On April 3, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a resolution about “the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rights”. This year’s text focuses on the importance of development financing in fulfilling these rights.
The resolution, which has been adopted regularly since 2007, addresses for the first time key issues in global economic debates, such as international tax cooperation, debt, public services, and climate finance. These topics, relevant for the realization of rights everywhere, are particularly important to countries in the Global South which are primarily affected by the structural inequalities in a global economic system designed to favor wealthier states.
The broad engagement by UN member states during the resolution’s negotiation and its adoption by consensus show the topic’s importance and the capacity of states to come together to build common language on human rights and economic justice amidst global geopolitical tensions, as Human Rights Watch highlighted in its statement to the Council.
The resolution identifies how human rights should underpin the international financial architecture’s reform, stressing the need for structural change rather than marginal fixes. For example, it recognizes “the importance of ensuring that commitments arising from public and foreign debt do not impede States’ abilities to meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights”. It also calls for economic policies that “advance the realization of human rights for all,” including by “promoting inclusive and effective international tax cooperation […] and to continue to engage constructively in the process towards developing a United Nations framework convention on international tax cooperation” that considers economic, social, and cultural rights.
The resolution contributes to a growing body of intergovernmental statements outlining the need to build human rights economies, which put people and the planet at the center of economic policy making, as called for in a recent joint statement delivered by Honduras on behalf of a group of countries during the Council session.
It will now be critical for states to champion the language agreed to in this resolution at other major intergovernmental meetings this year, including the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (in June), the Second World Social Summit for Social Development, and COP30 (both in November) and to demonstrate how rights can help make economic systems fairer.