Enough is enough, Privatisation and Public Services | A well-attended conversation with current and former UN Special Rapporteurs

‘Enough is enough’ Privatisation and Public Services - A conversation with current and former UN Special Rapporteurs was an exceptional event. Attended by around 500 people, it brought together for the first time eight UN experts (seven current and former UN Special Rapporteurs and one former UN Independent Expert), across six different mandates, to reflect on the impacts of privatisation and on building renewed momentum and strategies for the public provision of services related to economic, social and cultural rights, such as health, education, water and sanitation, and housing.

The first half of the discussion addressed the key human rights issues raised by the privatisation of goods and services in different areas.

"The financialisation of housing is really driving up the cost of housing globally, making housing basically unaffordable and therefore insecure. Affordability and security of tenure are two hallmarks of the right to housing.” -

Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context

"Power imbalance is particularly common in the water and sanitation sector when you have a big company interacting, engaging with local governments.”

Léo Heller, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation

The second half of the discussion focused on rights-aligned alternatives to the provision of goods and services, and on strategies and actions that can contribute to generating a shift in this area.

"[The concept of the commons] is, I believe, very congruent with human rights concerns particularly because of the idea that the commons should be managed by participatory governance schemes, should be inclusive, should not prioritise the profit motive above everything else, and should ensure the long-term sustainability of the management of the resource or of the provision of the service."

Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

"We also need to make more effort, in my view, in demanding state actors and also international financial institutions to conduct human rights impact assessments of financial policies supporting the provision of goods and services through private debt schemes.”

Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, former UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights

The panelists were:

Philip Alston, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, former UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights
Koumbou Boly Barry, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education
Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context
Léo Heller, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health

The event was moderated by Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR).

'Enough is enough': UN Experts' open editorial sparks worldwide media interest

Ahead of ‘Enough is enough’ joint event, five current and former UN Special Rapporteurs and a UN Independent Expert, including our Executive Director Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, Former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, signed an open editorial that has been circulating widely in major media outlets. The open editorial underlines how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the catastrophic fallout of decades of privatisation and market competition.

Watch the event!

Other resources

PUBLICATION

States’ Human Rights Obligations Regarding Public Services: The United Nations Normative Framework

Right after the event, GI-ESCR released a timely research brief on States’ human rights obligations regarding public services. Based on a review of comments made by UN human rights monitoring bodies and experts, and by States in the context of the UN Universal Periodic Review process, the research brief finds there is a clear basis in the interpretation of existing human rights treaties showing that States have an obligation to provide public services.

website

people over profit

DISCOVER! People Over Profit, a global online knowledge library and campaign builder created by Public Services International. Learn more about the privatisation of public goods across different sectors and regions, and what we can do to stop it!

See more resources by GI-ESCR and partners on privatisation and public services

This event was co-organised by ActionAid, The East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights), the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), Oxfam, the Society for International Development (SID), Public Services International (PSI), and the Transnational Institute (TNI).