GI-ESCR submits to the UN Human Rights Council: public services are essential for the realisation of children’s rights

In a statement delivered at the Human Rights Council on 1 March, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights made clear that, in order to realise children’s rights, States must ensure the delivery of public services. 

The statement was delivered during the Council’s annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child. It highlighted how the privatisation and commercialisation of social services – such as health, education, water, social security and human rights – has had devastating impacts for children’s rights, resulting in unequal access and increasing equalities and segregation. GI-ESCR noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the unsustainability of market-driven systems to deliver on human rights, and stressed that human rights law requires States to provide quality, universally accessible, adequately funded and transparent public services that are responsive to the needs of those they serve.    

Access the full statement here.