Greece: Austerity Curtails Liberties and Fundamental Rights
Prensa Latina Friday 19th December, 2014
Athens, Dec 18 (Prensa Latina) The austerity measures adopted by Greece to face the economic crisis had a strong negative impact on social rights and fundamental liberties, denounced the International Federation for Human Rights. The IFHR and the Greek Union for Human Rights (ELEDA)wrote a report in which it shows how the most vulnerable groups such as the women, immigrants and young people were the worst hit by austerity measures. The report says that the combination of economic and budgetary adjustment policies have jeopardized democratic principles and social, economic and political guarantees for citizens. During the presentation of the document the president of the FIDH, Karim Lahidji, said that "the measures taken by Greece to comply with the requirements of lenders tolerated the sacrifice of almost anything for the sake of economic recovery." However, Lahidji added that although exceptional circumstances may require extraordinary solutions, "the way those policies were adopted and implemented led to a clear failure by violating international law". The draconian measures imposed by foreign creditors to reduce public deficits and sovereign debt, through cuts in public spending, did not take into account the need to maintain a minimum level and compliance with the basic obligations in relation to social rights. Thus, there is a record 28 percent unemployment (September 2013), 60.8 percent among young people (February 2013), severely worsened working conditions, inequality...
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