Spain???s review before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has set a precedent for how the treaty monitoring body addresses human rights??? impacts of the economic crisis. CESR led a coalition of 20 Spanish civil society groups to present concerns before the Committee on ESC rights enjoyment in Spain in the context of economic austerity.
On 7-8 May, Spain was reviewed by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) for the first time in eight years. Spain??s review by the Committee, which periodically monitors states??? compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), offered an important opportunity to hold the state accountable for its efforts to safeguard these rights in its handling of the economic crisis in recent years. Poverty and inequality have risen sharply in the country since 2007, which now has the highest levels of unemployment of all OECD and EU countries.
This prompted CESR to coordinate a joint submission by 19 organizations to the Committee???s 48th session, an unprecedented collaboration for a treaty body review in Spain. These organizations represent a diverse cross-section of sectors, including: human rights and development organizations; groups working on the rights of persons with disabilities, women, children, LGBT people, immigrants, and the Roma population; anti-poverty and anti-human trafficking networks; sexual and reproductive health advocates; and housing rights coalitions, among others. Many of them were participating for the first time in an advocacy around an international human rights mechanism.
Outcomes of the review
Prior to the session in Geneva, CESR organized a briefing with members of the Committee on behalf of the coalition, co-hosted with the Amnesty International Spain, Observatori DESC and the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law (AEDIDH). This meeting was an opportunity for candid dialogue with the Committee on a range of issues barely addressed in the state???s report to the Committee, including the impact of crisis-related policies on access to health and housing, particularly for disadvantaged groups. CESR voiced particular concern that the austerity measures put in place to respond to the crisis - in particular drastic budget cuts to social spending - amount to a pattern of retrogression of ESC rights, highlighting some of the most alarming data from its recent Spain Factsheet.
With the concerns expressed by civil society in mind, at the session the Committee interrogated the Spanish delegation on what it is doing to safeguard the full range of economic, social and cultural rights in its strategies to confront the economic crisis. Committee Experts asked in-depth questions about unemployment and poverty rates, social security, housing and homelessness, the impact of decentralization, and discrimination against women, foreigners, the Roma population and people with disabilities. The Committee affirmed that the need to address the fiscal deficit must not be a pretext to disregard obligations under the Covenant to use the maximum of available resources to fulfil these rights, without discrimination or retrogression.
Mr. Ariranga Pillay, the Committee Chairperson concluded Spain???s session by urging the state to be guided by its obligations under the Covenant when considering austerity measures in response to the crisis. In response, the government delegation said that fiscal consolidation was neither a whim nor an obsession, but a necessary step in the process of economic recovery. According to the head of the delegation, Spain was one of the countries in the world that best guaranteed economic, social and cultural rights and it pledged to continue making progress in that regard.
The Committee's concluding observations reiterate its concerns in relation to the state???s efforts to protect human rights in the crisis context, echoing many of the recommendations made by Spanish civil society groups. Its recommendations will serve as a vital instrument for civil society groups seeking to effect rights-based economic and social reforms and to hold the government to its international obligations. An additional and extraordinary result of the Spain review was an open letter emitted by the Committee Chairperson to all States party outlining the principles and criteria to be followed in order to honour their human rights obligations and avoid retrogressive measures in the context of the economic crisis.
Impact of the Initiative
CESR-led advocacy around Spain???s review before the Committee has had a multiplicity of impacts. Most immediately, the Coalition???s work succeeded in ensuring that its concerns were directly reflected in the Committee???s concluding observations, the vast majority of which take up recommendations made in the joint report. At the national level, the opportunity allowed for a strengthening and coordination of civil society efforts around economic and social rights. This has opened a channel among the participating NGOs for continued dialogue, future collaboration in spin-off activities and a more concerted effort to monitor the recommendations of the Commmittee and hold the State to account for their implementation. Furthermore, the media impact garnered by the press releases issued before and after the session, op-ed articles published in major newspapers, as well as through social media campaigns has contributed significantly to public awareness of the significance of the Committee session, both within and beyond Spain.
At the international level, CESR believes that Spain serves as an important case study of a larger threat that austerity measures may present to economic and social rights??? enjoyment, should human rights principles and standards not be placed at the core of economic recuperation policies. CESR???s work on Spain is part of an ongoing global project to defend human rights in times of crisis. International human rights mechanisms, including the treaty monitoring bodies, the Human Rights Council and special rapporteurs, play a key role in expanding the normative understanding of human rights principles which are critical in times of crisis, such as the duty to avoid retrogression and to realize rights progressively using the maximum of available resources. They also providing policy guidance to states, reminding them of the red-lines that must not be crossed in framing responses to the crisis, and holding them to account when these are in breach of their obligations under international law.
CESR is pleased to have had the opportunity to engage with Spanish civil society organizations and collaborate with them at the UN review prior to closing its office in Madrid. It is our hope that the process set in motion through this coalition-building effort will make a lasting contribution which can continue to yield benefits in years to come.