HRC 58: Joint Statement to the General Debate on Item 8

58th Session of the Human Rights Council

General Debate – Item 8

Joint Statement by ILGA World

Mr. President,

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action reaffirmed that democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing and called on alleviating external debt for the full realization of the economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development.

Yet, the Human Rights Council has systematically failed to seriously address the human rights dimensions of austerity measures promoted by International Financial Institutions and the international debt architecture. We observed, time and time again, States that call themselves “human rights champions” obstructing efforts in this forum to address these issues.

Human Rights do not happen in a void. Currently, a total of 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on education, health or climate investment[1]. How can we expect that the standards that we negotiate and push for in this Council are implemented without even the possibility of adequate resourcing, which is forced by the international financial architecture?

Austerity measures disproportionately harm women, girls and gender non-conforming people, especially those who experience intersecting inequalities based on [dis]ability status[2], race, ethnicity, caste, and age[3]. They constitute obstacles to achieving gender and reproductive justice wherever they are implemented.

The structural reform of the unjust international financial architecture and the end of austerity measures is a human rights issue, a feminist issue, and an LGBTI issue. Debt cancellation is a prerequisite for just human rights-based redistributive public policies[4].

It is time this Council centered these debates in its agenda and that Member States and International Financial Institutions are held accountable for the human rights implications of austerity measures.

Thank you.

List of Signatories:

1. ILGA World
2. Women Deliver
3. COC Nederland
4. Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI)
5. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
6. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)