A/HRC/35/26
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
22 March 2017
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-fifth session
6-23 June 2017
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and
human rights
Note by the Secretariat
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of
the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, prepared
pursuant to Council resolution 26/3. The Special Rapporteur notes that the fundamental
values of the international human rights system are under attack in new and diverse ways in
2017. One widely shared explanation is the rapidly growing sense of economic insecurity
afflicting large segments of many societies.
The Special Rapporteur suggests that the human rights community has had little to
offer in response. Indeed, there is a risk that rather than seeking creative ways in which to
address the problem of economic insecurity the human rights system will proceed in
zombie mode. It will keep marching straight ahead on the path mapped out long ago, even
as the lifeblood drains out of the enterprise.
The report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address
and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social
structures at the national and global levels. In this setting, one of the most vibrant proposals
is to replace or supplement existing social protection systems with a universal basic income
(“basic income”). This proposal has recently drawn attention from governments, scholars,
and practitioners in various fields. In its comprehensive and ideal form, a basic income is
explicitly designed to challenge most of the key assumptions underpinning existing social
security systems. Rather than payments being partial, they guarantee a floor; instead of
being episodic, payments are regular; rather than being needs-based, they are paid as a flat
rate to all; they come in cash, rather than as messy in-kind support; they accrue to every
individual, rather than only to needy households; rather than requiring that various
conditions be met, they are unconditional; rather than excluding the well off, they are
universal; and instead of being based on lifetime contributions, they are funded primarily
from taxation. And simplicity of design promises minimal bureaucracy and low
administrative costs.
The principal purpose of the report is to reflect on the desirability of advocating a
basic income approach to social protection when viewed from the perspective of
international human rights law. Basic income offers a bold and imaginative solution to
pressing problems that are about to become far more intractable as a result of the directions
GE.17-04619(E)