OHCHR and ILO discuss adequate minimum income, a matter of human rights

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO-Brussels and the UN Human Rights Regional Office for Europe jointly hosted a Human Rights Talk on Ensuring adequate minimum income, a matter of human rights. The third event in a series of Human Rights Talks was supported by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

In January, the Council of the EU adopted a Recommendation on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion. Spain is firmly committed to promote social inclusion and social investment during its EU Presidency, to guarantee the basic needs of people in all sectors of society, and combat homelessness and child poverty. Spain also wants to foster initiatives to bridge the gap between legal and effective coverage of minimum income support.

As stipulated in the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 202), minimum income schemes are important components of comprehensive national social protection floors. The Recommendation calls on governments to build a nationally defined social protection floor guaranteeing at least basic levels of social security to everyone over the lifecycle. This includes access to essential healthcare and basic income security.


As part of a comprehensive social protection system and provided that they are adequate, minimum income schemes can contribute to the prevention of poverty and social exclusion. They can mitigate the adverse effects of economic downturn, and contribute to the reduction of inequalities. But in several EU Member States, the rates of non take-up of the schemes are very high.

“Potential beneficiaries cite various reasons as to why they are not taking up their right to minimum income, including difficult application procedures, a lack of information on how to apply, language and (computer) literacy barriers, but also embarrassment,” said Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

A panel composed of representatives from the European Commission, the European social partners and the European Anti-Poverty Network underlined that some groups are particularly vulnerable to not take up their right to minimum income support, such as women, migrants and Roma. All supported a human rights based approach to social protection including minimum income and the need for a more targeted outreach to those eligible for such benefits and most panellists underlined that social protection should be considered not as a cost, but as an investment, yielding long-term benefits for society and the economy.