GI-ESCR submits to the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his visit to the European Union
Yesterday GI-ESCR responded to a call from the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier de Schutter, for submissions ahead of his visit to the European Union. GI-ESCR's submission focused on the human rights obligations of the EU and its Member States relating to public services and climate change.
On public services, GI-ESCR emphasised that international human rights law requires that the EU and its Member States ensure that services essential for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, such as health care and education, be provided in a democratic and non-commercial way, with public control, for the public good. However, a number of measures driven by the EU - in particular austerity and competition policy instruments - have resulted in the diminished quality, availability and accessibility of services, and in their growing commercialisation that has undermined economic, social and cultural rights. GI-ESCR called for the European Commission to support and encourage Member States to invest in public services, to facilitate a rights-aligned fiscal environment, to explicitly recognise that services corresponding to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights are not subject to European internal market and competition rules, and to play an active role in coordinating efforts for public services.
GI-ESCR also stressed that international human rights law requires that the EU and its Member States adopt and and implement policies aimed at reducing emissions and fostering climate resilience, and ensure that public and private investments are consistent with a pathway towards low carbon emissions. GI-ESCR called on the European Commission to ensure that public funds do not continue to be used to support polluting activities and that gas plants, hybrid cars and biomass energy causing high levels of greenhouse gas emissions are not classified as "sustainable".