidly increasing insecurity, and the domination of politics by economic elites in many countries, all threaten to undermine support for, and ultimately the viability of, the democratic systems of governance upon which the human rights framework depends.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- The most committed proponents of basic income proclaim their approach to be utopian, not in the sense of being unrealistic or unachievable, but as providing a highly ambitious, sweeping, and progressive vision. Critics or sceptics who raise objections based on unaffordability, the unacceptability of unconditionality or the unrealistic change in mentality required will often be dismissed as unimaginative defenders of an obviously unsatisfactory status quo.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The income is “basic” in the sense that it is designed to guarantee a “floor” on which every recipient can stand. Because people’s needs are highly individualized and context-dependent, the amount that any specific individual requires will depend on factors such as local housing and living costs, the person’s health status, and whether there is any form of support network in place. But in its pure form, basic income would generally be assumed to be a uniform amount, which does not reflect those differentials. There are, however, different versions of the concept that envisage adjusting the amount over time, providing less money for children and more for the elderly, or adjusting for geography. The basis on which the floor is calculated and the amount to be paid will, of course, vary greatly from one country to another. Thus, while a national referendum on basic income in Switzerland proposed a payment of SwF 2,500 per month per adult, a South African initiative envisages a grant of US$15 per person per month, indexed to inflation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Cost calculations for Canada are also revealing. If existing Canadian “de facto” basic income programmes (such as Canada Child Benefit for children, the Guaranteed Income Supplement for the elderly and sales tax credits for working adults), quasi-basic income programmes, earned income tax credits, social assistance and employment insurance were all cancelled, the savings could support a basic income for all Canadians (depending on which programmes were scrapped) of between Can$ 2,655 and Can$ 3,565 per year, with between roughly 1.7 and 1.9 million Canadians falling below the poverty line. Under a scenario in which all existing programmes were kept in place and a supplemental universal basic income was paid to all Canadians of Can$ 1,000 per year, 719,000 Canadians would be taken out of poverty, but at a net cost of Can$ 29.2 billion (equalling Can$ 40,886 per person). To pay for this, the Canadian rate of value added tax would have to be increased from 5 per cent to 9 per cent or income taxes would have to be increased by 20 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- The neoliberal policies encapsulated in the 1980s-era Washington Consensus can be seen, especially in retrospect, to have greatly exacerbated economic insecurity, whether or not that was the intent. The State was assumed to be intrinsically inefficient and corruption-prone, and this led to constant pressure to shrink all those parts of it that provided social and basic economic services to the populace, while vindicating and reinforcing the State in its role as the regulator facilitating and legitimizing the privatization of the economy. Social security and social protection was transformed, including through the explicit policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, into a minimalist notion of “social safety nets” designed to avoid the very worst outcomes and make the State look beneficent while empowering officials dedicated to devising ever more efficient “targeting” mechanisms and to rooting out overinclusion while playing down underinclusion. The objectives of promoting tax reform and prudent fiscal policies turned into a race to the bottom to set the lowest individual and corporate tax rates, attracting businesses through expensive exemptions, turning a blind eye to illegal or unconscionably evasive tax practices, and eliminating estate taxes and other measures that would bring about even minimal redistribution. Privatization was promoted even in relation to what were once seen as basic State functions, such as prisons, education and security. In some States, even the justice system has been partly privatized, whether through onerous court fees for the poor or the channelling of consumer and other complaints into private arbitration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- For its part, the human rights community has had all too little to offer in response to the profound challenges associated with deep economic insecurity. The human rights to an adequate standard of living, to work and to social security have been very low on the list of priorities of the major human rights groups and of the principal international and regional human rights organizations, with the exception of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The reasons for this include long-standing arguments that economic issues belong on the agenda of economic rather than human rights bodies, a perception that human rights specialists are not qualified to engage with issues that are presented as technical matters of economic policy, a preference to avoid addressing issues involving redistribution of income or expenditure from a human rights perspective, and the assumption that if civil and political rights are protected, respect for economic and social rights will automatically follow.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- However, many social insurance and social assistance programmes that are integral parts of the welfare state differ in crucial respects from basic income. A study of 108 countries where child benefit or family benefit schemes were anchored in national legislation found that only 49 of them had non-contributory schemes. And contributory schemes generally only cover those in formal employment. They are therefore not universal, and often impose conditions, such as actively searching for work or undergoing medical tests. Moreover, they often go well beyond a floor, by compensating in part or in full for lost earnings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in cash transfer programmes in low- and middle-income countries, including conditional cash transfers and unconditional cash transfers. The World Bank, which strongly supports conditional cash transfers, defines them as “periodic monetary benefits to poor households that require beneficiaries to comply with specific behavioural requirements to encourage investments in human capital (such as school attendance, immunization, and health check-ups)”. Unconditional cash transfers have no such strings attached. The largest conditional cash transfer in the world is Bolsa Família in Brazil, with more than 70 million beneficiaries, while the largest unconditional cash transfer is Dibao in China, with about 75 million beneficiaries. Conditional cash transfers have long been considered a hallmark of Latin American countries. While African countries have focused more on unconditional cash transfers, conditional cash transfers have expanded in Africa in recent years, albeit with relatively “soft” conditions attached.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- In the United States of America in the 1960s, Milton Friedman advocated a negative income tax, a concept that bears a close resemblance to a basic income. In the late 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a guaranteed income as the solution to poverty. And by the end of that decade, Richard Nixon, the then President, came close to implementing a universal income supplement, but the scheme was defeated in the Senate by conservatives who thought the programme was too expensive and by liberals who thought the benefit was too low.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In recent years, there has been a strong resurgence in support for the idea of a basic income. Its advocates include philosophers, economists, politicians, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, trade union leaders, futurists and others, and in addition to concerted promotional efforts by civil society groups, support has come from within governments in countries as diverse as Finland and India. Most strikingly, basic income proponents come from many different positions on the political spectrum, ranging from libertarians to socialists.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Further support for the theory comes from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., which reviews the support given to basic income by free-market and libertarian thinkers such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Robert Nozick, Charles Murray and Matt Zwolinski. Its view is that while the idea may look good on paper, the “further one moves from theory to implementation, the more the theoretical advantages dissipate”. The main objection is affordability, since a universal basic income scheme “would cost far more than the current welfare system”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31b
- Paragraph text
- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A partial basic income is limited, such as to a particular group of recipients. For example, the Netherlands and New Zealand both have universal basic pensions, under which all persons above a certain age receive an income without means testing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- To understand the differences and similarities between cash transfers and basic income, it is helpful to look at the experience in particular countries. Mexico had one of the first conditional cash transfer programmes, PROGRESA, which was introduced in 1997. It was greatly expanded over time and was renamed Oportunidades. It is aimed at combating intergenerational poverty and is targeted only at poor households. The conditions are that children do not miss more than three days of school per month and that household members attend a medical clinic once a month. Mexico also has unconditional cash transfers, such as the Pensión Ciudadana Universal in Mexico City, a monthly electronic transfer to senior citizens of at least half the minimum wage, with no conditionality other than age and residency, and Setenta y Más, another unconditional cash transfer for people over 70 years of age who reside in smaller localities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Another famous example is the Bolsa Família in Brazil — Latin America’s largest conditional cash transfer programme — which was introduced in 2004, building on earlier, smaller, cash transfer programmes. Indigent and poor families wanting to receive the cash benefit are required to visit health clinics regularly and/or to meet minimum school attendance requirements. Brazil also has unconditional cash transfer programmes, such as the Benefício de Prestação Continuada, which is disbursed to the elderly and to individuals with disabilities living in low-income households. The Bolsa Família was enacted the day after another law that established a citizen’s income for every Brazilian citizen or foreigner residing in the country for more than five years, regardless of their socioeconomic condition. But the latter law was never implemented and is often confused by the public with other existing minimum income programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Many African countries have unconditional cash transfers in the form of “social pensions” provided to all citizens above a certain age, without prior conditions. A newer phenomenon is the introduction of universal unconditional cash transfers in the context of subsidy reform. In 2010, the Islamic Republic of Iran introduced a “cash subsidy” of around $45 per month payable to all Iranians living in the country, to compensate for subsidy reductions on gasoline, gas, water and electricity. Similarly, Saudi Arabia is currently introducing a “household allowance” — a cash transfer to the poor and the middle classes (decreasing with income) to compensate for planned subsidy reforms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- While Van Parijs and Vanderborght claim that such programmes are “still a long way from an unconditional basic income”, others have argued that experience with these cash transfer schemes “gives empirical support to arguments in favour of a universal unconditional basic income”, and that they offer guidance for the optimal design of basic income schemes in high-income countries. Still, whether these existing cash transfer programmes are a stepping stone to full basic income schemes remains uncertain. Lavinas has argued that the Bolsa Família is the “antithesis” of a citizen’s income and “cannot be seen as a starting point toward a universal and unconditional income”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Under the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), States should establish and maintain social protection floors ensuring that, at a minimum, “over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level”. This comprises essential health care, including maternity care, and basic income security for children, for active-age adults in cases of sickness, unemployment, maternity and disability, and for older persons. These goals may be achieved through any of the following schemes: universal benefit, social insurance, social assistance, negative income tax, public employment and employment support.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8e
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The ascent of a new neoliberal agenda, which involves further fetishization of low tax rates, demonization of the administrative State, deregulation as a matter of principle, and the privatization of remaining State responsibilities in the social sector, risks leaving the State in no position to protect or promote social rights meaningfully.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- It does not follow from the gap between theory and practice that labour rights should be compromised, let alone abandoned, but it does highlight the fact that traditional approaches might not have much traction in the face of the systematic weakening of labour market institutions, the dramatic increase in more flexible working conditions, and the greatly increased insecurity, including the loss of non-wage benefits, for those who remain employed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The focus of the present report is on the idea of replacing or supplementing existing social protection systems with a universal basic income (“basic income”). In recent months, this proposal has drawn increased attention from governments, scholars, and practitioners in a range of different fields, and four major books on the subject have been published in rapid succession. As a report of the Government of India concluded, if “thinkers on both the extreme left and right” have all become basic income supporters, then it is “a powerful idea” which must be discussed seriously, even if that report concludes that the time has not yet come for its implementation. Before exploring the details of the concept and its relationship to human rights, consideration needs to be given to the context in which the proposal has attracted such attention.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- In comparing basic income schemes with the welfare state, it is important to note that some of the proposed forms of basic income are intended to replace the welfare state, while others complement it or only partly replace it. Charles Murray proposes a radical form of basic income designed to replace the welfare state, and to eliminate “programmes that are unambiguously transfers — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare programmes, social service programmes, agricultural subsidies, and corporate welfare”, but that would keep in place State-funded education. But others have argued that “a basic income should not be understood as being, by definition, a full substitute for all existing transfers, much less a substitute for the public funding of quality education, quality health care, and other services”. This approach is supported by commentators for whom basic income schemes “would not necessarily replace contributory benefits”. A Canadian study proposes that a new basic income should come on top of 33 existing income support programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Most of its proponents do not envision basic income directly replacing the third conception of the welfare state, namely the role of the government in the economy. As far as the second conception is concerned, many proponents appear to leave public education and social services mostly untouched. Even Murray would leave State-funded education and child protection services in place, although individuals would have to fund their own health insurance. But most basic income proposals appear to want to replace, in whole or in part, either the existing contributory social insurance schemes, or the non-contributory social assistance measures for the poorer groups in society, or both.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- As for similarities, some existing non-contributory programmes in developed countries are already close to the concept of basic income. Many European countries, for example, have universal child-benefit systems that transfer cash to parents with few, if any, conditions attached and that are paid from public funds to all parents with children of a certain age, even if benefit levels might vary according to the number of children or the income of the parents. The main difference between basic income and such programmes appears to be that the latter restrict payments to specific groups such as children or the elderly.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66b
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Efficiency, in terms of avoiding welfare fraud, duplicative programmes, double-dipping, and bloated bureaucracies. As one commentator rejoiced: “we get to fire a couple of million bureaucrats”;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66c
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Adaptation to technological advances, both in terms of compensating for vast numbers of jobs lost in an age of automation and robotization and to ensure some basic redistribution of wealth in an era characterized by exponential growth in the wealth of technology entrepreneurs;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66e
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Freedom, in the sense of the ability to make career and related choices, or the ability to exercise political rights because of a degree of economic security;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Sixth, and most important, the debates over social protection floors and basic income need to be brought together. They have thus far been kept largely separate, in a counterproductive and ultimately self-defeating way. It is true that there are points of divergence between the two concepts, but they have vastly more potential if their synergies are recognized, rather than being ignored. Among the differences are the following: (a) the social protection floor mostly draws on experience in developing countries, while basic income advocates tend to emphasize developed countries; (b) social protection floors aim to guarantee both income security and access to essential social services, while basic income schemes only guarantee income; (c) the concept of basic income security is broader than basic income cash transfers, since it also includes in-kind transfers; (d) social protection floors focus not only on achieving social guarantees for all, but also on gradually implementing higher standards; (e) social protection floors are not viewed as alternatives to social insurance institutions, while some basic income proponents aim to replace existing social insurance institutions; and (f) the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) is premised upon human rights, unlike most basic income schemes. But the proponents of the two approaches have an immense amount in common, and if it is recognized that basic income is not an idea that can be achieved in a single leap, there could be no better and more elaborate and widely supported programme than that for the social protection floor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8b
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The fact that traditional forms of labour market regulation are becoming ever less relevant to the emerging economy, and that an insistence on their continuing normative validity, however strongly justified, is increasingly impotent in the face of the evolution of global supply chains and other developments based on worker insecurity;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Negative income taxes, inspired by the work of Milton Friedman, ensure that individuals who earn below a certain threshold receive payments from the government, rather than having to pay taxes. It is similar to basic income in that every citizen is automatically and unconditionally eligible, but it differs from the full basic income in that benefits phase out as incomes rise. Amounts may also be adjusted for households.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Unconditional cash transfers, although without strings attached, differ from basic income schemes in several respects. First, they are generally paid to households and may vary accordingly. Second, unconditional cash transfers often target the poor or other categories such as children or the elderly. Third, the amount of the unconditional cash transfers often differs, depending on the recipient’s situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Internationally, social protection floors have been promoted in the context of the Social Protection Floor Initiative, launched in 2009. This initiative culminated in the 2011 report by the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group (the “Bachelet report”) and in the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202). And Sustainable Development Goal 1 advocates “appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Basic income is thus not at odds with social protection floors, with universality being a key assumption of both. While basic income proponents have suggested that the reference to “basic income security” in recommendation No. 202 is a much broader concept than their idea of basic income, they see social protection floors as a “significant step toward basic income by legitimizing the idea of basic income security as an essential ingredient for human development”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- But how would these expenditures be paid for? Piachaud notes that a full basic income that “replaces social security is far more costly than social security, and this has to be paid for from higher taxes on all incomes with far-reaching economic consequences”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- How then should human rights actors and institutions respond to the crisis of economic insecurity and the phenomena associated with it? And where might a campaign to achieve a basic income fit into the overall equation?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Fifth, proponents of a basic income need to ensure that particular schemes to implement the concept are not narrowly linked to citizenship at the expense of all others who are part of the community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- The fundamental values of the international human rights system are under attack in new and diverse ways in 2017. While competing explanations have been proffered, one that is included in most lists is that there is a rapidly growing sense of economic insecurity afflicting large segments of many societies. There is an increasing feeling of being exposed, vulnerable, overwhelmed and helpless, and of being systematically marginalized, both economically and socially. This situation, which previously seemed to be a fate reserved only for those living in low-income countries or in extreme poverty in high- and middle-income countries, now afflicts not just the unemployed and the underemployed, but also the precariously employed and those likely to be rendered unemployed in the foreseeable future as a result of various developments. Many of these individuals previously enjoyed a modicum of security and respect and felt that they had a stake in the overall system of government. As the new insecurity has ballooned and affected ever-greater numbers, many mainstream political parties have either remained oblivious, or have offered solutions that have only exacerbated the problems, further undermining faith in electoral democracy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8c
