PRESS RELEASE

The UN Human Rights Council
Is Investigating
Greece's Economic Program

April 25, 2013 (EIRNS)—For the first time in postwar European history, the effect of a country's economic policies is being investigated by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Cephas Lumina, the UN's expert on foreign debt and human rights, arrived in Greece on April 22 for a five-day fact-finding mission aimed at assessing the impact on human rights of the austerity forced on the country by the infamous Troika (the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the (International Monetary Fund).

In a statement of the Council, Lumina noted:

"The economic crisis in Greece and the austerity measures, structural reforms and privatization of State assets imposed under several bail-out packages have contributed to an unprecedented rise in unemployment, particularly of the younger generation, and reports point to increased levels of poverty as well as reduced access to basic social services such as healthcare, education and social security."

Lumina believes that

"even in times of austerity basic social services need to be assured for all people in Greece, in particular, for the most vulnerable sectors of the population such as the poor, elderly, unemployed and persons with disabilities."

While the Human Rights Council has in the past investigated other violations in Greece, this is the first time the government's economic policies, dictated by the EU bailout memorandum, have been investigated.

Lumina, who is an Advocate of the High Court for Zambia, and the Human Rights Council, is working under a mandate created several years ago to address human rights violations caused by foreign indebtedness of most African, Ibero-American, and Asian nations. His deployment to the Eurozone underscores the fact that the European financial oligarchy is giving the European population the the same treatment. that they have been forcing on Africa's population.