Human Rights and External Debt: Case Study Spain

Abstract

The research analyses the relationship between adjustment programs and human rights violations, through the elimination of welfare state and other social and economic rights. The government has either eliminated or reduced some welfare services, making some services not accessible to the poorest sectors. The paper conducts an analyses of the changes introduced by the government to solve the debt problems through its adjustment programs that have weakened economic and social rights expressed in the declaration of human rights and the European convention on human rights. The paper concludes that the adjustment programs represent a violation on basic rights of the European citizens and should be modified to incorporate the externalities of these programs on the poorest sectors.