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Access to justice for people living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2012
- Document code
- A/67/278
Document
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- The indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of human rights is often recalled and reiterated in human rights instruments and by human rights bodies, although frequently disregarded in practice. The interdependence of all human rights is unequivocal when considering the situation of persons living in poverty, which is both a cause and a consequence of a range of mutually reinforcing human rights violations. Eradicating extreme poverty not only requires improving access to housing, food, education, health services, water and sanitation, but also requires ensuring that persons living in poverty have the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary to enjoy the whole spectrum of human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Access to justice is crucial for tackling the root causes of poverty, exclusion and vulnerability, for several reasons. First, owing to their vulnerability, persons living in poverty are more likely to fall victim to criminal or illegal acts, including sexual or economic exploitation, violence, torture and murder. Crime and illegality are also likely to have a great impact on their lives as it is hard for them to obtain redress and as a result they may fall further into poverty. Second, access to justice is important because justice systems can be tools to overcome deprivation, for example, by developing jurisprudence on social and economic rights. Third, when vulnerable persons cannot access justice systems, they are sometimes forced to take justice into their own hands through illegal or violent means, or to accept unjust settlements. Thus, fair and effective justice systems are an important way to tackle impunity and reduce violence and conflict. Fourth, the inability of the poor to pursue justice remedies through existing systems increases their vulnerability to poverty and violations of their rights. In turn, their increased vulnerability and exclusion further hamper their ability to use justice systems. This vicious circle impairs the enjoyment of several human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty have a right to access justice without discrimination of any kind, and a right to due process, understood as the right to be treated fairly, efficiently and effectively throughout the justice chain. States have assumed obligations in that regard, by committing themselves to respect, protect and fulfil several rights such as the right to an effective remedy (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 8; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 2.3; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, art. 6; Convention against Torture, arts. 13 and 14); the right to equality before the courts and tribunals (e.g., International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14.1); the right to a fair trial (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 10; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 14-15); the right to legal assistance (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 11.1; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14.3 (b)-(d)); and the right to equality and equal protection of the law (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 7; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 26).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- In addition, several other rights are also relevant, such as to enjoy rights without discrimination (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 2; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 2; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 2); the right to recognition as a person before the law (e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 6; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 16; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 15; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 12); and the right to seek and receive information (e.g., International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 19.2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The right to an effective remedy is a key element of human rights protection and serves as a procedural means to ensure that individuals can enforce their rights and obtain redress. The lack of effective remedies for violations of human rights such as discrimination is still a pressing reality in many jurisdictions, as is the lack of judicial protection for economic, social and cultural rights. However, this concept entails more than improving access to judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms. It also implies that remedies must be effective and legal, and that judicial outcomes must be just and equitable. The right to an effective remedy also includes reparation, restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- The right to equality before the courts and tribunals and the right to a fair trial consist of a complex set of rules and practices that include the right to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time and respect of the principles of equality of arms and presumption of innocence, among others. While the rules regarding due process are included in several provisions of international human rights treaties, of particular relevance is article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides that "all persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals" in criminal and civil cases and creates an obligation upon States to ensure that everyone has access to "a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law" in "the determination of any criminal charge against him or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The principle of equality and non-discrimination obliges States to take measures to ensure that all individuals are entitled to equal access to judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms without distinction on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and that all parties in judicial or legal proceedings are treated without any discrimination. The principle of equality and non-discrimination extends to prevent discrimination on the basis of social and economic status, as implied in the phrase "other status".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Thus, States have an obligation to construct a legal and institutional framework which facilitates access to independent and effective judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms and ensures a fair outcome for those seeking redress, without discrimination of any kind. However, guaranteeing de jure access to judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms is not sufficient to ensure that all individuals have de facto access to justice. States must also take positive measures to ensure laws and policies are substantively non-discriminatory, including measures to eliminate conditions which cause or help to perpetuate discrimination. In many instances, laws, policies and procedures may indirectly discriminate against, or have a disproportionate impact upon, persons living in poverty. In addition, various extralegal factors also limit or obstruct their de facto access to justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- To ensure that the poor have de facto enjoyment of the rights to an effective remedy, equality before the courts and a fair trial, States must take effective measures to remove any regulatory, social or economic obstacles that impede or hamper persons living in poverty from accessing remedies and securing a fair and equitable outcome in any judicial or adjudicatory process. This includes removing obstacles imposed by the unequal economic or social status of those seeking redress, taking into account the principles of equality before the courts and equality of arms, which are integral parts of due process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- These principles require that claimants or defendants must be able to exercise their rights and defend their interests effectively and in full procedural equality with other parties. When there is a big disparity in the economic or social status of litigants, as is often the case when those living in poverty seek redress for grievances against more powerful parties, there is a high risk of an unequal trial. For example, this is likely when impoverished workers want to bring a case against their employer for unfair and unjust working conditions or when a woman without personal income or resources brings a case against her partner for domestic violence. Procedural inequality can also arise in litigation against the State.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The existence of significant socioeconomic inequality between the parties in a proceeding requires States to adopt all necessary measures to help to reduce or eliminate the deficiencies that impair or diminish the effective protection of the rights at stake. If such measures are not taken, those who are socially or economically disadvantaged do not enjoy a real opportunity for justice or the benefits of due process of law in an equal manner. These obligations arise in civil and criminal cases and in pretrial stages of the justice chain, when the rights of persons living in poverty are also at stake.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Even in the most developed countries, legal disempowerment is rife and persons living in poverty do not have full de jure or de facto access to justice. Around the world, persons living in poverty face a range of obstacles in claiming and enforcing, or contesting violations of, their rights. Such obstacles not only imply violations of their rights to a remedy and due process, but also undermine their ability to enjoy other human rights equally and without discrimination. States, therefore, are under an obligation to eliminate obstacles which frustrate the efforts of the poorest and most vulnerable to access justice. Effective enforcement of and compliance with judicial rulings in favour of persons living in poverty are also essential to ensure that persons living in poverty can benefit from the law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur chose to focus the present report on obstacles to access to justice, because overcoming such obstacles is fundamental to improving the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable, and empowering them to claim their rights. The report is based on the understanding that meaningful access to justice for persons living in poverty does not depend only on legal tools or access to legal services, lawyers and courts, but also requires a more comprehensive and holistic approach that takes into account broader structural, social and economic factors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Some of the obstacles that persons living in poverty face, such as the cost of legal advice, administrative fees and other collateral costs, relate directly to their lack of financial resources. Other obstacles, including lack of access to information and lack of legal recognition arise out of discrimination against the poorest and most marginalized. Furthermore, institutional and structural obstacles are found in the design and operation of justice systems; these include the inadequate capacity and resources of courts, the police and prosecution corps, the corrupt practices therein, and the location of courts and police stations. Poor functioning of the justice system particularly affects the poor, because pursuing justice requires a much greater effort and investment in terms of money and time for them, while their chances of a just and favourable outcome are worse. The deprivations that persons living in poverty encounter throughout their lives - lack of access to quality education, reduced access to information, limited political voice and social capital - translate into lower levels of legal literacy and awareness of their rights, creating social obstacles to seeking redress.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Certain groups that suffer from structural discrimination and exclusion and are disproportionately represented among the poor, particularly ethnic and racial minorities, migrants and indigenous peoples, encounter additional barriers to accessing justice. Those difficulties are multiplied for women living in poverty, who experience compounded discrimination and disempowerment, not to mention financial constraints. Therefore, across different contexts, women living in poverty experience particular difficulties in accessing justice mechanisms and winning judicial recognition, action and enforcement for crimes, discrimination and human rights violations they are disproportionately subject to. Children are often denied the due process guarantees that they are entitled to on the same basis as adults, as well as additional protections that are necessary, in particular when they are particularly deprived or marginalized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Thus, persons living in poverty face significant barriers that seriously impede or discourage them from seeking justice. Those barriers include the following.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Owing to deep asymmetries of power, the stigma and discrimination they suffer and their socioeconomic disadvantages, persons living in poverty often reasonably decide against bringing a case to court, thereby precluding any possibility of obtaining justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty may choose not to seek justice because they fear reprisal or sanction from more powerful actors within or outside their community, or fear being stigmatized or discriminated against. Having experienced discrimination and abuse at the hands of the police and other authorities throughout their lives, people living in poverty are often averse to relying upon formal legal processes for fear of being subject to further exploitation or corruption, or of receiving an unjust outcome. Certain groups, such as ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples or irregular migrants, may be reluctant to engage with the justice system owing to concerns relating to the respect of their own values or owing to their immigration status.