A/HRC/11/10 page 13 limit the ability of States to fulfil their human rights obligations. The primacy of this responsibility becomes stark when the large gap in the fulfilment of basic rights is quantified: 75 million children of primary school age (55 per cent of whom are girls) are not in school;22 nearly 10 million children die every year of largely preventable causes;23 and an estimated 1.2 billion people lack clean water and sanitation.24 38. The fact that many developing countries are diverting a disproportionate part of their budgets (including funds earned from exports) away from programmes aimed at reducing poverty and improving a variety of social conditions, which contribute to the realization of human rights, to debt service makes excessive foreign debt and debt service a human rights issue. It is notable that many of these social conditions find expression as rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and core international human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 39. Other human rights, such as the right to participate in public affairs, the right to information, and the right to equality and non-discrimination, are also implicated in the debt crisis - a clear reaffirmation of the interdependence, interrelatedness and indivisibility of all human rights. 40. The gravity of the debt problem and the limitations of the current debt relief initiatives therefore underscore the need for a new approach to the debt crisis which incorporates human rights concerns. 41. It is also important to recognize that cancellation of debt does not guarantee that resources arising from the savings will be used to enhance the enjoyment of human rights. States that benefit from debt cancellation must therefore establish mechanisms that ensure participatory and transparent processes of budget planning. Equally important are accountability mechanisms that minimize the possibility of corruption and provide an accessible means of complaint and redress. 42. The independent expert intends to explore further the causal linkage between external debt and human rights through case studies undertaken in the context of country missions. 22 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “Overcoming inequality: why governance matters” in Education for All - Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO 2008) (available at http://www.unesco.org/en/education/efareport/reports/2009-governance, accessed 12/3/09). 23 See http://www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/child_mortality/en/index.html (accessed 12/3/09). 24 United Nations Environment Programme, Vital Water Graphics: An Overview of the State of the World’s Fresh and Marine Waters, 2nd ed. (2008).