James K. Galbraith on 23 February 2015 in "Reading The Greek Deal Correctly":
"Alexis Tsipras stated it correctly. Greece won a battle – perhaps a skirmish –
and the war continues. But the political sea-change that SYRIZA’s victory has
sparked goes on. From a psychological standpoint, Greece has already changed;
there is a spirit and dignity in Athens that was not there six months ago. Soon
enough, new fronts will open in Spain, then perhaps Ireland, and later Portugal,
all of which have elections coming. It is not likely that the government in
Greece will collapse, or yield, in the talks ahead, and over time the scope of
maneuver gained in this first skirmish will become more clear. In a year the
political landscape of Europe may be quite different from what it appears to be
today."
Background:
Greece: Report unveils human rights violations stemming from austerity policy
Athens, Paris, 18 December 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 organisation the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR) in a report
released today.
https://www.fidh.org/International-Federation-for-Human-Rights/europe/greece/16675-greece-report-unveils-human-rights-violations-stemming-from-austerity
The report gathers findings from a mission of investigation carried out by our
organisations 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 has been negotiated within the
Eurogroup and Greece is 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
programmes 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 traumatised labour market and healthcare system. Massive cuts in public
sector’s employment and a failure to tackle the fundamental social needs arising
from the crisis have fuelled 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 labour 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 programmes.
Doctors revealed that they sometimes had to refuse patients or postpone
important surgeries due to a reduced number in 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.
Certain parts of the report received the fruitful collaboration of the Global
Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Read the report Downgrading rights: the cost of austerity in Greece
https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/grece646a2014-2.pdf
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