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The likelihood that vast swathes of the existing workforce will be made redundant by increasing automation and robotization, accompanied by the ever-greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the technology elites and the owners of capital;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Basic income is intended as a cash grant; not as in-kind support such as food, vouchers or shelter. This means that individuals must have a means by which to receive the income, such as a bank account, or a cell phone capable of managing electronic payments. This might be problematic where neither banking infrastructure nor cell phone coverage are strong, and will also be difficult for groups such as the homeless, people fleeing domestic violence, and persons with psychosocial disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Whereas many aspects of existing social protection systems flow to the household, basic income would go directly to each individual. Some proposals do, however, diverge from this principle and envisage reduced payments which take account of the overall family or household situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Under a basic income system, regular payments would be made to recipients, for example on a monthly basis. Predictability and continuity ensure that redistributive and poverty-reducing goals are met, whereas one-time only payments or lump sums do not ensure a consistent floor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The absence of conditionality is a key dimension for most basic income proponents. This means that no conditions, such as children’s attendance at school or proof of job searches, must be met before the income is paid. People are thus not compelled to accept unpleasant or unattractive jobs. The latter would be filled either by machines, or by people attracted by a higher pay level.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The universality dimension is often assumed to apply only to citizens or those with a minimum period of legal residence in the country, although some schemes require only fiscal residence. These limits raise important questions in terms of migrant workers, undocumented workers and asylum seekers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Second, the right to work, the right to social security, and above all the right to an adequate standard of living need to be given a prominent place on the human rights community’s agenda. If these rights are marginalized, the overall agenda will become increasingly less relevant to the most pressing and urgent questions of the day.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 26/3 and is the third report submitted to the Council by Philip Alston in his capacity as Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- A related problem in the context of the Human Rights Council is the “siloing” of issues, whereby food, health, education, water, and other rights concerns are dealt with in separate silos that stand side by side but are rarely integrated. The Council debates the reports of the individual special procedures mandate holders sequentially and each mandate holder focuses on one particular piece of a large jigsaw puzzle. But there is rarely an occasion to examine the overall picture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8a
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The increasingly precarious nature of employment in the age of Uber, Airbnb, outsourcing, subcontracting, zero-hours contracts and the like;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- A full basic income is considered a universal entitlement that is automatically paid ex ante to all in a society, regardless of income, wealth, age and gender. It does not require means testing and is not restricted to specific categories of recipients. This idea is troubling to many, who question why the “haves” should receive as much as the “have nots”. Common responses are that any form of means testing to determine eligibility requires a large and inefficient bureaucracy to evaluate claims, creates a burden on disadvantaged people to prove their financial need, stigmatizes the target group, and undermines the freedom to not work — as compared to means-tested welfare that is reduced as people work and earn more. One option for retaining universality but responding to this unfairness critique is a progressive taxation system that effectively takes back much of the basic income payment from high earners. Some challenge the viability of that approach in a world in which elite tax avoidance and evasion schemes are rife.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Proposals for a form of basic income have been floated by thinkers for centuries. Proponents of the idea trace its historical origins back to Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Johannes Vives’s On Assistance to the Poor (1526), and the works of the Marquis de Condorcet, Charles Fourier, Victor Considerant, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, George Cole, Herbert Simon, and various other political scientists, economists, and public intellectuals. Perhaps the most detailed and specific early set of plans for basic income and related social protection arrangements was put forward by Thomas Paine, a key figure in both the French and American revolutions, in The Rights of Man (1792) and Agrarian Justice (1797).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Scholars from different disciplines have played a key role in debating the merits of the concept and it is appropriate to undertake a brief review of their contributions. The most active proponent is a Belgian philosopher, Philippe van Parijs. In a highly influential paper in 1991 he focused on the fairness of making basic income unconditional, thus making it available even to those who opt to spend their life surfing waves. Invoking the philosophy of John Rawls, he argued that “a defensible liberal theory of justice, that is, one that is truly committed to an equal concern for all and to non-discrimination among conceptions of the good life, does justify, under appropriate factual conditions, a substantial unconditional basic income”. Others have strongly contested this element in the case for a basic income. In a recent book, Van Parijs and Vanderborght go beyond the philosophical dimensions to explore the concept’s history, economic justifications and politics.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The concept of a basic income on a global scale has attracted little scholarly attention, but at least two organizations, the Global Basic Income Foundation and World Basic Income, are promoting it. According to the latter, a global basic income would be a “global scheme that gathers and redistributes money, in amounts ranging from a few dollars to over $2,000 per month, depending on circumstances”. The long-term goal is redistribution of wealth and natural resources through “collective shareholdings in global companies, international taxes such as a carbon tax or financial transaction tax, royalties on goods like intellectual property or the extraction of natural resources, or fees for the use of shared goods, such as charging airlines a fee for using our shared airspace”. The present report does not seek to examine the feasibility or otherwise of such an approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Murray’s principal book is entitled In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State. He calls for a “guaranteed income” to replace the welfare state which he sees as degrading “the traditions of work, thrift and neighbourliness” while also spawning “social and economic problems that it is powerless to solve”. He rails against the “new cultural consensus” produced by the welfare state, which considers that “the purpose of life is to while away the time between birth and death as pleasantly as possible, and the purpose of government is to make that process as easy as possible”. He argues that a satisfying human life “requires being enmeshed in the stuff of life”, and that by “stripping the institutions of family and community of many of their functions and responsibilities”, the welfare state “drains too much of the life from life”. Replacing the welfare state by a basic income would restore the community to its place as “the locus within which human needs must be met, and the effects could be profound”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Some authors on the left of the political spectrum have been enthusiastic supporters of basic income. Guy Standing, a labour economist, has popularized the notion of a “precariat”, a very large segment of the population, whose lives are “dominated by insecurity, uncertainty, debt and humiliation. They are becoming denizens rather than citizens, losing cultural, civil, social, political and economic rights built up over generations”. He argues that in an ever more unequal society, the precariat’s relative deprivation is severe. According to Standing, a basic income would allow people to move in and out of the labour market more easily and would “enable citizens to accept low wages and to bargain more strongly”. Standing has also been involved in important pilot projects in India.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Philosophers on the left, such as Kathi Weeks, have defended basic income from an autonomist Marxist perspective, arguing that it “attempts to address … the realities of post-Fordist work, to offer a measure of security in an economy of precariousness”. The philosopher Michael Howard supports basic income, claiming that it is not incompatible with Marxism or socialism and should be combined with strategies for full employment. But others on the left have been critical. Alex Gourevitch argues that basic income is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for eliminating authoritarian work conditions, which he sees as the biggest challenge.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Strong support has also come from technology entrepreneurs. According to media reports, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, the web guru Tim O’Reilly, and “a cadre of other Silicon Valley denizens have expressed support for” basic income, calling it the “social vaccine of the twenty-first century”. Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, the largest start-up “accelerator” in Silicon Valley, is funding a basic income pilot scheme in Oakland, California. He believes that “people should be as free as possible to get ‘as rich as they … want’, so long as the people at the very bottom still have all their basic needs met”. GiveDirectly, funded in part by Google, also seeks to finance basic income experiments in East Africa. Comments made by many of these entrepreneurs suggest that basic income is seen as a way to sustain and legitimize a world in which employment opportunities will be drastically reduced and to reinforce consumer demand which would be greatly weakened without a broad-based minimum redistribution of income.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- A basic income could have vastly different effects, depending on the starting point. In wealthier countries with more established social welfare systems, there is a greater risk that replacing existing social support schemes would leave the poor worse off. But in a country with only a minimal social support scheme in place, any regular, unconditional transfers to the poor and marginalized would be a net positive in the absence of more attractive alternative schemes such as a social protection floor. Despite the importance of the current debate in India and the pilot projects in Kenya, most of the policy debate has focused on developed countries and their specific needs and perspectives. If the concept is to achieve broader uptake, the debate needs to be expanded and diversified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Basic income proponents have devoted relatively little attention to the biggest question of all, which concerns affordability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The “floor” proposed by Van Parijs and Vanderborght is not “sufficient to cover what would be regarded as basic needs”. Although clearly reluctant to put a figure on their proposal, they suggest an amount of 25 per cent of current gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which is “modest enough [to be] sustainable and generous enough for it to be plausible that it will make a big difference”. They calculate that this would have amounted in 2015 to $1,163 per month in the United States, $1,670 in Switzerland and $9.50 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They do not claim that this level is high enough to get every household out of poverty, although the United States figure would be higher than the official poverty line. They also emphasize that if individuals currently receive benefits higher than the basic income, it “must be topped up by conditional supplements” so that the total disposable incomes of poor households are not lowered vis-à-vis their current levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The Economist, relying upon the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s “universal basic income calculator”, concludes that the United States could pay every citizen $6,300 per year if it scrapped all its non-health transfer payments. In other words, if it paid its citizens 25 per cent of GDP per capita ($13,956 per year) as Van Parijs and Vanderborght propose, it would need to raise taxes to cover the difference between $13,956 and $6,300. The Cato Institute calculated that paying 296 million United States citizens the poverty-line amount of $12,316 per year would cost $4.4 trillion. Even if all federal and state social assistance spending for the poor (around $1 trillion) and all “middle-class social welfare programmes such as Social Security and Medicare” (depending on the calculations, costing between $2.13 and $2.5 trillion) were eliminated, there would still be a funding gap of roughly $1 trillion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- In the United Kingdom, basic income proposals were prominent in the period after both world wars. In 1918, Bertrand Russell called for an income for all, sufficient to pay for “necessaries” in post-First World War Britain. And when the Beveridge plan was being debated in 1943, Juliet Rhys-Williams proposed a basic income approach instead of Beveridge’s contributory welfare state plan.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Perhaps the principal promoter of the concept has been the Basic Income Earth Network. This organization was founded in 1986 by researchers and trade unionists linked to the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium. It was originally the Basic Income European Network, but changed its name in 2004. It consists predominantly of scholars based in Europe and the United States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Third, contrary to the orthodoxy promoted by economic institutions and corporate actors in recent years, there needs to be a resurgence of support for the central role of the State, and recognition of the importance of fair and progressive fiscal policies, and of the indispensability of policies to ensure redistributive justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Between 1974 and 1979, a negative income tax experiment ran in the Canadian city of Dauphin. Subsequent analysis of the data confirmed various positive effects, including a drop in hospitalization rates, especially for mental health and accident admissions, as well as an increase in year 12 school registrations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- However, the negative income tax option would be problematic for 18- to 29-year-olds and for senior women. The Canadian examples demonstrate the potentially positive effects of negative income tax, but warn that a basic income model that replaces existing social support mechanisms could have seriously negative effects on the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- This is where the basic income debate comes in. A focus on social protection more broadly defined might be a more propitious entry point to tackle these issues. Governments remain centrally responsible for ensuring appropriate levels of social protection within their borders, they have a self-interest in promoting stability and economic security, and they control the resources needed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66f
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Fairness and social justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- All of these motivations are persuasive on their own terms, but unless they are integrally linked to the last category the likelihood is that what will emerge will be another strategy designed to promote productivity and efficiency, but without concern for the far more fundamental goals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Van Parijs and Vanderborght acknowledge, however, that while Green parties in Europe and the United States are generally supportive of basic income, the concept does not draw strong support from socialist, Christian Democrat or liberal parties.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Finally, a simulation for the region of Catalonia, in Spain, suggests that a basic annual income of €7,968 for those aged over 18 and of €1,594 for minors would require a 49.57 per cent flat tax rate and extra financing of €7 billion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In the view of the Special Rapporteur, and of most scholars, the legal arguments supporting the claim of non-receivability are wholly unconvincing in legal terms. First, the claims appear to have all of the characteristics of a private law tort claim. The victims accuse the United Nations of negligence for failure to adequately screen its peacekeeping forces for cholera, failure to provide for adequate sanitation facilities and waste management at Mirebalais camp, failure to undertake adequate water quality testing and a failure to take immediate corrective action after cholera was introduced. These are classic third-party claims for damages for personal injury, illness and death, and they arise directly from action or inaction by, or attributable to, MINUSTAH. This would include a failure to exercise non-negligent supervision of the actions of private contractors. The United Nations has frequently processed claims involving alleged negligence, especially, for example, in relation to traffic accidents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Third, the contention that receipt of the claims would "necessarily involve a review of political and policy matters" is self-serving and unjustified. The claims are far from being "political" in the sense defined by the Secretary-General in 1995 as those targeting actions or decisions of political organs, nor are they rambling denunciations (see A/C.5/49/65). In terms of policies, it is true that waste management and other such internal policies might need to be reviewed, but if that prospect is enough to trigger non-receivability, it would become effectively impossible ever to claim damages from the United Nations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- The rule of law. The Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General have given strong voice to the resolutions of the General Assembly in which the Assembly underscored the central importance of respecting the rule of law. Yet, the approach of the United Nations in this case undermines the rule of law and diminishes the Organization's credibility as an advocate for its respect. By failing to take even minimal steps to hold itself accountable and compensate those affected, or even to explain the reasons for its refusal to do so, the United Nations replicates the very behaviour it seeks to modify elsewhere. The rule of law requires that the United Nations abide by its treaty obligations, including those under the status-of-forces agreement, as well as fundamental human rights such as providing an effective remedy to those harmed by the Organization. It also requires that the Organization act consistently and respond in comparable fashion to all legitimate private law claims made against it. The United Nations should be leading by setting a good example.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Many books have now been written extolling the virtues of involvement by the courts in enforcing economic and social rights in various countries around the world, but justiciability is by no means the whole story. Indeed, it might be argued that the focus on justiciability has become the tail that is wagging the analytical dog. Rights holders can seek accountability through many means, including: (a) sharing information with the media; (b) using community or peer pressure; (c) collecting and publishing data; (d) complaining to an authoritative body or person; and (e) evaluating and reporting. However, most of these methods assume that, at the end of the day, there will be a mechanism in place to which the claim can ultimately be brought for vindication in the absence of self-correction by the duty holder.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Because of the relative inactivity of these other actors, studies of economic and social rights accountability have focused overwhelmingly on the courts and on the extent to which the increasing constitutional recognition noted above has enabled them to play an active role in upholding economic and social rights. It is open to question whether this emphasis accurately reflects the main trends in economic and social rights accountability or whether it is due more to the lawyers' preference for studying courts. It might also be linked to the determination of economic and social rights proponents in the era of post-Cold War constitutional revitalization to respond to the often heard, but highly reductionist, proposition that "if one is to talk meaningfully of rights, one has to discuss what can be enforced through the judicial process". In response, economic and social rights proponents have sought legitimacy by seeking to demonstrate that economic and social rights resemble civil and political rights, at least in this key respect.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Much of the literature on economic and social rights has focused on the extent to which these rights have actually been recognized not in legislation, but through constitutional entrenchment, which is consistently assumed to be a far more significant step. While that is important, it has not been considered by the Committee to be an indispensable element, especially because of the great variety of State constitutional traditions and approaches. In any event, constitutional recognition will generally need to be supplemented by legislation. The question that then arises is, under what circumstances would legislation not be required? In part the answer will depend on the legal system in question, so that a State that makes extensive use of decrees or regulations or some other form of instrument that is not considered to be legislative in nature might be able to demonstrate that it meets the legal recognition requirement in an appropriately formal and legally meaningful way, even in the absence of legislation. But such cases are likely to be relatively rare.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- In the light of what appears to be the relatively common State practice of not giving explicit legislative recognition to individual economic and social rights, the most important question is whether legislation, or an equivalent form of legal instrument, can be dispensed with altogether by a State that claims to be fulfilling its obligations through other means. In practice, the argument will usually be that legislation has been adopted in relation to the issue or sector in question, and it is unnecessary for any reference to be made in that legislation to the relevant human right. In other words, to take the example of the right to food, the argument would be that it is sufficient that there is legislation in place that addresses food safety or food security, even though it reflects no explicit rights dimension. Or, in the case of the right to education, laws dealing with the establishment of educational institutions are considered sufficient, even if there is no acknowledgement that education is a human right.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- In support of the view that specific recognition is not required, it might be argued that if a treaty envisages such recognition, it would say so explicitly. Thus treaties dealing with torture, genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity call not just for legislative recognition of the norm, but also for explicit criminalization of particular conduct. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women unequivocally requires States parties "to embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions or other appropriate legislation" (art. 2 (a)). It further obliges them "to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Given the extent to which there is agreement on this legal framework, the puzzle is why the current position of the United Nations remains so very distant from the outcome that these principles seem to require. In essence, there are two reasons. The first is the determination to abide by the unpublished legal opinion that declares the claim not to be of a private character. For the reasons explained above, this opinion should be reconsidered and revised. The second reason is the failure to openly acknowledge and clearly address a range of background considerations which have fuelled fears that have apparently deterred the various actors from seeking to resolve the problem in a principled manner. The report turns now to examining those matters.