The equal enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights is fundamental to sustainable development leaving no one behind, to democratic resilience, and to the prevention of instability and crisis. Without equal and adequate access to quality education, quality healthcare, food, water and sanitation, and housing, grievances grow, and society becomes fractured. This is especially the case for groups living in already vulnerable or marginalised situations, due to factors such as race, religion, disabilities, age, and gender. These groups often find it particularly difficult to fully enjoy their economic, social, and cultural rights, due to systemic discrimination. This helps explain one benefit of the emerging concept of the ‘human rights economy.’
The ‘human rights economy’ seeks to overcome barriers to equality, social justice, and sustainability by prioritising investments in economic, social, and cultural rights for all, including women and girls. Current economic models fail to provide prosperity for all, as can be seen by rising levels of poverty, as well as growing inequalities within and among countries. The main thrust of this new economic paradigm is to place human rights at the centre of economic, social, and environmental policymaking. People and their rights, rather than growth for growth’s sake, should be at the heart of every economic decision made by governments. For example, economic and fiscal decisions should be tested to ensure that they promote and protect the equal right of every child to a quality education, the right of every woman to sexual and reproductive health and rights, the right to work without discrimination, and the right of every individual, especially those living in vulnerable or marginalised situations, to an adequate standard of living, to social protection, and to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
As explained by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, by building ‘human rights economies,’ governments can ensure that social services become a ‘lever for social justice,’ promoting equal opportunities, meaningful participation, and investments in essential services. This message is, at least in part, being increasingly heard by the international community. Initiatives such as the ‘Bridgetown Initiative,’ the proposed new Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, plans to put in place a 15 per cent global minimum tax rate on multinational companies, and the global 2 per cent minimum wealth tax on billionaires as proposed by Brazil as Chair of the G20, all point to an increasing awareness that States need to prioritise equality and the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, and that to do so they need to cooperate to jointly address the key drivers of inequality, such as unfair tax systems, tax avoidance, and unfair trade. It has been estimated that this last measure alone (Brazil’s proposal to the G20) could generate roughly 300 billion $US per year to combat climate change, inequality, and poverty.
One vulnerable or marginalised group that would benefit significantly from ‘human rights economies,’ and more equal access to economic, social, and cultural rights, is women and girls.
The human rights economy can be seen as a way to improve the current economic, legal, and political frameworks that interrupt the achievement of gender equality. Gender inequality starts in the family, with discriminatory family laws and practices that limit women’s and girl’s rights to education, work, economic independence, property, inheritance, and full participation in society, as well as their autonomy and ability to make their own decisions. These factors, in turn, contribute to pushing inequality between men and women outside the family space. This social organisation erects particular barriers to the enjoyment of human rights on the part of women and girls, creating a drag on economic and social inclusion throughout their lives. As Emanuela Pozzan, Senior Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Specialist at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), has argued, a ‘human rights-based care and support economy’ can advance gender equality by recognising and addressing these barriers, and thus reducing the drag on women’s equal inclusion in the labour market, national economies, and society more broadly.
For example, ongoing pension reforms in many countries are disproportionately impacting older women by failing to provide adequate compensation for the disadvantages they have faced due to childbearing and child-raising. Economic, tax, social, and pension systems similarly often fail to recognise women’s’ critical social role as caregivers, for example, for elderly relatives, or sick family members.
Despite some progress, deep socio-economic gender-based inequalities remain. For example, women continue to earn 77 cents to each dollar earned by men. Research organisations estimate that this means that men own a ‘staggering USD 100 trillion’ more in wealth than women.
Unjust and unequal economies and societies also have more indirect consequences for the rights of women, including their rights to physical security, and to life. Horrifyingly, the response of male family members to economic insecurity and feelings of social exclusion, is often to express their grievances through violence against women and girls. One in three women globally have been subject to gender-based violence – physical, sexual, psychological, or economic. Data from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights shows that the proportion of women killed in 2023 doubled and that of children tripled, compared to one year prior.
‘Human rights economies,’ through their emphasis on economic inclusion, non-discrimination, and socio-economic equality, offer one road to better promote and protect the rights of women and girls.
The 56th session of the Human Rights Council, which took place from the 18 June to the 12 July 2024, included a focus on these issues and challenges, with a particular focus on the need for national economies to better promote and protect the economic and social rights of women. During one debate, Emanuela Pozzan of the ILO underscored the importance of investments in a human rights-based care and support economy to advance gender equality, noting the heterogeneity of care work around the world and the need to understand the care economy in order to achieve gender equality. She also pointed to a recently adopted resolution at the International Labour Conference in Geneva on decent work and the care economy. Many others called for a shift towards a ‘human rights economy’ if the international community is to ever secure the full enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights for all, including women and girls. Another speaker, Hyshyama Hamin, Campaign Manager of the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, called on UN member States to prioritise egalitarian family laws and practices in line with CEDAW’s article 16, ensuring, for example, that child marriage is prohibited without conditionalities, and that there are equitable distributions of marital property and inheritance.
In conclusion, if the world hopes to secure a fairer and more socially just model of economic growth, and if it is to have any hope of realising the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 leaving no one behind, key economic decisions must, at least in part, be based on due consideration to the equitable enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights. This will not be easy, after decades of neoliberal, growth-centric economic policies in much of the world. However, for the sake of democratic stability, sustainable development, social and environmental justice, and human rights, especially for vulnerable or marginalised populations groups including women and girls, it is imperative that governments head the call of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and build ‘human rights economies’ in all parts of the world.
Photo credit: James Cullen via Flickr.
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