Downgrading rights: the cost of austerity in Greece
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, November / N°646a Cover photo: A sculpture guarding the entrance to the Athens municipality’s Cultural Centre shows a blindfolded ‘Democracy’. Since the economic crisis hit Greece in 2009 and austerity measures were violated and democracy has been suffering. Copyright: Panagiotis Grigoriou
2 / Titre du rapport – FIDH I. Introduction ------4 I. 1. Methodology ------7 II. Context------9 III. Human rights in crisis: a country under austerity ------15 III. 1. Economic, social and cultural rights violations ------15 ------38 IV. Human rights obligations in a crisis situation: the ESCR case ------54 IV. 1 Assessment of Greece’s austerity measures against human rights standards ------55 V. Who is responsible? ------58 V. 1 Overview ------58 V. 2 Territorial Responsibility: Greece ------59 V. 3 Extraterritorial obligations: an overview ------60 V. 4 Instances of Extraterritorial Responsibility: EU Member States ------62 V. 5 Instances of Extraterritorial responsibility: the European Union, its institutions and agencies ------64 V. 6 Instances of Extraterritorial Responsibility: the International Monetary Fund ------66 VI. Conclusions ------68 VII. Recommendations ------70
FIDH/HLHR – Downgrading rights: the cost of austerity in Greece / 3 I. Introduction
Europe has recently been undergoing the deepest economic recession since World War II. The terrible consequences that the crisis had not only for the economy but also for democracy and human rights have become increasingly impossible to deny. Moreover, the negative consequences of certain policies and measures taken in response to the crisis for fundamental rights and society as a whole have been underestimated or dismissed as inevitable – and therefore acceptable – collateral damage. Experts have long warned of the potential for the crisis to have adverse consequences for Europe’s social fabric. Now, the magnitude of such impacts is evident across Europe, especially in those countries that have borne the brunt of the crisis, like Greece. Questions about who is responsible and who should be held accountable, what could and should be done to contain such impacts, can no longer be avoided or deferred. a) Dealing with the crisis : an (un-)reasonable approach?
Before analysing the crisis’ human rights consequences and the responsabilities attached to them, it is worth spending a few words on the approach taken by governments and international organisations in response to it.