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The immunity of the United Nations from suit in national courts is seen by most observers as an indispensable means of protecting it from political attacks and avoiding putting it at the mercy of unpredictable and perhaps ill-intentioned or hostile national courts. But absolute immunity without the provision of alternative remedies is equally unsustainable, which is why the 1946 Convention provides for both immunity and remedies. In 2005, a review of peacekeeping recommended the waiver of immunity in relation to criminal acts "where continued immunity would impede the course of justice and where immunity can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the United Nations" (A/59/710, para. 86). A similar principle should apply in the present context.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- A conception of human rights that implicitly accepts a radical hierarchical distinction between the two sets of rights - civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights - is one that is fundamentally incompatible with international human rights law. Just as importantly, it offers no solution to the increasingly urgent challenges posed by radical and growing inequality and widespread material deprivation in a world of plenty. The economic and social rights agenda is thus too important, and its neglect has too many powerfully negative implications for the overall human rights enterprise, for it to be marginalized by mainstream actors and left to a handful of specialist groups to struggle to give it the place that law and justice demand.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- On balance, the new approach is clearly a breakthrough, but difficult questions remain to be answered. They include: (a) Why is it not possible to go beyond the acknowledgement of "moral responsibility" and actually accept the legal responsibility that patently applies in light of the facts as now understood? (b) Why, without some new element in the picture, and in the absence of any apology or the recognition of legal responsibility, would Member States, which over recent years have been prepared to fund only 18 per cent of existing appeals, now decide to contribute more generously?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Third, the literature does not pay much attention to the existence of implementing legislation designed to promote realization of a specific right as a human right, whether or not there is constitutional recognition. In countries like South Africa, there is very extensive legislation (such as the Water Services Act, 1997) designed to promote or implement economic and social rights and this often plays a key role in constitutional litigation. But in most other countries, such legislation seems to be rare, certainly outside of the education and health sectors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Starting on 8 October 2010, a contingent of Nepalese peacekeepers, who had completed their training in Kathmandu at the time of a cholera outbreak there, arrived at the MINUSTAH Annapurna Camp in Mirebalais, Haiti. Within days, a few villagers living in Mèyé who drew their water from a stream close to the camp toilets were infected. By way of explanation, later investigations revealed that on 16 or 17 October a sanitation company under contract to MINUSTAH emptied the camp's waste tanks. Because the septic pit into which the waste should have been deposited was full, "the driver dumped the contents and a large amount of fecal waste entered the local stream and flowed on to the Artibonite River. By the next morning, many in downstream communities were infected".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- As the magnitude of the disaster became known, key international officials carefully avoided acknowledging that the outbreak had resulted from discharges from the MINUSTAH camp. The implication that cholera had come from elsewhere also drew support from an environmental theory suggested by some scientific observers according to which the cholera microbe is naturally present in many backwater settings and can be activated by environmental shocks such as the earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 or by unusually heavy rains. Nevertheless, most scientific and media sources rejected this theory and placed the blame clearly upon the peacekeepers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- There are strong grounds for now issuing an apology and accepting responsibility. First, the element of doubt as to the responsibility of the United Nations for the introduction of cholera has been definitively removed. A series of scientific studies and statements subsequent to the issuance of the report of the independent panel of experts, as well as the experts' own later clarifications, leave no reasonable doubt and the United Nations position must reflect that reality. A policy that might arguably have been justified in years gone by is clearly no longer supported by the scientific facts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Remedies. The provision of remedies for wrongdoing is an essential dimension of the law relating to immunity, of human rights law, of the rule of law and of the principle of accountability. The High Commissioner for Human Rights regularly and rightly admonishes States that refuse to provide a remedy to those whose human rights have been violated, yet in the Haiti case the United Nations has refused even to contemplate a range of remedies which could reasonably and feasibly be provided. Similarly, in the transitional justice context, the United Nations consistently calls upon States to acknowledge wrongdoing, to ensure meaningful processes for the vindication of claims and to provide victims with redress. Yet in the Haiti case the victims are told that a handful of broadly focused development projects should provide sufficient redress. Even in the context of armed conflicts, various United Nations bodies have urged States to provide forms of compensation, whether ex gratia or otherwise, to the killed or injured even though the legal obligation to provide such compensation is not uncontested.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- However, in the 50 years since the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were adopted, extensive experience has been gained at both the international and national level, which enables us to identify the key ingredients in successful approaches to the recognition and implementation of human rights obligations. Three are of particular salience in relation to economic and social rights: (a) the need to accord legal recognition to the rights; (b) the need for appropriate institutional arrangements to promote and facilitate realization of the rights; and (c) the need for measures that promote governmental accountability. This can be termed the recognition, institutionalization and accountability framework, or the RIA framework, and its implications for economic and social rights are considered below.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- During the Cold War years, deep ideological divisions ensured that economic and social rights were given very limited attention. It was not until 1987 that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was established by the Economic and Social Council, a development that certainly helped to trigger considerable progress. Partly as a result, 171 States proclaimed at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 that: All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Some will contest this assessment, while others will suggest that the difference in attention and in the practical legal recognition accorded to the two sets of rights - civil and political rights on one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other - does not really matter. In fact, it matters a great deal, and for a number of reasons. The most basic is philosophical, in the sense that it is agreed that the two sets of rights are indispensable elements in enabling individuals to live dignified and fulfilling lives. It is also important for doctrinal reasons. The equal status of the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reflects a hard-fought ideological and political compromise, not only between capitalist and communist approaches in the 1940s, but between continuing differences in perception over what societies should value most and the terms of the social contract between the State and its inhabitants. It is the glue that has held the package together and the understanding that enables the reconciliation of otherwise starkly competing visions. It reflects the need to achieve an equilibrium among goals that will inevitably always be in tension with one another. Whether the equal importance of the two sets of rights can also be demonstrated empirically is a matter over which economists and others have long duelled, and instrumentalist arguments continue to be heavily relied upon in making the case for goals such as gender equality. But, regardless of the conclusions that might emerge from such research, the validity of the underlying principle cannot be held hostage to the uncertainties of empirical analyses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- In monitoring civil and political rights, both the Human Rights Council and the treaty bodies have played a crucial role in encouraging States to focus on the recognition, institutionalization and accountability dimensions of those rights. It is much less clear, however, that they have played a comparable role in relation to economic and social rights. While the Council addresses economic and social rights in many different contexts, and especially through the work of its special procedures, perhaps the best indication of its approach can be gleaned from the universal periodic review process. In terms of the work of the treaty bodies, the most important in this context is the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The approach adopted with regard to recognition, institutionalization and accountability in each of these settings is examined briefly below.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Because of its universality and its integrated approach to the human rights agenda, the universal periodic review process is an especially important indicator of governmental concerns and priorities. A thorough review of the operation of the process since its inception raises concern about both the quantity and quality of economic, social and cultural rights-related recommendations. Only one out of five recommendations adopted have been specifically concerned with economic, social and cultural rights. Only 11 per cent of the recommendations put forward by the regional group that have made, by far, the most recommendations overall dealt with economic, social and cultural rights. For other regions, the figures were 20 to 30 per cent. Even more problematic, two thirds of the recommendations relating to economic, social and cultural rights called for only general action, as opposed to any specific outcome. These results are consistent with the Special Rapporteur’s own survey, which indicated that up and including the twenty-second session of the Human Rights Council, 1,031 economic and social rights-related recommendations had been made. Of these, over 20 per cent called for ratification of the Covenant or the Optional Protocol, or withdrawal of reservations made at the time of ratification. Thirty-three recommendations called for greater cooperation with United Nations bodies working on economic, social and cultural rights; 182 called for legislative action on one or more specific economic and social rights, but almost none of these focused on specific legislative recognition of economic and social rights as human rights. Only 13, or 1.26 per cent, of the relevant recommendations specifically requested a State to take measures to guarantee the status of economic, social and cultural rights through constitutional amendments, enactment of legislation or by giving national courts jurisdiction to provide remedies for economic and social rights violations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- The reports by States were consistent with the finding of widespread domestic recognition of economic and social rights. In 13 State party reports addressing the issue of the domestic law status of the Covenant, a range of statuses were reported: in some States, the Covenant applied directly, in others, it prevailed in cases of inconsistency, benefited from a "presumption of compatibility" or could be invoked as a persuasive authority. Half of the States indicated that the economic and social rights recognized in legislation or constitutional provisions were justiciable and one third of the States provided some examples of cases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- When constitutions are being rewritten, the major NGOs are vocal in calling for the inclusion of civil and political rights, but rarely mention economic and social rights. When transitional justice mechanisms are being shaped, their concerns focus overwhelmingly on civil and political rights, even though many such violations go hand in hand with economic and social rights violations, and the measures required to bring reconciliation and justice would need to incorporate economic and social rights dimensions if they are to be comprehensive as well as designed to avoid non-repetition. Instead, those issues are most likely to be characterized as development concerns.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Nonetheless, aside from the clear position that the relevant Committee has taken in its general comments, it is difficult to understand how the obligations to "recognize" the rights, and to "guarantee" non-discrimination, could possibly be achieved in the absence of targeted legislative or equivalent measures. As stated in the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, the general principle is that States shall, as required under international law, ensure that their domestic law is consistent with their international legal obligations by, inter alia, incorporating norms of international human rights law into their domestic law, or otherwise implementing them in their domestic legal system. The key element here is the recognition of the norm itself, not merely the adoption of measures that are pertinent to the subject-matter of the norm.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- The irony of the position of the United Nations on cholera in Haiti is that far from strengthening its case for immunity, it has provoked a backlash which has led scholars and commentators to call for immunity to be lifted, for only functional immunities to be recognized, or for national courts to adapt their approach to immunity to respect the human rights principle of access to a remedy. Support for these suggestions will only grow if an appropriate remedy is not provided in the Haiti cholera case. There is much to be said in favour of the argument, supported by many scholars and invoked in the litigation, that the absolute immunity conferred by article II of the 1946 Convention is contingent upon respect for the requirement of article VIII, section 29, that "appropriate modes of settlement" be provided by the United Nations. The rejection of this argument by courts in the United States provides no assurance that courts elsewhere will follow suit.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Finally, as noted above, the panel sought to mitigate the Organization's responsibility by noting that the outbreak was due not to one single event but rather to a "confluence of circumstances", including deficient water, sanitation and health-care systems. But again, apart from being inconsistent with the principal finding that MINUSTAH was indeed responsible, this construction conflates responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti on the one hand with the country's vulnerability on the other hand. The fact is that cholera would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- It is also noteworthy that having so enthusiastically embraced the panel's no fault statement, the United Nations effectively rejected some of its other key suggestions for screening and prophylaxis, an approach strongly challenged in a recent report by a group of experts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- While the United Nations has been keen to emphasize how much it has done in Haiti, the reality is that Member States have so far agreed to contribute only 18 per cent of the $2.2 billion required to implement the National Plan for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti 2013-2022.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- The main conclusion to be drawn for the purposes of the present report is that, insofar as the universal periodic review is an accurate indicator, States attach very limited importance to the recognition, institutionalization and accountability dimensions of economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Third, various precedents exist for the United Nations to make one-time lump-sum payments for damages caused by peacekeeping operations. An agreement reached with Belgium in 1965 involved acceptance of "financial liability where the damage is the result of action taken by agents of the United Nations in violation of the laws of war and the rules of international law", but was stated to be "without prejudice to the privileges and immunities which the United Nations enjoys". Similar agreements were also entered into with Luxembourg in 1966 and Italy in 1967.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Issues of fundamental principle have not, as the preceding analysis demonstrated, been at the heart of the concerns of those supporting the current abdication approach of the United Nations. Instead, a range of practical or instrumentalist concerns have been raised. These concerns are important, especially because they seem to explain the depth of the opposition to a policy which would conform to the ideals and fundamental principles of the United Nations and would accept responsibility and facilitate appropriate action.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- It is clear that the United Nations could make use of these various precedents in order to shape an approach to compensation as part of a broader package that would provide justice to the victims and be affordable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Peacekeeping. This is an increasingly crucial part of the role of the United Nations in many parts of the world. The potential for success depends on various factors, but pre-eminent among them are legitimacy, credibility and responsiveness. In Haiti, the reputation of MINUSTAH has been gravely tarnished by the cholera episode. And the message that the Organization is unprepared to accept responsibility for negligent conduct which gives rise to dire consequences, despite the fact that it has been definitively found guilty both in the scientific world and in the court of public opinion, will not have escaped other States that are contemplating agreeing to host or participate in peacekeeping operations. While there is a big difference between sexual abuse and negligent conduct, there is an important message for the United Nations in the Haiti context to be learned from the independent review on sexual abuse in the Central African Republic. The review panel warned that "when the international community fails to care for the victims or to hold the perpetrators to account", it amounts to a betrayal of trust.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- The process outlined here should also provide the basis for the approach to be adopted by the United Nations in the future in such cases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Scholars have criticized the Organization's "shabby formalistic maneuvers to avoid the very principles of the Rule of Law that they urge on the rest of the world", its "preposterous" failure to provide a remedy, its pursuit of "peacekeeping without accountability", its compounding of a public health disaster with a public relations disaster, its dangerous "legalism" which "effectively insulate[s] the organization from accountability", and its "repeated failures … to provide adequate due process to those affected by its decision-making [which] has had a detrimental effect on the Organization and its activities".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- In the limited space available in the present report, it is impossible to undertake a systematic review of the experience, to date, with justiciability, but some broad conclusions emerge from the voluminous and often excellent literature.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- First, constitutional recognition on its own means relatively little in practical terms. Hence the distinction drawn by Katharine Young between constitutionalizing and constituting economic and social rights, according to which the latter goes well beyond constitutional recognition, to require that the rights are actually effective within the legal system. For example, a study on the right to health in Africa begins by celebrating the fact that "from Africa to Asia, Europe and even South America, cases relating to the violation of the right to health are constantly being brought before the courts". Yet, in the study it is shown that, in the African context, South Africa is the only country in which there has been systematic litigation of this sort. Malcolm Langford was correct when he observed that, "the scope for formal judicial review of ESC rights is rather limited outside the use of civil rights or international mechanisms".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- First, it is generally agreed that United Nations immunity is a vitally important principle and that any acceptance of responsibility for the cholera outbreak should uphold that principle.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Third, as noted above, the United Nations accepts in principle that it is liable to third parties for damages occurring in the course of its peacekeeping operations (see A/C.5/49/65).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Claims of a "private law character" are also referred to in the MINUSTAH status-of-forces agreement, which defines them as "[t]hird-party claims for property loss or damage and for personal injury, illness or death arising from or directly attributed to MINUSTAH". In elaborating on this category, the Secretary-General has stated that claims received in the past include "claims for compensation submitted by third parties for personal injury or death and/or property loss or damage incurred as a result of acts committed by members of a United Nations peacekeeping operation within the 'mission area' concerned" (A/C.5/49/65, para. 15). Such claims are distinguished from those "based on political or policy-related grievances against the United Nations, usually related to actions or decisions taken by the Security Council or the General Assembly" and which often "consist of rambling statements denouncing the policies of the Organization" and claiming that financial losses resulted therefrom (ibid., para. 23).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- The problem is that, unless the basic building blocks of recognition, institutionalization and accountability are in place, it is highly unlikely that other more sophisticated techniques are going to be effective. It is difficult to imagine less fertile ground for many such initiatives than contexts in which economic and social rights remain unrecognized as rights, where the relevant institutions are not working effectively to promote economic and social rights as rights and where there is little or no concept of economic and social rights accountability in place. It is hoped, of course, that these new techniques, developed and promoted externally, can compensate for, or even overcome, the inhospitable domestic environment within which they will eventually have to be implemented. But again, there would seem to be a strong element of wishful thinking in the expectation that States that have not been able or willing to put the foundations of economic and social rights in place, will be likely to implement even more demanding and sophisticated techniques for monitoring and promoting economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Another very positive account argues that "the broad normative framework of ESC rights has attained a high degree of specificity in terms of content as well as efficacy of implementation mechanisms, most importantly at the national level".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- In contrast, special procedures mandate holders have been consistently critical of the refusal to take responsibility. In particular, successive Independent Experts on the human rights situation in Haiti have warned since 2012 of the costs of silence and denial on this issue. In 2016 the Independent Expert called for the urgent creation of a commission "to quantify the harm done, establish compensation, identify responsible parties, halt the epidemic and take other measures" (A/HRC/31/77, para. 102).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The bottom line is that continued United Nations reliance on the argument that the scientific evidence is ambiguous or unclear as a way of avoiding legal responsibility is no longer tenable. It might possibly have been defensible in 2010 or even 2011, but subsequent research has provided as clear a demonstration of responsibility as is scientifically possible. If the United Nations chooses to continue to contest this conclusion, it should establish an independent inquiry without delay.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- In summary, what is at stake is the Organization's overall credibility in many different areas. Its existing position on cholera in Haiti is at odds with the positions that it espouses so strongly in other key policy areas. It has a huge amount to gain by rethinking its position and a great deal to lose by stubbornly maintaining its current approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- States' obligations under human rights treaties are described in different ways in different treaties. In civil and political rights contexts, the obligation is to respect and to ensure, whereas economic, social and cultural rights standards reflect an obligation to recognize the rights and take steps to realize them progressively. In spelling out those obligations, international bodies and commentators have commonly identified duties to protect, respect and fulfil.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Although the topic cannot be dealt with in the present report, it should also be noted that the constitutional recognition of economic and social rights may well be overshadowed or undermined by parallel and far more effective processes involving the constitutional and legal enshrinement of austerity measures. This refers primarily to the use of regional integration, bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements, or international financing arrangements, to privilege competing interests that effectively trump human rights considerations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Despite these impressive reporting figures, in half of the concluding observations the Committee recommended that measures be taken to ensure the "direct applicability" of the Covenant in the domestic legal order. In slightly less than half of the concluding observations, the Committee also recommended that the State concerned seek to raise awareness of the justiciability of the rights. And in almost every concluding observation (27), the Committee recommended that legislation be enacted or amended in order to implement Covenant obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Among non-governmental organizations, Amnesty International has called for "a fair, transparent and independent mechanism to hear the claims of cholera victims, and ensure redress, including compensation". Human Rights Watch has criticized the absence of any "independent adjudication of the facts". And 34 non governmental organizations have cited "overwhelming evidence that United Nations peacekeepers are responsible" as the basis on which to call upon the candidates for the post of Secretary-General to "pledge to ensure that victims of cholera in Haiti have access to fair remedies".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- But again, this is short-sighted and self-defeating. The figure of $40 billion should stand as a warning of the consequences that could follow if national courts become convinced that the abdication policy is not just unconscionable but also legally unjustified. The best way to avoid that happening is for the United Nations to offer an appropriate remedy. The present report is not the place to offer a detailed estimate of what that should look like or what it might cost. But there are certain guidelines and precedents that can helpfully be kept in mind in this context.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur has argued above that the major concerns that appear to underlie the abdication approach can all be addressed satisfactorily without jeopardizing any core interests of the United Nations or its Member States. But the case to be made in favour of action is actually much stronger than that conclusion might suggest. Thus, before outlining what a constructive and responsible approach might look like, it is important to highlight the positive reasons which argue strongly for an urgent change of policy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- It is not just the world's poorest citizens who are at risk. The capitalist system, which has become the dominant global economic system, is "a tremendously powerful system … in terms of sheer productivity, innovation and dynamism", but it is ultimately unsustainable unless the excesses and predations that are built into the way it functions are tempered by systems that ensure the basic welfare of the many who would otherwise be victims of the "uncertainty, instability and anti-social effects generated by capitalist processes".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- If the floodgates argument was in fact being invoked in good faith, then it would augur very badly indeed for the United Nations since it would imply that there are actually many cases in which the Organization has unfairly refused to provide a remedy and that the United Nations will not budge unless litigation is initiated. In fact, the dismissal of the victims' claims by the United States Court of Appeals is likely to generate even more pressure on victims and advocates to try to persuade authorities and courts in other countries that the immunity of the United Nations in such situations leads to an unconscionable result that needs somehow to be rectified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- A closely related argument is that if the United Nations "settles with private claimants or enters into dispute resolution processes that result in a finding that compensation is owed, it may have a chilling effect on the Organization". But this suffers from the same infirmities as the floodgates argument. If United Nations practices in terms of third-party liability are consistent and fair, and if claims are settled on a basis that is sustainable for the Organization, there is no reason why there would suddenly be a rash of claims that are not currently being pursued. The fear of creating a bad precedent is a classic argument to justify inaction in the face of injustice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Various observers have suggested that recognition of liability in a case such as cholera in Haiti would deter troop-contributing countries from participating in future missions. But there are several problems with this analysis. First, the reputational damage caused to troop-contributing countries by the Organization's rejection of legitimate claims is surely even greater than that flowing from a just settlement. A festering sore is much worse than a wound that is healed. Second, those States that are generally keen to contribute troops will be less likely to be asked if their contingents remain under the shadow of unresolved allegations. Third, in line with the 1995 General Assembly resolution on third-party liability, the principal burden of financial settlements that are reached in response to legitimate claims should fall upon the Organization itself and not upon the individual State. Thus, the most effective way to address the fears of troop-contributing countries is to ensure that an insurance scheme is in place, whether set up internally or with an external insurer.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Fears have been expressed that the success of the current litigation could "bankrupt" the United Nations itself, or at least its peacekeeping operations. These fears reflect calculations based on the amounts claimed by the litigants before the United States courts: $100,000 for deceased victims and $50,000 for each victim who suffered illness or injury. Multiplied by the current official figures of 9,145 dead and 779,212 infected, potential liability, excluding claims for those certain to die and be infected in the years ahead, would amount to $39,875,100,000, or almost $40 billion. Since this is almost five times the total annual budget for peacekeeping worldwide, it is a figure that is understandably seen as prohibitive and unrealistic. At a time of widespread budgetary austerity, shrinking support for multilateral development and humanitarian funding and the prioritization of funding for the refugee crisis, it is perhaps not surprising that both the United Nations and Member States have in effect put the Haiti cholera case into the "too hard basket" and opted to do nothing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- It has been suggested that "countries are choosing social rights constitutionalism over other ways to promote well-being and the fulfilment of basic human needs". A systematic and detailed study of economic and social rights in national constitutions provides detailed evidence to support this optimistic assessment; 195 constitutions were examined with a view to identifying which of 16 separate economic and social rights were recognized and, where they were recognized, whether the constitutions classified them as justiciable or aspirational (such as directive principles of State policy). Over 90 per cent of the Constitutions recognized at least one economic and social right. In around 70 per cent of the Constitutions, at least one economic and social right was explicitly justiciable and around 25 per cent of them recognized 10 or more justiciable economic and social rights. In order of frequency, the justiciable rights concerned education, trade unions, health care, social security, child protection and environmental protection. The study found that those six rights appear in over half of all Constitutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- While the present report cannot do justice to the richness of these survey findings, it is clear that impressive levels of constitutional recognition have been achieved and that many more economic and social rights are considered to be justiciable, and in many more countries, than was previously thought to be the case. However, if it turns out that the practical consequences of such constitutional recognition have been very limited, there would be much less to celebrate and attention would need to be focused on supplementary or alternative approaches. Thus an assessment of the significance of these findings requires a careful examination of the empirical consequences of constitutional recognition in terms of enhanced accountability and improved levels of realization of economic and social rights. The main challenges in this regard are considered in the section below on accountability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The second type of institutional actor that could be expected to play a key role in promoting economic and social rights is national human rights institutions, of which there are now almost 120. In 1998, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called upon national human rights institutions to take a more active role in the promotion of economic and social rights. The most detailed scholarly study of those institutions yet undertaken concludes that, if they "can be faulted as a group for one thing, it is an insufficient challenge to the material conditions that perpetuate human rights violations". Specialist studies indicate that while a handful of such institutions have devoted significant attention to economic and social rights, the vast majority have not. The reasons cited include absent or restrictive mandates, lack of expertise, lack of resources, absence of political support and the complexity of the issues. The bottom line is that few of these "institutions are producing regular, comprehensive reports on ESC rights fulfilment in their countries".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, the Haiti case is clearly distinguishable from the Rwanda and Srebrenica claims, both of which alleged a failure by peacekeepers to fulfil the essence of their mandate and raised issues of operational judgment as opposed to a failure to avoid spreading a highly infectious and lethal disease. The Kosovo case is closer to the Haitian case, but might arguably be distinguished by the facts that UNMIK operated as an interim administration in Kosovo and that the United Nations should not be held responsible for contamination which pre-dated its arrival. It is noteworthy that the non-receivability classification did not prevent the Human Rights Advisory Panel established by the United Nations to examine cases of alleged human rights violations in Kosovo from holding in 2016 that "UNMIK was responsible for compromising irreversibly the life, health and development potential" of the child complainants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 89
- Paragraph text
- Going forward, the role of Member States will be absolutely crucial. Although more lives have been lost in Haiti to cholera than were lost in the entire Ebola epidemic in Africa, too many States have so far wrongly assumed that the case of Haiti is too hard to resolve. States that provide substantial support to the peacekeeping budget, particularly the United States, which is the principal contributor, should actively champion a resolution to this ongoing crisis that respects the rights of the victims and best serves the reputational and other interests of the United Nations. A failure to do so will cause irreparable harm to the Organization and the esteem in which it is held around the world.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The opinion of the Office of Legal Affairs has provided a convenient justification for States to avoid engagement on the responsibility of the United Nations for the cholera epidemic in Haiti. Although the Security Council authorized the deployment of peacekeepers to Haiti and regularly reviews the status of the mission, it has notably failed to address the issue of the Organization's responsibility for the introduction of cholera. In June 2016 a bipartisan group of 158 members of the United States Congress stated that "each day that passes without an appropriate U.N. response is a tragedy for Haitian cholera victims and a stain on the U.N.'s reputation", and called upon the United States Secretary of State to pressure the United Nations to compensate the victims. Leading newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, endorsed this call to focus on the misdeeds of the United Nations. Yet there is much to be said for the view that without the acquiescence, if not the active support, of the United States and other Security Council members, the abdication approach would not have been adopted by the United Nations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Second, even when economic and social rights are both constitutionally recognized and justiciable, there are many factors that can limit the resulting outcomes. Lawyers might not invoke such rights, a lack of resources and the absence of legal aid might make it impossible for many violations of economic and social rights to be litigated and potential applicants might be denied standing to sue. Even when cases get to court, the judiciary might not be independent, the judicial culture might not be amenable to scrutinizing the sort of issues raised by economic and social rights and the remedies available might be so weak as to deter such litigation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- In the more than five years since the independent panel of experts submitted its report, there have been many scientific studies that have evaluated the evidence and have added new elements to what was known at that time. It is beyond the scope of the present report to recount the analyses and conclusions of the various studies, but this task has been undertaken systematically in a book published in June 2016. Its author, Ralph R. Frerichs, is professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of California at Los Angeles and the book provides a painstaking and even-handed assessment of the scientific debates that have taken place. For present purposes, it must suffice to note that the book concludes that the peacekeepers were responsible for bringing cholera. In doing so, it systematically vindicates the conclusions reached by one of the first international experts on cholera to investigate the outbreak in Haiti, Dr. Renaud Piarroux. It also deplores what it describes as a "misinformation campaign to protect the United Nations and the peacekeeping program".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The claimants challenged the non-receivability finding and requested either mediation or a meeting to discuss the matter. In July 2013, the Under-Secretary-General wasted no words in dismissing such requests: "In relation to your request for the engagement of a mediator, there is no basis for such engagement in connection with claims that are not receivable. As these claims are not receivable, I do not consider it necessary to meet and further discuss this matter." Left with no further recourse within the United Nations, the claimants filed a class action suit in October 2013 with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In January 2015, the court ruled that the defendants were immune from suit, a finding upheld on 19 August 2016 in Georges v. United Nations by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- While the brevity of the present report precludes a detailed legal analysis, the basic principles are clear. The United Nations has long accepted that, as an attribute of its international legal personality, it can incur obligations and liabilities of a private law nature. It also recognizes its international responsibility for damages caused by the activities of United Nations forces within this framework. In its resolution 52/247 (1998) on third-party liability the General Assembly set up a special regime to deal with third-party claims in the context of peacekeeping missions, although it set temporal, financial and other limitations to that liability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- If the recognition, institutionalization and accountability building blocks were solidly in place in many countries, it would follow that the main focus of advocacy efforts to promote a higher level of real-life enjoyment of economic and social rights should be elsewhere. It may be that this assumption explains why so many of those working to promote economic and social rights, whether through the United Nations or regional organizations or at the national level, have now turned their attention to matters such as developing new methodologies for measuring compliance with the Covenant, exploring new and much more detailed indicators, working out how such indicators can be disaggregated to take account of a wide range of specific factors - such as gender, age, ethnicity and social origin -, identifying means by which to ensure that decision-making processes are transparent and participatory, and developing more detailed normative guidelines, recommendations, principles and other such instruments that elaborate upon or seek to operationalize governmental obligations in relation to economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The principle of accountability provides the overarching rationale for the establishment of an international human rights regime. It operates at two levels. One involves State accountability to the international community, which has been promoted through the creation of monitoring mechanisms such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the universal periodic review process, and through regional mechanisms. The other involves ensuring that governments are accountable to their citizens and other rights holders. The right to a remedy is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law has attached particular importance to developing an understanding of the right to adequate, effective, prompt and appropriate remedies, including reparations. Remedies have also been highlighted in transitional justice contexts. In relation to economic, social and cultural rights, the Committee on those rights has stated in its general comment No. 9 that "appropriate means of redress, or remedies, must be available to any aggrieved individual or group, and appropriate means of ensuring governmental accountability must be put in place" (para. 2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In recent years, there has been great progress in the attention devoted, at both the national and international levels, to economic and social rights. In terms of scholarship, a "renaissance" of economic and social rights is said to have occurred, leading to a "burgeoning" literature. In terms of legal developments, a typical account noted as follows: ESC rights have gained increased acceptance in international law and comparative jurisprudence. This is evident in an array of new treaties and resolutions and the adoption of international complaint mechanisms that cover ESC rights…. This has been accompanied by a rise in regional and national adjudication of ESC rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- None of this is to suggest that these other endeavours are not of major importance, but the argument is that they will have far less impact where the RIA framework is not in place.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- It is essential for the proponents of economic and social rights to acknowledge the deeply rooted nature of the continuing strong resistance to the very concept of economic and social rights as human rights. The adoption of more resolutions and the holding of more meetings should not be permitted to conceal this fact. The reality is that governments have not accidentally overlooked the significance of the recognition, institutionalization and accountability (RIA) framework. On the contrary, the widespread failure to ensure that these three building blocks are in place in relation to economic and social rights is the principal symptom of the resistance. Proponents of economic and social rights need to acknowledge and tackle this deeper political reality rather than sailing merrily along as though there is widespread and basic agreement on economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights contains three principal types of obligation. The first, and the most consistently ignored or underestimated, is the obligation to recognize each of the particular rights. The second is to take steps through all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures. The third is the obligation to "guarantee" the exercise of the relevant rights without discrimination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- A key factor in explaining this fundamentally unbalanced approach may be the relative absence in the work of many national human rights institutions of genuinely consultative approaches that would enable the affected communities to influence priorities and approaches and participate in developing policy responses and recommendations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Many human rights proponents seem to prefer not to engage in these debates for fear that doing so would be a lost cause and that economic and social rights would be discredited or disowned rather than just marginalized or neglected. But that strategy leads to the same result in practical terms, except that the illusion is maintained that economic and social rights are an integral, even indivisible, part of the overall human rights framework.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- The RIA framework is no magic bullet. There are all too many examples of situations in which clearly recognized economic and social rights, to which meaningful accountability mechanisms attach in principle, have done little or nothing to improve the situation. But this generally reflects a failure of will, competence or capacity, rather than a flawed framework. Nor is the report arguing that these three steps are all that is required or that the many other approaches that are currently being pursued are not potentially very important.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- In terms of the obligation to recognize, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has noted that, in many instances, legislation is highly desirable and in some cases may even be indispensable. It subsequently added that, although the precise method by which Covenant rights are given effect in national law is a matter for each State party to decide, the means used should be appropriate in the sense of producing results which are consistent with the full discharge of its obligations by the State party.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- In order to resolve the controversy, the Secretary-General, to his credit, established the panel of independent experts in January 2011. In its report, issued in May 2011, the panel expressly rejected the environmental theory. Instead, it found that "the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination of the Mèyé Tributary of the Artibonite River with a pathogenic strain of current South Asian type Vibrio cholerae as a result of human activity". If the experts had left it at that, the conclusion would have been that MINUSTAH peacekeepers were responsible for the outbreak. But they went on to claim that the dumping of faeces alone "could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies … coupled with conducive environmental and epidemiological conditions". By adding this observation, the experts suggested that nature, as well as the country's underdevelopment, were also to blame. This enabled them to reach their ultimate conclusion, that the "outbreak was caused by the confluence of circumstances … and was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- In response to the controversy provoked by this ambiguous and inconsistent assessment, the panel published a follow-up article in 2013 introducing a new formulation, that "the preponderance of the evidence and the weight of the circumstantial evidence does lead to the conclusion that personnel associated with the Mirebalais MINUSTAH facility were the most likely source of introduction of cholera into Haiti". They also noted that their scientific language had been accurately translated in a newspaper report that stated their conclusion to be that the outbreak "was almost certainly caused by a poorly constructed sanitation system installed at a rural camp used by several hundred United Nations troops from Nepal". They went on to explain why they asserted that no one was at fault: "We do not feel that this was a deliberate introduction of cholera into Haiti"; rather, it was "an accidental and unfortunate confluence of events".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- For the most part, the question of who bears responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti has been systematically sidestepped in United Nations analyses. The first technique has been to take refuge in the passive voice, whereby readers are told that cholera "emerged", or "occurred", or "a severe outbreak of cholera was confirmed". In other words, it just happened, and no scientific or technical explanation is needed. Another technique has been to invoke the need to move beyond the past and focus instead on the future. The past is seen neither as a vital element in devising effective policies for the future, nor as a dimension that needs to be understood if non-repetition is to be promoted. A third approach has been to replace the term "responsibility" by "blame", and then to say that playing the "blame game" is unhelpful, distracting, unanswerable or divisive, and thus to be avoided. For example, although the panel was appointed precisely to "investigate and seek to determine the source" of the outbreak, the bottom line of their analysis was that identifying the source was "no longer relevant to controlling the outbreak". It was therefore time to look ahead and focus instead on preventive measures.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- First and foremost, there should be an apology and an acceptance of responsibility in the name of the Secretary-General.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Closely linked to this loss of legitimacy is a loss of credibility in the eyes of rights holders. The second-class status of economic and social rights has deeply negative consequences for the potential of the human rights movement to gain the widespread support that it needs in order to establish its credibility in the eyes of the literally billions of people whose fundamental needs continue to be of only minor relevance to the core human rights agenda. The fact that the movement is subject to powerful challenges at the global level is due in significant part to the perception that its overriding preoccupations do little or nothing to address the most abiding and pressing challenges confronted by a large part of humanity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Office of the Secretary-General. It is vital that the integrity of the Office of the Secretary-General be upheld. The current Secretary-General has visited and grieved with cholera victims in Haiti, has talked of the Organization's moral duty and has generally expressed deep concern about the issue. But he has consistently stopped short of taking any of the steps that are required if the United Nations is to move beyond its policy of abdicating responsibility. From the outside, and to many on the inside, the reason seems to be that the legal advice given by the Office of Legal Affairs has been permitted to override all of the other considerations that militate so powerfully in favour of seeking a constructive and just solution. Rule by law, as interpreted by the Office, has trumped the rule of law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Prior to finalizing the present report, a draft was submitted to the Secretary-General and other relevant officials for comment. To the Special Rapporteur's surprise, that draft was leaked to the press and appeared in full in the New York Times. Subsequently, the Deputy Secretary-General replied to the Special Rapporteur on 19 August 2016. The reply contained several elements that are novel and very welcome. In particular, the United Nations committed to the adoption of a "new approach" which "will address many of the concerns raised in [the present] report". That approach will include, as "a central focus", a package to provide "material assistance and support" to the victims and their families, over and above existing programmes. The support package and delivery mechanism will be elaborated through "a transparent process" involving consultation with the Haitian authorities, Member States and victims. The Organization also committed to intensify its efforts in response to the epidemic. Each of these undertakings is important. The implications are that there will be an approach which goes well beyond the existing one, will be transparent, will mobilize additional resources and will compensate victims.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- The framework of legal recognition that underpins the approach adopted in the present report by no means exhausts the range of approaches that are and should be used in the promotion of economic and social rights. Campaigns to educate both rights holders and professionals, empower community groups, facilitate local-level activism or enable monitoring are all part of the expansive toolbox for economic and social rights activism. As has been cautioned: Unless all participants in [economic and social rights] litigation are conscious of the institutional limitations of the courts and consider the possibility that the particular claim may be more effectively addressed through another forum such as advocacy or community mobilisation, there will be the ever-present danger of untimely or inappropriate resort to litigation, and judgments that impede rather than facilitate transformation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- The legal framework will influence all of these other dimensions and avenues and it is one of the dimensions that can most meaningfully be promoted and monitored through United Nations and related mechanisms. Put succinctly: Contemporary movements for social change cannot avoid working in the legal medium. There are no "law-free" zones in modern societies to which activists can repair so as to avoid entanglement with law and system. … Legal entitlements (including those formulated as "rights") strongly influence the distribution of wealth and power and partially construct identities. Social change movements cannot avoid engagement on this terrain, and it is difficult to see how they can do this effectively without some type of "higher law" discourse of the kind captured in the idiom of fundamental rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The widespread persistence of extreme poverty, despite the progress made in recent years, serves to highlight the central importance of the struggle to achieve economic and social rights. Many hundreds of millions of people continue to suffer from extreme poverty, and by no means only in the poorest countries, in what is a grave affront to any notion of universal human rights. While such poverty is a phenomenon that fundamentally undermines most, if not all, civil and political rights, its most obvious and brutal manifestation is in the premature deaths and severely deprived lives that result from the denial of economic and social rights. While it is true that many developed and a few developing States have radically diminished extreme poverty without adopting a strategy based on the recognition of economic and social rights, experience more broadly suggests that the failure to take those rights seriously diminishes the prospects for eliminating extreme poverty, even in contexts where overall economic growth levels are high.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- More sustained and meaningful attention to economic and social rights is also increasingly recognized as an indispensable component of effective and comprehensive counter-terrorism strategies in many contexts. The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism has consistently drawn attention to the extent to which societies characterized by economic, social, political and educational exclusion are often breeding, or recruitment, grounds for terrorism. And the Secretary-General included in his Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism a lack of socioeconomic opportunities, as well as marginalization and discrimination, among the conditions conducive to violent extremism.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- One of the biggest economic and social rights challenges confronted by civil society organizations has been to identify a methodology for monitoring these rights. This has gone hand in hand with questions about who bears responsibility for economic and social rights violations, to whom demands for action should be addressed, how judgments can be made as to the acceptability of trade-offs between one social right and another and what remedies are appropriate. These dilemmas are especially problematic in the absence of the RIA framework at the national level, but many of the NGOs have either consciously or otherwise not directed their attention to these dimensions. Others have dismissed them as issues in relation to which international NGOs are poorly placed to advocate.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- There is also the question of the legitimacy of the overall human rights enterprise. The economic and social rights framework is increasingly portrayed by critics as being toothless and ineffectual and bringing small or no returns in terms of social justice. Based on such critiques, commentators have argued that only a radically different, non-human rights-based, language could meaningfully address these challenges, that economic and social rights mandates are diverting resources away from the rights that matter, that only political parties and social movements and not human rights groups have the potential to achieve social justice objectives, and that free markets and private enterprise hold the key to economic and social rights in the wake of clear governmental failures in this domain.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Second, the duties owed by the United Nations are directly analogous to those owed by a company or private property owner to ensure adequate waste management and to take adequate precautions to prevent spreading diseases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- A strong case is also to be made for attributing the resurgence of right-wing populism, at least in some of the many countries in which it is occurring, to the growth of inequality and the widespread neglect or denial of economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Fifth, guidance might be drawn from important precedents for lump-sum settlements at the national level. Relevant examples include the arrangements set up in the United States to compensate the victims of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, the 2014 agreement between the United States and France to compensate Holocaust victims and the Canadian Reparations Programme for the Indian Residential School System, created to redress the historical legacies of discrimination suffered by Aboriginal children attending those schools.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In terms of institutions for the promotion of economic and social rights, scholars and others have focused almost all of their attention in recent years on courts. The impact of courts will be examined below, under the rubric of accountability. Judicial enforcement is not the same, however, as institutional promotion. The courts are not equipped, and are understandably not willing, to perform the roles required to promote the deeper understanding of economic and social rights and their implementation by diverse governmental and other agencies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- On 3 November 2011, a petition was lodged with MINUSTAH on behalf of some 5,000 cholera victims claiming (a) a fair and impartial hearing; (b) monetary compensation; (c) preventive action by the United Nations; and (d) a public acknowledgement of United Nations responsibility and a public apology. Sixteen months later the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs replied, noting that "the United Nations is extremely saddened by the catastrophic outbreak of cholera, and the Secretary-General has expressed his profound sympathy for the terrible suffering caused by the cholera outbreak". The Under-Secretary-General went on to make what seems to be an indirect reference to the theory that the earthquake that had occurred nine months earlier was the real culprit: "The cholera outbreak was not only an enormous national disaster, but was also a painful reminder of Haiti's vulnerability in the event of a national emergency." After recalling the independent panel's "confluence of circumstances" and no fault findings, the Under-Secretary-General deemed the claims "not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations". That provision requires the United Nations to provide for appropriate modes of settlement of disputes of a private law character to which it is a party, but the Under-Secretary-General considered the claims not to be of a "private law character" because their consideration "would necessarily include a review of political and policy matters".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur has surveyed the Committee's work since the beginning of 2014 to evaluate how it has approached the three elements in the RIA framework. This included State party reports, the relevant lists of issues and the concluding observations relating to 32 States parties, drawn more or less evenly from the different regional groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Since August 2016 the Secretary-General appears to have accepted that existing project-based initiatives cannot be seen as a substitute for personal compensation for victims and their families. His proposed new package should ensure adequate compensation, taking account of the elements identified above.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- Unless the new approach also includes a revised legal policy, it will entrench a precedent according to which the United Nations will never in the future accept legal responsibility, no matter how horrendous the facts. That will be the ultimate ongoing travesty of justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Although the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, called publicly in 2013 for the Haitian victims to be compensated, the abdication approach has otherwise prevailed in the ranks of United Nations officials, under the watchful eye of the Office of Legal Affairs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The global media has been systematically critical of the United Nations. For example, the Economist has accused the United Nations of dodging its responsibility, the New York Times argues that it has "failed to face up to its role in [Haiti's] continuing tragedy", Business Insider has referred to the cholera outbreak as "the UN's Watergate", the Washington Post has commented that "by refusing to acknowledge responsibility, the United Nations jeopardizes its standing and moral authority".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- One of the most encouraging developments in recent years in relation to economic and social rights has been the growth of specialist NGOs at the international, national and, especially, local levels working to promote either economic and social rights in general or specific rights such as those relating to health, housing, education, water, gender equality, disability and ageing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations should acknowledge that the claims are of a private law character and accordingly should offer an appropriate remedy, as is legally required of it. The new approach announced by the Deputy Secretary-General could go a long way towards constituting such a remedy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Despite the rhetoric of indivisibility, both national and international endeavours to promote and protect economic and social rights are overshadowed by the assumption that while economic and social rights are desirable long-term social goals, they should not be treated as full-fledged human rights. The present report is not the place to review in detail the familiar arguments that have been invoked in support of this approach, which include claims that economic and social rights are too expensive, too vague, too empowering of the State, are potentially limitless, reward and encourage laziness, penalize wealth creation, undermine economic growth and are inimical to international competitiveness. These arguments, traditionally associated with those who might describe themselves as libertarians, neo-conservatives, free-marketeers or small government advocates, have triumphed in many countries in the twenty-first century and have been actively promoted by the most influential international organizations in the fields of development, finance and trade. While compelling counter-arguments have been put forward in response to each of the critiques, the biggest challenge by far is essentially ideological. The economic and political power of entrenched elites is best protected by policies that marginalize economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- In addition to highlighting the intrinsic linkages among all rights, the principal significance of this bold assertion was to signal that economic, social and cultural rights are as important as civil and political rights and must be accorded equal attention. And the past quarter of a century has indeed seen a great number of important initiatives, especially in sectoral areas such as the right to housing, the right to food, the right to health and the right to water, and more consistent tribute being rendered to the principle of indivisibility. But acceptance in law and in practice of the idea that economic and social rights are actually human rights, with the set of clear legal consequences that this entails, rather than a set of concerns synonymous with development or social progress, remains marginal. This marginality manifests itself in the work of United Nations human rights bodies, in both the theory and practice of the great majority of States, in the work of many of the most prominent civil society groups focusing on human rights, in the interests and priorities of scholars and commentators and, perhaps most counter-intuitively, even in the work of most international agencies promoting poverty alleviation and social development. As a result, the principal of indivisibility continues to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Economic and social rights are also of central importance to efforts to tackle extreme inequality and its consequences. The thoroughly documented increases in global wealth and income inequality threaten to undermine the social fabric, to turn civil and political rights into a tool that will be used predominantly to protect the rights and interests of the wealthy and to entrench forms of economic and political liberalism that ignore the needs and deny the rights of those living in poverty. In many respects, the approach currently taken by the international human rights system all but ensures the worst of all possible outcomes. On the one hand, the correct approach insists that economic and social rights are indivisible from, and of equal importance to, civil and political rights, thus suggesting that they can provide a meaningful response to extreme poverty, extreme inequality and other forms of rampant social injustice. On the other hand, the international human rights system systematically marginalizes those rights in many respects, and tolerates a situation in which the majority of States avoid the recognition, institutionalization and accountability that alone can establish solid foundations upon which to build respect for economic and social rights as full-fledged human rights and thus provide powerful and principled arguments to reduce levels of inequality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- All three branches of government offer potential accountability mechanisms for economic and social rights claims. The legislature is, of course, central in terms of its ability to adopt legislation that mandates attention to such rights or that responds to violations. There have also been important initiatives in terms of establishing parliamentary human rights committees and institutionalizing review of draft legislation to ensure compliance with human rights law. In terms of the executive, government officials can monitor economic and social rights realization and incorporate those rights into policymaking and implementation mechanisms. State agencies are also often a logical locus for complaints mechanisms, although they remain strongly underresearched in the economic and social rights field. While national human rights institutions are potentially relevant, studies indicate that they have played a very minor role, not just in terms of economic and social rights promotion, as noted above, but also in achieving accountability. The main exception in that regard relates to the role of ombuds institutions, which could be much more engaged on matters of economic and social rights than they are, even though their powers generally fall short of being able to provide direct remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, different arrangements might be contemplated for cases of death than for those involving injury. Given the ongoing nature of the problem and the complexity of compensating all of those who became ill, a programmatic approach might be an important element in relation to the second category of victim.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Human rights. One of the most impressive human rights achievements of the United Nations in recent years emerged from a similar time of crisis within the Organization as a result of its role in the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2010. In response to concerted criticism, the Secretary-General first commissioned an internal review panel to explore whether the United Nations had met its responsibilities to prevent and respond to serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law. He then followed up by announcing his Human Rights Up Front initiative, which "aims to help the United Nations act more coherently across the pillars of the Organization's work - peace and security, development, and human rights". As the Deputy Secretary-General has noted: "Human Rights Up Front is about improving how the United Nations system functions and how staff members are to perform." Yet the refusal to address the human rights violations that have occurred in Haiti as a result of the cholera epidemic stands in stark contrast to the excellent intentions of that initiative. Unless action is taken, the message is that a double standard applies according to which the United Nations can insist that Member States respect human rights, while rejecting any such responsibility for itself even in a particularly egregious situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- The abdication approach has thrived because sterile legal formalism, facilitated by a failure to explore constructive options, has been permitted to prevail. But that approach is contrary to both the interests of justice and the interests of the United Nations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Nevertheless, some of the major international NGOs continue to approach economic and social rights in ways that do very little to change the marginality of those rights within the field. This is especially problematic because these organizations still disproportionately influence the overall shape of the non-governmental agenda, especially at the international level. Good faith efforts in recent years to develop a more positive and proactive approach to economic and social rights have succeeded in moving the field forward in relation to several issues that are important, even though they represent a rather narrow slice of the overall economic and social rights pie. Reporting on issues such as forced evictions, maternal mortality, discrimination in access to schooling, access to palliative care and to HIV/AIDS drugs, and sexual and reproductive health, has contributed significantly in these areas, but the approaches adopted have too often relied almost entirely on using a discrimination lens and avoided reliance on the economic and social rights framework. When combined with policies that eschew issues that involve redistributing resources or require significant budgetary allocations, the approach can amount to a self-denying ordinance that effectively maintains the status quo and ensures that the core economic and social rights issues will not be adequately addressed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- In considering which institutions are most likely to be best placed to promote knowledge and understanding of economic and social rights at the domestic level, two types of actors seem most relevant. The first being the government agencies that are responsible for making and implementing policy in the relevant sectors. Thus, government ministries dealing with education, social protection, health, nutrition and so on might be expected to take the lead in promoting a rights-based understanding. This is not to argue, as is sometimes suggested in the literature on rights-based approaches to development, that everything these ministries do should be guided by and seen through the lens of human rights. Nonetheless, one might expect the ministry of education, for example, to acknowledge that there is a right to education and to spell out what that means in specific policy terms. While it is well beyond the scope of this report to explore how common such an approach is among sectoral ministries in most countries, it can be said by way of generalization that the phenomenon is not common. There are some indications that the health sector might be moving more in that direction under the impetus of the movement for universal health coverage. Similarly, social security is increasingly seen in terms of the right to social security as a result of the Social Protection Floor Initiative.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- The present report is not the appropriate context in which to spell out in detail what remains to be done to right the wrongs that have occurred. But it is possible to sketch in broad outline the principal steps that are required.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Almost four years after the initial spillage, a report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services Internal Audit Division, whose public release was long delayed, found that the regulatory framework for effective waste management in MINUSTAH continued to be unsatisfactory, a rating that signified that "critical and/or pervasive important deficiencies" existed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Although the report by the panel has been central to the arguments made by United Nations officials in response to calls for the Organization to accept responsibility, the approach taken by the United Nations has been inconsistent and somewhat unpredictable. In some contexts, the panel's conclusions have been challenged and their recommendations rejected; in others, their finding of no fault has been endorsed and heavily relied upon.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Second, it is agreed that United Nations actions should comply with human rights standards. The Organization specifically claims "to ensure that its peacekeeping operations and their personnel operate within the normative framework of international human rights law and are held accountable for alleged violations".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, it is recognized in the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of 1946, in the status-of-forces agreement and in United Nations practice that appropriate remedies should be provided where disputes arise in relation to liability for acts of a private character.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Some officials and diplomats have suggested that although they would favour providing an appropriate remedy in this case, nothing can be done until the shadow of litigation has been lifted. To take action before then would only encourage many more suits designed to achieve the same result: the proverbial "floodgates" would be opened. But even in the wake of the dismissal of the suit on 19 August 2016, the floodgates argument seems to motivate continuing insistence on the abdication policy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- First, scholars have debated whether the optimal approach for the United Nations to take is one that proceeds from the principles of human rights or from the law of torts. For academic purposes, a rich debate can be, and has already been, had around some of these issues. From the perspective of the United Nations, neither of these regimes fits the situation perfectly and elements can be drawn from both in shaping the best response.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Second, General Assembly resolution 52/247 on third-party liability is of major relevance. It sets a temporal limitation for the submission of claims, but this may be extended by the Secretary-General in exceptional circumstances. Compensation payable for injury, illness or death is to be determined by reference to local compensation standards, but cannot exceed $50,000. Compensation is payable neither for non-economic loss nor for punitive or moral damages.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Immediately after the publication of the panel's report in May 2011, a United Nations spokesperson was dismissive of the report on the grounds that it did "not present any conclusive scientific evidence linking the outbreak to the MINUSTAH peacekeepers or the Mirebalais camp". Senior officials have continued to rely on this defence. However, the more detailed and official response provided in a letter dated 25 November 2014 from Assistant Secretary-General Pedro Medrano Rojas, Senior Coordinator for the Cholera Response in Haiti, addressed to the special procedures mandate holders took a different tack. Although the letter is long and detailed, it curiously makes no mention of the panel's principal finding, which was, as noted above, that that "the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination of the Meye Tributary of the Artibonite River with a pathogenic strain of current South Asian type Vibrio cholerae as a result of human activity". In other words, MINUSTAH was indeed the source. Instead, after citing the panel's reference to poor water and sanitation conditions and inadequate medical facilities, Mr. Medrano suggested that the main outcome of the inquiry was the statement that the outbreak "was not the fault of, or due to deliberate action by, a group or individual". Similarly, regularly updated fact sheets describing the United Nations response continue to make no mention of the panel's principal conclusion in relation to MINUSTAH. It has been airbrushed out of the picture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- It has been suggested to the Special Rapporteur by several sources that the legal advice originally submitted to the Secretary-General took a rather different approach to these crucial issues from that which was finally adopted, but this cannot be confirmed since none of the analyses of the Office of Legal Affairs have been made public. If true, however, it might explain why the arguments adduced in order to abdicate responsibility are both peremptory and inadequately justified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Even some of the Organization's traditional supporters have argued that its "peacekeeping brand has been stained indelibly by three major sins", which are sexual misconduct, the negligence involved in bringing cholera to Haiti and "the abject failure of the United Nations to own up to these lapses, and to respond to them in an effective, principled way".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- Second, the existing legal policy was formulated some six years ago, and pays no heed to the important lessons that have emerged from both the Human Rights Up Front initiative and the report on the independent review of sexual abuse in the Central African Republic.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- Third, there is now a much stronger commitment to taking the rule of law seriously in the context of the approach adopted within the United Nations itself, and this needs to be reflected in the legal response to cholera in Haiti.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Haiti's first-ever cholera outbreak began in mid-October 2010. Many scholars have repeated the claim made by the independent panel of experts on the cholera outbreak in Haiti that this was the first time in 100 years that cholera had occurred in Haiti, but in fact there is no record of cholera ever having previously been in Haiti. As of 28 May 2016, United Nations figures had recorded 9,145 deaths from cholera and 779,212 persons infected. Scientific studies have also claimed that the actual mortality rate is almost certainly substantially higher than reported. Between January and April 2016, 150 new deaths occurred, an increase of 18 per cent over the same period in 2015.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- By the same token, the new policy remains critically incomplete. There is not yet a promise of an apology or an acceptance of responsibility. The repetition of previous expressions of "deep regret" and "moral responsibility" is nothing new. The "legal position of the Organization", which is to deny all legal responsibility, is comprehensively reaffirmed. The obligation to provide an appropriate remedy is thus rejected, and instead solutions must be sought solely "through political, diplomatic or other means". In other words, the lamentably self-serving legal contortions devised to escape any form of legal responsibility still remain in place. Unless the new process also involves a reconsideration in this regard, the Organization's ability to salvage its moral, let alone its legal, credibility and authority will be gravely undermined.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- However, any assessment of progress made needs to begin by acknowledging that the starting point was one of essential neglect. The key question is thus not quantitative, but qualitative, in nature. Have the many developments led to economic and social rights being taken seriously in the actual practice of governments and other major actors, and have the foundations been laid for continuing strength in the future? This is where the RIA framework is central. In the next section, consideration is given to how much progress has been made at the national level in relation to each of the three dimensions of recognition, institutionalization and accountability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Because the position taken by United Nations officials relies heavily on the claim that there remains doubt as to the source of the cholera outbreak and invokes the panel's report in support, it is appropriate both to assess the validity of the panel's consistently cited assessment and to consider more recent scientific assessments. Before doing so, it should be noted that there is a fundamental inconsistency in the panel's conclusions. After stating clearly that "the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination", the report goes on to say that "[t]he introduction of this cholera strain as a result of environmental contamination with feces could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies". Presumably, the panel intended to say that the contamination could not alone have been the sole cause, had there not been deficiencies in the environment into which the faeces were released. But that is not in fact what the report states.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- From a legal perspective, there are essential flaws in the reasoning of the panel in finding no fault. First, the experts' conclusion that the MINUSTAH base was the source makes it very difficult to then conclude that no individual or group was at fault. Second, the experts provide no analysis whatsoever to support their no fault assertion. Third, and most importantly, in its report the panel adopts a scientific rather than a legal approach, but this does not prevent it from purporting to offer a legal conclusion that no fault can be found, although it neither identifies any legal standard nor undertakes any legal assessment of evidence. The explanation it subsequently provided - that it did not "feel" that cholera was "deliberately" introduced - completely fails to mention, let alone address, the central issue of negligence which lies at the heart of the legal issue of fault in this case. These flaws clearly invalidate the no fault finding on which the United Nations has consistently sought to rely so heavily in order to avoid responsibility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Fifth, the implementation of positive judicial outcomes and the search for more creative remedies have been "an analytical and practical blind spot".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- In other words, even when it appears to be marginal and best ignored, the legal framework of recognition or non-recognition will, in practice, wield significant influence in terms of how economic and social rights are perceived and what advocacy opportunities are closed down or opened up. The legal framework can, at least partially, empower or disempower and legitimize or delegitimize those who advocate respect for economic and social rights. Thus, even those who argue that the battle over economic and social rights will inevitably be won or lost in the political arena would be well advised not to neglect the recognition, institutionalization and accountability dimensions. This is not for a moment to suggest that the many other dimensions of economic and social rights-related advocacy are unimportant. The argument is that most, if not all, of them will be less effective if the RIA framework is not in place as a matter of State policy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- It is important to recognize that the promotion of economic and social rights as human rights, including a particular emphasis on the elements of the RIA framework, does not imply that there is a universal one-size-fits-all approach that will secure the realization of economic and social rights in countries with very different histories, legal systems, traditions and cultures. Nor does it assume that everything needs to be done at once, or that a maximalist approach is indispensable. Strong arguments in favour of an incremental approach to economic and social rights adjudication in contexts in which the notion is relatively novel holds lessons for moving progressively, and with all appropriate speed, in relation to other elements of the overall package. There is immense space for the processes of "vernacularization", or translation into languages and forms, that are meaningful at the local level and about which various authors have written with great insight.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Human rights are often expressed with great brevity and little or no elaboration as to their content or corresponding obligations. The relevant treaties simply recognize that there is a right to life, a right to social security or a right to recognition as a person before the law. But the assumption underpinning this approach is that institutions will be created and will help to develop the normative content of the relevant right, promote its implementation and facilitate its realization. In Spanish, the term institucionalidad is sometimes used to denote the institutional arrangements that are needed to underpin the rule of law and human rights. Where no institutions are designated to take the lead in implementing a particular human right, the likelihood is that little will be done to treat it as a human right per se. This is especially the case in relation to economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Claims received in the context of peacekeeping operations are often solved amicably, but the United Nations keeps all such matters confidential. A former official responsible for such claims over a 10-year period identified only one other case of non-receivability on these grounds, which related to Kosovo. That case was also referred to in the 2014 letter to the special procedures mandate holders. It involved a claim for damages resulting from lead contamination in camps established by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The claims were rejected by the United Nations on the grounds that they amounted to a review of the performance of the mission's mandate. Two other cases in which the United Nations had rejected claims were noted in the 2014 letter. One was against the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda for failing to protect victims of the 1994 genocide and the other was against the United Nations Protection Force for failing to protect the inhabitants of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- One of the challenges that emerges most clearly from this analysis is that more research is needed in order to generate a better understanding of what works and what does not, in terms of the overall agenda for the promotion of economic and social rights. The focus needs to be less on what governments, civil society groups and scholars think they are best placed to do and more on what objectively needs to be done to ensure the progressive recognition and realization of economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- In one third of the 32 lists of issues considered, the Committee requested information about the status of the Covenant within the State's domestic legal system. In almost all the lists, examples of cases in which domestic courts had considered or applied the Covenant were requested. In a little over half of the lists, States parties were asked about legislative measures taken to implement one or more of the rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, although some of the databases of economic and social rights case law around the world are impressive, the total number of cases is still rather limited. While individual cases have arisen in many jurisdictions, the reality is that in only a handful of jurisdictions have the courts generated a body of significant case law. Among the most notable of these are Colombia, India, Kenya, South Africa and state-level courts in the United States of America (in relation to the right to education).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- In line with the Deputy Secretary-General's statement, the process should reflect a new-found commitment to consulting with all stakeholders on as transparent a basis as possible.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- The Haitian authorities, including the present interim Government, needs to overcome the reluctance of previous Governments to press the international community to ensure that the human rights of its citizens are upheld.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Before addressing the major practical concerns that have been used to justify the abdication approach, it is important to emphasize that there is broad agreement in relation to the key principles that are at stake, even if controversy about their application remains.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Since the early 1990s, the Bank has made numerous public relations statements affirming the importance of human rights. It has often observed that human rights and development are interrelated, insisted that its projects contribute to the fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights, argued that its work on governance contributes to an institutional environment in which human rights can thrive, and claimed that it consistently applies "human rights principles" such as participation, in its operations. Those claims, however, are usually made in the abstract, without detailed analysis or supporting evidence. While the Nordic Trust Fund, established within the Bank, has succeeded in facilitating a more sophisticated debate, its outputs have yet to bring changes to the actual practice of the Bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In October 2006, the next General Counsel, Ana Palacio, characterized her predecessor's interpretation as "allowing, but not mandating, action on the part of the Bank in relation to human rights." That is more restrictive than the actual conclusion of Mr. Dañino that there are instances in which the Bank should take human rights into account. Ms. Palacio accepted that the Bank had a role in supporting its members to fulfil their human rights obligations. Her analysis began with an affirmative reference to Mr. Shihata's approach and she added that "human rights would not be the basis for an increase in Bank conditionalities, nor should they be seen as an agenda that could present an obstacle for disbursement or increase the cost of doing business".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Based on the preceding review, the following propositions seem to encapsulate the actual practice of the World Bank: (a) pay lip service to human rights in official settings, as long as there are no consequences; (b) acknowledge the theoretical significance of human rights in studies and analyses of issues in relation to which they are incontestably relevant; (c) ensure that, as a general rule, the Bank does not engage with any aspect of human rights in its actual operations and lending; and (d) be prepared to make exceptions when political imperatives require it, even if that involves a high degree of inconsistency.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- There are many reasons why a new approach is needed. The following six seem especially compelling.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- A sizeable amount of literature sets out the relationship between deunionization and wage inequality. The authors of a World Bank study on the economic effect of adopting or enforcing the two core labour rights mentioned above reported "very robust" findings that unions compress wage inequality. In particular, they found that the wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers were reduced when unions were present. This is consistent with another study, in relation to the United States, in which the authors concluded: When individual union membership is considered, union decline accounts for a fifth of the growth in men's earnings inequality. Adding normative and threat effects of unions on nonunion pay increases the effect of union decline on wage inequality from a fifth to a third. By this measure, the decline of the U.S. labor movement has added as much to men's wage inequality as has the relative increase in pay for college graduates. A 2013 study about Turkey shows that the fall of unionization in that country resulted in higher wage inequality during the period 1980-2008. Also relevant is the evidence that not only does deunionization affect wage inequality, but wage inequality also affects unionization.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The World Bank has also been active on this front. In its Annual Report 2014 it noted that "rising inequality in many countries is harmful to economic stability and the sustainability of growth, but well-designed policies can reduce inequality without hurting growth". In January 2015, the Bank's Chief Economist suggested that the "deep and pervasive inequality that exists today can only be condemned". He recalled that the annual income of the world's 50 wealthiest people was close to the total income of the poorest 1 billion, a figure that he characterized as "a collective failure". He called for the consideration of "policies and interventions to curb such extreme inequality", which he said must be done "not only out of a sense of justice, but also because, in a world afflicted with such extreme disparities, its poorest residents lose their voice, even when they have the right to vote. Extreme inequality is, ultimately, an assault on democracy."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- That can be applied to the plight of those living in extreme poverty, who continue in most societies to be marginalized, stigmatized and the objects of condescension and charity. Recognition of their human rights does not guarantee them food, education, or health care, but it does acknowledge their dignity and agency, empower them and their advocates and provide a starting point for a meaningful debate over the allocation of societal resources in contexts in which their interests have been systematically ignored. It is indeed a technocratic illusion to assume that those dimensions can be ignored as long as bureaucratically directed projects and policies are well designed by the staff of the Bank. Similarly, it makes a huge difference if education reforms are premised on the right to education of the beneficiaries, as opposed to the good intentions or largesse of the World Bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 56c
- Paragraph text
- [The challenge of putting questions of resources and redistribution back into the human rights equation has several dimensions:] Leading human rights non-governmental organizations need to overcome their deep reluctance to bring issues such as resources and the need for redistributive policies into their research and advocacy. The result of their current failure to do so is that for all of their excellent work in exposing the magnitude of a specific range of human rights violations (overwhelmingly violations of civil and political rights), the deeper structures that keep in place policies and systems that do little to address extreme poverty and do even less to address extreme inequalities are effectively left in place, and the status quo is reaffirmed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Studies have demonstrated the negative effect of income inequality upon the right to education. A 2014 study published by OECD showed that "increased income disparities depress skills development among individuals with poorer parental education background, both in terms of the quantity of education attained (e.g. years of schooling), and in terms of its quality (i.e. skill proficiency)" and that "higher inequality lowers the opportunities of education (and social mobility) of disadvantaged individuals in the society, an effect that dominates the potentially positive impacts through incentives". Another study showed that the youngest children in Ecuador, irrespective of wealth quintile or education of their parents, performed broadly as well as their comparators, but that, as they got older, only those children in the top half of the wealth distribution and with highly educated parents maintained their performance relative to their comparators.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Education
