In the past few years, the pace of privatization in Israel has accelerated, with the privatization process beginning to infiltrate into the sphere of social services. The government’s drastic cuts in social services have created a situation in which certain services that were once provided by the State to all citizens for free are now provided by private bodies. In light of the growing commodification of social services and its potential impact on the realization of human rights, ACRI has pioneered a new initiative that seeks to ensure that human rights considerations are incorporated into the privatization process and the public discourse that surrounds it.
To this end, ACRI will work intensively in the legal, policy, and public outreach arenas to promote the need for transparency and public debate in the decision-making process leading to the privatization of social services, and to demand that the government develops effective regulatory mechanisms to ensure that private service providers protect human rights and abide by the principles of equality and non-discrimination. ACRI will also address various “privatization experiments” undertaken by the State, to highlight their shortcomings while emphasizing that the privatization of social services does not rid the State of its obligations to respect, protect, and promote human rights; if anything, it enhances those obligations.
Resources on Privatization and Human Rights:
Victory for Rights Groups, National Drug Rehabilitation Program: Privatization Tender Cancelled, August 2010
ACRI, Partner Prevent Institution of Unjust Water Rate System, October 2009
Demanding Accountability of Schools’ First Aid Services Privatization, July 2009
Following ACRI Intervention, Courts to Supervise Interpreters’ Services, December 2008
ACRI: Privatization of Court Interpretation Services Impedes Justice, November 2008
