[MGSA-L] Report Unveils Human Rights Violations in Greece Stemming from Austerity Policy

June Samaras june.samaras at gmail.com
Thu Jan 1 15:34:29 PST 2015


http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/12/21/report-unveils-human-rights-violations-in-greece-stemming-from-austerity-policy/

Report Unveils Human Rights Violations in Greece Stemming from Austerity
Policy

A. Makris - Dec 21, 2014

Austerity measures adopted in response to the economic crisis have
adversely impacted human rights, such as the rights to work and health, and
curtailed fundamental freedoms in Greece, denounce FIDH and its member
organization the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR) in a report.

The report gathers findings from a mission of investigation carried out by
the organizations in January 2014. It depicts a country where economic
hardship and austerity combined have threatened human rights and democratic
standards across different sectors, from social and economic rights, to
civil and political ones.

It also exposes the risks inherent to policies that have ignored the
adverse impact they were bound to have on society and points to the
responsibilities that national and international institutions, particularly
the EU and its member states bear for such violations. The report reaches
conclusions that are valid far beyond the Greek case, and indeed apply to
all countries that have been undergoing economic assistance in response to
a severe economic recession.

As a further extension to the Greek bailout that has been negotiated within
the Eurogroup and Greece’s undergoing presidential elections, the report
signals that what has been shrinking alongside public budgets, in Greece
and elsewhere in Europe, is the space for individual rights and freedoms.

“The measures taken by Greece to meet its lenders’ demands proves a
readiness, at the national as much as at the international level, to
sacrifice nearly everything to economic recovery” declared FIDH President
Karim Lahidji, in Athens for the release of the report. “While we accept
that exceptional circumstances can require exceptional responses, the way
policies were adopted and implemented in this context clearly failed to
respect international standards,” he added.

The draconian targets for deficit and debt reduction set by the Troika were
achieved mainly through cuts to public expenditure, including in essential
services such as work and healthcare, without any consideration for the
need to preserve minimum levels and meet minimum core obligations with
respect to those rights. Authorities have thus overlooked the disastrous
social effects that the programs agreed with the Troika would likely
produce, and failed to address pre-existing conditions – particularly
regarding equal access to economic and social rights — that these
exacerbated. In fact, the measures’ impact on human rights was never
considered by neither Greece nor the Troika.

The one-sighted focus on economic and financial targets proved harmful to
an already traumatized labor market and healthcare system. Massive cuts in
the public sector’s employment and a failure to tackle the fundamental
social needs arising from the crisis have fueled a sharp rise in
unemployment, which touched unprecedented levels at 28% (September 2013)
and 60.8% for the young (February 2013), before setting at 25.7% and 49.3%
respectively. It also exacerbated pre-existing inequalities, with
vulnerable categories paying the highest toll for a reduced access to work
and worsening working conditions. Minimum wage was cut after February 2012
(when the second bailout was being negotiated) by 22% for all workers aged
over 25 and 32% for under 25, while reforms aimed at making the labor
market more “flexible” significantly reduced protection for workers’
rights. Austerity clearly increased inequality.

Access to basic healthcare has also been severely impaired by the cuts to
the public health budget and essential public health services and programs.
Doctors revealed that they sometimes had to refuse patients or postpone
important surgeries due to a reduced number of hospital beds and cuts in an
already understaffed and strained workforce, amongst other things. This,
coupled with increased difficulties to contract health insurance,
especially for the unemployed, has severely hindered access to healthcare,
despite recent reforms aimed at ensuring access to public services to the
uninsured. Again, vulnerable groups including women, migrants and the youth
suffer a disproportionate burden, as the report shows.

“Unlike finances, human rights and fundamental freedoms cannot benefit from
international bailouts” said Konstantinos Tsitselikis, HLHR President.
“Economic and fiscal policies have blatantly disregarded their devastating
social impacts and authorities have failed to provide the needed social
support.”

Civil and political rights have also been undermined. The social unrest
prompted by an austerity agenda in whose design the population has not been
implicated – in blatant disregard for all regular channels for
decision-making —  and the deteriorating living conditions have been met
with increasingly violent response and brutal repression by the
authorities, while incidents are rarely investigated and hardly ever
prosecuted. Far-right groups, most notably neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, gather
increasing support as they draw on people’s discontent and a strong
anti-austerity agenda. The government has also adopted an increasingly
authoritarian stance towards public criticism, making the social and
professional environment increasingly oppressive for independent media and
other dissenting voices. This climate led, in summer 2013, to closing the
Public Radio and Television Broadcast Service ERT, in a move that provoked
public outrage in Europe and overseas.

By outlining the challenges that the country is facing and assessing them
against international human rights standards, the report intends to show
that what started as an economic and financial crisis has turned into an
unprecedented assault on human rights and democratic standards in all
countries sharing a similar fate. It calls on all the actors involved to
address these challenges and overhaul an approach that threatens the very
foundations on which the EU and its member states are built.

Although the Greek state bears primary responsibility for the human rights
violations that occurred on its territory, the EU and IMF in imposing
anti-crisis measures have also breached their obligations under
international law. Similarly, EU Member States, which set up the Troika and
endorsed its proposals, have breached their own obligations to assist
Greece in fulfilling its human rights commitments.

The EU has in particular breached the obligation to respect, protect and
promote human rights deriving from its own founding treaties and the EU
Charter for Fundamental Rights. “I seriously doubt whether any human rights
concerns were ever raised in designing and implementing the country’s
“rescue” plans. On the contrary, human rights violations appear as having
simply been regarded as an acceptable collateral damage in a broader crisis
management, or as a well deserved answer to the ’Greek problem.’ This is
simply unacceptable” concluded Dimitris Christopoulos, FIDH Vice President.
(source: FIDH)

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-- 
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
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