A new report from Eurodad’s team working on ending debt crises warns that rapidly rising public debt is pitting the rights of creditors against those of the world’s poorest people – in particular women and girls. As the cost of debt rises and countries devote up to 40% of revenue to paying off external debt, public services are feeling the effect of austerity-driven cuts. Under international human rights law, states have a duty to promote social progress and better standards of living, including by allocating sufficient resources to public service provision. Yet people living in some of the world’s most impoverished countries are seeing their rights eroded on a daily basis because there is no fair international system addressing the growing debt crisis.