The international human rights lawyer challenges government policies on their excessive impact on the poorest
Magdalena Sepúlveda: 'Austerity is devastating for the world's poorest'
As the UN's special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Chilean lawyer Magdalena Sepúlveda is proving to be one of the most vocal international opponents of austerity. Since being appointed by the UN in 2008, just as the financial crisis hit, she has staunchly argued that austerity policies all over the world are having a "disproportionate impact" on the poor and are undermining the human rights of vulnerable people.
Sepúlveda will be in the UK on for a public event, Austerity on Trial, at the London School of Economics that will pit opponents and defenders of austerity against one another. Speaking in advance of her visit, she leaves no room for misinterpretation of her analysis.
Her words come close on the heels of warnings from a consortium of UK charities that the government is in danger of reneging on its human rights obligations because welfare cuts are leaving thousands of families short of food.
The "cumulative effect" of multiple, ill-thought-through policy changes is devastating for vulnerable individuals and damaging to social cohesion, Sepúlveda believes. In some countries austerity measures "are really ideological," she suggests. "[Governments] are using the [financial] crisis as an excuse to implement a certain agenda."
Source; Guardian
Magdalena Sepúlveda: 'Austerity is devastating for the world's poorest'
As the UN's special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Chilean lawyer Magdalena Sepúlveda is proving to be one of the most vocal international opponents of austerity. Since being appointed by the UN in 2008, just as the financial crisis hit, she has staunchly argued that austerity policies all over the world are having a "disproportionate impact" on the poor and are undermining the human rights of vulnerable people.
Sepúlveda will be in the UK on for a public event, Austerity on Trial, at the London School of Economics that will pit opponents and defenders of austerity against one another. Speaking in advance of her visit, she leaves no room for misinterpretation of her analysis.
Her words come close on the heels of warnings from a consortium of UK charities that the government is in danger of reneging on its human rights obligations because welfare cuts are leaving thousands of families short of food.
The "cumulative effect" of multiple, ill-thought-through policy changes is devastating for vulnerable individuals and damaging to social cohesion, Sepúlveda believes. In some countries austerity measures "are really ideological," she suggests. "[Governments] are using the [financial] crisis as an excuse to implement a certain agenda."
Source; Guardian