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities also have an impact on the realization of the right to water. In a 2012 report, the Secretary-General cited an analysis of data from 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that found that access to improved sources of water varied from 94 per cent among the richest 20 per cent in urban areas to 34 per cent among the poorest 20 per cent in rural areas (see A/67/394, para. 29). In another study, it was found that the "rate of progress in access to water and sanitation is very uneven among wealth quintiles in many countries, with the poorest two quintiles frequently experiencing lack of improvement while other quintiles experience significant advances".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The goals and policies of the Bank have changed radically since 1944. The Articles of Agreement contain no mention of either of its current proclaimed "twin goals" of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. The General Counsels have played a key role in the necessarily dynamic interpretation of the Articles required to reflect and justify that evolution.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- No outsider can prescribe an ideal recipe for the Bank to follow in adopting a human rights policy. There are many options and paths that could reasonably be taken. The Bank is a very special organization and it will need a carefully tailored policy that takes adequate account of the many concerns that will undoubtedly be expressed. Most of all, there needs to be a transparent discussion, based on carefully thought-through proposals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45e
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] Income distribution should become an economic and social indicator used by international financial institutions and other international organizations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- One context in which the relevance of human rights might have been expected to be acknowledged is the environmental and social "safeguard" policies of the Bank. However, the current safeguards contain no explicit human rights policy and the sole reference to human rights occurs in operational policy 4.10 on indigenous peoples. Human rights have sometimes had an indirect influence on the interpretation of the safeguard policies by the World Bank Inspection Panel, but the practice in that regard has been inconsistent and piecemeal.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Beginning in the late 1980s, the General Counsel of the Bank, Ibrahim Shihata, revisited the human rights issue. In a 1990 opinion he considered the question of governance and in 1995, the political prohibition. Although the latter opinion recognized the indivisibility of human rights, it drew a clear distinction between the two sets of rights. The General Counsel argued that, although the operations of the Bank already promoted a broad range of economic, social and cultural rights, its Articles of Agreement would normally prohibit it from promoting political rights. He left open the possibility of an exception in that latter regard when "an extensive violation of political rights which takes pervasive proportions" had "significant economic effects".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- There are, however, some Bank studies which enter into detail on the issue of human rights, such as those in its annual flagship publication, the World Development Report dealing with issues such as equity, gender equality, conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS and disability. In 2006 the World Development Report urged that equity should be a central concern in the design and implementation of development policy. It noted that the "international human rights regime testifies to the shared belief that all should have equal rights and be spared extreme deprivation," and acknowledged various other links between human rights and equity. In 2011, the World Development Report focused on conflict, security and development. The message of the report was that strengthening legitimate institutions and governance to provide security, justice and jobs for citizens is crucial to breaking cycles of violence in fragile countries. Building confidence is a major challenge and one that requires the protection of human rights. Detailed suggestions are explored for achieving that goal.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The main message of the World Development Report in 2012 on gender equality and development was that gender equality was both a core development objective and "smart economics". It mattered because "the ability to live the life of one's own choosing and be spared from absolute deprivation is a basic human right." Development is defined as "a process of expanding freedoms equally for all people," and international and regional human rights instruments crucial in achieving gender equality. The report described the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as "the primary international vehicle for monitoring and advocating gender equality."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In effect, although the Bank's lawyers might be expected to strenuously dispute the proposition, the template just described could be applied in a very similar fashion to justify a human rights policy. Previous legal opinions have left space for the crafting of such a policy, other multilateral development banks and most multilateral and bilateral development agencies have human rights policies and there has been voluminous scholarly research on those issues. The General Counsel's definition of development for the purposes of interpreting the mandate clearly accommodates human rights. There are innumerable ways in which human rights violations have major economic impacts and the poor are disproportionately affected. And, just as with the criminal justice sector, there will be some aspects of some rights which would fall foul of the political prohibition, thus requiring a series of risk management strategies to avoid such problems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Current income-inequality figures are quite dramatic. According to a 2008 study by the International Labour Organization (ILO), over the past two decades the income gap between the top and bottom 10 per cent of wage earners increased in 70 per cent of the countries for which data was available. According to a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study, the gap between rich and poor in OECD countries is at its highest level in 30 years. In 2007, the average executive manager in the 15 largest firms in the United States of America earned more than 500 times what the average employee in the United States earned, compared with over 300 times in 2003, and similar patterns can be observed in many other countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Diverse civil society actors also needs to think through in a more systematic and nuanced way what exactly they would like to see from a human rights initiative. In the view of the Special Rapporteur, it is debatable whether some of the roles that the Bank has been called upon to undertake in the past are appropriate. The Bank cannot be expected to carry the burden of the expectations of every human rights demand that might be made in a given situation. There are limits to what can reasonably be expected of it and there are legitimate questions related to its mandate and the respective roles that should be played by different actors. Placing unreasonable demands on the Bank merely reinforces the fears of those who are currently resisting change in that area.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- The Bank needs to remove the roadblock that has been erected by its anachronistic, artificial and unjustifiable interpretation of the political prohibition contained in its Articles of Agreement. Admittedly, it is conceivable that the Bank might be tempted to pursue some issues using prohibited political approaches and would need to guard against them. However, positive measures designed to promote respect for obligations based on human rights treaties that are binding upon borrowing States would generally not cross such a line. Of course, much will depend on how the issue is approached, but a blanket prohibition on any such action as being political is wholly unwarranted. Just as the phrase "economic considerations" has been interpreted to accommodate Bank measures to combat corruption and to promote the rule of law and criminal justice reform, so too can the phrase accommodate a policy which takes account of the economic consequences of ignoring or violating human rights in a given project.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- The starting point for any policy is to acknowledge that human rights are relevant to the twin goals of the Bank. Exactly how that relevance should manifest itself in different situations and policies is a matter to be explored and developed over time. It makes sense in such contexts to move with all deliberate speed. In the longer term, a change of culture within the Bank would be required, as has often been remarked in relation to safeguards and other concerns by internal evaluation mechanisms. When UNICEF adopted a policy grounded in the rights of the child, it took considerable time for the internal culture to change, just as it will in the case of others. Training will be an essential component, but if any organization is capable of mastering a new policy direction of this kind, it is the Bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities seem to encourage political capture and the unequal realization of civil and political rights. High levels of economic inequalities "may create institutions that maintain the political, economic and social privileges of the elite and lock the poor into poverty traps from which it is difficult to escape". This vicious cycle may be broken when civil and political rights are enjoyed more equally, as illustrated by the case of Chile. Under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet during the 1970s and 1980s, income inequality worsened, then improved after democracy was reinstated (although it is still higher than it was in the 1960s or early 1970s). Another example is Rwanda, where gender equality is enshrined in the Constitution and a quota system has contributed to more than half of the members of Parliament being women, making it the only country in the world with more female than male members of parliament. After the introduction of the quota system, the Rwandan Parliament passed legislation to enhance gender equality, "including several laws aimed at preventing and punishing gender-based violence, laws granting more extensive property rights to women and key legislation on women in the workforce."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The protection of core labour rights, such as the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, is also essential for a more equal division of power and the reduction of economic inequalities. While it is very difficult to measure the causal relationship between the fulfilment of those core labour rights and economic inequalities, various studies point to a relationship between the lack of protection of core labour rights and deunionization and between deunionization and growing wage inequality. The authors of a recent study note: "The neoliberal paradigm in the early 1980s created an extremely negative environment for unions with the abandonment of full-employment policies. Since that time, labor laws across the world have become much less union friendly, and unionizing new establishments has become harder."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- In 1999, the authors of a major study concluded that while global inequality was a major problem, it had been largely neglected by traditional investigations into world order. They argued that processes of globalization were exacerbating inequalities both within and among States and eroding the capacity of traditional institutions to manage the resulting threats. But it took well over another decade for the challenge of inequalities to appear high on the list of the international community's priority concerns. In the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled "The future we want", world leaders reaffirmed the need to achieve sustainable development by reducing inequalities. They considered that it was essential to generate decent jobs and incomes that decreased disparities in standards of living (see General Assembly resolution 66/288, annex, paras. 4 and 30).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In 2014, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals presented its proposals for the post-2015 development agenda (see A/68/970 and Corr.1). Proposed goal 10 is aimed explicitly at reducing inequality within and among countries. The specific targets associated with goal 10 include the following: achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average; ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome; and adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- In December 2014, the Secretary-General presented a synthesis report containing his vision for the negotiations of the new sustainable development goals (A/69/700). In the report, the Secretary-General spoke of gross and intolerable inequalities, and argued that income inequality specifically was one of the most visible aspects of a broader and more complex issue, one that entailed inequality of opportunity. He underlined that, as States implemented the new agenda, they must address inequalities in all areas, agreeing that no goal or target be considered met unless met for all social and economic groups. The defining challenge of the time was to close the gap between the determination to ensure a life of dignity for all, and the reality of persisting poverty and deepening inequality (ibid., paras. 65 and 67-68).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations has not been alone in recognizing the threat posed by the dramatic growth in inequalities. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned consistently of the seriousness of the problem. At the Fund's annual meeting in 2014 she said: "There has been a staggering rise in inequality - 7 out of 10 people in the world today live in countries where inequality has increased over the last three decades. And yet, we know that excessive inequality saps growth, inhibits inclusion, and undermines trust and social capital." In February 2014, the Executive Board of IMF discussed a staff paper on fiscal policy as the primary tool for Governments to affect income distribution, including "options for reform of expenditure and tax policies to help achieve distributive objectives efficiently in a manner consistent with fiscal sustainability and recent evidence on how fiscal policy measures can be designed to mitigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on inequality".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Democracy and civil and political rights are closely linked to the equal division of economic and other factors that are crucial for well-being. Amartya Sen famously argued that democracy and the upholding of related civil and political rights, such as freedom of the press and the right to vote, are connected to the non-occurrence of famines. He suggested that "India's success in eradicating famine is not matched by a similar success in … relieving inequalities in gender relations". According to Mr. Sen, deprivations such as gender inequality "call for deeper analysis, and for a greater and more effective use of mass communication and political participation - in sum, for a fuller practice of democracy". The existence of a democracy and the right to participate in the political process do not guarantee equal opportunity and more equal outcomes. As other authors have argued, the correlative human rights obligations necessary to "constitute democracy and ensure that it functions properly" include more than just the right to vote: the State "may need to take positive steps to protect individuals against other individuals' interference with the right."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Although many forms of discrimination are inherently unjust, the correlation between gender-based discrimination and economic inequalities deserves special mention since it potentially affects half of the world's population. While both men and women may experience myriad inequalities, based on factors such as their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability, gender-based discrimination is too often seen to be almost exclusively a women's problem. In its World Development Report 2012, the World Bank describes the forms of discrimination that still exist in many countries and that directly affect economic inequality between men and women. According to the World Bank, men and women still have different ownership rights in at least nine countries, and in many countries, women and girls still have fewer inheritance rights than men and boys. In addition, women continue to fare badly in the labour market generally. A stocktaking by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) shows that almost 80 countries maintain restrictions on the types of work that women are permitted to undertake. Also according to UN-Women, at the global level, women's labour force participation rates have stagnated since the 1990s. Currently, only half of women are in the labour force compared to more than three quarters of men. Despite considerable regional variations, nowhere has this gender gap been eliminated: globally, women earn on average 24 per cent less than men. In one study of four countries, lifetime income gaps between women and men were estimated to be between 31 and 75 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- It is clear that economic inequalities severely affect a range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- Finally, it is not necessary in the present report to repeat the powerful ethical, legal and instrumentalist arguments that have been made in the extensive literature on integrating human rights into development policies and programmes. Ironically, nowhere have the arguments been more systematically explored than in the World Bank's own publication on integrating human rights into development, produced in collaboration with OECD.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The differences in intergenerational economic mobility between countries are not random. Studies have shown a clear negative relationship between economic inequalities in a country and intergenerational earnings mobility. Alan Krueger has called this the "Great Gatsby curve". Joseph Stiglitz has written that the ideal of equal opportunity is increasingly a myth in many countries and that the decline in opportunity has gone hand in hand with growing inequality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The Articles of Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) contain several provisions commonly referred to as the "political prohibition". Most importantly, article IV, section 10 provides that: "The Bank and its officers shall not interfere in the political affairs of any member, … Only economic considerations shall be relevant to their decisions …". Successive General Counsels of the Bank have provided legal interpretations that have sought to distinguish legitimate "economic considerations" from inappropriate "political" factors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Since 2011, the Bank has published three major studies on populations at risk of HIV/AIDS. All three take the approach that assisting those vulnerable groups is a human rights imperative. They also contain explicit references to the relevant human rights norms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The author of the opinion then seeks to demonstrate that economic considerations demand a focus on criminal justice. It is argued that crime and violence impede economic development, reduce investment and employment growth and make countries less competitive. They undermine strategies to increase levels of social and human capital, which are key to economic growth, divert funds away from development and other productive activities, weaken the economies of fragile States and can exacerbate conflict. They also disproportionately affect the poor, by undermining employment, reducing mobility and hindering access to basic services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- A striking example of a publication dealing with human rights is the report, published jointly by the Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2013, entitled Integrating Human Rights into Development: Donor Approaches, Experiences, and Challenges. It makes a powerful case for the integration of human rights and development, although, as with most such publications, it includes at the front of the book a caveat that "the findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- As of January 2015, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) officially recognized "the centrality of human rights to [its goals] … and is committed to supporting 'universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.'" It "shall … refrain from providing support for activities that may contribute to violations of a State's human rights obligations and the core international human rights treaties …". The UNDP policy does, however, contain provisions that seek to limit its human rights obligations. The policy says that it will support State efforts meet human rights obligations "as requested," notes that UNDP does not have a human rights "monitoring role" and notes that it will monitor its own compliance with its policies as a matter of "due diligence". That is a formulation that has been carefully crafted both to acknowledge the centrality of human rights, but also to allay any concerns of Governments and officials that the organization is in the business of human rights enforcement.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Mr. Piketty shows that in 1970 the wealthiest 10 per cent in Europe owned about 60 per cent of all wealth, while in the United States the figure was about 65 per cent. Today, that share has increased by 5 percentage points in both places. In January 2015, Oxfam International presented figures showing that the richest 1 per cent of the world have seen their share of global wealth increase from 44 per cent in 2009 to 48 per cent in 2014, with a prediction that it will exceed 50 per cent by 2016. Of the remaining wealth, only 5.5 per cent goes to those outside the top quintile.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- The last of those claims is reflected in the following statement: "In fact, it has been possible to integrate human rights (using principles derived from the human rights framework) without an explicit approach, as can be seen in the work of some of the international financial institutions." But the very next sentence in the same report provides a compelling rebuttal of that very claim: "A potential shortcoming of such an approach is the risk of 'rhetorical repackaging,' which involves a superficial use of human rights terms in development without a full incorporation of human rights obligations or principles".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- States should reduce inequality by adopting taxation policies that are instrumental to achieving that aim. While preparations for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development Conference, to be held in 2015, and the post-2015 development agenda have brought fiscal policies to prominence in international development debates, the basic principle that tax and development policies go together was already recognized over half a century ago in the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, in which the General Assembly called for the achievement of equitable distribution of national income, utilizing, inter alia, the fiscal system and government spending as an instrument for the equitable distribution and redistribution of income in order to promote social progress (art. 16 (c)).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- The key question then is whether it actually matters if the Bank uses the language of human rights or opts instead for surrogates which are perceived to be less politically loaded or contentious. After all, if it advocates for gender equality, does it really matter if it uses the language of human rights, or whether any reference is made to United Nations standards or the work of bodies such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women? Or if the Bank works to expand access to water and sanitation, who cares if it characterizes them as human rights or not? Or if the Bank talks about problems relating to inclusion, participation, governance or the rule of law, does it matter if the issues are framed in "Bank speak" rather than in terms of the human rights obligations of the State? Or if the focus is on assisting those living in extreme poverty, why worry if the Bank assiduously stops short of talking about a human right to social protection? Surely, what counts are results, not scoring points for correct language usage?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities, especially when extreme, can also be closely linked to social unrest and conflict. The Secretary-General has noted that when people perceive inequality to be unfair and excessive, protests and social unrest can result, such as those seen around the world in recent years (see A/67/394, para. 26). A study on poverty and inequality found that "high levels of interlocking inequalities may undermine the realization of civil, political and social rights; they may raise the level of crime and plunge societies into conflict". ILO, in its World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2015, stated that "rising inequalities have undermined trust in government, with a few exceptions" and that significant falls in trust "in particular if they accompany stagnant or declining incomes, can contribute to social unrest, as several countries in the Middle East have demonstrated, with knock-on effects on social conditions, growth and employment dynamics". Even in ancient times, Plato argued that "if a state is to avoid … civil disintegration … extreme poverty and wealth must not be allowed to rise in any section of the citizen-body, because both lead to disasters".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities not only impair civil and political rights but also negatively affect the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. A good example is the right to health. According to the World Bank, "infants from poorer families and children from rural areas are more likely to die than their peers from richer families and urban areas" and the poor are "considerably less likely than the non-poor to have access to high-impact health services, such as skilled delivery care, antenatal care, and complementary feeding." The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission found that "people from lower occupational classes who have less education and income tend to die at younger ages and to suffer, within their shorter lifetimes, a higher prevalence of various health problems" and that "these differences in health conditions do not merely reflect worse outcomes for people at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale but extend to people throughout the socio-economic hierarchy, i.e. they display a 'social gradient'". The World Health Assembly, in its resolution WHA62.14, has also affirmed the recommendation of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health on the need "to tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Infants