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Women living in poverty often face particularly strong social barriers to pursuing cases. In some contexts, there are strong cultural norms against women speaking on their own behalf in disputes. Social sanction is a particular obstacle for women who are victims of domestic or sexual violence. In the case of gender-based violence, for example, social constraints account partly for the disproportionately high underreporting and attrition rates.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Another social barrier relates to the powerlessness and dependence of persons living in poverty or their subordination to other groups or persons. For example, in some societies, poor women may be unable to approach justice systems without the assistance of a male relative, while in very hierarchical societies those who are economically dependent on other groups are unlikely to pursue justice claims against them.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Awareness and understanding of the existence of legal rights, and of the ways in which such rights can be invoked before and enforced by judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms, is fundamental to enjoying the full range of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, and for remedying violations thereof.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty are often deprived from a young age of the opportunity to acquire the tools, social capital and basic legal knowledge necessary to engage with the justice system. They are unaware of the existence and contents of their legal rights and entitlements, of the State's obligations and duties towards them, and of how to secure the assistance they need. This is especially the case for those who experience discrimination in accessing education on grounds such as ethnicity, gender or disability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- States not only have an obligation to ensure the enjoyment of the right to education, including human rights education (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 13) but also an obligation to ensure access to information without discrimination (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 2 and 19), which implies an obligation to proactively put information of public interest in the public domain and to ensure easy, prompt, effective and practical access to such information for all persons. In the context of access to justice, this requires, for example, that States proactively inform the public about new or changing laws, and make legal materials, such as laws, judgements, trial transcripts and adjudication procedures, available and reasonably accessible.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Simply making information available is not sufficient. The burdens involved in accessing information, such as travel costs, fees, long waiting periods, and interaction with State officials, can act as disincentives for the poorest. States often do not take into account the difficulties, such as financial, geographical, technological or linguistic barriers, that the poor face in accessing information. For example, in many States, information about new statutes is disseminated in a very limited way, or access to copies of enacted laws is conditional upon the payment of a fee. Information may only be available in written format, thus creating obstacles for those with low levels of literacy and persons with disabilities, or may only be published online or in commercial newspapers, or only in one official language.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Laws tend to reflect and reinforce the privileges and interests of the powerful. Thus, many laws are inherently biased against persons living in poverty, do not recognize or prioritize the abuses they regularly suffer, or have a disproportionately harsh impact on them. A legal system based on prejudices against the poor does not protect them, but rather undermines their rights and autonomy, or seeks to control, criminalize and segregate them. Legislators often do not recognize and estimate the issues that negatively affect persons living in poverty as serious and in need of active remedy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- For example, in many legal systems, economic, social and cultural rights are not sufficiently protected, and discrimination on the grounds of socioeconomic situation is not recognized. Similarly, issues such as abuses in the informal employment sector or the exploitation of tenants by landlords, all of which disproportionately affect persons living in poverty, are often not legislated against in an effective manner. Meanwhile, actions which are undertaken by persons living in poverty out of necessity, such as sleeping in public spaces or street vending, are criminalized. Hence, reforms aimed at improving access to justice by the poor must not neglect the need to modify or repeal certain laws or strengthen others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Women living in poverty suffer compounded obstacles to accessing justice generated by inadequate legal frameworks and normative protection, because the deprivations and abuse that women suffer as women are often not recognized in law. Many States lack legal and constitutional frameworks that guarantee women the enjoyment of their rights, such as anti-discrimination laws. Issues such as domestic violence, sexual violence, reproductive rights, and equal pay and inheritance rights are not adequately addressed in many legal regimes, thus curtailing any possibility of seeking remedies. This has a particularly devastating impact on poor women, who are often left without any formal or informal recourse.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Often, there is no mechanism in place to review social policies or administrative decisions that have a major impact on the enjoyment of their rights by persons living in poverty. The lack of remedies for the negative impacts of social policy in the areas of health, housing, education and social security, or for administrative decisions relating to welfare benefits or asylum proceedings, often results in inability to seek redress in cases of violations of key human rights, such as the right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to social security. This is a major obstacle to accessing justice for persons living in poverty, who are disproportionately affected by those policies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- The lack of judicial review or complaints mechanisms for social policy, compounded by a lack of justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights at the domestic level, creates the perception that social policy is a charitable measure rather than part of an obligation to ensure the enjoyment of human rights. The recognition of rights imposes the obligation to establish judicial or other remedies that enable rights holders to invoke their protection in courts, or before other similarly independent bodies, when they are infringed. The lack of adequate and effective remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights is thus an infringement of international human rights instruments.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The right to be recognized as a person before the law is a fundamental human right (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 16, and Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 7), and is at the core of the right to access justice. Many persons living in poverty are de facto deprived of accessing courts and other public services as they lack legal identity. With more than 50 million births going unregistered every year, the lack of formal registration is a considerable barrier to legal recognition before the law, which has a disproportionate impact on the poorest and most marginalized. Without recognition, individuals are unable to access social services or to access courts to seek remedies for violations of their human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty face greater and disproportionate barriers and disincentives in accessing registration services, which are often geographically distant for them, time-consuming and unaffordable. The travel costs to access registration services are added to relatively high fees charged for the issuance of identity documents and to the working time lost. These costs are more burdensome for the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty face obstacles in each of the steps that they must take to seek redress through the formal justice system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- As the majority of the world's poor live outside of urban centres, with many of the most marginalized living in remote, hard-to-reach areas, the lack of nearby police centres and the centralization of national justice systems constitute serious obstacles to their accessing justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- While police deployment can be problematic when communities living in poverty are disproportionately targeted, the absence of police and other institutions necessary for the administration of justice in rural, poor and marginalized areas is a common problem. Courthouses, particularly appeal courts, are often located only in capital cities or large towns. Police officers, prosecutors and lawyers are also concentrated in urban areas, along with registries for land titling and for births, deaths and marriages. In such circumstances, persons living in poverty often have to travel long distances at great cost to engage with the justice system, exposing themselves to unfamiliar environments and unsafe conditions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Such factors often act as a persuasive deterrent against seeking redress from judicial or adjudicatory mechanisms, or may indeed represent an insurmountable obstacle for the poorest and most marginalized. This is especially so for those who have limited mobility, such as older persons or persons with disabilities, or those for whom travel is more difficult or dangerous, including women and children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The geographical remoteness of justice mechanisms for persons living in poverty can also exacerbate their situation and lead to violation of other human rights. Those without easy and immediate access to law enforcement officials are unable to seek immediate redress or protection from violence, abuse and exploitation, and will have greater difficulty in contesting land issues and forced evictions. The police may be less likely to pursue complaints if they have to travel long distances to do so, particularly where resources are scarce.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty, particularly those with disabilities or older persons, may experience additional obstacles in accessing justice when courts and police stations are not appropriately designed, and when court processes are not adaptable. For example, many judicial systems are heavily reliant on paper forms and written submissions, and on the presentation of oral evidence. Often, police stations and courts are not wheelchair accessible. Where measures are not in place to enable judicial bodies to adapt their processes for those in need, including by providing aid to defendants, claimants, witnesses and jurors who require it, such persons are excluded from accessing and benefiting from the justice system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Shortfalls in financial and human resource allocations to courts, the police and prosecution corps, and insufficient training and capacity-building for judicial and law enforcement officers translate into failures in the judicial system which infringe upon access to justice. Such failures, including delays (see paras. 68-69 below), flawed or insufficient evidence-gathering, lack of enforcement, and abuse, undermine the effective functioning of judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms and have a disproportionate impact on and undermine the human rights of persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- When judicial systems receive inadequate financial and human resource allocations from State budgets, police stations, prosecution corps and courthouses are understaffed and poorly equipped, and benches are deprived of adequate numbers of judges. The result is serious neglect and even mistreatment of those seeking justice, which is more pronounced for the most disadvantaged, whose cases are usually underprioritized. Again, this frequently has an especially harsh impact on women, as often the criminal justice and legal system lacks capacity to ensure a swift, fair and gender-sensitive approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Non-registration of complaints by the police is a practice common in overburdened and underresourced criminal justice systems. In such cases, it is usually the complaints of persons living in poverty that go unregistered, owing to bias and discrimination, and their disempowerment and lack of knowledge and information about their rights. Cases involving gender-based violence, notably rape allegations, often go unregistered, particularly when the victim is a woman living in poverty and lacks awareness or the means to pressure the police to investigate.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The rights and interests of women are thus especially compromised by badly resourced and trained judicial systems and police forces, State organs that traditionally reflect and prioritize the interests of men and are dominated by men. Not only do women living in poverty come up against stark power imbalances and discriminatory cultural norms and other social structures when instituting legal proceedings, they are also disadvantaged by the lack of training afforded to officials on the application of laws relating to gender-based violence and the proper treatment of victims and handling of complaints. Women living in poverty have even less power and capacity to challenge this state of affairs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Often, police officers, court staff and other justice sector personnel reflect the discriminatory attitudes of the wider society and are not adequately trained to perform their roles without discrimination or bias against persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- The background and daily experience of justice sector staff, especially judges, are often very different from those of persons living in poverty, and this often means that, without proper training and sensitization, they do not understand and value their views, choices, behaviours or problems. Persons living in poverty may be denied access to impartial justice owing to negative stigma and stereotyping from judges, prosecutors and police.