Human Rights and the Global Economic Crisis

The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay has cautioned that the ructions in the world’s economies are having a disproportionate effect on already marginalized populations in many countries. The international community must be aware that fundamental human rights - the right to work, housing, food, health, education and social security - are being severely curtailed or undermined altogether. “When the economic indicators head south,” she said, “civil and political rights in many countries are also affected.”

Pillay has recalled that 60 years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born out of a crisis whose origins can be traced to the effects of the Great Depression. “Economic downturns, combined with a lack of freedom, accountability and transparency in government action are likely to engender social unrest which, in turn, may be repressed through violence and met with a further restriction of liberties.”

Predictions of an early recovery in global markets are still uncertain. Even if growth would pick up at the end of 2009, it is likely that the social impact of the crisis will still be felt in the medium term. Compounding on earlier and still ongoing food and fuel crises, developing nations are now having to confront rapidly shrinking trade and export-import credits. It is estimated that private capital flows to these countries will shrink by more than 80 percent from an all-time high in 2007. The International Labour Organisation estimates jobs are disappearing at more than a million a month and some economists have warned of “lost decades of development”.

“These are not only crises of development, but of human rights as well,” Pillay said.

She pointed out that in unpredictable, harsh economic conditions, it is the most vulnerable communities who are worst affected. The first to lose their jobs are often migrants because of their precarious status in many communities. The economic and physical security of women and girls is often put at risk exposing them to a lifecycle of injustice and poverty. “Women are often forced to eat last and the least,” she said.

Pillay made her remarks at a three-day summit of world leaders called to assess the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression. The Conference on the World Financial and Economic crisis and Its Impact on Development was attended by nearly 150 Member States.

The Human Rights Chief urged delegates to adopt a human rights perspective in developing responses to the crisis. “A human rights approach helps to put communities and people themselves in charge of devising what measures are best suited to ensure that economic recovery is sustainable, evenly spread, and long-lasting.”

Although the Outcome Document does not refer to human rights, it does speak of the international community being guided “by the need to address the human costs of the crisis: an increase in the already unacceptable number of poor and vulnerable, particularly women and children…; a rise in unemployment; the reduction in access to education and health services; and the current inadequacy of social protection in many countries.” 

The Document offers a commitment for prompt and decisive action to restore confidence and economic growth, safeguard economic, development and social gains and provide adequate support for developing countries to address the human and social impacts of the crisis.

1 July, 2009