Privatizing Human Rights: Destroying the Social Contract and Empowering Corporate Actors

Governments around the world are privatizing everything, with dramatic but largely ignored negative consequences for human rights.This open access book outlines the response that is urgently needed. Corporations are being given control over water, healthcare, housing, public transportation, child welfare services, aged care, and much else.Privatization is promoted by international financial institutions, consulting firms, and development actors as the answer to public finances devastated by the very tax cuts insistently pushed by these groups. Building on the latest evidence and on specially commissioned case studies, this book shows how the touted ‘efficiency’ of the private sector is often predicated on higher charges and/or reduced services, destructive employment practices, and the highly predictable exclusion of many users.Privatization generally costs states more money, marginalizes democratic decision-making, and transforms citizens from rights-holders into customers while sidel