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Police forces are the primary and most common interface with the justice system for persons living in poverty. All too often, however, police actions and procedures act as a barrier to meaningful access to justice for persons living in poverty and they are treated as potential criminals, rather than as rights-holders whose access to justice must be supported and facilitated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Across developing and developed countries, incarceration rates are extremely high for persons living in poverty. Disproportionately high numbers of them are arrested, detained and imprisoned as a result of law enforcement officials' frequent use of poverty, homelessness or disadvantage as an indicator of criminality, and they encounter considerable obstacles in manoeuvring within or exiting the criminal justice system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The provision of bail pending trial is often subject to stringent and onerous conditions. In the vast majority of cases, those requirements are impossible to meet for the poorest. Therefore, they are more likely to remain in detention pending trial. This dramatically increases the likelihood that they will ultimately be convicted: not only does it put them in a vulnerable position, in which they will be more inclined to accept unfair "plea deals" or to make admissions of guilt in order to secure a swifter release, it also impedes their ability to liaise with lawyers or obtain character witnesses, and causes them to lose their employment or social housing, thereby creating a disincentive for the court to give a suspended or community sentence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- The economic and social costs of detention and incarceration can be devastating for persons living in poverty. Detention and incarceration can lead to loss of income and employment and often temporary or permanent withdrawal of social benefits. Their families, particularly their children, are also directly affected. Therefore, criminal justice systems predicated on detention and incarceration, even for minor non-violent crimes, can themselves represent a significant obstacle to access to justice for persons living in poverty. Those who are poor and vulnerable are likely to leave detention disproportionately financially, physically and personally disadvantaged.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- In addition to the costs of legal assistance (see paras. 60-67 below), there are numerous other costs associated with accessing justice which constitute a major barrier for the poor, who simply cannot afford those expenditures. Fees are encountered at every stage of the legal process, along with several indirect costs, such as for obtaining a legal document, witness costs, commissioning independent expertise, photocopies and phone calls. The cumulative impact of those costs is a crucial factor preventing the poor from accessing and benefiting from the justice system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Costs are particularly burdensome in criminal cases, where defendants must often put up large sums of money to be granted bail, or risk long periods of pretrial detention, during which they may have to pay for food or telephone use. Those fees can have the effect of prolonging an individual's detention and exacerbating the conditions in which he or she is detained. Moreover, they result in a situation in which criminal defendants with financial means are in a much more favourable position than those without.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- In civil claims, fees are payable when claims and motions are filed or when time limits are exceeded. In addition, the unsuccessful party in a civil case is often ordered to pay the legal costs of the successful party. Such fees are unaffordable for persons living in poverty and act as a disincentive to instituting claims. For example, in some countries the cost of divorce proceedings, including child custody claims, or of filing a land inheritance claim is many times the monthly income of a person living in poverty, and presents an even greater barrier for poor women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- The existence of administrative and other fees disproportionately disadvantages women, who often have less financial independence or access to financial resources. Women's access to the judicial system to determine civil claims with respect to divorce, child custody and land inheritance is impeded when excessive fees are imposed. Women living in poverty may also be prevented from filing criminal charges for domestic violence, rape or other forms of gender-based violence because they are unable to afford the fees incurred.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- In addition to formal administrative fees, persons living in poverty encounter other collateral costs in accessing justice. The cost of transportation to courts and of accommodation, together with the loss of income while away from employment or subsistence activities, may be impossible for the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Those costs are particularly severe for persons who live in rural areas, who may have to travel for days to access the justice system. Individuals who have informal or precarious work are unlikely to obtain their employer's permission to take time off to attend a hearing, even if they are willing to forego pay. Attendance would mean they risk losing their jobs and income altogether. Caregivers, the majority of whom are women, may not be able to leave home to submit a claim or to attend a court hearing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- In many countries, partly owing to overstretched and underfunded judicial systems, corruption is rife throughout police forces and prosecution corps, and among judicial officials. Illicit payments and favours enable those with financial and social capital to access the justice system with greater efficiency and effectiveness, and even to secure a certain outcome. In contrast, persons living in poverty, who cannot afford to pay bribes for services that should be free, have their claims and cases delayed, denied or discontinued.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty are more likely than other individuals to be confronted with requests for bribes and to resort to paying bribes. Moreover, bribes represent a greater burden for persons living in poverty, often meaning that they have to sell assets or sacrifice their health or education in order to meet such demands. Evidence shows that women are more likely to be affected by demands for bribes within the justice system and in many cases they are also subject to harassment or abuse by law enforcement officers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty are not only denied access to justice when they are unable to meet the cost of bribes or of engaging in other corrupt activities, but they are also deterred from accessing the justice system when they perceive the system to be corrupt.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The right to legal assistance, enshrined in many major global and regional human rights instruments, is essential for ensuring due process and equality before the courts. The provision of free and competent legal advice and assistance to those who are otherwise unable to afford it is a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring that all individuals have fair and equal access to judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- International human rights law explicitly establishes the right to free legal assistance in criminal proceedings (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14). This is particularly important for those living in poverty, who face a range of obstacles in negotiating bail procedures, pretrial detention, trials and sentencing, and appeals. Nonetheless, free legal aid should not only be provided in criminal matters, but also in civil matters when individuals do not have sufficient resources to pay for legal assistance and, without such assistance, they are prevented from asserting their rights. For example, when domestic law requires that individuals be represented by counsel to access judicial protection, the failure to provide free legal aid to persons without financial means would constitute a violation of the right to a fair trial and to effective judicial protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Lack of legal aid for civil matters can seriously prejudice the rights and interests of persons living in poverty, for example when they are unable to contest tenancy disputes, eviction decisions, immigration or asylum proceedings, eligibility for social security benefits, abusive working conditions, discrimination in the workplace or child custody decisions. Indeed, exclusion of certain categories of claims from the scope of free legal aid, such as housing or immigration proceedings, or exclusion from representation before quasi-judicial tribunals, such as welfare or employment appeal boards, discriminates against the poor. Moreover, the legal processes which relate to such civil matters are often extremely complex and their requirements onerous, creating insurmountable obstacles for those without the assistance of a lawyer, particularly if the State or other party enjoys such assistance. This is particularly troubling with respect to civil matters involving the most vulnerable groups, such as indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities, who often face serious deprivations and violations of their rights, and lack the means or ability to contest them.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Women face compounded difficulties in accessing legal aid in criminal and civil matters. This has a particular impact on poor female victims of criminal offences such as domestic violence, or those pursuing divorce, child custody or land inheritance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Often, the criteria which govern access to State-funded legal assistance are arbitrary and overly restrictive, and rely heavily on means-testing to determine eligibility. Means-testing is often inaccurate and is unable to take account of the wealth distribution within a household, disadvantaging those who have restricted access to household wealth, such as women and older persons. Furthermore, it fails to realistically reflect the options faced by persons living in poverty; for example, it may disqualify individuals if they have the option of disposing of household assets, even if those assets are used to produce food and generate subsistence income for the household.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- The quality of legal services available to persons living in poverty is significantly undermined by the inadequate allocation by States of human and financial resources to legal aid services. In many instances, the fees legal aid lawyers are paid are far from commensurate with the amount of time and effort required to effectively litigate a criminal or civil case. Legal aid lawyers are often in short supply and overstretched. Legal aid providers therefore have to turn down a large proportion of deserving applications. In many countries, the number of applications for civil legal aid has risen, while resources allocated to legal aid have decreased. The lack of funding also dramatically impedes the quality of free legal services, as legal aid lawyers may be very inexperienced.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Even where legal aid services are available and adequately funded, discrimination in their design and implementation impedes certain individuals and groups from accessing them. For example, some rely on telephone intakes or written applications, failing to take into account the needs and constraints of persons with disabilities, older persons or those with lower levels of literacy. Inadequate or piecemeal support directed towards community-based paralegal programmes also restricts an important and more affordable source of legal assistance. Although all aspects of the legal profession should be regulated, excessive restrictions on the operation of paralegals, or lack of official recognition of their role, can also hamper the support they provide to persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- As well as quality and accessibility, the timing of legal assistance is of great importance. Often, when the poor are accused of criminal offences, they do not have access to a lawyer or paralegal until a trial is imminent. However, lawyers can play a crucial role at the time of arrest and during pretrial stages, especially in cases where the accused does not have access to legal information or financial resources for bail. As well as being in the interests of justice, timely legal intervention benefits the legal system as a whole, improving efficiency and reducing delays.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Owing to lack of adequate resources and qualified staff, limited budgets and inadequate infrastructure and logistical support, there are often unnecessary delays in adjudicating cases and enforcing judgements. In some jurisdictions, millions of legal cases are pending and civil and criminal cases take up to a decade to be completed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- While those problems affect all people seeking justice through the formal justice system, they have a disproportionate impact on the poor, for whom a long process is not only a denial of justice but also unaffordable and may aggravate their situation. Often their cases are underprioritized owing to biased preferential treatment of the wealthy or lack of sensitivity or understanding of the impact of the delay on the poorest claimants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Without the resources to retain private legal assistance, and with restricted access to legal aid (see above), persons living in poverty are often forced to navigate the judicial system alone. In doing so, they encounter, in addition to the barriers listed above, a complex labyrinth of laws, traditions and interactions, with copious paperwork, the use of legal jargon and mainstream languages, and restrictive time limits, all of which can deter the poor from seeking justice under formal systems and impede fair outcomes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Those barriers are particularly damaging in areas of law that frequently have an impact on the most marginalized, including property disputes, welfare claims and immigration proceedings, and have the effect of preventing the commencement of claims to enforce rights and seek remedies. Even when they do not bar engagement with the judicial system altogether, cumbersome and complex procedural requirements may still obstruct access to justice by increasing the financial and time costs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty are unfamiliar with, and often intimidated by, regulations regarding dress codes, the hierarchy of the court system, confrontational courtroom design, and traditions about when to sit, stand and address the judge. As a result, they are in an unequal and disadvantaged position before they even walk into the courtroom.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Requirements that demand a high level of evidentiary proof before civil claims can be instituted can have a disproportionate impact on the poor, who are hampered by their lack of financial resources, time and understanding of the law and of legal processes. Collating evidence, obtaining expert opinions and preparing forms in the correct language can be an almost impossible process without the assistance of a competent legal representative.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty are even further disadvantaged when they are conducting proceedings or making a claim against corporate entities or the State, whose power, reach and resources far outweigh theirs. This is particularly evident in criminal cases, where the State controls the collation and production of evidence. The process of collecting exculpatory evidence or obtaining expert testimony may prove prohibitively costly for the poorest and most vulnerable individuals and is even more difficult for those forced to remain in pretrial detention because of their inability to make bail or pay the necessary bribes. In such cases, individuals have little hope of having their charges fairly adjudicated at trial.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- While many people find it difficult to understand legal or judicial terminology, the complexities increase for many persons living in poverty in multilingual and multi ethnic societies where legal proceedings are often conducted in a language that they do not understand.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- This can constitute a significant barrier for the poorest and most marginalized, many of whom speak local languages or dialects, as well as for indigenous populations, ethnic minorities and migrants. In particular, those who are often excluded from education services, including women, are less likely to have received adequate schooling in the official or predominant language.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- Despite States' obligation to ensure that individuals facing a criminal charge have access to a free interpreter (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14.3 (f)), often this service is limited, unavailable or reserved for those who speak a foreign language, rather than a minority language or local dialect, and is rarely provided in civil cases. The issue of language disproportionately disadvantages women, who are not only less likely to speak the predominant language and require an interpreter, but who are also vulnerable to abuse or exploitation by interpreters, whose cultural prejudices may inform their translation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- Even when the predominant language is spoken, cultural differences can impede communication within the judicial system. In addition to imbalances of power, in some cultural groups, different terminology may be used for specific occasions or to speak to people in a different relationship, and time and place may be described in different ways. Furthermore, intercultural communication between indigenous groups or ethnic minorities and judicial officers can be impeded by differences in perceptions of politeness; cultural taboos which prevent the giving of certain evidence; and reliance on interrogatory methods. When judicial processes do not adopt measures to facilitate cross-cultural communication and adapt to cultural differences, this may contribute to higher rates of conviction on criminal charges, undermining the right to a fair trial.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- Legal standing is the gateway for access to justice. To have access to the formal judicial system, it is necessary that the courts extend legal standing without discrimination, ensuring that all receive equal treatment when bringing claims, protesting violations or seeking remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- In practice, however, restrictions on legal standing in many States directly and indirectly exclude persons living in poverty from accessing judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms. For example, in some States, legislatures and judicial systems limit standing for certain groups, such as women and children. Discriminatory laws deprive women of legal competency and require that they be under male guardianship before instituting a claim or giving evidence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- In addition, narrow rules relating to legal standing prevent civil society organizations from taking a more direct role in litigation, or engaging in judicial proceedings on behalf or in support of persons living in poverty and other vulnerable groups (with their permission), who may lack the resources or capacity to do so themselves. For example, in 10 European Union member States, the domestic rules on legal standing are considered overly restrictive and therefore represent a major obstacle to the right to access justice. In those States, individuals cannot bring a claim to court unless they have full legal capacity (which often excludes those with certain disabilities) and are directly concerned in the matter.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- The presence of civil society in the judicial context can greatly improve the system. The ability of civil society organizations to support victims or bring cases on their behalf can reduce the financial and personal burden of legal action on the individual claimant. State restrictions on public interest litigation or on the filing of amicus briefs by civil society organizations can close off other avenues for access to justice for persons living in poverty. This is especially so in terms of remedy for structural or systemic abuses or discrimination, which affect large numbers of persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- In many jurisdictions, the effect of judgements is limited to those who litigate or bring a claim, even in cases that have a much wider significance. This means that only those individuals with the capacity or tenacity to overcome all the barriers to accessing justice will benefit from important judgements. Often, however, those living in poverty are affected by widespread practices or broad Government measures that generate situations where the rights of many individuals are at stake and which would be better addressed by collective remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- Implementation of a collective litigation mechanism by which findings and benefits are generalized beyond the actual litigants can ensure that human rights become meaningful for large numbers of people, even when those whose rights are being violated are not aware of the violation (or the rights). It can also draw the attention of the authorities to their constitutional and legal obligations regarding human rights. In legal systems where courts have the power of judicial review or of issuing erga omnes judgements, which can declare certain laws or a state of affairs unconstitutional, this can have a positive effect in terms of securing justice for persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Considering that the formal justice system is often remote or difficult to access for persons living in poverty, their grievances are often resolved outside the formal justice system through alternative dispute resolution systems, including those based on traditional, customary or religious law. Indeed, research shows that people living in poorer communities are more likely to resort to informal justice systems; in some countries more than half of all legal disputes are resolved in this manner. For persons living in poverty, resolving disputes through a means other than the formal system is not necessarily due to preference but rather to the lack of choice available to them because of the inaccessibility of the State legal order, or to social or economic compulsion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- Informal justice systems are often more accessible to persons living in poverty and may have the potential to provide quick, affordable and culturally relevant remedies. However, informal justice mechanisms frequently exhibit some of the same weaknesses as State systems. For example, they may exclude women, minorities and disadvantaged groups, be susceptible to corruption and abuse of power, require payment from claimants or impose heavy fines, and in some there may be frequent lengthy delays in deciding cases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- The complexity of plural legal orders is likely to privilege those who are well informed and wealthy, and disadvantage those who are poor or marginalized, as often occurs in the formal State justice system. Moreover, informal justice mechanisms can act as a barrier to meaningful justice, particularly for the poorest and most disadvantaged community members, often reinforcing existing power structures and promoting elite domination and influence. In some cases, non-State justice mechanisms prioritize the interests of the community over the interests of the individual, which may have the effect of exacerbating the situation of the worst off in the community. Rarely do informal mechanisms take into account the legal rights of the individuals involved or consider international human rights standards.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- Customary and traditional justice systems can also threaten women's access to fair and equal justice. Informal justice systems based on custom, tradition or ethnic or religious identity often contain unequal provisions for women and men, do not have sanctions against gender-based violence or other abuses which take place in the domestic sphere, and are sometimes procedurally biased against women. This is especially problematic as it is family laws and property laws that are most often subject to the jurisdiction of such legal systems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 89
- Paragraph text
- Sometimes such systems also impose extremely punitive measures for the commission of even minor crimes. Moreover, while non-State legal orders may often be praised for providing rapid justice, speedy justice proceedings are by no means always just, and indeed many have features that constitute human rights violations by omitting basic due process guarantees.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 90
- Paragraph text
- Despite challenges in informal justice systems, it is also important to note that State attempts to suppress the use of such systems can have severely detrimental effects on access to justice by the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- States have a legal obligation to ensure that all individuals are able to access competent, impartial judicial and adjudicatory mechanisms equally and without discrimination. Access to justice is not only a fundamental right in itself, but it is an essential prerequisite for the protection and promotion of all other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- Access to justice is essential for tackling poverty and protecting the human rights of persons living in poverty. Even mature democracies with well-functioning State institutions and technically inclusive and fair legal systems struggle to ensure de facto equal access to justice by those living in poverty. When the poor are unable to access justice equally and without discrimination, they are prevented from enjoying and claiming their human rights, and from seeking remedies to violations of their rights. This may exacerbate their situation, or frustrate their efforts to move out of poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 93
- Paragraph text
- The principle of the indivisibility and interdependence of human rights requires States to address a range of intersecting and mutually reinforcing deprivations and obstacles which prevent access to justice for the poorest.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- It is crucial to construct an inclusive justice system that is close to the people, both socially and geographically. Ensuring access to justice for the poor requires well-functioning judicial systems and laws that do not solely reflect the interests of wealthy and more powerful groups but also take into account income and power imbalances. Reforms must be implemented with the effective and meaningful participation of persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 95
- Paragraph text
