Economic and Social Rights in a Time of Austerity: Call to Register

June 6, 2011 Aoife NolanAileen McColgan, Aoife Nolan, Austerity, Bob Hepple, Child Poverty Action Group, Colm O'Cinneide, economic and social rights, economic crisis, Faculty of Laws, Geraldine Van Bueren, Graham Tegg, human rights, Human rights mainstreaming, Human rights monitoring, James Harrison, Joint Committee on Human Rights, Murray Hunt, Oxford, Public Law, Sandra Fredman, Sarah Spencer, Social Issues, socio-economic rights, the Comprehensive Spending ReviewLeave a comment

Durham Law School and the Faculty of Laws, Oxford, will host a one-day workshop on Economic and Social Rights in a Time of Austerity on 30 June in Oxford.

Date: 30 June 2011
Venue: Oxford Faculty of Laws

The last two years have seen growing evidence of the deleterious global impact of the economic crisis on the poorest in society. Domestically, there is increasing concern about the potential impacts of the Comprehensive Spending Review and other ‘austerity measures’ on the most vulnerable in the UK. At the same time, there has been a rising interest in the development of human rights accountability and adjudication in the area of economic and social rights (ESR) at the domestic, European and international levels.

This raises the question of whether ESR can play a role (whether as justiciable ‘hard’ rights or as normative values shaping and influencing policy) in challenging attempts by government to roll back basic entitlements of the poorest in society, particularly in relation to housing, social welfare and children’s rights. In light of this, the workshop aims to explore the role of human rights, and particularly ESR, in the context of austerity policies fashioned in the wake of the global financial crisis. It does so though focussing on four main themes: Monitoring, Mainstreaming, Legal Processes and Equality. It features leading ESR experts working in law, academia, the public sector and civil society. Continue reading “Economic and Social Rights in a Time of Austerity: Call to Register” →

Political Reform and the Future of Rights

November 22, 2010 Fiona de Londraseconomic crisis, European Union, International Monetary Fund, ireland, political reform, Republic of IrelandLeave a comment

BREAKING (11.51am): The Green Party has just announced that it will pull out of government after the budgetary process and called for a general election in the second half of January 2011. As a people we will therefore have the opportunity to take the first steps in a new political bargain in just six or so weeks’ time.

It would be cliché to start this post by saying that we live in difficult times, but of course here in Ireland we do: the bailout/facility/loan/contingency (strike out as appropriate) that we will now receive from a combination of the IMF/EU/ECB is officially under negotiation (RTÉ news report) and we still face a budget that will remove €6 billion from the economy in a fortnight’s time. These figures, we assume, are based on the numbers we currently have being accurate and holding firm. This is, of course, a challenge for everyone but if history has anything to tell us in this moment it is that those who will find themselves under the most pressure in the coming years (and, indeed, who have already done so in recent years) are those who are already the most vulnerable: older people, children, poor people, non-citizens, ill people, people with disabilities. The services that these people receive are generally expensive, and when a scythe is to fall it picks the thickest grass first. Those who are already vulnerable in our society will be made more vulnerable, and many more will find themselves moving into a condition of exacerbated vulnerability as the small sums of money that keep them just on the right side of the balance sheet begin to be chipped away. Mortgage interest reliefs, school book supplements, the drug rebate scheme and so on are the kinds of things that collectively keep average households buoyant in a society where the cost of living is simply out of control. But they too are the kinds of things that a government that must cut (and there can be no doubt but that it must) is likely to have in its sights. So what, then, happens to rights; to the discourse and legal tools that can help the vulnerable to demand that these cuts are limited and equitable and can continue to protect us even when the state is forced to shrink in size because it cannot continue as it presently is? In my view, what happens to rights is up to us: we can either allow them to be sacrificed at the altar of economic austerity and to slip slowly from political consciousness, or we can use them as the basic foundations for a new and badly needed mature relationship with democracy; a relationship that is founded on basic tenets of transparency, representativeness, accountability, equality of treatment, humanity, respect and esteem. Continue reading “Political Reform and the Future of Rights” →

The IMF and Ireland

October 23, 2009 admineconomic crisis, IMF, Mary HarneyLeave a comment

In an article in the Irish Times Michael Casey, formally of the Central Bank, outlined his views on the relationship between Ireland, the EU and the International Monetary Fund. The IMF was established in 1944 to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange rate stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment. Prior to the financial crises the IMF was considered by many to be at its best an organisation on the brink of irrelevance or alternatively an organisation which had prolonged underdevelopment in the Global South through the promotion of liberal economic policies and the strict conditions under which it granted relief to states in dire financial need. At both the 2008 London and 2009 Pittsburgh G-20 Conferences it has reemerged as a fundamental actor in international economic relations. Part of this process has been the IMF’s attempt to rehabilitate its image. It has set up a faster loans procedure aimed at states with traditionally good economic track records, to enable them to make use of short-term credit facilities. This is known as the Flexible Credit Line (FCL). Mexico was the first state to make use of this facility.

Casey in his article remarks that Mary Harney’s assertation that if Ireland did not make cuts the IMF would be called in, correctly makes the point that the IMF is characterised here ‘like the big bad wolf’ to be avoided if it all possible. Casey is correct that the snobbery attached to going to the IMF, an organisation that is now considered by many to be only to give a helping hand to the Global South, can be short sighted, though I would agree with him that there may be better local (EU) solutions if the economy required a bailout. However the characterisation of the IMF as the purveyor of doom is incorrect. While its warning system failed with regard to the current financial crises, its recent reports on Ireland tend to have more than a ring of truth about them. The Government may regret not advocating a more honest policy with regard to Ireland options, should Ireland be forced to go to the IMF, if the horror which the Irish people feel towards the big bad wolf resembles Little Red Riding Hood the blame will squarely be at the Government’s feet.

Equality and Human Rights on the Political Agenda

October 5, 2009 Fiona de Londraseconomic crisis, equality, Equality Authority, Fianna Fail, Green Party, programme for governmentLeave a comment

Now that the referendum to amend the Constitution in respect of the Lisbon Treaty has been passed by a 2/3 majority, domestic political attention can finally be focused elsewhere. Top of the agenda this week is surely the process of renegotiation of the Programme for Government between the Green Party and Fianna Fáil with a document submitted from Mary Harney who, of course, is now party-less following the demise of the Progressive Democrats. The Green Party has made it clear that equality and human rights and, particularly, securing budgets for organisations committed thereto is within their agenda for this week’s talks.

There is little doubt but that this process is being driven by the Green Party whose leader, John Gormley, has said that unless the revised programme for government is passed by a 2/3 majority of the Green Party at conference next weekend the party will be obliged to pull out of government, thereby most likely triggering a general election. (For commentary see this piece in the Sunday Tribune) Continue reading “Equality and Human Rights on the Political Agenda” →

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Political Reform and the Future of Rights

The IMF and Ireland

Equality and Human Rights on the Political Agenda