I would like to share with you the official report on my mission to Greece  which  I presented at the United Nations Human Rights Council last week.  My report finds that after several years of adjustment policies, more than one million persons in Greece have fallen below income levels indicating extreme poverty. Unemployment, in particular youth unemployment has remained at unacceptable high levels. Unfortunately human rights obligations of Greece and its international lenders towards rights holders within the country continue to be sidelined, both in the design of adjustment policies and in the implementation of much needed structural reforms.

In  this context I question that the current third adjustment programme requires further financial cuts to the social security and welfare system. I argue that there is urgently needed to close gaps in its social protection system and to  ensure a social protection floor for all.  I stress that Greece needs a modern social welfare system that is just, efficient, sufficiently funded, targeted to those in need, and protecting core social, economic and cultural rights in a comprehensive and non-discriminatory manner. I endorse the need to roll-out quickly a Guaranteed-Minimum- Income scheme providing universal social protection.

In my view the intolerable situation in Greece is not primarily caused by a lack of political will of the current Government to curb violations of economic and social rights, but compounded by the limited fiscal space at disposal to bring the situation in conformity with international human rights obligations. Greece is in dire need of debt relief in order to trigger socially inclusive growth.  Debt relief should be turned into an investment package to boost the real economy through public investment in infrastructure, research and education.

I  called on the Government of Greece and its international lenders to review their economic reform policies to ensure that they do not undermine human rights. For this purpose comprehensive human rights impact assessments should be undertaken that live up to their name. In my recommendations I  list several measures  to protect the unemployed, and to restore universal access to public health care for persons that have no social insurance coverage. I call upon European countries to increase their support for combatting poverty and social exclusion within Greece and to provide human, technical and financial resources for food, health care, and emergency housing of refugees.

During the discussion of the report at the Human Rights Council the Government of Greece  made a statement in support of the report acknowledged that the economic crisis has had a very severe impact upon the situation of human rights in the country, in particular as regards to the enjoyment of social and cultural rights. Greece said further that no programme of reforms and fiscal adjustment can be effective without society's support. The Government also concurred with my finding that, to date, no comprehensive ex-ante human rights impact assessments of the three economic reform programmes have been carried out. Greece argued that there is an urgent necessity to assess debt issues in relation to social needs, thus introducing, in the public debate, the notion of social sustainability of debt.

The European Union and other EU States refrained from taking the floor at the Human Rights Council.  I intend, however, to undertake his year an official visit to Brussels to understand views and perspectives of European institutions and to continue advocating for economic adjustment  that complies with human rights.

        Read the report (A/HRC/31/60/Add.2)

        Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
       Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights