Economic policy and human rights

The economic policy choices a government makes affect the enjoyment of rights within its borders and, increasingly, in other countries. Yet these policies are routinely formulated and implemented without any concern for their impact on human rights. This chapter examines how a human rights framework giving due regard to economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) can be applied to assess and evaluate economic policies. To illustrate the connections between human rights and economic policy, a number of interventions are examined: government spending, taxation, deficit spending and debt and monetary policy. Globalization increasingly impacts on both economic policy formulation and the ability of governments to meet their human rights obligations. Therefore, the chapter specifically engages with the human rights concept of extraterritorial obligations (ETOs) and explores their implications for policy.