A/HRC/29/31 support for the relationship between income inequality and personal integrity rights violations across the whole sample of countries. 45 A 2011 study showed a strong association between income inequality and homicide rates based on data from 33 rich and middle-income countries.46 One overview study concluded that research “has consistently linked income inequality with crime, namely intentional homicides and robbery”.47 28. Economic inequalities, especially when extreme, can also be closely linked to social unrest and conflict.48 The Secretary-General has noted that when people perceive inequality to be unfair and excessive, protests and social unrest can result, such as those seen around the world in recent years (see A/67/394, para. 26). A study on poverty and inequality found that “high levels of interlocking inequalities may undermine the realization of civil, political and social rights; they may raise the level of crime and plunge societies into conflict”.49 ILO, in its World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2015, stated that “rising inequalities have undermined trust in government, with a few exceptions” and that significant falls in trust “in particular if they accompany stagnant or declining incomes, can contribute to social unrest, as several countries in the Middle East have demonstrated, with knock-on effects on social conditions, growth and employment dynamics”. Even in ancient times, Plato argued that “if a state is to avoid … civil disintegration … extreme poverty and wealth must not be allowed to rise in any section of the citizen-body, because both lead to disasters”.50 29. Economic inequalities not only impair civil and political rights but also negatively affect the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. A good example is the right to health. According to the World Bank, “infants from poorer families and children from rural areas are more likely to die than their peers from richer families and urban areas” and the poor are “considerably less likely than the non-poor to have access to high-impact health services, such as skilled delivery care, antenatal care, and complementary feeding.” 51 The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission found that “people from lower occupational classes who have less education and income tend to die at younger ages and to suffer, within their shorter lifetimes, a higher prevalence of various health problems” and that “these differences in health conditions do not merely reflect worse outcomes for people at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale but extend to people throughout the socio-economic hierarchy, i.e. they display a ‘social gradient’”. 52 The World Health Assembly, in its resolution WHA62.14, has also affirmed the recommendation of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health on the need “to tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources”. 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 Todd Landman and Marco Larizza, “Inequality and human rights: who controls what, when, and how”, International Studies Quarterly, vol. 53, No. 3 (2009), pp. 715–736. Frank J. Elhar and Nicole Aitken, “Income inequality, trust and homicide in 33 countries”, European Journal of Public Health, vol. 21, No. 2 (2011), pp. 241–246. See Melamed and Samman, “Equity”, p. 7. In a recent report, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean noted that a decline in economic disparities may not necessarily lead to less social unrest and conflict. “Chile and Brazil, which have brought polarization and poverty down, have recently been hit by expressions of social unrest. One possibility is that in some of the countries of the region, declining polarization and poverty have boosted the sense of identification with the middle class and fed higher expectations, which could lead to conflicts if not met.” (See Social Panorama of Latin America, p. 106). Combating Poverty and Inequality. Quoted in World Bank, World Development Report 2006, p. 76. Ibid., pp. 29 and 31–32. See the report by the Commission (footnote 3 above), p. 46. 11