Brazil's cap on spending to have “severe” impact on poor

Special Rapporteur at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission Philip Alston said that the constitutional amendment bill limiting public spending is to have a “severe” impact on the poor, and recommends the Brazilian government to ensure the “appropriate public debate” on the bill. Alston suggests that the government should size up the impact on the poorer portions of the population and find alternate ways to attain austerity. The statement was released to the press today (Dec. 8).

“If adopted, the bill will block spending inadequately and quickly decreasing levels in health care, education, and social security, thus putting the whole next generation in danger of receiving social protection considerably lower than current standards,” he said.

In Alson's view, the main and inevitable effect of the legislation, designed to force a budgetary freeze in a demonstration of fiscal prudence, will be the harm done to the poor over the upcoming decades. “It will affect the poorer Brazilians more harshly, increasing inequality in a society already extensively unequal; it can be seen as a sign that social rights will be given very little importance in the next twenty years in Brazil.”

Brazil is Latin America's biggest economy, the communication further says, and has faced its most serious recession in decades, with unemployment rates nearly doubled since 2016. The bill, however, “blatantly violates Brazil's obligations in the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the country ratified in 1992. The pact bans the adoption of 'deliberately backward measures' except in cases where there is no alternative and profound consideration is given in a bid to ensure that the measures adopted are indeed needed and proportional.”

The special rapporteur says he contacted representatives from the Brazilian government to gain a better understanding of the process and the aim of the measures. He noted that “showing economic and fiscal prudence and complying with international human rights rules are not mutually exclusive, since both focus on the importance of carefully devising measures in an attempt to mitigate the negative impact on the people as much as possible.

The piece of legislation brought forth by the federal government aims to put a cap on the growth of government expenditures. Regarded by the Temer administration as the first step towards overcoming the country's economic and financial crisis, the move sets an annual limit to all three branches of government.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira