A/HRC/25/50/Add.1 to 21.29 per cent in 2012.83 In particular, the unemployed (relative poverty rate of 41.08 per cent) and many children (26.75 per cent) have dropped under the relative poverty threshold. Data from the Hellenic Statistics Authority for 2011 indicating that 44 per cent of all unemployed have fallen under the poverty threshold confirm this trend. It should be noted that single parent households with children face a similar risk of poverty (rate of 43.2 per cent).84 83. Income inequality has also increased. Overall, the Gini index, taking values from 0 (total equality) to 1 (total inequality), moved from 0.3449 in 2009 to 0.3678 in 2012.85 Although the austerity measures included elements requiring a greater contribution to the fiscal savings by the more affluent, the adjustment has nevertheless further reduced the income of population groups that were already at the bottom of income distribution in 2009, thus exacerbating their poverty. People in the lowest income decile lost 24.2 per cent of their pre-crisis income between 2009 and 2012. If income deciles are adjusted on the basis of the 2012 income distribution, the income loss of the poorest 10 per cent of the population rises to an alarming 56.5 per cent.86 84. It is difficult to isolate the distributive effects of the austerity policies from the wider recession, as both are closely connected. Experts nevertheless conclude that the 63.3 per cent of the population that found itself below the fixed poverty line in 2010 and 2011 did so as a consequence of austerity policies alone – meaning they can be directly attributed to changes imposed by taxation, and wage and social benefit cuts. They also note that the sharp rise in poverty and inequality was mostly due to the large drop in the income share of the poorest 10 per cent of the population.87 G. Other rights 85. The negative impact of the adjustment programme extends to civil and political rights; for example, the widespread public protests held against the harsh austerity measures were reportedly dealt with in a heavy-handed manner by the authorities.88 In May 2013, the Government invoked national emergency legislation allowing it to compel public sector employees to work to ban a planned strike by the National Union for High School Teachers against austerity measures during university entrance examinations. The Government argued that the measure was necessary to prevent a severe disturbance to the social and financial life of the country and to safeguard public order, as well as the health of prospective university students. 86. The Independent Expert considers, however, that such responses are disproportionate and may violate the freedoms of assembly and association, which are also guaranteed in the Constitution. 83 84 85 86 87 88 Chrysa Leventi and Manos Matsaganis, Distributional Implications of the Crisis in Greece in 20092012, EUROMOD Working Paper No. EM 14/13, August 2013 (available from www.iser.essex.ac.uk/publications/working-papers/euromod/em14-13). See also Eurostat news release 171/2012, 3 December 2012, available from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-03122012-AP/EN/3-03122012-AP-EN.PDF. Hellenic Statistical Authority, Living Conditions in Greece (see footnote 57), p. 47-49. Leventi and Matsaganis, Distributional Implications (see footnote 83), p. 22. Ibid., p. 28. Ibid., p. 35. Greek Ombudsman, Annual Report 2011 (see footnote 43), pp. 28-29. 21