Since states are not protected by bankruptcy or insolvency laws in national or international law, when a country’s sovereign debt becomes unsustainable and it can no longer repay its public debts it cannot simply declare bankruptcy as a private entity would do. Before reaching that moment of debt distress, the country’s government has very few options to avoid default: keep borrowing – making the problem even bigger, – raising taxes and mobilising other domestic resources to have more revenue to keep paying, or cutting public spending to free up resources to pay back its creditors. This last option comes at the expense of impacts on human rights, particularly women’s rights . All these alternatives generally end up delaying default, but not avoiding it.  […]