https://socialprotection.org/discover/news/universal-social-security-can...
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/25/questions-and-answers-right-social-s...
Amid intersecting conflicts, economic crises, and climate shocks, governments’ long-term investment in universal social security is more important than ever. The piece explains the basics of universal social security, how it can reduce and prevent poverty and inequality and protect human rights, including in times of crisis, and how governments can overcome impediments to providing it.
“Social security is a key tool for governments to reduce inequality and protect people from experiencing poverty, hunger, or homelessness,” said Lena Simet, senior researcher on poverty and inequality at Human Rights Watch. “The compounding economic, food, and climate crises should move governments to build security systems that protect human rights, not cut back on existing programs.”
More than four billion people lack access to any social protection – the term often used by United Nations agencies and international development organizations. This lack of coverage is most concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, which face significant financing gaps between their current investments and what is needed to support a basic level of social security.
The question-and-answer document puts forward the human rights obligations and responsibilities of governments and entities that influence social spending, and the importance of universal social security to meeting them.
“Universal, rights-aligned social security systems are much more effective than poverty-targeted systems at reducing poverty and achieving more equitable outcomes for all members of society,” said Dr Stephen Kidd, Development Pathways’ CEO. “And, they are more likely to support economic growth and strengthen progressive social contracts, meaning that they are also more sustainable, both financially and politically.”
Social security for all members of a society is both a human right and a necessary condition for the realisation of other economic, social and cultural rights. International law obligates governments to provide social security as well as to ensure access to quality public services essential to human rights, such as education, health care, water, and sanitation.
Multiple overlapping crises are threatening human rights worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed millions of lives, caused an unprecedented loss of jobs and livelihoods, and disrupted the education of a generation of children. The Russian invasion of Ukraine exposed the frailty of global food and energy systems, contributing to an inequality and cost-of-living crisis, hunger, and the prospects of a widespread recession. Accelerating and intensifying climate shocks contribute to resource scarcity.
Decades of rising inequality has undermined the political structures and social solidarity needed to properly address these crises. Inequality has soared in the wake of deregulation and market liberalization programs pursued by many countries in recent decades. While income and wealth inequality between nations has, on average, decreased, these inequalities have become far more pronounced within nations. By 2021, just 10 percent of the world’s population captured the majority of all global income, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The United Nations estimated that more than 71 million people in low-income countries fell into poverty due to soaring food and energy prices in just the first three months of 2022. Without significant policy changes by governments and international institutions, this year’s economic situation will most likely be worse, as the International Monetary Fund recently warned.
Among other policies, such as for quality public services and financial regulation, social security and social protection provide essential tools to address and prevent these compounding crises.
Social security is a human right, dating back to the 1948 Universal Declaration, and enshrined in a range of treaties and constitutions. It is closely linked with the right to an adequate standard of living and other economic, social and cultural rights.
This question-and-answer document by Development Pathways and Human Rights Watch examines the human right to social security, and how universal social security can help protect people from economic shocks and other emerging threats, including climate-related hazards, while building just societies where all rights are realized. It also explains why policymakers should orient their policies toward establishing universal social security systems and avoid narrowly means-tested programs.
Both “social protection” and “social security” describe a range of policies and programs premised on the principle that everyone should enjoy all their economic, social and cultural rights at all stages of their lives, no matter the circumstances into which they are born or the crises or challenges they may face.
While the term “social protection” has become popular within parts of the United Nations and some international development organizations, there is no uniformly accepted definition for what it entails, and it is often poorly understood by policymakers, as reflected in the often broad and vague definitions of the term used in many governments’ national social protection strategies and policies.
The term “social security,” on the other hand, is clearly described in international human rights law as a set of individual entitlements that protect against income insecurity throughout people’s lives, including during common life events, such as old age, unemployment, sickness, or birthing and caring for dependents.
In some countries, such as the United States, “social security” has been largely conflated with a specific social insurance program that is funded by contributions from workers and employers. It is important, however, for policymakers to reclaim the term “social security” as it is understood in human rights law to describe a range of programs, whether funded from contributions or through general taxation, that are necessary for a rights-based social fabric.
Social security is a well-established human right in international law. Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, for example, spells out the essential elements of the right:
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Since then, the right to social security has been widely enshrined in countries’ national constitutions and reinforced through a range of other international conventions and frameworks. The committee charged with interpreting the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), for example, defines this right to encompass at least nine areas of support:
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