A/HRC/43/45 Contents Page 2 I. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3 II. Private debt, and macro-economy and public debt........................................................................... 4 III. Household debt and human rights standards .................................................................................... 6 IV. Typologies of private household indebtedness: cause and consequence of human rights violations ......................................................................................................................................... 8 A. Microcredit and debt ................................................................................................................ 8 B. Health-related debts ................................................................................................................. 10 C. Education-related debts............................................................................................................ 11 D. Housing and utilities debt ........................................................................................................ 12 E. Debt enforcement, abusive collection practices and the criminalization of debtors ................ 13 F. Consumer debts ....................................................................................................................... 14 G. Migration-related debt ............................................................................................................. 16 H. Debt bondage ........................................................................................................................... 17 V. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 17 VI. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................ 18