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Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Increased prices of housing and real estate assets have become key drivers in the creation of greater wealth inequality. Those who own property in prime urban locations have become richer, while lower-income households confronting the escalating costs of housing become poorer. Surveys of ultra-high-net-worth individuals show that more than half have increased the proportion of their investments allocated to residential properties, with the most common reasons being in order to sell at a later date and to provide a safe haven for wealth. The "economics of inequality", in fact, may be explained in large part by the inequalities of wealth generated by housing and real estate investments. Buying a home with a mortgage becomes a speculative investment depending on volatile financial markets, which may generate considerable wealth on leveraged equity or, alternatively, deprive households of a lifetime of savings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- 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
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The above issues, along with the absence of good practices related to remedy for aggrieved workers, were raised throughout the consultation with multi-stakeholder initiatives and industry coalitions as areas for further engagement across supply chain initiatives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- 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
The right to mental health 2017, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Three major obstacles which reinforce each other are identified in the following sections.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Witchcraft and the human rights of persons with albinism 2017, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- While defining witchcraft as an element of crime raises issues, witchcraft accusations could be objectively defined without defining witchcraft. Therefore, to suppress witchcraft accusations, they could be proscribed with legislation, enforceable with relative ease.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- 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. 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
Witchcraft and the human rights of persons with albinism 2017, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- In certain countries, organizations of traditional healers have established oversight systems to control the practice of their members. This is the case in Mozambique, where oversight takes the form of voluntary registration in the association of traditional healers.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- 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. 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. 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. 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. 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
Fundamentalism and its impact on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association 2016, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a perceived rise in expressions of fundamentalism in many contexts across the world. Despite the frequent use of the term, "fundamentalism" remains a word that is rarely defined with any specificity. The origin of the term, and most dictionary definitions, centre on strict adherence to a specific set of religious principles. This definition - conjuring up images of religiously motivated terrorists and sectarian warfare, among others - is perhaps the one that comes to mind first for most people.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Some States have also been reluctant to collect and provide reliable data, perceiving it to be contrary to their interests, particularly if they are seeking to attract development or tourism or to host mega events. Data collected by governments need to be supplemented by information that may only be available to non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations working directly with homeless populations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- There is also a pressing need for intense field research into the root causes of and trends in attacks in order for the phenomenon to be adequately understood and adequate measures taken.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Fundamentalism and its impact on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The free market fundamentalist ideology opposes the very existence of trade unions in general, with one author arguing that they are viewed as "monopolist agents manipulating the price of labour to the advantage of some (a minority) and to the disadvantage of others (the majority, including non-unionized workers and consumers)". The Special Rapporteur views anti-unionism as an inherently troubling aspect of free market fundamentalism, as the right to organize in the workplace is protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and through various conventions of the International Labour Organization.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- People enter the status or condition of debt bondage when their labour, or the labour of a third party under their control, is demanded as repayment of a loan or of money given in advance, and the value of their labour is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the length of the service is not limited and/or the nature of the service is not defined. Consequently, bonded labourers are often trapped into working for very little remuneration, or in some cases none, to repay the loan or advance, even though the value of their labour exceeds that sum of money.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
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
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, household income or expenditure data is not available. In such cases, other indicators such as the type of access (for example, whether a small-scale facility is used), property value, size of the residence or geographical location can be used to evaluate the economic capacity of users.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- There are, however, concerns from a human rights perspective. The construction of such systems may be technically difficult to install in and around existing buildings and infrastructure where urban settlements have not been adequately planned, such as in most informal settlements. In many developing countries, the sewerage network is only available in middle and high income areas. Leaving residents of low income areas and informal settlements without access to this service often entrenches inequalities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- 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
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
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2015, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- The digital agenda should include the following key dimensions.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Comparative study of enabling environments for associations and businesses 2015, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- Indeed, governments commonly view business as a natural ally of power: its activity stimulates the economy and creates jobs, which enables governments to advance their agendas and helps stabilize political situations. This relationship is, in turn, used to justify certain benefits provided to the business sector, such as tax incentives (though, notably, civil society's significant role in and contribution to economic growth and job creation is often overlooked). Business values are also by definition firmly centred on profit-making, potentially making the sector more politically malleable. Business leaders in some States may see their position as being dependent on power, which makes them cautious about questioning the established order. Businesses also have more resources than associations to lobby governments.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Different levels and types of services and the human rights to water and sanitation 2015, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- [The present report considers three main types of services:] Individual on-site solutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 54d
- Paragraph text
- [Where States adopt targeted measures, this also poses challenges. In practice, unfortunately, such measures often fail to reach the target population for a variety of reasons, including:] In most countries where subsidies are applied through tariff systems, these are only available to people connected to networks, thus excluding those who rely on kiosks, standpipes or public toilets;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Other types of mechanisms to ensure the affordability of services can be built into tariff schemes. Different tariff systems have different potentials but also limitations to ensure the affordability of services. These are generally only relevant to those connected to piped water and sewerage systems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Affordability of water and sanitation services 2015, para. 54f
- Paragraph text
- [Where States adopt targeted measures, this also poses challenges. In practice, unfortunately, such measures often fail to reach the target population for a variety of reasons, including:] Public financing is available only to those who have secure land tenure, thus excluding those living outside the formal legal system;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph