Video of Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu calling for universal social...

Summary: Over recent years, social protection strategies have rapidly gained striking political support and widespread acceptance in development discourse and practice. However, although development actors generally acknowledge that human rights should play an essential role in poverty reduction, there has been a lack of deep analysis of the implications...

This Universal Social Protection Brief presents the Salvador’s experience on reducing the inequality across the universal social protection.  It includes the main lessons learned, information on the universal social protection system, the major breakthrough achievements, the impacts on people’s lives and the way forward. Link to this...

This Policy Brief summarizes the limited coverage of health protection today and suggests three steps to rapidly extend health protection and achieve universal health coverage that is sustainable and allows for returns in terms of socio-economic development and inclusive growth. Link to this...

This paper proposes policy options based on ILO research and experiences that aim at universal coverage and equitable access to health care. The policy options discussed focus on ensuring the human rights to social security and health and on the rights-based approaches underpinning the need for equity and poverty...

This report focuses on cash transfer programmes (CTPs) from a human rights perspective. CTPs are non-contributory programmes  providing payments in the form of cash to individuals or households. The primary objective of  CTPs is to increase the real income of beneficiaries in order to enable a minimum level of  consumption within...

This article calls for a moment of pause to consider the current direction of social protection thinking and practice. It introduces a special issue in which a range of authors explore the relationship between social protection and social justice. The article argues that the currently technocratic approach to social...

This policy paper: (i) examines the dimensions of the global health crisis based on severe deficits in health protection and limited access to health care; (ii) presents the extent of the health crisis at global, regional and national level as well as rural/urban divergences within countries and their root causes; (iii)...

Social protection programmes must be available to all individuals without discrimination of any kind. Universal social protection systems  – those which provide benefits to all residents without conditions – are the best way for States to meet their human rights obligations to ensure that there is no discrimination in...

Human rights standards require that social protection systems are accessible, meaning that administrative and physical obstacles must not prevent the poorest and most marginalized people from benefiting. When those living in poverty also face additional and overlapping obstacles due to age, disability, ethnicity, geographical location or other factors, they...

From a human rights perspective, individuals are rights-holders that can make legitimate claims, and States and other actors are duty-bearers that are responsible and can be held accountable for their acts or omissions. Therefore, a focus on rights and obligations helps to identify who is entitled to make claims...

In accordance with human rights standards, complying with the principle of non-discrimination means  that all eligibility criteria must be objective, reasonable, and transparent. Targeted social protection must be implemented with the intention of progressively providing universal coverage. Under international human rights law, States have an obligation to immediately meet...

States parties to major human rights instruments related to economic, social and cultural rights such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) have an immediate minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of all economic, social and...

Meaningful and effective participation of rights holders must be a key component of any social protection system. This is what builds trust and public support behind schemes and ensures that there is a sense of ownership. The participation of right holders is important during the social protection policy making...

In the wake of the International Labour Organization’s adoption of Recommendation 202 in June 2012, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors was created. But that was not the start of the unique network of today more than 80 NGOs and trade unions of which 16 form the Coalition’s...

Access to adequate social protection in old age remains a luxury limited to a minority of people globally, with just one in five older people in low- and middle-income countries receiving even a basic pension. This huge gap is symptomatic of the wider failure of social protection systems as...

States must ensure the right to social security for all without discrimination of any kind. Article 2(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and Article 26 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child oblige States Parties to take effective measures, within their...

Targeting Techniques and Human Rights Standards of Transparency and Access to Information Poverty targeting presents many problems in terms of accuracy and reliability, but common methods for identifying the poor are also problematic in terms of human rights standards of transparency and access to information. Let us look from...

ILO Recommendation 202 is not a legal island More than 18 months after the global community (184 national delegations consisting of governments, workers and employer representatives) unanimously accepted ILO Recommendation No. 202 on social protection floors in June 2012 it seems to be one of the most misunderstood documents...

Biometrics and the violation of human rights Suddenly, biometric data is being gathered everywhere and from everybody by all manner of agencies. The idea of parting with fingerprints and iris impressions has been marketed as a means to more efficiently and surely deliver services to the poor. This, and...