Interactive dialogue under Item 3, 49th session of the Human Rights Council

Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Representatives of civil society,

I am honoured to take the floor at the Human Rights Council for the first time since I took up this function in August 2021.

My work on this mandate began at a time of complex and competing crises, with the vast majority of the world’s population facing uncertainty about the future and deepening inequalities, including socio-economic impacts either resulting from or  being exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic.

Some staggering figures to illustrate the depth of these inequalities:

• Although estimates vary, between 115 and 150 million additional people are living in extreme poverty in the last two years. There is no doubt that the progress achieved in poverty reduction in the last 2 decades has been jeopardized by the pandemic.   
• In its flagship annual report on inequalities, entitled “Inequality Kills”, Oxfam International highlighted less than two months ago, that, according to their analysis, “the world’s ten richest people (who are  all men) more than doubled their fortunes from US$ 700 billion to US$ 1.5 trillion during the first two years of the pandemic. This means that that they became richer at a rate of USD 15,000 per second.”

In my view, these data are just the tip of the iceberg. They are expressions of various, mutually reinforcing undercurrents that are at the centre of the mandate that you have entrusted me. Simply put, there cannot be effective promotion and protection of any human right without States ensuring adequate financial resources to comply with their obligations and commitments in a timely manner. Constraints in fiscal space, especially at a time of heightened need of health services, social protection schemes and measures to counter food inflation and increased poverty, only exacerbate inequalities.

In this mandate, the burden of unsustainable debt, the losses incurred due to illicit financial flows, the weakness of effective taxation of multinational corporations, and the urgency to address and regulate financial systems are, among others, all crucial areas to better understand and challenge pervasive inequalities within and between countries.

Excellencies,

Against this backdrop, in today’s remarks I would like to present the main elements I have identified for my work in this mandate.

In report A/HRC/49/47 before you for consideration, I have outlined the priorities I have established for the mandate, taking into careful consideration resolutions 43/10, 46/8 and 46/11-para 24. I intend to focus my work on the following six thematic areas: 

• Fiscal legitimacy and human rights;
• Engaging the evolving nature and role of the State;
• Crises, natural emergencies and financial obligations;
• The environment, illicit financial flows, debt and financial transactions;
• Transparency of financial and tax information and digital systems;
• The global fiscal system and its implications for human rights

I also wish to mention that I took the opportunity to reflect upon and revise the excellent work of my predecessors in this mandate, which has over 20 years of existence in various iterations. There is a wealth of issues that have already been addressed and remain relevant, and I plan to make use of past work frequently, and to carry out follow-up work when pertinent. I find that the two sets of Guiding Principles (on debt and human rights, and on the human rights impact assessment of economic policies) that have been prepared in the past are essential tools.

I am very grateful to the Permanent Missions of Pakistan and Argentina for having confirmed my first two official visits for 2022. I will be visiting Pakistan in May, and Argentina in August and I intend to play a constructive role to assist the authorities, to identify good practices, obtain an in-depth understanding of current trends affecting human rights.

Distinguished participants,

Before I finish these remarks, allow me to share my serious concerns with the imminent debt crisis that many developing countries are facing.

As my predecessor, Ms Yuefen Li, warned in 2020, the weight of pre-COVID-19 public and private debt levels has been a matter of serious concern, and there are substantive grounds to fear a systemic debt crisis, with more sovereign and private defaults to come. 

In her report to the General Assembly, A/76/167, which I had the opportunity to present, there was a strong call for reform of the international debt architecture to make it fit for purpose, with a twofold objective:

• to respond to the current debt crisis, including by putting in place temporary debt standstill, emergency financing, debt relief, restructuring and cancellation; and
• to prevent a vicious cycle of debt by ensuring that the international debt architecture reform is based on human rights standards and principles, which offer a transparent, coherent and universally recognized framework that can inform the design and implementation of a debt restructuring mechanism and provide a just, equitable and durable solution to debt crises. The UN should play a leading role in guiding and implementing the reform to establish an equitable, durable, commonly acceptable resolution to sovereign debt crises. A multilateral framework would reduce the presence of moral hazards during crisis resolution.

Thanks for your attention and I look forward to your questions and comments.