OHCHR Meeting April 2013
Radhika Balakrishnan, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Progressive
Realization
Non-retrogression
Maximum Available
Resources
Minimum Essential
Levels
Participation,
Transparency,
Accountability
Non-discrimination
& Equality
• The obligation to respect requires 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 conduct requires 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.
• “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.
Government
Expenditure
Monetary Policy
& Financial
Regulation
Debt & Deficit
Financing
Government
Revenue
Development
Assistance
• 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.
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.
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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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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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