HRC 57: SRI, IPPF and AWID Statement to the panel discussion on promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights within the context of addressing inequalities.

Thank you, President!

Akahata makes this statement on behalf of the SRI, IPPF and AWID!

Protecting economic, social and cultural rights will be impossible without a rehaul of the global financial architecture. Last year, Oxfam highlighted that “low- and lower-middle income countries will be forced to pay nearly half a billion dollars every day in interest and debt repayments between now and 2029.”

In the past few years, we have seen large mobilisations across the world rising up against violations of economic, social and cultural rights - like food insecurity, lack of basic health including abortion and education, rising fuel costs, inflation, and pensions among others. These mobilisations have often led to drastic restrictions on assembly, protest, and association, vicious policing and increasing militarisation.

Without addressing oppressive systems, particularly the global financial architecture and its impact, human rights are a distant dream. Given the urgent need to reform the global financial architecture, how can the HRC and other actors ensure that efforts to promote economic, social, and cultural rights do not remain superficial? If the underlying financial systems driving global inequalities are not addressed, it will all remain window-dressing.