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The COVID-19 Pandemic And Its Impact On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights

Death Driven: Brazilian Government’s Response to COVID-19 in Times of Austerity

Thiago A. Feital

 

"Plan A is expenditure control, B is privatization, and C, tax increase." With these words Henrique Meirelles, Brazilian Finance Minister, outlined the position of Michel Temer's interim government over one of the most sensitive points of the political debate in 2016. To get a dimension of the importance of the fiscal debate back then, one need only remember that in that same year Dilma Rousseff was removed from office by an impeachment process, whose accusation related precisely to the management of public finances. The president was accused of issuing decrees to open credit without the authorization of Congress, which in Brazil is a crime susceptible to impeachment.

Reassuring neoliberals and neoconservatives, in that same year, Brazilian National Congress implemented plan A, approving (by 366 votes to 111) the so-called "ceiling of public spending amendment". The "mother of all austerity plans" amended the constitution to limit spending on public services and investments by the inflationary variation over 20 years. Since most government spending on basic services is mandatory, for practical purposes the amendment forces the government to reduce investments so as not to exceed the ceiling. In 2017, the amount invested by the three federation layers (1.17% of GDP) was not enough to guarantee even the maintenance of the existing infrastructure. Furthermore, the amendment fostered competition among social rights that began to dispute the scarce resources ("Education against Health, Science against Culture, My Home, My Life against Bolsa Família [Family Grant]").

The elaboration of the EC-95 was not far from the usual practice in the implementation of austerity measures in Latin America. Presented as an unavoidable measure, against the recommendations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the government has not demonstrated that it has examined the available alternatives, failed to present an analysis of the measure's impact on vulnerable groups, and did not submit his studies supporting the measure to independent groups for review. Despite this lack of dialogue, several organizations have publicly rejected the EC-95, such as Oxfam, Center for Economic and Social Rights, Inesc and FIOCRUZ, seeing it as a violation of the minimum core of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

According to the special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, “[…] EC-95 has all the characteristics of a ‘deliberately retrogressive measure’.” Reducing the resources available entails retroaction, especially in relation to the right to health, since maintaining the universal Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) is costly. The EC-95 also violates the obligation to use the maximum of available resources (MAR), since the Brazilian tax system is extremely regressive and prone to exonerations that favor corporations. As Magdalena S. Carmona argues, strengthening revenue-raising through taxation is necessary to observe MAR. And the lack of measures aimed at making the tax system more progressive and efficient may indicate "unwillingness (rather than inability) to use its maximum available resources". However, the mobilization of civil society was not sufficient to repeal the EC-95 which remains in force.

It is in this financial context that Brazil was hit by COVID-19. In order to cover the expenses necessary to face the epidemic, the country that had already announced a growth projection of 0.02% of GDP for 2020, has recently declared a state of public calamity. The measure allows the federal government to increase public spending and exempts it from meeting the fiscal targets. As if the financial problem were not serious enough, the pandemic itself has been minimized — which is an understatement — by Jair Bolsonaro. The president recently said it was "a little flu", "a bit of a cold". On another occasion, he claimed that Brazilians should not worry, because they would not be hit as hard as people in other countries, since "Brazilians never catch anything" even when they jump "into the sewage". Still more harmful than the president's public outbursts of ignorance has been his lack of coordination with state governments, whom he accuses of "hysteria" in the adoption of quarantine measures.

Opposing the federal government's inertia, on March 26th the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved a bill granting basic emergency income of 600 reais to low-income people and informal workers. The amount rises to 1,200 reais for mothers that are the only breadwinners. This is an important step for a country that has 38 million informal workers who will find themselves without any source of income soon. But it's not nearly enough.

Given the likely collapse of the public health system, which according to the Ministry of Health's forecast may occur in April, the project has reignited the debate on the importance of economic and social rights in Brazil. It is noteworthy that universal basic income, a proposal practically ignored outside academic circles, but championed for many years by Eduardo Suplicy, has slowly reached the mainstream news. The coronavirus pandemic has also revived the debate over fiscal consolidation and the EC-95.

On March 18th, human rights organizations submitted to the Federal Supreme Court, STF, (Brazilian constitutional court) a request to suspend the effects of EC-95. The request seeks to enhance the response capacity of governments and prevent the said collapse. As inequality in Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world, has recently worsened, proposals to confront the pandemic must be integrated in the solidarity constitutional pact. The latest bill to introduce a tax on large fortunes provides an opportunity to further debate the relationship between taxation and human rights. The occasion demands, more than ever, that we revert the undermining of economic and social rights caused by the now consolidated litany of austerity. The best liberal economists have already suggested reconsidering the spending ceiling.

When Bolsonaro says "sorry, some will die" or when entrepreneurs affirm that Brazil cannot stop because of "5 or 7 thousand people who will die" or even when people — encouraged by the federal government's clandestine campaign #BrazilCannotStop — do motorcades demanding to reopen businesses, it becomes clear that economic and social rights are, after all, a means of distributing the resources needed for the livability of life, “prerequisite for the enjoyment of all other human rights”.

To break with the mentality that it would be necessary to "dehydrate the Constitution" (a quote of the current president of the STF, ironically the body entrusted with overseeing the 1988 Constitution) is today, more than ever, a matter of life or death.

Thiago A. Feital is a professor of Tax Law and a PhD candidate at Federal University of Minas Gerais Law School. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Twitter: @FeitAlv

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We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.