Don´t miss any updates!
On the Ground
Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.
Contribution to REDESCA’s Regional Consultation on Public Policies against Poverty and Inequality
On 30 September, we participated in the Regional Consultation on Public Policies against Poverty and Inequality, convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA), by submitting a written contribution.
In our submission, we emphasised that efforts to tackle poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean must be firmly rooted in States’ human rights obligations. We underlined the central role of public services, care, climate action, and fiscal justice as building blocks for more just and equal societies.
Our key recommendations to the Rapporteur included:
- Strengthening Public Services: Education, health, and social protection are core to realising economic, social, and cultural rights. We called on States to invest in universal and quality public services and move away from privatisation models, such as public-private partnerships, that often exacerbate exclusion and inequality. Adequate financing, grounded in progressive taxation and strengthened by international cooperation, is indispensable to expanding fiscal space and securing these rights.
- Recognising Care as a Human Right: Care and support work, which continues to fall disproportionately on women, sustains our societies but remains undervalued and invisible. We called for the recognition of care as a human right and a public good, advancing towards a “society of care” that guarantees the right to care, to be cared for, to self-care, and to care for the environment. This shift is critical to addressing structural gender inequalities and breaking the cycle of feminised poverty.
- Linking climate policy to equality: The energy transition required by the climate emergency represents a technological shift and an opportunity to reduce structural inequality. We advocated for a human rights-based approach to climate and energy policy that places marginalised communities at the centre, ensuring that the transition addresses energy poverty while respecting planetary boundaries.
- Advancing fiscal justice: We stressed that fiscal policy is a cornerstone of human rights realisation. Combating tax evasion, strengthening progressive systems, and deepening regional cooperation are all essential to building robust fiscal space, which, in turn, should result in higher allocations of public funding to guarantee rights. We welcomed REDESCA’s growing attention to fiscal policy. We highlighted the importance of aligning regional and global processes with international human rights standards, including the negotiations towards a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
Through this contribution, we reaffirm that reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean requires more than isolated policy measures. It demands structural change guided by human rights, and a clear commitment by States to mobilise the maximum of their available resources to guarantee a life of dignity for all.
You can read our submission here:
