The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER Uganda), Campaña Latinoamericana por el Derecho a la Educación-CLADE, East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights, Kenya), Oxfam International, Right to Education Initiative (RTE) and the World Organization for Early Childhood Education-OMEP welcomed the opportunity to contribute to Working Group's report, “Development Finance Institutions and Human Rights”. The report will be presented by the Working Group to the Human Rights Council at its 53rd session, in June 2023. It aims to examine the responsibility of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to respect human rights in line with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). 

The joint submission is aligned with GI-ESCR's advocacy efforts towards U.N. special procedures to continuously strengthen public education and human rights standards. The joint submission answered question 8 of the questionnaire which addresses the specific human rights risks posed by DFI-related financing practices to the groups in the most vulnerable situations. It highlighted the evidence, concerns, and lessons around investments in the area of education by DFIs. It also sought to emphasise the negative impact of commercial and profit-oriented private schools and the human rights risks posed by financing these types of institutions particularly on the most vulnerable populations.  

GI-ESCR and its partner Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI) also submitted a joint contribution focusing on the human rights impacts of development finance to for-profit healthcare services. The submission focuses on evidence of abuses of human rights in the Indian context, as well as on the inherent limits of commercial approaches to healthcare to realise the right to health in Kenya and Nigeria.