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OHCHR Meeting April 2013

Macroeconomic Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective: How to use human rights to assess economic policy. OHCHR Meeting April 2013 Radhika Balakrishnan , Center for Women ’ s Global Leadership, Rutgers University. Human Rights Principles. Obligations.

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OHCHR Meeting April 2013

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  1. Macroeconomic Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective: How to use human rights to assess economic policy OHCHR Meeting April 2013 RadhikaBalakrishnan, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University

  2. Human Rights Principles

  3. Obligations • The obligation to respectrequires states to refrain from interfering with the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. • The obligation to protect requires States to prevent violations of such rights by third parties. • The obligation to fulfil requires States to take appropriate legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial and other measures towards the full realization of such rights. • The obligation of conductrequires action reasonably calculated to realize the enjoyment of a particular right. • The obligation of result requires States to achieve specific targets to satisfy a detailed substantive standard. • These obligations include extra-territorial obligations.

  4. Maximum Available Resources • “Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures” (ICESCR Article 2.1). • Implication: Governments cannot ignore human rights obligations on the grounds of lack of resources. They must show that they are making the maximum use of available resources to realize human rights.

  5. Maximum Available Resources Star

  6. Maximum Available Resource Star • Government Expenditure: can help fulfill economic and social rights through provision of appropriate services, infrastructure and social protection. • Government Revenue: can help to finance HR fulfilling services, infrastructure and social protection. • Development Assistance: can help to finance HR fulfilling services, infrastructure and social protection. • Debt & Deficit Financing: can help to finance HR fulfilling services, infrastructure and social protection,depending on the assets built through borrowing and the sustainability of debt. • Monetary Policy & Financial Regulation: can help fulfill HR by influencing interest rate and exchange rates, in ways that sustain output and employment. • All of these instruments can also be used in ways that hinder the fulfillment of economic and social rights.

  7. Debt sustainability:The rate of economic growth matters • GDP reflects the ability to pay down the debt. • Sustainability of a given level of debt usually viewed in terms of the growth of the debt (the interest rate) and the growth of GDP (the rate of economic growth): • Sustainable debt when g > i. • Unsustainable debt when g< i.

  8. Endogeneity of the deficit: The rate of economic growth matters • Fiscal deficit is the annual addition to the debt. • The fiscal deficit also depends on the rate of economic growth: • In economic upturn, tax receipts rise and automatic stabilizers (e.g. unemployment benefits) fall – fiscal position improves. • In economic downturn, tax receipts fall and automatic stabilizers rise – fiscal position deteriorates.

  9. Endogeneity of the deficit: The rate of economic growth matters • Fiscal deficit is the annual addition to the debt. • The fiscal deficit also depends on the rate of economic growth: • In economic upturn, tax receipts rise and automatic stabilizers (e.g. unemployment benefits) fall – fiscal position improves. • In economic downturn, tax receipts fall and automatic stabilizers rise – fiscal position deteriorates.

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