Equality

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased global poverty for the first time since 1998 and will push 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021. People in vulnerable situations and without social protection have been the worst affected due to entrenched discrimination, exclusion and inequality. These include people living in poverty; children and youth; older persons; people with disabilities; people of African descent; racial, ethnic and religious minorities; indigenous peoples; migrants and refugees; LGBTI people; women and girls; and other marginalized groups.

By committing to reduce inequality by advancing all human rights for everyone, we can overcome global economic, social, health and environmental crises and conflict, and build societies where all people rise together by sharing power, resources and opportunities equally.

What Equality and building better, fairer and greener societies means to us:

A human rights-based economy can break cycles of poverty

Rampant poverty, pervasive inequalities and structural discrimination are human rights violations and among the greatest global challenges of our time. Addressing them effectively requires measures grounded in human rights, renewed political commitment and participation of all, especially those most affected. We need a new social contract which more fairly shares power, resources and opportunities and sets the foundations of a sustainable human rights-based economy.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has increased global poverty for the first time since 1998 and will push 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021. People in vulnerable situations and without social protection have been the worst affected due to entrenched discrimination, exclusion and inequality. These include people living in poverty; children and youth; older persons; persons with disabilities; people of African descent; racial, ethnic and religious minorities; indigenous peoples; migrants and refugees; and other marginalized groups. Women and girls everywhere especially in marginalised groups are even further excluded and left behind. The pandemic adds to the challenges of a triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and nature loss.
  • Low and middle-income countries in particular are facing serious challenges to deliver on their legally binding commitments to economic and social rights. Major challenges include foreign debt burden, collapsing trade, falling remittances, capital flight, currency depreciation and limited international development assistance and environmental degradation.
  • We are at a crossroads, we have a once in a generation opportunity to change course, navigating a clear way out of the complex COVID-19 crisis, and towards an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future, will be the work of this generation of world leaders – or their downfall.

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Rebuilding fairer - a new social contract

Human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to development and the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, are central to building a new human rights-based economy that supports better, fairer and more sustainable societies for present and future generations. A human rights-based economy should be the foundation of a new social contract.

  • Rebuilding fairer requires reversing long-standing structures of poverty and inequality by strengthening the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • We work to reduce inequality, every day, everywhere. That vision is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, captured in SDG 10: reduce inequality within and between countries.
  • Refer to the cornerstone of The 2030 agenda: member states’ commitment to leave no one behind and reach those further behind first.

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Equal opportunities for youth

Successive financial and health crises have had long-lasting and multidimensional impacts on millions of young people. Unless their rights are protected, including through decent jobs and social protection, the “COVID generation” run the risk of falling prey to the detrimental effects of mounting inequality and poverty.

  • The social and economic integration of young people has long been an ongoing challenge. The global financial crisis of 2007 disproportionately affected youth - especially young women - who are more likely to be employed in the informal economy in low-paid, precarious jobs. The economic fall-out of the ongoing pandemic has dealt yet another terrible blow. Urgent action is needed to secure and strengthen the futures of young people.
  • A serious and seemingly insurmountable digital divide has intensified through Covid-19 lockdowns hampering the right to education of children and youth and running the risk of deepening intergenerational poverty.
  • Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, around one in five of the world’s youth were not in employment, education or training, and youth unemployment rates were about three times higher than the rest of the working population. The situation has further deteriorated since the onset of pandemic.

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Reversing vaccine inequality and injustice

Vaccine injustice through unfair vaccine distribution and hoarding contravenes international legal and human rights norms and the spirit of global solidarity. The call for a common agenda and a new social contract between Governments and their people is the need of the hour so as to rebuild trust and to ensure a life of dignity for all.

  • More than 5.7 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide but the majority of all doses, 73 per cent, have been administered in just 10 countries. High-income countries have administered 61 times more doses per inhabitant than low-income nations.
  • The availability of public health and health care facilities, goods, services and programmes, one of the cornerstones of the right to health standard, is being ignored while booster shots are being considered in high-income countries.
  • The longer vaccine inequity persists, the longer the virus will circulate and evolve, the more people will become ill and die, and the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, undermining not only health and well-being but also, as the SG’s Policy Brief on Human Rights and COVID-19 notes, creating further hardship. If hardship is not addressed, tension will rise and provoke civil unrest and generate the security response that will undermine not only the recovery from COVID-19 but the entirety of the 2030 Agenda.

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Advancing the right to a healthy environment and climate justice

Environmental degradation, including climate change, pollution and nature loss, disproportionately impacts persons, groups and peoples in vulnerable situations. These impacts exacerbate existing inequalities and negatively affect the human rights of present and future generations. In follow-up to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, urgent action must be taken to respect, protect and fulfil this right. Such action should be the cornerstone of a new human rights-based economy that will produce a green recovery from COVID-19 and a just transition.

  • A safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment is the foundation of human life. But today, because of human action – and inhuman inaction – the triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and nature loss is directly and severely impacting a broad range of rights, including the rights to adequate food, water, education, housing, health, development, and even life itself.
  • Addressing the world's triple planetary crisis is a humanitarian imperative, a human rights imperative, a peace-building imperative and a development imperative.
  • Extreme climate events from monumental fires in Siberia and California; huge sudden floods in China, Germany and Turkey; Arctic heatwaves leading to unprecedented methane emissions; and the persistence of interminable drought, from Morocco and Senegal to Siberia, are affecting people in every region: potentially forcing millions of people into misery, hunger and displacement.

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Preventing conflict and building resilience through equality, inclusion and human rights

Human rights have the power to tackle the root causes of conflict and crisis, by addressing grievances, eliminating inequalities and exclusion and allowing people to participate in decision-making that affect their lives. Societies that protect and promote human rights for everyone are more resilient societies, better equipped through human rights to weather unexpected crises such as pandemics and the impacts of the climate crisis. Equality and non-discrimination are key to prevention: all human rights for all ensure everyone has access to the preventive benefits of human rights but, when certain people or groups are excluded or face discrimination, the inequality will drive the cycle of conflict and crisis.

  • As the landmark United Nations-World Bank report, Pathways for Peace, showed, inequality and exclusion are major drivers of violent conflict. Risk of violence increases in line with perceptions of exclusion and injustice, rooted in inequalities across groups. When an aggrieved group assigns blame to others or to the state for its perceived economic, political, or social exclusion, then emotions, collective memories, frustration over unmet expectations.
  • When people enjoy a full measure of protection through the realization of their human rights, societies are less prone to conflict, violence and crisis. But for the full preventive impact to take effect, all human rights must be protected for all. In other words, economic, social and cultural rights are as important as civil and political rights – as both structural drivers of conflict and short-term triggers – and unequal access or exclusion to rights can itself drive conflict even in societies that enjoy good general respect for human rights.
  • As the SG’s Policy Brief on Human Rights and COVID-19 notes, the pandemic has shone new light on the importance of tackling inequality and discrimination in order to build national resilience to unexpected crisis. These lessons extend beyond the pandemic and apply to how we should prepare for and respond to other crises, such as the impacts of climate change. During the pandemic, it has been clear that discriminatory practices exclude people from the protection that States are seeking to provide to their populations. If one person is excluded, the virus has an opportunity to persist in society and all of our efforts will be undermined. Inclusion is the approach that best protects us all.

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