A/66/265 replace them with infrastructure for which they have no need and which they cannot access, such as hotels, sporting venues and office buildings. C. Requirements and conditions for access to public services and social benefits 49. It is becoming increasingly common for States to impose strict requirements and conditions on access to public services and social benefits.36 To justify these measures, States point to the need to make efficient use of public resources, improve the accuracy of targeting, avoid dependency, eliminate disincentives to work and deter abuse of the system. While these may be valid concerns, the impact of these measures is often completely disproportionate to the aim they seek to achieve. By imposing excessive requirements and conditions on access to services and benefits, and severe sanctions for non-compliance, States punish, humiliate and undermine the autonomy of persons living in poverty, exacerbating the challenges they face in overcoming their situation. Moreover, beneficiaries are kept in a state of uncertainty about their future and are unable to plan for the long term. 50. Support for these measures is not based on strong evidence of their effectiveness and economic efficiency, but rather on discriminatory stigmas and stereotypes, perpetuated by the media, that portray recipients of social benefits as lazy, dishonest and untrustworthy. Requirements and conditions are often underpinned by strong paternalistic attitudes; policymakers believe that they are acting in the best interests of persons living in poverty, who cannot be trusted to make decisions for themselves and their families. 51. These measures not only undermine beneficiaries’ autonomy and prevent them from making their own choices, they also threaten their enjoyment of a number of human rights, including the right to participate in the decisions that directly affect them37 and to be free from arbitrary or unlawful State interference in their privacy, family, home or correspondence.38 Considering that non-compliance with excessive conditions and requirements results in exclusion from social benefits, those entitled to benefits live in constant anxiety and fear that their benefits will be withdrawn and, with them, their primary means of survival. The cumulative impact of living in such circumstances threatens the beneficiaries’ right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.39 52. In many countries, those entitled to social benefits are required to prove their entitlement by providing excessive amounts of documentation and disclosing irrelevant personal information. This is often a stressful and demeaning process for __________________ 36 37 38 39 11-44449 In the present report, the term “social benefits” is used to denote any benefit provided to individuals through a State’s welfare, social security and social assistance systems, including transfers of cash, food or food stamps; disability or illness benefits, unemployment benefits, single parent or child allowances, non-contributory social pensions, housing assistance and education assistance. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 25. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 12; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 17. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 25; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 12. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14. 15