Excellencies,

Colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure to be here with you today.

I would like to thank Portugal, the ILO and the distinguished speakers in joining our Office in this event that aims at highlighting the need for urgent action to include and ensure the right to social protection for all.

Over the past two years and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic shed light on the profound fragilities of social and economic systems that have neglected to invest in fundamental public services such as health care and social protection, affecting the enjoyment of human rights, including to health, food, housing, education and decent work.

More than 350 million jobs have been lost.¹ As a result, forecasts for 2022 estimate that between 75 and 95 million more people than expected prior to the pandemic will be living in extreme poverty.²

The most affected are the most marginalized segments of the population, not a surprise that these include women, children, migrants, indigenous peoples, internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities, older persons, ethnic and racial minorities and those living in conflict-affected areas.

Around the world, we saw States responded with unprecedented measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic crisis and extend social protection coverage., many countries have expanded their social assistance programmes by introducing new cash transfers targeting those who are typically excluded, such as informal workers, undocumented migrants, freelancers and the self-employed, including those working in the gig economy.

Others, have mobilized domestic resources moving towards more progressive taxation systems to create adequate fiscal space for a comprehensive social protection system.

While necessary, most of these measures however have been temporary and ad-hoc. A lot more needs to be done to make the human right to social security a reality for the majority of the world’s population.

Stark regional differences that have underscored increasing inequalities within and between countries. For example, over half of the unemployed in high-income countries receive social protection benefits compared with one per cent in low-income countries.³

Colleagues,

Social security is a fundamental human right, indispensable for the exercise of many other rights and necessary for a life of dignity. It is crucial to reduce poverty and also to forge resilient and fair societies.

The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the stabilising force of social protection as countries with strong social protection systems managed to scale up support quickly and weathered the very worst impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. We should learn from these lessons and move to enact comprehensive social protection systems with a focus on the most marginalized, away from what are temporary and ad hoc measures towards longer-term policies.

To ensure social protection systems reach everyone everywhere, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requires States to strike a balance between contributory and non-contributory schemes. This is essential to ensure that even the most marginalized, as for example, undocumented domestic workers, who often suffer from multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and are not able to contribute formally to the social protection system, can enjoy this right.

The pandemic also reminded us of the importance global solitary and multilateralism to address today’s challenges. As low-income countries face particular difficulty in mobilizing resources to expand fiscal space, international cooperation to assist those less developed countries to step up their social protection systems is a human rights obligation, critical to meeting the development imperative and notably, supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Initiatives such as the ILO Global Accelerator launched by the UN Secretary General and the Global Fund for Social Protection can channel international cooperation and bring real progress if firmly anchored in human rights norms and principles and national ownership.

Friends,

Our Office is actively supporting countries in ensuring that all people, including women, older people, youth, children, LGBTIQ+, persons with disabilities, migrants, ethnic and racial minorities, can access social protection beyond the crisis. And we have several good examples to show for it:

• In Paraguay and Uruguay, our Office reviewed social protection measures implemented during the crisis, highlighting gaps and suggesting strategies to increase coverage, adequacy of support and institutional coherence.
• In Cambodia, our country office, in tandem with the entire United Nations system, have jointly advocated for a well-designed and human rights-based social protection system and in line with a broader civic space that enable consultation.
• In Timor Leste, together with the Government and ILO, we are exploring strategies to extend social protection coverage to women informal workers who are disproportionately affected by poverty, building upon the recommendations of the human rights mechanisms.

We remain deeply committed to supporting States in strengthening their social protection systems, working closely with ILO and other stakeholders to promote the enjoyment of the right to social protection.

I look forward to hearing the views and perspectives of the experts and Member States on how better to realize the right to social security, for all, everywhere.

---