Micro-credit Initiatives
According to the United Nations Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty, the penultimate priority for microcredit must be to reduce dependence on usury and to widen access to credit at viable commercial rates. Ideally, and consistent with the right to participation concerns, borrowers should also be actively involved in the management of such lending institutions.
The following case study illustrates how human rights defenders have used micro-credit initiatives to protect and promote ESC rights: