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Vnvi I.(
11
adequate level of protections of economic and social rights. 9 Growing
evidence from the economic crises of Southern European also suggests
that repaying public debt directly undermines economic and social rights.
Greece 10, Portugal" and Spain 12 particularly illustrate how damaging
restructuring public debt is on state resources to provide economic and
social rights. For instance, Figure 2 illustrates the changes from 2011 to
2012 concerning people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in
European Union and shows that risk has increased particularly in the
Eastern and Southern European countries.
Figure 2 :People at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the
European Union' 3
80
48
-,
II[
1;
a+
aa
O~PI04
2812
I2I
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (UN ESCR) observed in 2012 Concluding Observationson Spain
that implementing economic and social rights is "reduced as a result of
9Eduardo Borenzstein & Ugo Panizza, The Costs of Sovereign Default, (IMF Working Paper
No. 238, 8. 2008).
10Joanna Kulpa, Why Is Sovereign Debt Restructuring a Challenge? The Case of Greece,
(Bruges
European
Economic
Policy
Briefings
n24
2012)
available
at
http://www.coleurope.eu/sites/default/files/research-paper/beep24.pdf (2013).
1
See
the
Constitutional
Court
of
Portugal,
case
187/2013,
http://www.tribunalconstitucional.pt/tc/acordaos/20130187.html (2013), Eduardo Vitor Rodrigues, 0
Estado e as Politicos Sociais em Portugal Sociologia: Revista do Departamento de Sociologiada
FLUP, Vol.XX, 2010. 191-230, available at http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/8794.pdf
(15.4.2013).
12 Informe Conjunto al Comit6 de Derechos Econ6rnicos, Sociales y Culturales, Examen del 5'
Informe Perifdico de Espafia, 480 sesifn del CESCR, mayo 2012,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/ngos/JointSubmission l9NGOsSpainCESC
R48_sp.pdf(2013); Gaby Ore Aguilar, Derechos sociales; el otro dgcit, E ais,7May2012
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/03/opinion/ 336056886 000607.html (2013).
13 Eurostat, People at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion, 2013, ilc: pepsi 1. 200, availableat
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics-explained/index.php/People-at risk of povertyor social
exclusion.