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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66a
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- [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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 72
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 60
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 61
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 62
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 63
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- 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. 66d
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- [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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 69
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 59
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- 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. 64
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66b
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- [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
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- [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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66e
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- [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
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 68
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 73
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- 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. 70
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 71
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- 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
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 65
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- 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
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- [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
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- 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
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Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 63
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- 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
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The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 79
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- 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
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The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 87
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- 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. 89
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- 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
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 64
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- 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. 66
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- 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
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- 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
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 83
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- 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. 67
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- 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
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