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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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention 2014, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Members shall cooperate with each other to ensure the prevention and elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour.
- Body
- International Labour Organization
- Document type
- International treaty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
American Convention on Human Rights 1969, para. 3d
- Paragraph text
- 3. For the purposes of this article, the following do not constitute forced or compulsory labor: d. work or service that forms part of normal civic obligations.
- Body
- Organization of American States
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 1969
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- While the ability of buyers to purchase inputs at wholesale prices might allow them to pass savings on to farmers through lower prices, it may also be that when a farmer has access to inputs only through a buyer, the buyer will charge farmers higher than market prices for those inputs. In the course of consultations, the Special Rapporteur received a communication indicating that in the absence of public services, contract farming can create potentially devastating dependence by small farmers on the technology, credit, inputs and services provided by their contracting companies. This not only points to the danger of the Government relinquishing its duty to support farming communities by providing adequate public goods in the hope that private investors will fill in the gap, it also highlights one of the main negative effects of contract farming for farmers, which is its potential to trap them in cycles of debt. One common occurrence is that farmers must borrow money to invest in agricultural production as required under the contract and then do not earn enough money to cover their debts, for instance, because of falling market prices or poor harvests. This risk is particularly important where the investment on the land is related specifically to one type of production for which the contracting firm is the only buyer, a constraint that may be exploited by the firm as a way to exercise monopolistic power and thus gradually impose lower prices on farmers. Crops that rely on complex production and processing technologies and substantial specialized inputs that are unfamiliar to most growers and require large capital outlays significantly increase the level of risk confronted by growers, as illustrated by the Smallholder Sugar Authority and Smallholder Tea Authority contract-farming schemes in Malawi. The resulting cycle of debt can trap farmers into contractual arrangements that are neither optimal nor easily abandoned, either because of the debt itself or for other reasons, for example, because the soil was degraded by heavy pesticide use or because farmers have lost their relationships with former transaction partners, are unable to re-establish traditional cultivation methods or products or have become too dependent on the firm for other services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Income distribution and its management through taxation also have a crucial relationship with democracy. Growing income disparities can serve to polarize and fragment societies, which can ultimately lead to alienation and social unrest.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to access information 2013, para. 76f
- Paragraph text
- [The core principles include:] Costs. Individuals should not be deterred by excessive cost from making requests for information;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implications of States’ surveillance of communications on the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression 2013, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In addition to intercepting and tracking the content of individuals' communications, States may also seek access to communications data held by third party service providers and Internet companies. As the private sector collects progressively larger amounts of varied data that reveal sensitive information about peoples' daily lives, and individuals and businesses choose to store the content of their communications, such as voicemails, e-mails and documents, with third party service providers, access to communications data is an increasingly valuable surveillance technique employed by States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Despite substantial Government budgetary investment and specific targeting of low-income households, capital-grant subsidies have partially promoted only the affordability aspect of the right to adequate housing (by substantially reducing housing deficits in some developing countries), at the expense of the broader aspects of habitability, location, availability of services and infrastructure and non-discrimination, which have been largely ignored. As one commentator observed, the new stock of subsidized housing often created a greater housing problem: "the problem of those 'with roofs'".
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Global migration governance 2013, para. 133
- Paragraph text
- States should consider holding more frequent high-level dialogues, for instance every three years, which should be interactive and action-oriented, each with a rights-based negotiated outcome document.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- A significant percentage of post-crises austerity budgets have included proposals to limit the public wage bill by reducing the public sector workforce and cutting or freezing wages of public sector employees. Often these cuts are not progressively implemented, and therefore have a disproportionate impact on the lowest wage brackets. UNICEF has expressed concern that wage cuts or caps might translate into the reduction or erosion of the real value of salaries, as costs of living continue to rise, and may take the form of hiring freezes or employment retrenchment. The serious implications of such developments would be exacerbated by the fact that declines in real wages were already widespread owing to the effect of the global economic and financial crises on the labour market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- From the perspective of equality of opportunity, it is problematic if extreme economic inequalities begin at birth. Mr. Piketty has shown that for those born in France between 1910 and 1960, "the top centile of the income hierarchy consisted largely of people whose primary source of income was work". For those born in France in the 1970s, and even more for those born later, things are different, however. Mr. Piketty has written that the "top centile of the social hierarchy in France today are likely to derive their income about equally from inherited wealth and their own labor". Even more problematic is Mr. Piketty's finding that nearly one-sixth of those born in France today "will receive an inheritance larger than the amount the bottom half of the population earns through labor in a lifetime. (And this group largely coincides with the half of the population that inherits next to nothing)."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Commissions of inquiry 2012, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- The purposes of a commission of inquiry warrant a more flexible approach to rules of evidence, including the credibility of witness testimony. In assessing the credibility of evidence, a commission of inquiry should give special weight to corroborated testimony and to testimony subjected to cross-examination. A commission should also apply general rules in their assessment of the credibility of witnesses, including demeanour, subject to cultural and gender sensitivities. A commission should always accept testimony that is not subject to cross-examination, and should also avail itself of testimony that, if rendered in court, would be excludable as hearsay.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financing for the Realization of the Rights to Water and Sanitation 2011, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Second, government funding in the form of subsidies may be necessary to improve the affordability of services in low-income households. One issue with major human rights implications is whether government subsidy programmes should be universal or targeted in nature. Targeted subsidies aimed at reaching only those in need reflect the reality that budgetary limitations restrict the resources that States can devote to any given sector. Those who are able to contribute on their own, meanwhile, should be expected to do so. Accordingly, States may undertake measures such as means testing to identify those eligible for support.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Identifying and defining slums can pose a challenge for monitoring, but significant advances have been made in recent years, including by groups working with slum dweller organizations and through spatial analysis. Assessing slums by their spatial dimension - their location - could both yield more accurate data and serve as an effective link to planning. Indicators should be designed specifically for capturing the difference between slum and non-slum households. In addition, the definition of slums needs improvement; the best approach may be to use country definitions themselves. Those responsible for implementing major household surveys are encouraged to undertake special slum surveys, commit to oversampling in slum areas, and explore the use of data gathered by slum dweller organizations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2011, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- These two approaches, comprehensive and specific, are therefore needed and are indeed mutually supportive.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2014, para. 121
- Paragraph text
- Guided by relevant international standards, national experiences and existing research, the recommendations below highlight crucial steps to achieve this goal.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph