Angola has urged the UK to adopt an emergency poverty strategy to protect its most vulnerable citizens from the cost-of-living crisis.
The call – from a country where more than half of its population of 34 million people live on less than $2 (£1.75) a day, on behalf of citizens of one of the world’s richest – was among several concerns raised before a UN review of the UK’s human rights record today.
Campaigners said it “spoke volumes” about Britain’s worsening reputation in terms of its failure to support the millions of people who are struggling, and that the lack of a comprehensive poverty strategy has left people without enough to eat or pay their bills or rent.
Angola’s call follows the UN poverty envoy’s warning last week to the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, that new austerity cuts in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger.
Olivier de Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty, said he was “extremely troubled” by possible spending cuts, including reductions in welfare payments.
The Treasury responded by saying that its number one priority was economic stability and promised to prioritise the most vulnerable.
Dr Koldo Casla, the director of the Human Rights Centre Clinic at the University of Essex, said the UK had been “told off” a number of times by the UN.
“While it may be a surprise for a country in the global south to make recommendations to a country in the global north, it is not unusual. But, it speaks volumes about the profile the UK is developing,” Casla said.
“The UK has gained a reputation as a country that has taken a step backwards in terms of the protection of social and economic rights, and one that isn’t taking seriously its international commitments in terms of human rights. It used to be known for the opposite.”
Kartik Raj, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said: “When a country with a very high poverty rate asks this sort of question of the UK, the government should listen rather than dismiss it.
“The UK has its highest inflation in four decades and levels of social security support are worth less in real terms now than they were in the early 1990s. Benefit levels are inadequate. That leaves a lot of people, who receive benefits whether they are in work or not, in a very precarious situation.”
In a submission to the UN before today’s review, which happens once every five years, HRW urged the UK to develop an anti-poverty strategy.
“The value of benefits has declined in real terms, and since 2017 the ‘two-child limit’ policy has punished larger households and driven up child poverty,” Raj said.
The Trussell Trust has recorded an 81% increase in demand for food banks over the past five years. From April 2021 to March 2022, it distributed 2.1m emergency food parcels, a 14% increase.
Helen Flynn, the head of policy at the charity Just Fair, said: “The cost-of-living crisis is not something that happened in a vacuum. It comes after 10 years of austerity that hit specific groups, and a pandemic that hit specific groups. It is the same kind of groups that are experiencing this era of crisis. We are not on a level playing field … It becomes a human rights crisis when it happens to certain groups of people.”
Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said 4 million children in Britain were in poverty: “A million children were lifted out of poverty between 1998 and 2010 when a child poverty strategy was in place and targets written into legislation. Today, with the Child Poverty Act and targets dismantled and no sign of a plan – except in Scotland – almost all of the progress has been undone and child poverty is at record levels.”
Other issues raised before the review included concerns over the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the detention of migrants, and plans to replace the Human Rights Act 1998.