- Given the great diversity of social contexts, there is no "one size fits all" solution for ensuring access to justice for persons living in poverty. Differing national and local contexts create a variety of challenges and opportunities for reform that must be taken into account. Success in all contexts, however, will share the features of a human rights-based approach. Solutions require tackling not only legal obstacles but also a range of extralegal factors: social, economic, cultural, linguistic, etc. Solutions must be sought at local levels, designed and implemented with the active participation of the communities affected. Therefore, policymakers and legal authorities should have a specific contextual understanding of local legal institutions and the variety of obstacles on the ground that impede access to justice by persons living in poverty, and implement multidimensional solutions that can strengthen their agency and ensure their enjoyment of their rights. Special attention must be paid to women and groups that are particularly excluded, such as indigenous peoples, older persons and migrants. With this in mind, States must take immediate and effective action to ensure that persons living in poverty are not denied enjoyment of their human rights because of insurmountable obstacles which prevent them from accessing the justice system. To this end, the Special Rapporteur wishes to present the following recommendations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Expand the geographical reach of the justice system (police, prosecutors, courts, legal aid, etc.) in particular in rural and remote areas, by: Considering innovative measures such as mobile courts, one-stop justice shops, street clinics and homeless courts to increase practical access to justice for persons living in poverty, particularly the homeless and those living in rural communities
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Take strong measures to eliminate corrupt practices in the justice system and in law enforcement, including the solicitation of bribes; such measures might include legislation criminalizing all forms of corrupt acts, dedicating resources to policing and prosecuting corrupt officials, requiring judges to make declarations of the assets, improving the working conditions and salaries of police and judicial officers, and improving mechanisms to ensure the transparency of judicial processes
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that civil society and community-based organizations are able and supported to advocate for the rights and inclusion of persons living in poverty, undertake non-formal legal education, disseminate general legal information and serve as independent monitors of judicial systems
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:]
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Provide free interpreters in civil and criminal cases for those who require but cannot afford them
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that laws give due weight and consideration to the interests of persons living in poverty and the abuses which affect them
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure the effective enforcement of judgements and compliance with judicial rulings in favour of persons living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Allow and support collective litigation when structural or systemic issues affect the rights of persons living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Enhance legal skills and knowledge within local communities by, for example, funding and training quality paralegals at the local level
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Make all efforts necessary to register all children immediately after birth, and identify and remove barriers that impede the access of the poor to registration, in particular groups that suffer multiple forms of discrimination; registration must be free, simple and available at the local level
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Put measures in place to ensure that legal, administrative and procedural fees relating to access to justice are waived for those who cannot afford them, including in small claims cases
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure maximum use of available resources to provide progressively prompt and effective procedures to allow persons living in poverty to seek financial assistance to cover travel, accommodation and other costs associated with engaging with the justice system
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that persons living in poverty have practical and effective access to competent legal advice and assistance when needed for the protection of their human rights, including by making available sufficient resources to provide high-quality legal aid
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that legal aid is promptly provided to all arrested or detained persons who cannot afford to retain a lawyer; free legal assistance should be available at all stages of the criminal justice process, including during initial questioning and pretrial detention
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Take positive measures to raise the capacity of poor and disadvantaged groups to ensure that they have full understanding of their rights and the means through which they can enforce them
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Support mechanisms for alternative dispute resolution, where appropriate and in line with international human rights standards, ensuring that such mechanisms do not pose an obstacle to accessing the formal justice system for those that need or prefer it
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that informal justice systems operate in a manner consistent with human rights standards and that there are regulatory mechanisms to prevent and sanction abuses of power and corruption
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure access to free and competent civil legal assistance for persons living in poverty where the enjoyment of human rights - civil, political, economic, social and/or cultural - is at stake
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that legal aid application procedures take into account the individual experiences, needs and constraints of the poor; eligibility must not be assessed on the basis of household income where the applicant does not have practical access to household resources
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Allocate sufficient financial and human resources to ensure the efficient and effective functioning of all organs of the judicial system, including police stations, prosecution corps and courts
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Take measures to reduce the complexity of legal processes and minimize and streamline rules and procedures to make them more accessible for those unfamiliar with the traditions and rules of those processes
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Take measures to ensure broader criteria for standing in courts, allowing civil society organizations and national human rights institutions to bring cases on behalf of or in support of persons living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Expand the geographical reach of the justice system (police, prosecutors, courts, legal aid, etc.) in particular in rural and remote areas, by: Taking steps to improve the physical accessibility of courthouses and police stations in order to ensure that persons with disabilities and others experiencing mobility issues are able to access them
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Allow class action suits, or alternative mechanisms for bundling claims, and in relevant areas permit socially relevant litigation to have erga omnes effects, to ensure that those who do not have access to courts can benefit from judicial decisions
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that lack of financial resources does not negatively affect a person's chances of accessing justice in a fair and equal way during pretrial detention, for example regarding bail procedures, conditions of detention or accessing legal assistance
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Provide training and education programmes for judicial officers, judges, lawyers, prosecutors and the police focusing on the rights and particular needs of the poor
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Review and reform detention and incarceration systems to ensure that they do not have a disproportionately harsh impact on those living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Continue to extend and expand equal access to the formal justice system for persons living in poverty, even in areas where non-State legal orders operate
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Actively disseminate legal and judicial information, for example about laws, legal decisions and policy decisions, to all without charge and in multiple formats and languages
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Address the practical factors that impede women's ability to claim their rights, including the status of women and gender-based stereotypes, prejudices and norms
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Review or abolish legislation that directly or indirectly discriminates against the rights, interests and livelihoods of persons living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Establish mechanisms to oversee the legality and reasonableness of administrative and policy decisions that have an impact on the enjoyment by the poor of their rights
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that serious crimes, including gender-based crimes or sexual violence, are dealt with within the formal justice system
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that all forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, are criminalized and are subject to appropriate and enforceable criminal sanctions; develop specific strategies and systems to tackle gender-based violence perpetrated against persons living in poverty, including by providing shelter for victims of domestic violence
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Expand the geographical reach of the justice system (police, prosecutors, courts, legal aid, etc.) in particular in rural and remote areas, by: Creating incentives for police officers and other officials to take postings in rural and remote areas, and attracting well-trained legal professionals to those areas
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure the possibility of strategic (public interest) litigation to challenge national laws or policies, to demand enforcement of existing laws or to strike down discriminatory laws that affect the poor
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Allocate sufficient financial and human resources to ensure the efficient and effective functioning of all organs of the judicial system, including police stations, prosecution corps and courts
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that adequate accountability mechanisms are in place to investigate and remedy any abuse or discrimination by law enforcement or judicial officers against persons living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Create integrated and specialized services to address women's access to justice and ensure more efficient handling of gender-related crimes, including, for example, domestic violence courts and one-stop shops for sexual violence survivors; such services must be accessible and affordable for women living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Sensitize all justice service providers to the rights, needs and constraints of persons living in poverty, particularly the most vulnerable groups, by addressing negative stereotypes of the poor, including through performance evaluation, education and sensitizing the media
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that legal aid lawyers are independent, adequately trained and remunerated, and meet the highest standards of the legal profession
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that lawyers and paralegals have access to people living in poverty who require their services in police stations, pretrial detention and prison facilities
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that cases where the rights of persons living in poverty are at stake are not subject to long delays which might exacerbate their situation
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that, in linguistically plural societies, court processes operate in languages used by the poorest communities where necessary and can adapt to intercultural communication
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Ensure that courts extend legal standing without discrimination to all persons regardless of, inter alia, their gender, ethnicity, legal status or lack of formal legal registration
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Banning discrimination on grounds of socioeconomic disadvantage: an essential tool in the fight against poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2022
- Document code
- A/77/157
Document
Climate change and poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2018
- Document code
- A/HRC/41/39
Document
Digital welfare states and human rights
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2019
- Document code
- A/74/493
Document
Ending the vicious cycles of poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2021
- Document code
- A/76/177
Document
Extreme inequality and human rights
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2015
- Document code
- A/HRC/29/31
Document
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequality can be used to refer to a range of inequalities relating to the distribution of income (from labour or capital) or wealth (such as financial assets or land) between individuals in a society. Economic inequalities are often expressed using the Gini coefficient of inequality, which varies between 0 (expressing perfect equality) and 1 (expressing perfect inequality: for instance when one individual owns all the wealth in a society), but there are a multitude of other ways to measure and present economic inequalities. The magnitude of the problem of economic inequalities is dependent on what exactly is being measured and how. An indicator measuring only labour income inequality may be ineffectual if those in the upper quintile or decile derive their income from wealth instead of labour. Measuring wealth inequality by looking at domestic tax data may lead to different results than if wealth distribution is measured by taking only household surveys into account.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- When analysing inequalities, there are many other dimensions of well-being that can be taken into account apart from income and wealth. Economic inequalities can be distinguished from what can be termed "social inequalities". Social inequalities may refer to the distribution of, for instance, political power, health, education or housing among individuals in a society. In theory, a society may have health equality, for instance, when every individual has access to the same quality and quantity of health care. Social inequalities and economic inequalities may, and often do, interact with, and reinforce, one another, for instance when individuals with higher incomes or their family members have more political power or access to better education than those with lower incomes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Economic and social inequalities are often categorized as "vertical inequalities", referring to the distribution of something such as income, health or power. Vertical inequalities can be distinguished from "horizontal inequalities", which are group-based differences (describing between "whom" the relevant differences occur). Horizontal inequalities may for instance refer to: inequality between men and women, between majorities and minorities, between races, between groups of people with different sexual orientations or between generations. Horizontal inequalities often overlap with vertical inequalities, for instance when women are overrepresented in lower income segments or when a racial minority is underrepresented in political bodies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Current income-inequality figures are quite dramatic. According to a 2008 study by the International Labour Organization (ILO), over the past two decades the income gap between the top and bottom 10 per cent of wage earners increased in 70 per cent of the countries for which data was available. According to a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study, the gap between rich and poor in OECD countries is at its highest level in 30 years. In 2007, the average executive manager in the 15 largest firms in the United States of America earned more than 500 times what the average employee in the United States earned, compared with over 300 times in 2003, and similar patterns can be observed in many other countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- One indicator that gives a detailed overview of income inequalities, at least for most countries in the global North, is the World Top Incomes Database (http://topincomes.parisschoolofeconomics.eu). In the United States, in 2012, the top 1 per cent of earners received almost 20 per cent of the national income. The top 10 per cent of earners received almost half of the national income. These figures contrast sharply with those of previous decades in the United States or with figures in other developed countries. In 1973, the top 1 per cent in the United States earned approximately 8 per cent of the national income and the top 10 per cent earned about 32 per cent. In Sweden, in 2012, the top 1 per cent earned around 7 per cent of the national income, from a low of around 4 per cent in 1981, and the top 10 per cent earned around 28 per cent of the national income, from a low of around 22 per cent in 1984. Income inequality in the United States in 2012 is comparable to income inequality in Colombia in 2010, where the top 1 per cent of earners also received about 20 per cent of the national income.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Mr. Piketty shows that in 1970 the wealthiest 10 per cent in Europe owned about 60 per cent of all wealth, while in the United States the figure was about 65 per cent. Today, that share has increased by 5 percentage points in both places. In January 2015, Oxfam International presented figures showing that the richest 1 per cent of the world have seen their share of global wealth increase from 44 per cent in 2009 to 48 per cent in 2014, with a prediction that it will exceed 50 per cent by 2016. Of the remaining wealth, only 5.5 per cent goes to those outside the top quintile.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed several indicators that measure social and horizontal inequalities. An inequality-adjusted human development index, calculated for 145 countries, indicates how achievements in the areas of health, education and income are distributed among a population. UNDP also publishes the coefficient of human inequality, which is a calculation of average inequality across the three dimensions mentioned above. UNDP further measures gender inequality in its gender inequality index. Looking at these different indices, which are not always as intuitive as the income indices described above, it becomes clear that many countries do not even come close to the levels of equality in terms of health, education and gender that exist in the more egalitarian countries. Where Norway had an inequality-adjusted human development index value of 0.891 in 2013, indicating a high level of equality in comparison with other countries, the figures in countries such as the United States (0.755), the Russian Federation (0.685), Chile (0.661), India (0.418) and the Central African Republic (0.203) are much lower. The gender-related development index (female to male ratio of the human development index) ranges from very high levels of equality between men and women in Norway (0.997) to a very high level of gender inequality in Afghanistan (0.602).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Perfect economic equality is not achievable and arguably not desirable, and there is no reason to object to a certain degree of economic inequality if it reflects differences in effort and talent and is instrumental in achieving greater welfare for society as a whole. There does seem to be a consensus, however, that every human being is entitled - at the very least - to equal opportunity. Two United States Presidents have articulated this principle eloquently. Barack Obama described it as "the idea that success doesn't depend on being born into wealth or privilege, it depends on effort and merit". In 1860 Abraham Lincoln said: "When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor, for his whole life." Friedrich Hayek, known for his aversion to government intervention to achieve more equality, wrote approvingly of a demand at the "height of the classical liberal movement … that all man-made obstacles to the rise of some should be removed, that all privileges of individuals should be abolished, and that what the state contributed to the chance of improving one's conditions should be the same for all".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The problem in many societies is that poor people start the "race of life" at a disadvantage and will meet many more hurdles on their way than others. The situation of high inequality in many countries today certainly does not conform to the idea of "fair equality of opportunity" proposed by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice, who wrote: "More specifically, assuming that there is a distribution of natural assets, those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system, that is, irrespective of the income class into which they are born."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- From the perspective of equality of opportunity, it is problematic if extreme economic inequalities begin at birth. Mr. Piketty has shown that for those born in France between 1910 and 1960, "the top centile of the income hierarchy consisted largely of people whose primary source of income was work". For those born in France in the 1970s, and even more for those born later, things are different, however. Mr. Piketty has written that the "top centile of the social hierarchy in France today are likely to derive their income about equally from inherited wealth and their own labor". Even more problematic is Mr. Piketty's finding that nearly one-sixth of those born in France today "will receive an inheritance larger than the amount the bottom half of the population earns through labor in a lifetime. (And this group largely coincides with the half of the population that inherits next to nothing)."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- In principle, economic inequalities that begin at birth can be corrected during one's lifetime. But research has shown that starting life at an economic disadvantage makes it much more likely that one also ends life at an economic disadvantage. A study based on data from a subset of OECD countries found that intergenerational mobility differs strikingly between countries: In countries like Finland, Norway, and Denmark the tie between parental economic status and the adult earnings of children is weakest: less than one fifth of any economic advantage or disadvantage that a father may have had in his time is passed on to a son in adulthood. In Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States roughly 50 percent of any advantage or disadvantage is passed on. The implications of this phenomenon for a country with relatively low levels of intergenerational mobility, such as the United States, was explained in intuitive terms in 2012 by a leading economist: "The chance of a person who was born to a family in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution rising to the top 10 percent as an adult is about the same as the chance that a dad who is 5'6" tall having a son who grows up to be over 6'1" tall. It happens, but not often."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The differences in intergenerational economic mobility between countries are not random. Studies have shown a clear negative relationship between economic inequalities in a country and intergenerational earnings mobility. Alan Krueger has called this the "Great Gatsby curve". Joseph Stiglitz has written that the ideal of equal opportunity is increasingly a myth in many countries and that the decline in opportunity has gone hand in hand with growing inequality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- In all modern democracies, laws, regulations and institutions influence, and are influenced by, the distribution of economic and other forms of power. Economic inequalities are not only the result of market forces, but equally of political forces that affect laws, regulations and institutions. A full understanding of economic inequalities therefore requires an examination of the exercise of political power.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Democracy and civil and political rights are closely linked to the equal division of economic and other factors that are crucial for well-being. Amartya Sen famously argued that democracy and the upholding of related civil and political rights, such as freedom of the press and the right to vote, are connected to the non-occurrence of famines. He suggested that "India's success in eradicating famine is not matched by a similar success in … relieving inequalities in gender relations". According to Mr. Sen, deprivations such as gender inequality "call for deeper analysis, and for a greater and more effective use of mass communication and political participation - in sum, for a fuller practice of democracy". The existence of a democracy and the right to participate in the political process do not guarantee equal opportunity and more equal outcomes. As other authors have argued, the correlative human rights obligations necessary to "constitute democracy and ensure that it functions properly" include more than just the right to vote: the State "may need to take positive steps to protect individuals against other individuals' interference with the right."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- A major problem in both developing and developed countries is the capture of the political process by powerful groups, and the exclusion of others, leading to laws, regulations and institutions that favour the powerful. Economic inequality is often accompanied by political inequality, meaning that not all citizens are able to equally exercise their democratic rights. According to Oxfam, many people around the world believe that laws and regulations are designed to benefit the rich. According to Mr. Stiglitz, in the context of the United States, government plays a double role in current economic inequality: "It is partly responsible for the inequality in before-tax-distribution of income, and it has taken a diminished role in 'correcting' this inequality through progressive tax and expenditure policies."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Inequalities, political capture and the exercise of civil and political rights are closely connected. According to the World Bank, "unequal distributions of control … of political influence perpetuate institutions that protect the interests of the most powerful, sometimes to the detriment of the personal and property rights of others". Writing about the United States, where income inequality is at a historic high, Mr. Stiglitz has argued that the right to participate in the democratic process remains effectively unfulfilled for many poor Americans: "While the days of outright exclusion from the voting process are mostly behind us in the United States, there remains a steady stream of initiatives to limit participation, invariably targeting the poor and less well connected. … The result is that one in four of those eligible to vote - 51 million Americans or more - are not registered." Paul Krugman has written that "extreme concentration of income is incompatible with real democracy".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities seem to encourage political capture and the unequal realization of civil and political rights. High levels of economic inequalities "may create institutions that maintain the political, economic and social privileges of the elite and lock the poor into poverty traps from which it is difficult to escape". This vicious cycle may be broken when civil and political rights are enjoyed more equally, as illustrated by the case of Chile. Under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet during the 1970s and 1980s, income inequality worsened, then improved after democracy was reinstated (although it is still higher than it was in the 1960s or early 1970s). Another example is Rwanda, where gender equality is enshrined in the Constitution and a quota system has contributed to more than half of the members of Parliament being women, making it the only country in the world with more female than male members of parliament. After the introduction of the quota system, the Rwandan Parliament passed legislation to enhance gender equality, "including several laws aimed at preventing and punishing gender-based violence, laws granting more extensive property rights to women and key legislation on women in the workforce."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The protection of core labour rights, such as the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, is also essential for a more equal division of power and the reduction of economic inequalities. While it is very difficult to measure the causal relationship between the fulfilment of those core labour rights and economic inequalities, various studies point to a relationship between the lack of protection of core labour rights and deunionization and between deunionization and growing wage inequality. The authors of a recent study note: "The neoliberal paradigm in the early 1980s created an extremely negative environment for unions with the abandonment of full-employment policies. Since that time, labor laws across the world have become much less union friendly, and unionizing new establishments has become harder."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- A sizeable amount of literature sets out the relationship between deunionization and wage inequality. The authors of a World Bank study on the economic effect of adopting or enforcing the two core labour rights mentioned above reported "very robust" findings that unions compress wage inequality. In particular, they found that the wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers were reduced when unions were present. This is consistent with another study, in relation to the United States, in which the authors concluded: When individual union membership is considered, union decline accounts for a fifth of the growth in men's earnings inequality. Adding normative and threat effects of unions on nonunion pay increases the effect of union decline on wage inequality from a fifth to a third. By this measure, the decline of the U.S. labor movement has added as much to men's wage inequality as has the relative increase in pay for college graduates. A 2013 study about Turkey shows that the fall of unionization in that country resulted in higher wage inequality during the period 1980-2008. Also relevant is the evidence that not only does deunionization affect wage inequality, but wage inequality also affects unionization.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Vertical and horizontal inequalities, including economic inequalities, are often closely related to discrimination. In many countries, the poorest sector of the population coincides with social and ethnic groups that experience discrimination. It is therefore possible that levels of economic inequality in many countries would be lower today in the absence of discrimination. When dealing with economic inequalities, we should therefore pay specific attention to the overlap between economic inequalities and group-based inequalities (horizontal inequalities), because they can indicate discrimination as an important cause of inequality. As Mr. Stiglitz has written: "One of the most invidious - and hardest to eradicate - sources of inequality is discrimination, both ongoing discrimination and the legacy of past discrimination."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Although many forms of discrimination are inherently unjust, the correlation between gender-based discrimination and economic inequalities deserves special mention since it potentially affects half of the world's population. While both men and women may experience myriad inequalities, based on factors such as their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability, gender-based discrimination is too often seen to be almost exclusively a women's problem. In its World Development Report 2012, the World Bank describes the forms of discrimination that still exist in many countries and that directly affect economic inequality between men and women. According to the World Bank, men and women still have different ownership rights in at least nine countries, and in many countries, women and girls still have fewer inheritance rights than men and boys. In addition, women continue to fare badly in the labour market generally. A stocktaking by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) shows that almost 80 countries maintain restrictions on the types of work that women are permitted to undertake. Also according to UN-Women, at the global level, women's labour force participation rates have stagnated since the 1990s. Currently, only half of women are in the labour force compared to more than three quarters of men. Despite considerable regional variations, nowhere has this gender gap been eliminated: globally, women earn on average 24 per cent less than men. In one study of four countries, lifetime income gaps between women and men were estimated to be between 31 and 75 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- It is clear that economic inequalities severely affect a range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities can threaten the right to life, liberty and security of the person. A 2009 study using data from 162 countries for the years 1980-2004 found robust support for the relationship between income inequality and personal integrity rights violations across the whole sample of countries. A 2011 study showed a strong association between income inequality and homicide rates based on data from 33 rich and middle-income countries. One overview study concluded that research "has consistently linked income inequality with crime, namely intentional homicides and robbery".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities, especially when extreme, can also be closely linked to social unrest and conflict. The Secretary-General has noted that when people perceive inequality to be unfair and excessive, protests and social unrest can result, such as those seen around the world in recent years (see A/67/394, para. 26). A study on poverty and inequality found that "high levels of interlocking inequalities may undermine the realization of civil, political and social rights; they may raise the level of crime and plunge societies into conflict". ILO, in its World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2015, stated that "rising inequalities have undermined trust in government, with a few exceptions" and that significant falls in trust "in particular if they accompany stagnant or declining incomes, can contribute to social unrest, as several countries in the Middle East have demonstrated, with knock-on effects on social conditions, growth and employment dynamics". Even in ancient times, Plato argued that "if a state is to avoid … civil disintegration … extreme poverty and wealth must not be allowed to rise in any section of the citizen-body, because both lead to disasters".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities not only impair civil and political rights but also negatively affect the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. A good example is the right to health. According to the World Bank, "infants from poorer families and children from rural areas are more likely to die than their peers from richer families and urban areas" and the poor are "considerably less likely than the non-poor to have access to high-impact health services, such as skilled delivery care, antenatal care, and complementary feeding." The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission found that "people from lower occupational classes who have less education and income tend to die at younger ages and to suffer, within their shorter lifetimes, a higher prevalence of various health problems" and that "these differences in health conditions do not merely reflect worse outcomes for people at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale but extend to people throughout the socio-economic hierarchy, i.e. they display a 'social gradient'". The World Health Assembly, in its resolution WHA62.14, has also affirmed the recommendation of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health on the need "to tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Infants
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Studies have demonstrated the negative effect of income inequality upon the right to education. A 2014 study published by OECD showed that "increased income disparities depress skills development among individuals with poorer parental education background, both in terms of the quantity of education attained (e.g. years of schooling), and in terms of its quality (i.e. skill proficiency)" and that "higher inequality lowers the opportunities of education (and social mobility) of disadvantaged individuals in the society, an effect that dominates the potentially positive impacts through incentives". Another study showed that the youngest children in Ecuador, irrespective of wealth quintile or education of their parents, performed broadly as well as their comparators, but that, as they got older, only those children in the top half of the wealth distribution and with highly educated parents maintained their performance relative to their comparators.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Education
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities also have an impact on the realization of the right to water. In a 2012 report, the Secretary-General cited an analysis of data from 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that found that access to improved sources of water varied from 94 per cent among the richest 20 per cent in urban areas to 34 per cent among the poorest 20 per cent in rural areas (see A/67/394, para. 29). In another study, it was found that the "rate of progress in access to water and sanitation is very uneven among wealth quintiles in many countries, with the poorest two quintiles frequently experiencing lack of improvement while other quintiles experience significant advances".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- It is clear therefore that the most impoverished suffer the most extreme effects of inequality for a variety of reasons. In part, this is because their influence and capacity to exercise rights is diminished relatively, even if not absolutely, as others become wealthier and gain greater political and economic power, and in part because they are more vulnerable to the harms associated with social unrest, crime and violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- In 1999, the authors of a major study concluded that while global inequality was a major problem, it had been largely neglected by traditional investigations into world order. They argued that processes of globalization were exacerbating inequalities both within and among States and eroding the capacity of traditional institutions to manage the resulting threats. But it took well over another decade for the challenge of inequalities to appear high on the list of the international community's priority concerns. In the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled "The future we want", world leaders reaffirmed the need to achieve sustainable development by reducing inequalities. They considered that it was essential to generate decent jobs and incomes that decreased disparities in standards of living (see General Assembly resolution 66/288, annex, paras. 4 and 30).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In 2014, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals presented its proposals for the post-2015 development agenda (see A/68/970 and Corr.1). Proposed goal 10 is aimed explicitly at reducing inequality within and among countries. The specific targets associated with goal 10 include the following: achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average; ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome; and adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- In December 2014, the Secretary-General presented a synthesis report containing his vision for the negotiations of the new sustainable development goals (A/69/700). In the report, the Secretary-General spoke of gross and intolerable inequalities, and argued that income inequality specifically was one of the most visible aspects of a broader and more complex issue, one that entailed inequality of opportunity. He underlined that, as States implemented the new agenda, they must address inequalities in all areas, agreeing that no goal or target be considered met unless met for all social and economic groups. The defining challenge of the time was to close the gap between the determination to ensure a life of dignity for all, and the reality of persisting poverty and deepening inequality (ibid., paras. 65 and 67-68).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Although one of the Open Working Group's proposed goals is aimed at reducing inequalities, the Special Rapporteur has observed that human rights norms are almost absent from the proposal (see A/69/297, paras. 45-49). In his synthesis report the Secretary-General attributed far greater importance to them, although he did not explicitly discuss the relationship between inequalities and human rights. The link was however acknowledged in statements calling for a future free from poverty and built on human rights, equality and sustainability, a post-2015 agenda built on the principles of human rights and the rule of law, equality and sustainability, and again in the linking of the challenges of reinforcing human rights, equality and sustainability (see A/69/700, paras. 