A/HRC/37/54 struggling to protect hard-fought gains in improving social protection and coverage. Those gains were the subject of extended advocacy over almost thirty years, but have become increasingly at risk of being reversed. 19. A 2015 study18 indicated that austerity was expected to impact more than two thirds of all countries during 2016 to 2020, affecting more than six billion people or nearly 80 per cent of the global population by 2020 and that, contrary to public perception, austerity measures were not limited to Europe; many of the principal adjustment measures featured most prominently in developing countries. 20. Fiscal consolidation policies have varied from one country to another. Nevertheless, seven of the most common fiscal consolidation measures are: (a) public expenditure cuts affecting human rights-sensitive fields such as public health care, social security and education; (b) regressive tax changes; (c) wage bill cuts and caps and reduction of positions in the public sector; (d) pension reforms; (e) rationalization and further targeting of safety nets; (f) privatization of public utilities and service providers and introduction of user fees; and (g) reduction in food, energy and other subsidies affecting the prices of essential goods and services such as food, heating and housing.19 Fiscal consolidation measures are often accompanied by structural reforms, such as deregulation, labour market flexibilization, reduction in labour rights and various administrative and legal reforms. While these measures are ostensibly aimed at facilitating future economic growth, reducing unemployment and increasing tax revenues, they have often directly affected the enjoyment of human rights, including access to justice. 20 21. In some countries, only one or two of the above measures have been implemented. Increasingly, those reforms have not been implemented in response to an acute financial crisis, but rather in a preventive manner with the aim of reducing growing budget deficits or increasing the financial sustainability of public health-care and social security systems. However, in some countries, all of the above measures were introduced simultaneously. 22. Not all efforts to reduce public spending are harmful to human rights. Improving access to essential medication by better medication management in the public health system and replacing expensive medical products by similarly effective, but less expensive, generic products can actually improve the accessibility and affordability of health care and thus strengthen the realization of the right to health. Cutting public spending on unnecessary military hardware can free up much needed revenue for human rights investments. 21 Furthermore, reforming pension systems by encouraging part-time work for retirees and increasing the retirement age depending on job category, individual choice or personal health may be ways to ensure the sustainability of pension systems and inter-generational justice and guarantee the right to social security for current and future generations over their entire, longer life cycle. 23. Numerous United Nations bodies and human rights mechanisms have concluded that the financial crises have threatened government expenditure on a wide range of social welfare services when and where they were most needed. 22 Austerity measures have contributed to prolonging the economic crisis and compounded the threat to human rights beyond that posed by the crisis alone. 23 18 19 20 21 22 23 See Isabel Ortiz and others, “The decade of adjustment”. Ibid. See also Center for Economic and Social Rights, “Assessing austerity”. See Center for Economic and Social Rights, “Assessing austerity”. Ibid. See, for example, E/2013/82; A/HRC/17/34; A/HRC/28/59/Add.1; A/HRC/31/60/Add.2; A/HRC/34/57/Add.1; A/HRC/25/54/Add.2; A/HRC/34/51/Add.2; E/C.12/GBR/CO/6; E/C.12/2016/1; reports of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/thematic-work/economic-crisis; ILO World Social Protection Report 2017–2019, pp. 181–184; and United Nations Children’s Fund, Children of Austerity: Impact of the Great Recession on Child Poverty in Rich Countries (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017). See OHCHR, “Promoting a rights-based approach to economic stabilization”, annex II; also UNCTAD, Beyond Austerity. 7