A/HRC/13/38 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 12/28 entitled “Follow-up to the tenth special session of the Human Rights Council on the impact of the global economic and financial crises on the universal realization and effective enjoyment of human rights”, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to “consult Member States of the United Nations and all other relevant stakeholders on the issue with a view to presenting to the Council at its thirteenth session a report on the impact of the crises on the realization of all human rights and on possible actions required to alleviate it”. 2. Accordingly, Member States and other relevant stakeholders were invited to submit information in response to the above resolution. At the time of submission of this report, written inputs had been received from the Governments of Afghanistan, Cuba, Colombia, Greece, Morocco, Serbia, Switzerland and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) as well as from the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Network for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights. In addition, this report also draws on publicly available documents from relevant stakeholders and other consultation processes and deliberations under the Council and the General Assembly, such as the tenth special session of the Human Rights Council on the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on the universal realization and effective enjoyment of human rights, held in Geneva on 20 February 2009; the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development held in New York in June 2009; and the 2009 Social Forum of the Human Rights Council, held in Geneva from 31 August to 2 September 2009. All written submissions received for the preparation of this report are available for consultation in the files of the secretariat. II. Overview of the global financial and economic crisis 3. Over the last few years, the world economy has experienced one of the most severe financial and economic crises since the Second World War. Beginning with the collapse of the housing market in the United States of America in 2007, the crisis spread rapidly from the financial markets of developed countries to large parts of the global economy. Collapsing world trade and commodity prices were quickly translated into losses in employment and income, affecting the real economies both in developed and developing countries. The General Assembly noted that, “The origins and causes of the crisis are complex and multifaceted, but it is widely recognized that many of the main causes of the crisis are linked to systemic fragilities and imbalances that contributed to the inadequate functioning of the global economy.”1 4. Contributions to the present report received from Member States, as well as available data and analyses, suggest that the impact of the crisis has not been uniform, differing across countries and regions. For example, World Bank and United Nations analyses suggest that Europe and Central Asia were among the most affected regions, whereas the recovery was relatively swift in East Asia and the Pacific region.2 At the same time, in many of the poorest countries which lack the capacity and resources to undertake 1 2 4 Resolution 63/303 on the outcome of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development. See for example, the World Bank, “East Asia and Pacific Update. Transforming the Rebound into Recovery”, November 2009. GE.10-10930