OHCHR and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Issues in focus

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OHCHR and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Issues in focus

Overview

The current global debt crisis threatens to unravel decades of development progress. Nearly 3.4 billion people live in countries spending more on interest payments than on health or education. Over half of low-income countries presently face or are at risk of debt distress – leading to a human rights crisis with long-term implications.

Why does it matter?

Public debt can be a useful source for countries with limited fiscal resources to meet their human rights obligations, including the right to development.

However, the current global debt architecture is broken and in need of urgent systemic reforms. State’s human rights obligations, including towards climate action, are often undermined due to high debt servicing. Austerity measures are imposed as loan conditionalities or during debt restructuring efforts that disproportionately hurt people in vulnerable situations, including women and girls.

Despite international efforts, many countries remain prone to debt distress. Of 124 lower- and middle-income countries, 76 are already in or at risk of a debt crisis, while 62 are highly vulnerable to climate shocks.

At the moment, as there is no clear, coordinated debt resolution process, creditors – public or private – refuse to agree to restructure unsustainable loans in the hopes of lesser haircuts. As a result, the burden of bearing a debt crisis falls on ordinary people who have little to no recourse.

OHCHR’s engagement

The human rights framework provides the tools to move towards a fairer global debt architecture. As part of the work on the human rights economy, OHCHR has deepened its engagement to ensure that debt sustainability efforts are compatible with States’ human rights obligations, particularly economic, social, and cultural rights and their commitments under the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

OHCHR has examined how unsustainable debt, delayed restructuring, unfair credit ratings, and austerity measures undermine human rights, while promoting human rights impact assessments on economic policy decisions as well as rights-based approaches to development financing and public debt management.

OHCHR has been advocating systemic reforms including the development of:

  • A multilateral legal framework on sovereign debt anchored in international human rights principles and standards;
  • Urgent debt relief and concessional financing for indebted and shock vulnerable countries;
  • Reforming Debt Sustainability Assessments that include human rights and social spending considerations meaningfully, moving beyond narrow metrics;
  • Tools such as human rights impact assessments of loans and conditionalities to ringfence fiscal space needed to realize the rights to health, education, and social protection;
  • Improved public debt management and transparency in line with human rights principles and standards;
  • Reform of international financial institutions, credit rating agencies and strengthened domestic regulation of private creditors.

At the Human Rights Council

Through this engagement, the Human Rights Council has paid increasing attention to the adverse impact of unsustainable debt and excessive debt servicing costs on States’ ability to realize economic, social, and cultural rights as well as the right to development.

The Council has adopted resolutions including 55/6 and 58/12 which request the Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights to address the effects of public debt, economic reform and financial consolidation policies on the realization of all human rights. Other Council resolutions such as 58/9 and 59/19 also call for the reform of the international financial architecture and greater international cooperation to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

These issues have also been discussed at Intersessional Seminars for dialogue and cooperation on human rights and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development with a particular focus on the impact in developing countries and 2024 Social Forum on the contribution of financing for development to the advancement of all human rights for all.

Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development

As part of its engagement with FFD4, OHCHR submitted a policy brief on the Human Rights Case for a Reform of the International Sovereign Debt Architecture and made an intervention at the Fifth Multi-Stakeholder Round table round table 5: "Realizing a development-oriented sovereign debt architecture" - 4th International Conference on Financing for Development FFD4 (Sevilla, Spain). OHCHR also organized several side events championing the need for a human rights economy and aligning economic policies, global economic governance and renewed global framework for financing for development with international human rights principles and standards. 

OHCHR will continue to engage and follow up on commitments related to sovereign debt in the Compromiso de Sevilla (Commitment of Sevilla), in close collaboration with UN entities and other stakeholders.

Statements

Events

Reports

  • A/HRC/57/33: This report discusses promising practices and policies to highlight the contribution of development in the promotion and protection of human rights in COVID-19 recovery, including the role of national development plans, public finance and debt management with recommendations on how to achieve debt sustainability to achieve the 2030 Agenda.

Resources

Related

Financing for development

Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and human rights 

Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty