A/HRC/43/45
supporting or enabling technology for banking and financial
and the means to collect debts do not violate borrowers’ human rights;
services
(c)
Ensure that bankruptcy laws are in place to protect debtors and are in
line with human rights standards;
(d)
Establish a minimum and non-seizable basic wealth and income
(including wages and all kinds of social benefits) cap by law;
(e)
Facilitate and/or grant debt relief to individual debtors when an adequate
tool to protect their human rights is not available;
(f)
Regulate the practices of lenders to ensure that the human rights of
debtors are fully respected by putting in place an interest rate cap on
individual/household debt and adopting legislation preventing and sanctioning
predatory and abusive lending practices, and consider establishing an agency in charge
of monitoring their operations;
(g)
Regulate advertising of private credit, ensuring that both conditions and
risks are clearly detailed and explained to potential applicants;
(h)
Ensure that bankruptcy legislation subordinates to all other credits, if not
declared void, reckless and abusive credits the lenders of which did not take into due
consideration the repayment capacity of debtors and their human rights;
(i)
Ensure that legislation prohibits the enforcement of debts where there is
evidence of misrepresentation, fraud, mis-selling, coercion, unfair terms, harassment or
other abusive practices by lenders or debt collection agencies;
(j)
Ensure that individual debtors can receive financial legal counselling from
the State, and that free legal service in court is provided;
(k)
Prohibit the criminalization of debtors, ensuring, for example, that their
political rights cannot in any way be limited because of their debt status;
(l)
Ensure that financial regulators, borrowers and their organizations have
access to relevant and timely information on the profit rates of lenders, an important
element to assess the legitimacy of interest rates and non-interest items charged to
borrowers;
(m) Investigate reports and cases of illegal overcharging, unpaid wages, wage
deduction and document confiscation, hold actors responsible in the event of illegal fees
being charged to foreign workers when recruited; make the results of investigations
public; and ensure that affected migrant workers and their families have access to
justice and remedies;
(n)
Ratify the ILO Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181);
(o)
Improve databases and conduct qualitative and quantitative studies to
assess the status of individual private debt, current lending and collection practices, and
create specific indicators to follow up on the burden of debt on rights;
(p)
Consider adopting a comprehensive data protection framework to ensure
borrowers the full enjoyment of their right to privacy, both online and offline;
(q)
Consider adopting a national action plan on business and human rights,
and pay particular attention to the financial sector and lending businesses of all kinds
and scale.
89.
The Independent Expert recommends that:
(a)
Recruiting agencies fully inform prospective migrants of the breakdown
of all fees payable, such as the cost of training, agency fees, travel, working documents
and accommodation;
(b)
Digital lending businesses clearly inform debtors about data collected and
what they will be used for.
90.
The Independent Expert recommends that private lenders:
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