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities have long been a focus of analysis within the United Nations human rights system. But despite the various reports by different special rapporteurs calling attention to the problems associated with extreme inequality, little has been done to follow up on any of the studies or recommendations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- The Bank should have a due diligence policy that spells out some of the circumstances under which it would be unable to continue providing support for a given project. The United Nations due diligence policy in relation to peacekeeping is of direct relevance here. There is reason to believe that in many cases that subsequently became controversial, the Bank could have promoted relatively minor changes to make some of the projects much less vulnerable to criticism on human rights grounds. As the old aphorism says, a stitch in time saves nine.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45b
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] When income distribution begins to be concentrated in the hands of the few, relative poverty increases, as does extreme poverty, both in the developed and developing world;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The principal exception to that general rule has been the issue of human rights. As theories of development have changed and the Bank has confronted new challenges, legal counsels have had no difficulty in justifying the engagement of the Bank with issues such as corruption, the rule of law, environmental degradation and other novel issues. Alone among those new issues, human rights is classified as political rather than economic, despite the view of a former General Counsel that "human rights are an intrinsic part of the Bank's mission". Today, it is still the Legal Department that takes the lead in "policing" the human rights taboo within the Bank. That is said to apply even within the discussions in the Executive Board.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Ironically, given the widespread perception that the Bank is dominated by Western interests and values, the argument is often heard that the Bank needs to avoid human rights discourse because it may be perceived as imposing Western values on non-Western countries. Thus, the authors of a report on gender and human rights-based approaches in development felt the need to address such concerns in a separate annex. While the debate over cultural relativism is a very vibrant one in both political and scholarly circles, the justifiable issue of concern is not the basic universality of the standards, which has long been reaffirmed, but the degree of cultural appropriateness shown in their application. For the Bank to invoke a relativist justification to refuse all engagement with the universal standards is contrary to international law. Particular interpretations of human rights will always be contested, but so too will definitions of poverty, the rule of law, corruption and a great many other notions which lie at the heart of its work. Avoidance is no substitute for sophisticated and nuanced engagement.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The Bank has a long, and generally unhappy, history in which human rights concerns have been linked to demands for it to impose sanctions on client States. Such demands have come from many sources, including the General Assembly, the United States of America and other Governments and a wide range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In principle, the Bank has rejected most such calls on the grounds that they involve politics rather than economics. In practice, however, it has occasionally succumbed to political pressure and delayed or withheld funds, albeit insisting that its actions did not amount to sanctioning.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The President sought to make the case that serious institutional discrimination had economic costs that the Bank could legitimately take into account, but the same argument applies to equally problematic forms of discrimination against different groups in a large number of countries in which the Bank continues to operate, and in response to which no action has been taken. No convincing justification was put forward by the Bank as to why Uganda alone was singled out among the various countries that have laws that criminalize homosexuality. No explanation was given as to why discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities was the trigger for action, rather than often deeply entrenched official discrimination against various other groups. Nor was the action based on any policy document that had previously been elaborated. And finally, if the Bank itself had been directly implicated in the issue at hand, urgent remedial action would have been much more readily defensible, but it was not.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- LGBTQI+
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- There is a vast difference, however, between having a carefully tailored human rights policy and becoming an enforcer of rights. Many other international organizations have adopted such policies; none of them have become enforcers. The established international human rights regime exists to engage with States that are accused of violations and to find ways to encourage, facilitate and promote compliance with international norms. There is no reason why that task would or should move to the Bank if it were to acknowledge that human rights are also relevant to its operations. There are many ways in which the Bank can encourage or even assist States to design policies and projects that are consistent with the obligations that those States have voluntarily undertaken through the ratification of binding international treaties. It is especially noteworthy in this respect that the Bank safeguards already require it to take account of the international environmental treaty obligations of a country when undertaking an environmental assessment and it has managed to do that without giving rise to undue controversy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Before considering why the Bank should change its approach, it is essential to seek to understand why there is currently such an aversion to human rights within the management of the Bank. Six factors would seem to be especially important.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- From its creation in 1944, the Bank has sought to present itself as a functional, technical agency and hence one that is above the political fray. That was deemed essential to avoid the appearance of choosing sides in the aftermath of the Second World War and subsequently in the fraught climate of the cold war. That technocratic image is mirrored in the internal culture of the Bank, which is dominated by economists. That in turn affects how institutional goals are shaped and justifications framed. To become relevant, human rights factors need to be presented in terms of economic impact, rather than as matters of values, law, or dignity. Just as human rights proponents are uncomfortable with the consequentialism of economics, economists often perceive rights as being rigid, anti-market and overly State-centric. The concern is that the engagement of the Bank with human rights would bring about a radical paradigm shift with unknown consequences.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- The two most common responses heard from Bank officials in reply to suggestions that it adopt a human rights policy are in direct contradiction to one another. The first takes various forms, suggesting that such a reform would transform the nature of the Bank's role, open up a Pandora's box, create political havoc or be generally unmanageable. The second is that the Bank already does so much to promote the realization of human rights that a change in policy would make little difference and is thus unnecessary. The argument tends to go something like this: by improving access to goods and services such as health care, education and water and by lifting people out of poverty, the Bank enhances the enjoyment of human rights in many countries. Its focus on governance improves human rights, its emphasis on consultation enhances people's right to participate and its publications often acknowledge the importance of human rights. At the end of the day, the Bank might use different language from that of human rights law, but its goals are the same.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- All stakeholders need to rethink the approach to "sanctions" imposed upon borrowing States in response to human rights violations. In the past, such policies have too often been arbitrary, inconsistent, and even counterproductive. If the Bank were to sanction every member State that is accused of a serious human rights violation it would have very few borrowers and just as few lenders. As long as sanctions are considered to be the main element in a human rights policy, many Governments will continue to resist progress in this area. Based on experience to date, their position is not difficult to understand. The debate needs to move beyond the sanctions mentality and take a far more positive and nuanced turn.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequality can be used to refer to a range of inequalities relating to the distribution of income (from labour or capital) or wealth (such as financial assets or land) between individuals in a society. Economic inequalities are often expressed using the Gini coefficient of inequality, which varies between 0 (expressing perfect equality) and 1 (expressing perfect inequality: for instance when one individual owns all the wealth in a society), but there are a multitude of other ways to measure and present economic inequalities. The magnitude of the problem of economic inequalities is dependent on what exactly is being measured and how. An indicator measuring only labour income inequality may be ineffectual if those in the upper quintile or decile derive their income from wealth instead of labour. Measuring wealth inequality by looking at domestic tax data may lead to different results than if wealth distribution is measured by taking only household surveys into account.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- When analysing inequalities, there are many other dimensions of well-being that can be taken into account apart from income and wealth. Economic inequalities can be distinguished from what can be termed "social inequalities". Social inequalities may refer to the distribution of, for instance, political power, health, education or housing among individuals in a society. In theory, a society may have health equality, for instance, when every individual has access to the same quality and quantity of health care. Social inequalities and economic inequalities may, and often do, interact with, and reinforce, one another, for instance when individuals with higher incomes or their family members have more political power or access to better education than those with lower incomes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Economic and social inequalities are often categorized as "vertical inequalities", referring to the distribution of something such as income, health or power. Vertical inequalities can be distinguished from "horizontal inequalities", which are group-based differences (describing between "whom" the relevant differences occur). Horizontal inequalities may for instance refer to: inequality between men and women, between majorities and minorities, between races, between groups of people with different sexual orientations or between generations. Horizontal inequalities often overlap with vertical inequalities, for instance when women are overrepresented in lower income segments or when a racial minority is underrepresented in political bodies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- A serious commitment to tackle extreme inequality is only possible in the context of policies and programmes that take the concept of economic, social and cultural rights seriously and give them prominence and priority equal to that of civil and political rights. For all of the achievements that have been accomplished in this domain over the past two decades, the fact remains that economic, social and cultural rights continue to enjoy only second-rank status. There are many contexts in which they are absent, marginalized or only half-heartedly taken on board. In circumstances in which economic, social and cultural rights are not a fundamental part of the overall approach, there are no obvious limits to inequality. Mr. Sen is correct in noting that "the exclusion of all economic and social rights from the inner sanctum of human rights, keeping the space reserved only for liberty and other first-generation rights, attempts to draw a line in the sand that is hard to sustain".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Vertical and horizontal inequalities, including economic inequalities, are often closely related to discrimination. In many countries, the poorest sector of the population coincides with social and ethnic groups that experience discrimination. It is therefore possible that levels of economic inequality in many countries would be lower today in the absence of discrimination. When dealing with economic inequalities, we should therefore pay specific attention to the overlap between economic inequalities and group-based inequalities (horizontal inequalities), because they can indicate discrimination as an important cause of inequality. As Mr. Stiglitz has written: "One of the most invidious - and hardest to eradicate - sources of inequality is discrimination, both ongoing discrimination and the legacy of past discrimination."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- A major problem in both developing and developed countries is the capture of the political process by powerful groups, and the exclusion of others, leading to laws, regulations and institutions that favour the powerful. Economic inequality is often accompanied by political inequality, meaning that not all citizens are able to equally exercise their democratic rights. According to Oxfam, many people around the world believe that laws and regulations are designed to benefit the rich. According to Mr. Stiglitz, in the context of the United States, government plays a double role in current economic inequality: "It is partly responsible for the inequality in before-tax-distribution of income, and it has taken a diminished role in 'correcting' this inequality through progressive tax and expenditure policies."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Inequalities, political capture and the exercise of civil and political rights are closely connected. According to the World Bank, "unequal distributions of control … of political influence perpetuate institutions that protect the interests of the most powerful, sometimes to the detriment of the personal and property rights of others". Writing about the United States, where income inequality is at a historic high, Mr. Stiglitz has argued that the right to participate in the democratic process remains effectively unfulfilled for many poor Americans: "While the days of outright exclusion from the voting process are mostly behind us in the United States, there remains a steady stream of initiatives to limit participation, invariably targeting the poor and less well connected. … The result is that one in four of those eligible to vote - 51 million Americans or more - are not registered." Paul Krugman has written that "extreme concentration of income is incompatible with real democracy".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- At the same time, member countries and especially Executive Board members, need to begin to grapple seriously with what a policy should look like, rather than simply saying they are for or against any such policy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- It should be assumed that measures to enforce respect for human rights are the prerogative of the Human Rights Council and of the other appropriate United Nations political organs, and not of the World Bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- The next step is to demonstrate that criminal justice interventions will not violate the political prohibition. While acknowledging that "most development efforts" have a "political dimension," a narrow interpretation is adopted, according to which the Bank cannot involve "itself in the partisan politics or ideological disputes that affect its member countries". Inappropriate involvement is said to include "favoring political factions, parties or candidates in elections," or "endorsing or mandating a particular form of government, political bloc or political ideology."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- In January 2006, on his last day in office, the then General Counsel, Roberto Dañino, circulated a legal opinion on the Bank and human rights. Without explicitly claiming that the Bank had human rights obligations, the opinion charted a new approach. First, the Bank could take any type of human rights into account, provided there was economic impact or relevance. Second, where violations or non-fulfilment of human rights obligations had an economic impact, the Bank should take them into account. Third, the Bank might assist member countries to meet their legal obligations regarding human rights and should be broadly supportive of such commitments where they had an economic impact or relevance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- In a letter responding to a suggestion by two special procedures mandate holders in 2012, that Bank financing should support the human rights obligations of States, the current General Counsel, Anne-Marie Leroy, and the Vice-President for the Africa Region, Makhtar Diop, stated that "only economic considerations - meaning those that have a direct and obvious economic effect relevant to the Bank's work - can be taken into account in decisions by the Bank and its officers. Therefore, in our view, your suggestion goes beyond the bounds of the Bank's institutional mandate." In a subsequent letter, Ms. Leroy sought to distance the Bank from Mr. Dañino's opinion by noting that it "was neither presented to, nor endorsed by, the Bank's Board of Executive Directors and therefore, at this stage, it should not be represented as Bank policy."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- As the legal approach of the World Bank to human rights currently stands, the most problematic aspect is that it is based on double standards. On the one hand, successive General Counsels have found convincing rationales to facilitate the wish of the management to work on issues as diverse as corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing, governance and the rule of law, but on the other hand, human rights remains on a very short blacklist, along with support for the military and intelligence services, as issues that are currently classified as being predominantly political and thus prohibited.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The most telling example of that double standard is to be found in a 2012 opinion by the General Counsel justifying the involvement of the Bank in the criminal justice sector. It is a carefully argued analysis that invokes Mr. Shihata's opinions extensively in order to reach the conclusion that the mandate of the Bank permits it to work in that area "provided that proposed interventions are grounded in an appropriate and objective economic rationale and are structured so as to avoid interference in the political affairs of a member country." Because the issues raised and many of the matters dealt with have so much in common with human rights, it is instructive to examine the methodology and arguments employed and to consider the extent to which they could be applied equally to human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- In the World Report on Disability, jointly published by the Bank and the World Health Organization, the leaders of the two organizations stated that the report aimed to "provide the evidence for innovative policies and programmes that can improve the lives of people with disabilities, and facilitate implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities … This landmark international treaty reinforced our understanding of disability as a human rights and development priority." The report itself is full of practical guidance about how international human rights law is relevant to dealing with disability issues in development.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- For most purposes, the World Bank is a human rights-free zone. In its operational policies, in particular, it treats human rights more like an infectious disease than universal values and obligations. The biggest single obstacle to moving towards an appropriate approach is the anachronistic and inconsistent interpretation of the "political prohibition" contained in its Articles of Agreement. As a result, the Bank is unable to engage meaningfully with the international human rights framework, or to assist its member countries in complying with their own human rights obligations. That inhibits its ability to take adequate account of the aspects of its work within countries relating to the social and political economy and contradicts and undermines the consistent recognition by the international community of the integral relationship between human rights and development. It also prevents the Bank from putting into practice much of its own policy research and analysis, which points to the indispensability of the human rights dimensions of many core development issues.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- One of the most striking aspects of the relationship between the World Bank and human rights is how little thought has been given to what a human rights policy might look like in practice. As a result, the prospect has assumed bogeyman status and Bank officials regularly suggest that if there was such a policy in place, truly draconian consequences would follow. While it might be argued that such fears reflect either fear-mongering or a lack of understanding, or both, the real problem is that there has been nothing even vaguely resembling a blueprint on the table. Whether the Bank ultimately maintains, adjusts or changes its existing policy, it is essential that the policy should be principled, compelling and transparent. The recommendations that follow provide some indication as to what a human rights policy for the Bank could look like in practice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Governments especially need to explore ways to ensure that there is policy coherence between the positions they take in human rights forums and those they take in the context of the Bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph