1. Human Rights and Poverty
Human rights as a concept
Poverty as a concept
Relationship between human rights and poverty
Normative framework
Other related notions
Human rights principles underlying poverty reduction strategies

2. Human rights as a concept
Values and norms about the protection of human dignity, laid down in legal texts, that entail rights for individuals and obligations for states.
Requirements for a right to be recognized as a human right:
Object: substance or content of a right
Subject: right holder
Duty bearer: duty holder

3. Categories of human rights:
Civil and political rights
Economic, social and cultural rights
Collective or group rights

4. Economic, social and cultural rights
Different definitions:
Rights relating to an adequate standard of living;
Conditions under which people live and work;
Claims to the fulfilment of basic needs;
Claims relating to the quality of life from a material and immaterial perspective;
Claims relating to opportunities to make a living and
the protection of working conditions.
Examples in the ICESCR.

5. Poverty as a concept Amartya Sen’s capability approach:
A person’s freedom or opportunities to achieve well-being.
Poverty: low levels of capability.
Sen: “the failure of basic capabilities to reach certain minimally acceptable levels”.
Basic capabilities: being adequately nourished, clothed and sheltered, avoiding preventable morbidity, taking part in the life of a community and being able to appear in public with dignity.
In Sen’s approach poverty is a multidimensional concept.

6. Poverty as a broad concept:
Inadequate command over economic resources (work generated income)
Insufficient command over publicly provided goods and services (housing, health, education)
Inadequate command over or access to resources that are made available through formal and informal networks of support (social security and social assistance)

7. Voices of the Poor (World Bank, 2000)
“Poverty is lack of freedom, enslaved by crushing daily burden, by depression and fear of what the future will bring.” (Georgia)
“For a poor person everything is terrible – illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of.” –
(A blind woman from Tiraspol, Moldova.)
The poor view poverty and well-being holistically, including material, economic, social and psychological dimensions.

8. “Poverty is like living in jail, living under bondage, waiting to be free.” (Jamaica)
“If you want to do something and have no power to do it, it is talauchi (poverty).” (Nigeria)

9. Extreme poverty The combination of:
Income poverty: lack of income or purchasing power to secure basic needs.
Human development poverty: extreme or severe deprivation of elements of well-being, such as health, education, food, housing.
Social exclusion: When as a consequence of marginalization, discrimination and exclusion in social relations, people lack basic security and the capability to lead a life of value.
Extreme poverty often occurs over prolonged periods of time.
The element of exclusion is crucial: Sen: “No concept of poverty can be satisfactory if it does not take note of the disadvantages that arise from being excluded from shared opportunities enjoyed by others”.

10. Impoverishment:
A worsening of the poverty situation of people as a result of a deliberate policy of the state or a failure or indifference by the state to embark on an active and effective policy of poverty eradication.

11. Relationship between poverty and human rights
The capability approach defines poverty as the absence or inadequate realization of certain basic freedoms.
These freedoms should be understood as negative and positive freedoms:
Negative: non-interference with the pursuit of freedoms;
Positive: creation of an enabling environment.

12. Consequently, poverty can be defined as:
Basic freedoms, both negative and positive ones, are considered as fundamental for minimal human dignity.
Consequently, poverty can be defined as:
Either the failure of basic freedoms (from the perspective of capabilities)
Or the non-fulfilment of rights to those freedoms (from the perspective of human rights)
Human dignity being the key notion underlying the idea of human rights protection.
Therefore, poverty can be defined as either the failure of basic freedoms (from the perspective of capabilities), or the non-fulfilment of rights to those freedoms (from the perspective of human rights).

13. Non-fulfilment of human rights would count as poverty when it meets the following two conditions:
The human rights involved must be those that correspond to the capabilities that are considered basic by a given society.
Inadequate command over economic resources must play a role in the causal chain leading to the non-fulfilment of human rights.

14. Poverty seen through a human rights lens:
A human condition characterized by sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.
Poverty constitutes a denial of human rights.
(UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Statement on Poverty, 2001)

15. Disputed definition of poverty from a human rights perspective:
Poverty as a massive and ongoing violation of human rights. Poverty is seen as a mass, structural and enduring phenomenon, in which individuals and families are subjected to poverty by external forces and decisions which have nothing to do with them and over which most of the time they have no control.
Poverty appears as an arbitrary imposition on certain individuals and groups, and constitutes a flagrant type of discrimination.
Definition proposed by an independent expert of the United Nations, Mr. José Bengoa, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/44, paras. 5-7.

16. Poverty as a violation of human rights?
What is a violation? A violation is an act or omission (failure to act) which destroys or harms the enjoyment of a right which a state is under an obligation to respect or to fulfil.
Of which legal norm? There is no human right not to be poor.
By whom? → Who is the duty bearer?
→ Who is the perpetrator?
However, human rights law contains guarantees that are imperative for people to move out of poverty.
In poverty as a social condition, it is difficult to identify a perpetrator. The perpetrator may be the duty bearer (the state), but it may also be a third person, or just no one. In many instances of poverty, nobody is directly to blame.
Legally speaking, a violation requires an act or omission that begins at a certain moment in time. Does that also apply to poverty?
Poverty as a social phenomenon is no violation of human rights. However, it may become a violation depending on time, place, situation, persons affected and the conduct of the state. Sometimes poverty is man-made: poverty as a result of violent conflict, wrong policy decisions, corruption (Examples: Congo; land evictions as a consequence of World Bank projects; Nigeria).

