A/HRC/24/27 mainstreaming mechanism of the United Nations Development Group, the High-Level Committee on Programmes of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the human rights cluster of the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs. For example, on 15 March 2013, the Deputy High Commissioner chaired a senior-level meeting of the mechanism. The meeting reviewed and approved the mechanism’s revised workplan for 2013–2014, which prioritizes the support to resident coordinators and United Nations country teams. The workplan was updated in the light of General Assembly resolution 67/226 on the QCPR of operational activities for development of the United Nations system and the new human rights commitments in the United Nations Development Group Strategic Priorities for 2014–2017. The QCPR recognizes the close linkages between the United Nations’ normative and operational work, and the Strategic Priorities aim to improve United Nations support for the achievement of internationally agreed development goals and human rights treaty obligations. In May 2013, the Deputy High Commissioner chaired a policy retreat of the mechanism that looked at ways to strengthen inter-agency collaboration to support the integration of all human rights, including the right to development, in the United Nations development system and the post2015 development agenda. 19. In May 2013, OHCHR in cooperation with UNCTAD organized a side event during the fourteenth session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development to discuss the UNCTAD Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development. The representative of UNCTAD explained the key characteristics of the framework, namely that it places sustainable development at the core, addresses all dimensions of investment policy and fosters interaction with relevant national and international policies. The framework also emphasizes the right to regulate and balance between investors’ rights and obligations. Mr. Schrijver, member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, pointed to several elements of human rights law that were relevant to international investment agreements, including the right to property, the right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the social, cultural and participatory rights of individuals and groups. He underlined that investment regulation should be viewed in the context of the larger and increasingly normative international order. The representative of OHCHR underlined the correlation between several of the core principles of the framework and human rights principles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, such as the emphasis placed on participation and the objective of promoting sustainable development. 20. On 6 March 2013, OHCHR organized a side event 5 to the Human Rights Council on human rights considerations in national and international responses to financial crisis. Experts expressed concern at the negative impacts of austerity measures resulting in reduced government spending on social welfare programmes, public-sector layoffs and unemployment, growing risk of social unrest and increasing income and structural inequality which affected particularly the vulnerable and marginalized groups as well as women, who dominated certain public-sector and expert-manufacturing jobs. Bailing out the financial industry while imposing austerity and social cuts was tantamount to privatizing profits and socializing losses for banks. Calls were made for a shift in macroeconomic policies, a comprehensive and explicit human rights-based approach to the financial sector and the need for international cooperation in addressing the root causes of and responses to the financial crisis. 5 See OHCHR webpage, “In difficult economic times, human rights should not be expendable”, 22 April 2013. Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/FinancialCrisis.aspx. 7