WUNRN
Important: Consider Impacts of the
Economic Crisis
on Women and Girls, and Government
Responses
Is Your Government Respecting Its Human Rights
Obligations in Confronting the Economic Crisis?
Please Participate in this Questionnaire on Government Responses
to the Crisis
It has been more than two years now
since the start of the largest financial meltdown and global economic recession
in over fifty years. And yet, how have our governments responded to this crisis
in such a way as to uphold peoples’ fundamental dignity and human rights?
ESCR-Net—together with the Center for
Economic and Social Rights, the
Your answers will be compiled into a
collective report which will analyze government responses to the crisis from a
human rights perspective, serving as the foundation upon which to provide views
and recommendations during a high-level panel discussion during the 13th
session of the Human Rights Council in March 2010. This panel will discuss and
evaluate the impact of the financial and economic crisis to the realization of
all human rights worldwide. It will also provide an important space to pressure
governments and international agencies to develop, strengthen and implement
economic policies which make human rights real in the global economy. Your
responses and this process will at the same time provide important building
blocks to thinking through a collective strategy for advocating for a human
rights response to the global economic crisis.
BACKGROUND
In June 2009, ESCR-Net and several
members elaborated the Collective Statement
on the Financial Crisis and Global Economic Recession: Towards a Human Rights
Response. In it, almost 300 organizations and individuals call for a response
to the financial crisis and economic recession that places human rights norms
at the center, in which people and the environment, not banks or business, are
at the foundation of economic policy-making.
Now it is time to deepen our
understanding of how governments have conducted themselves since then. As
governments and international institutions begin to grow complacent, arguing
that the worst of the crisis is over, we aim to bring civil society voices into
the debate which can attest to a different reality—a reality of deepening
unemployment and underemployment, further disenfranchisement of the most
vulnerable, the breakdown of social safety nets and protection systems and the
associated increase in unpaid work done mostly by women, increasing hunger and
shrunken policy space for governments to act to avoid ruin. Your participation
in this process is critical. Economic
policy is public policy - your voice should be heard!
Is your government respecting its human rights duties in
confronting the economic crisis?
Questionnaire with key issues when evaluating whether
government responses to the global economic and financial crisis have been
consistent with their human rights obligations
INSTRUCTIONS
This
questionnaire presents 8 broad questions for your response which are relevant
to analyzing how well your government has based its policy responses to the
economic crisis upon human rights principles and obligations. In order to
explore some of the specific issues we'd particularly welcome feedback on, each
of these 8 broad questions include several detailed questions below them. The
questions are plentiful so as to generate reflection and input from a broad
community of social justice activists, but don’t feel overwhelmed. We encourage you to collaborate wherever
possible with other organizations to complement your expertise on issues.
But equally, you do not need to answer all the detailed questions in your response,
just those you feel comfortable within each section. If you make reference in
your response to any published or unpublished materials, please provide
citations to it. Also, we would be eager to receive recommendations on any
useful national-level analysis produced in your country on the human rights
implications of responses to the economic crisis and in the areas covered in
this questionnaire.
Please
send your responses or any questions to Niko Lusiani at nlusiani@escr-net.org.
For more information, visit www.escr-net.org.
The deadline to receive your answers is Friday,
January 22, 2010.
╣ What
have been the priorities of your government in responding to this crisis? Which social groups or economic sectors have
been prioritized?
╣ Is your government ensuring its minimum core
obligations to ensure that everyone has at least the basic minimum to live with
human dignity, even during this crisis?
Has your government expanded or cut social
protection or other social safety net programs geared to realize economic and
social rights, especially of those most disadvantaged or discriminated against,
such as women, people of color, indigenous peoples, older persons, or disabled
persons? Has your government set in place a mechanism to account for the unpaid
work, done mostly by women, to make up for any shortfalls in social spending?
If programs were cut, how has your
government justified such measures according to its obligations to not regress
in the fulfillment of economic and social rights? What role have international
or donor agencies played in this regard, through fiscal austerity conditionalities
for example? If your
government instituted new social protection or other programs, or expanded
existing ones, have they come at the expense of other programs to ensure human
rights?
Were principles of public participation,
transparency, non-discrimination and accountability respected in the design,
implementation and monitoring of policies related to social protection
programs? Is your government ensuring anti-corruption and other types of
measures to guarantee that the programs are reaching all the intended
beneficiaries?
╣ Have economic stimulus packages been adopted
in order to promote an adequate standard of living for all? Or, in contrast,
has your government engaged in more fiscally austere and pro-cyclical policies,
such as cutting spending on social services?
What sorts of economic stimulus
interventions has your government made? For instance, has your government
instituted or expanded cash transfers to the poor, investments in infrastructure,
increases of the minimum wage, or tax cuts? If tax cuts made up part of the
stimulus, what percentage of the total intervention was it?
Which social actors and which economic
sectors have benefitted most by these stimulus packages, if any? Which social groups or economic sectors have
suffered? What have been the gendered impacts of the economic stimulus, for
example of investing in certain sectors of the economy? Were any measures taken
which directly address the needs of the newly unemployed, or provide support
for single heads of households and caregivers? In which ways have these
packages in your estimate strengthened, or weakened, the enjoyment of
socio-economic rights in your country?
Is your government monitoring the
impacts—positive and negative—of the economic stimulus on different groups,
including the most disadvantaged? Is your government ensuring anti-corruption
and other types of measures in the programs to guarantee that they are reaching
all the intended beneficiaries? Were principles of public participation,
transparency, non-discrimination and accountability respected in the design,
implementation and monitoring of these programs?
╣ What sorts of financial measures have been
adopted to respond to the crisis and what have been their effects?
Has your government for instance
instituted bank bailouts, rescues of companies/economic sectors, or capital
controls? What level of resources has your government devoted to such emergency
financial measures? Where did the resources to carry them out come from, and
how have these policies affected your government’s ability to tend to its
obligations to social and economic rights, such as housing, education, healthcare,
food, water, or standard of living?
Has there been transparency and democratic
debate about how much these measures cost, and who is bearing the cost (e.g.
ordinary taxpayers?) What have the
impacts of these financial measures been across different social groups? Were the principles of non-discrimination and
substantive equality respected in their design and implementation? Do
mechanisms of accountability exist for the financial sector in general?
Does your government’s central bank
consider the level of employment and an adequate standard of living when
deciding its policy, or is it driven only by the level of inflation and by
ensuring price stability? Is the decision-making process of your central bank
transparent, and open to public scrutiny? Does the central bank measure—and
hold itself accountable—for the results of its interventions on employment, and
on different social groups? How is your central bank held accountable to its
mandate?
╣ Has
your government adequately discharged its obligation to protect against human
rights abuses potentially caused by private parties, such as banks or business?
Who bears most responsibility for causing
the crisis in your estimate? How much of
the negative human rights effects of the crisis are attributable to the
behavior of banks—including foreign banks operating in the country? How much in
your estimate is due to poor or biased regulation? What changes in the
regulatory structure in your country were made that allowed this crisis to
happen? Who are responsible for these changes being made? Were these changes
imposed by international financial institutions, such as the International
Monetary Fund?
How have these regulatory changes been
corrected, and in whose interest? Can you specify aspects or ways in which the
regulatory regime for banks –or your government’s approach to banking in
general—could be changed in order to prevent similar outcomes in the future?
Has your government, for example, developed reforms in the financial sector to
increase the amount of credit available to power the productive economy, or to
otherwise redirect banking to support social objectives? To what extent are
such measures being considered by the government?
Can you point to human rights effects of
the crisis in your country, which are attributable to other financial actors
such as hedge funds, private equity funds, or credit rating agencies? Has financial
speculation for its part led to negative effects which have exacerbated the
financial crisis, or resulted in higher prices (higher commodity prices, for
example, leading to higher food prices)? If so, are corrective measures (e.g.
stronger regulation) being considered?
In general, have those persons and
institutions responsible for the crisis been held to account?
╣ Has
your government conducted tax reforms during the crisis which accord with human
rights principles of transparency, participation, and non-discrimination?
What
sort of tax policy reforms has your government conducted, or planning to
conduct, in response to the crisis? If there has been reform, has the tax
policy become more regressive, or more progressive (that is, where does the
burden fall most – on the poor, or on the rich)? If there have been tax cuts,
who have benefited most? How has your government justified any reduction in
revenue which these tax cuts may produce? Were principles of public
participation, transparency, non-discrimination and accountability respected in
the design, implementation and monitoring of these tax reforms? Has your
government proposed alternative international tax policies, such as a financial
transactions tax, or an end to tax havens and illicit flows of capital?
╣ Are
there international actors or factors that are exacerbating the impacts of the
crisis in your country?
Has
your country been very affected by lower global demand for your exports? To
what extent are negative effects of the crisis in your country related to an
economic model of export–led growth? How has your government intervened to
mitigate these effects, through for example currency or trade policies? Has
there been a major decline in remittances from overseas workers, and if so,
what human rights impacts are apparent? Has your government faced difficulties
in borrowing internationally to finance increased spending needs during the
crisis – and if so, has this been a major factor exacerbating the negative
effects of the crisis? Have donors cut back in their assistance to your government
– and if so, to what extent are effects of the crisis on your country related
to aid dependence? Has your government cut back on its aid commitments as a
result of the crisis?
To
what extent, and how, is your government considering human rights obligations
in reshaping its approach to these different policy areas—exports, remittances,
debt, and aid? Are there limits imposed
on your government’s ability to respond in these areas by international actors
or international pressures? Are foreign
actors meeting their human rights responsibilities in your country?
╣ What
concrete recommendations would you make to your government on the one hand, and
regional or international agencies on the other, to effectively ensure that
their economic policies are in compliance with human rights law and norms, in
particular with economic and social rights, including during times of crisis?
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.