The poor unprotected – Social Watch Report 2003, Netherlands

Privatisation increased in the 1990s, when the government needed to decrease its debt burden to make the economy competitive and to adopt the EURO. The focus was on making public services cheaper rather than on safeguarding public interests or fulfilling its human rights obligations. Underestimating the need for regulation, supervision and enforcement, the State has abandoned its human rights obligations. The poor, particularly women, have little protection against price increases and unemployment. read more less