17. The United Nations position:
The United Nations presently sees poverty as a cause and a product of human rights violations.
Poverty is characterized by discrimination, unequal access to resources and social and cultural stigmatization. It amounts to a denial of human rights and human dignity.
Fighting poverty is a matter of obligation, not of aspiration or charity.

18. General Assembly of the United Nations:
“The existence of widespread extreme poverty inhibits the full and effective enjoyment of human rights and might, in some situations, constitute a threat to the right to life.”

19. Normative Legal Framework
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966); Article 2(1)
Declaration on the Right to Development (1986)
Vienna Declaration – World Conference (1993):
“All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.”
Following Amartya Sen’s ideas Human Development means: expanding peoples choices and enhancing their freedoms.

20. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
Article 2(1):
Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.

21. Declaration on the Right to Development (1986)
‘Development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting therefrom.’

22. Core human rights obligations
“(...) the Committee is of the view that a minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of each of the rights is incumbent upon every State party.
Thus, for example, a State party in which any significant number of individuals is deprived of essential foodstuffs, of essential primary health care, of basic shelter and housing, or of the most basic forms of education is, prima facie, failing to discharge its obligations under the Covenant.”
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment no. 3, § 10.
General Comment no. 3 (1990) gives an interpretation and explanation of the nature of obligations of states resulting from Article 2(1). It is soft law, but it has an authoritative status.
Core obligations emanating from economic, social and cultural rights have a crucial role to play in national and international development policies, including anti-poverty strategies.
As poverty is a global phenomenon, core obligations have great relevance for those actors living in the richest states (governments, ngo’s) to share responsibility for their fulfilment.

23. UN-Millennium Declaration (2000)
“We will spare no efforts to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want.”
MDG’s: not framed in human rights language, but as policy goals. Accountability is therefore also mainly a political one.
However, qua substance/contents there is overlap with human rights (esc-rights): food, health, education, water, protection of mother and children.
MDG’s are no international human rights obligations. Human rights treaties do not contain an obligation to combat poverty.
However, they contain rights that focus on an adequate standard of living in a broad sense.

24. Human Rights Principles Underlying Poverty Reduction Strategies
Universality and Indivisibility
Equality and Non-Discrimination
Participation and Inclusion
Empowerment of Poor People
Accountability and the Rule of Law
State obligations: progressive realization of esc-rights
Obligation of International Cooperation
- Human rights apply everywhere and can be invoked by everyone.
Implementation of all human rights (civil/political AND esc-rights) is relevant for poverty reduction.
A human rights approach to poverty and to poverty reduction requires a translation of the poverty concept into rights of people and obligations of states and other actors. People as active right holders.
Poor people are often victims of discriminatory treatment: on the basis of birth, property, national or social origin, gender. There may be a need for special measures to improve their situation.
- Discrimination affecting persons living in (extreme) poverty must be punished as a violation of human rights.
Persons (or their representatives) living in poverty have the right to participate in all activities which concern them, particularly programs for the eradication of poverty.
Empowerment means: claiming one’s rights and being able to participate effectively in decision-making processes. This means basically exercising one’s civil and political rights.
Duty holders should act on the basis of the law and democratic governance and may be held accountable before political and legal bodies. Accountability mechanisms include: court cases, Ombudsperson institutions, parliamentary processes and international human rights monitoring procedures.
Progressive realization means that some rights must get priority in terms of allocation of resources and policy measures taken. These include the core obligations providing for minimum essential levels of basic services, such as minimum food packages, basic health services, basic shelter and basic education.

25. Poverty reduction is clearly a human rights obligation
Poverty reduction is clearly a human rights obligation. → Failure to overcome poverty implies a failure to implement human rights.
Lack of anti-poverty policies and programs may give rise to a breach of human rights obligations.
- Poverty reduction policies must be based on norms and values underlying international human rights law.
Breach of human rights obligations: When a state fails to take active measures aimed at addressing the needs of the most desperate people, securing their subsistence needs.

26. → IMF and World Bank programs; → Bilateral development cooperation.
Poverty reduction strategies should depart from a human rights based approach:
→ national level: pro-poor programs aimed at vulnerable and marginalized groups require priorities in the budget;
→ IMF and World Bank programs;
→ Bilateral development cooperation.
- IMF and World Bank programs and conditionalities: for example no introduction of user fees for health services or education.
Development cooperation: focus on the empowerment of people; participation of all stakeholders and accountability of authorities.
Programs for development cooperation should contain a human rights impact assessment.

27. Added Value of a human rights based approach to poverty reduction:
International legal human rights obligations accepted voluntarily add legitimacy to poverty reduction.
Recognition of complementarities between economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights.
Focus on both processes and goals of development.
Emphasis on legal obligations to realize essential services.
Accountability of policy-makers.
International obligations are not imposed on governments.
Realization of both sets of rights is imperative to tackle poverty.
Key role of participation by the poor.
Notion of core obligations; no retrogressive measures: no steps backward implying worsening conditions for the poor.
Rights imply duties, and duties demand accountability.