Bringing Human Rights to Bear in Times of Crisis: A human rights analysis of government responses to the economic crisis

It has been more than two years since the start of the largest financial meltdown and global economic recession in over fifty years. And yet, how have our governments responded to this crisis in such a way as to uphold people’s fundamental dignity and human rights?
This report aims to deepen our understanding of how governments have conducted themselves and how effective economic policies have been in defending and strengthening the enjoyment of human rights in a time of multiple and interlocking social and economic crises. As governments and international institutions begin to grow complacent, arguing that the worst of the crisis is over, civil society voices can attest to a different reality – a reality of deepening unemployment, further disenfranchisement of the most vulnerable, the breakdown of social safety nets and protection systems and the associated increase in unpaid work done mostly by women, increasing hunger and limited policy space particularly for developing country governments to act take the necessary actions to avoid and prevent economic and social breakdown.
This report has been jointly released by The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the Center of Concern, Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (CWGL) and the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net).