A new recent human rights analysis of the G20 communiqu?? shows that states are not owning up to their human rights obligations.
The article, "A Human Rights Analysis of the G20 Communique: Recent Awareness of the 'Human Cost' Is Not Quite Enough," discusses the disconnect between the reasons G20 states say theyare acting to save those hit by the current financial and economiccrisis ("enlightened self-interest") and their actual obligations undervarious human rights treaties. The article is by New School Professor of International Affairs and CESR Board Member Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Senior Law Lecturer at the London School of Economics Margot E. Salomon.
The authors point out that according to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), states with the resources to assist are responsible for contributing to the realization of minimum essential levels of economic and social rights around the world. The G20 states should not approach their contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as an act of charity or decency, for example, the authors argue.
Fukuda-Parr and Salomon commend the G20 communiqu?? for offering social protection for the poor and vulnerable affected by the crisis, but urge that structural changes shaped by human rights law are put in place.