Join us for Enough is Enough: the future is public, a unique and dynamic online discussion on 26 October 2020 bringing together nine global and regional human rights experts to reflect on the crucial role of public services in building a more sustainable, inclusive, socially-just, and resilient economy and society.

This event builds on Enough is Enough 2020, the very successful panel discussion held last year on privatisation and public services, which brought together seven current and former UN Special Rapporteurs and one former UN Independent Expert and which was attended by over 500 participants from across the world. This event seeks to continue and strengthen this momentum, focusing on public services as the key to a new way forward, particularly in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency and the ecological crisis.

WHEN?

26 October | 2-4pm UTC

WITH WHOM?

• Philip Alston, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

• Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation

• Koumbou Boly Barry, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education

• Solomon Ayele Dersso, Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

• Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context

• Léo Heller, former UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation

• Aoife Nolan, Vice-President of the Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights

• Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Soledad García Muñoz, Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, will provide a short intervention by video.

The event will be moderated by Glenda Grace, Senior Vice Chancellor for Institutional Affairs, Strategic Advancement and Special Counsel at the City University of New York.

HOW?

This online seminar will be held on Zoom and will be available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic

WHY?

Privatisation and commercialisation are increasing in many areas, from the provision of services such as education and health, to the governance of land and natural resources. This raises a number of human rights concerns, including increased inequalities and segregation, restrictions in access, and the loss of democratic control over areas essential for human dignity. Dynamics of financialisation are further exacerbating the dispossession of communities and people, while creating new levels of concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few actors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed and exacerbated the existing inequalities and injustices related to privatisation, and has revealed the equalising and redistributive power of public services. This is a crucial moment to build public services as part of a just recovery and transition to a more sustainable and resilient economy and society.