18, 49 and 82). More generally, the Secretary-General underscored the need to continue to remedy the policy incoherence between current modes of international governance in matters of trade, finance and investment on the one hand, and the norms and standards for labour, the environment, human rights, equality and sustainability on the other (ibid., para. 95). He also acknowledged an indirect link between human rights and inequality by juxtaposing the value of dignity with deepening inequality, thus implying that inequality undermined human dignity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations has not been alone in recognizing the threat posed by the dramatic growth in inequalities. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned consistently of the seriousness of the problem. At the Fund's annual meeting in 2014 she said: "There has been a staggering rise in inequality - 7 out of 10 people in the world today live in countries where inequality has increased over the last three decades. And yet, we know that excessive inequality saps growth, inhibits inclusion, and undermines trust and social capital." In February 2014, the Executive Board of IMF discussed a staff paper on fiscal policy as the primary tool for Governments to affect income distribution, including "options for reform of expenditure and tax policies to help achieve distributive objectives efficiently in a manner consistent with fiscal sustainability and recent evidence on how fiscal policy measures can be designed to mitigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on inequality".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The World Bank has also been active on this front. In its Annual Report 2014 it noted that "rising inequality in many countries is harmful to economic stability and the sustainability of growth, but well-designed policies can reduce inequality without hurting growth". In January 2015, the Bank's Chief Economist suggested that the "deep and pervasive inequality that exists today can only be condemned". He recalled that the annual income of the world's 50 wealthiest people was close to the total income of the poorest 1 billion, a figure that he characterized as "a collective failure". He called for the consideration of "policies and interventions to curb such extreme inequality", which he said must be done "not only out of a sense of justice, but also because, in a world afflicted with such extreme disparities, its poorest residents lose their voice, even when they have the right to vote. Extreme inequality is, ultimately, an assault on democracy."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- It seems clear, however, that the deeply expressed concerns about the consequences of inequality are not in fact bringing the sort of deep changes that would be required in the policies of such institutions. For the most part, the response seems to involve the tweaking of traditional policies rather than any change in the fundamental priorities underlying the work of those institutions. This makes it all the more important to inquire into the role that could or should be played by human rights bodies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Economic inequalities have long been a focus of analysis within the United Nations human rights system. But despite the various reports by different special rapporteurs calling attention to the problems associated with extreme inequality, little has been done to follow up on any of the studies or recommendations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In 1992, the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, Danilo Türk, recommended that a special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights be appointed. He characterized income inequality as one of the main challenges of the time, and stated that income distribution within States remained distressingly inequitable. The Special Rapporteur lamented the fact that, in the 1980s, the urban working classes and large segments of the middle class had been impoverished, while groups and businessmen associated in one way or another with the internationalization of capital represented the major economic beneficiaries of the previous 10 years. He found that drastic measures to rectify that income injustice were required and that adequately carrying out poverty-reduction programmes and fulfilling economic, social and cultural rights throughout society was unthinkable without also redressing current income imbalances. He identified taxation as a central means of redressing existing imbalances of income distribution (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1992/16, paras. 76-84).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- In its resolution 1993/40, the Sub-Commission, recalling the report by its Special Rapporteur, stated that it was deeply alarmed that the gap between the rich and the poor had more than doubled over the previous three decades and that it was conscious of the impact of inequitable income distribution on the realization of the rights to health, education, housing, food, environmental quality and other economic, social and cultural rights. Also, it reiterated the fundamental principles of equality of treatment, human dignity, equity and justice. Aware that the relationship between income distribution and growing levels of poverty, as well as the violation of human rights, required further in-depth research and analysis by the human rights community, the Sub-Commission entrusted Asjbørn Eide with the task of producing a report on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution, at both national and international levels. In endorsing the proposal, the Commission on Human Rights, in its resolution 1994/20, called the fair distribution of the benefits of development one of the central purposes of the process of development.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- In a report to the Sub-Commission in July 1994, Mr. Eide focused on the impact of different patterns of income distribution on the enjoyment of human rights and the remedial action to be taken in cases of intolerable levels of income inequality. He did not examine the question of how the enjoyment of human rights affected the structure of income distribution and avoided discussing the causes of inequality because they had already been the subject of an enormous body of literature of an ideological and dogmatic nature. He argued that gaps in income between rich and poor at the national level should be given attention to the same extent as gaps in income between nations (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/21, paras. 12, 14, 18 and 21).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Mr. Eide attached considerable importance to the policies of international financial institutions and was critical of IMF for adopting the position that it should not concern itself with income distribution. As noted earlier, the position of IMF today differs significantly. Mr. Eide criticized the role played by international financial institutions in reducing the power of the State, which he considered to have an essential role to play in ensuring equity in income distribution. In reflecting on the obligations of States in relation to efforts to reduce income inequality, Mr. Eide called for, inter alia, policies to ensure access to land and other productive assets; the provision of public services and other benefits as well as equality of opportunity for all; guarantees of non-discrimination in employment; the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the provision of a functioning system of taxation (ibid., paras. 82-83).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45a
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] The growth in the world economy since 1987 has been accompanied by a marked negative distribution of income at both the international and national levels;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45b
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] When income distribution begins to be concentrated in the hands of the few, relative poverty increases, as does extreme poverty, both in the developed and developing world;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45c
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] Bad income distribution, when accompanied by economic growth, causes explosive social situations;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45d
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] Income distribution is very closely linked to the full enjoyment and realization of human rights and persistently bad distribution of income is also the cause of persistent violations of human rights; intolerable degrees of income inequality constitute a violation of the norms of national and international coexistence and therefore of the rights of persons;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 45e
- Paragraph text
- [Subsequent to Mr. Eide's report, the Sub-Commission decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the relationship between the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and income distribution. José Bengoa was appointed as Special Rapporteur and produced several reports between 1995 and 1998. He reached the following general conclusions (see E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/8, paras. 4-9):] Income distribution should become an economic and social indicator used by international financial institutions and other international organizations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Mr. Bengoa also recommended the creation of a social forum to facilitate the participation of States, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and corporations in discussing how to take economic, social and cultural rights into account in their policies. The Social Forum was set up in 2002 and recent sessions have focused on the rights of older persons (2014) and on the rights of access to medicines in the context of the right to health (2015).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- A number of steps must be taken if the international human rights regime is to be able to respond meaningfully to the threat posed by extreme inequality. Some of these proposals are already well known, while others will require a willingness to step back and acknowledge that the existing system has some deep biases that need to be corrected over time.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- It must be accepted that extreme inequality and respect for the equal rights of all persons are incompatible. Formal recognition of the fact that there are limits of some sort to the degrees of inequality that can be reconciled with notions of equality, dignity and commitments to human rights for everyone would be an important step forward.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Having taken the principled position that there must be limits to inequality, States should then formally commit themselves to policies explicitly designed to reduce, if not eliminate, extreme inequality. Political recognition of the challenge and the holding of a meaningful and sustained public debate on the most appropriate measures to be taken is the starting point for genuine efforts to reduce extreme inequality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- A serious commitment to tackle extreme inequality is only possible in the context of policies and programmes that take the concept of economic, social and cultural rights seriously and give them prominence and priority equal to that of civil and political rights. For all of the achievements that have been accomplished in this domain over the past two decades, the fact remains that economic, social and cultural rights continue to enjoy only second-rank status. There are many contexts in which they are absent, marginalized or only half-heartedly taken on board. In circumstances in which economic, social and cultural rights are not a fundamental part of the overall approach, there are no obvious limits to inequality. Mr. Sen is correct in noting that "the exclusion of all economic and social rights from the inner sanctum of human rights, keeping the space reserved only for liberty and other first-generation rights, attempts to draw a line in the sand that is hard to sustain".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- It is difficult to accept that a State that has no basic social protection floor in place, whether so called or not, is meeting its most basic obligations in relation to the economic, social and cultural rights of its citizens and others. Social protection schemes can have a dramatic impact on reducing inequalities. In Brazil, for example, two programmes, the Continuous Benefit Programme and the Family Allowance, jointly contributed to a significant fall in Gini inequality between 1995 and 2004. The Human Rights Council should thus insist on explicit recognition by key actors that there is a human right to social protection. At present, the right to social security and the right to an adequate standard of living, proclaimed so proudly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently often reaffirmed in binding treaty obligations, are ignored or even challenged by the policies advocated by many of the key actors involved in addressing the plight of the hundreds of millions of persons living in extreme poverty. Many leading international organizations and financial institutions still avoid recognizing those rights in their policies and programmes (see A/69/297, para. 51).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- States should reduce inequality by adopting taxation policies that are instrumental to achieving that aim. While preparations for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development Conference, to be held in 2015, and the post-2015 development agenda have brought fiscal policies to prominence in international development debates, the basic principle that tax and development policies go together was already recognized over half a century ago in the Declaration on Social Progress and Development, in which the General Assembly called for the achievement of equitable distribution of national income, utilizing, inter alia, the fiscal system and government spending as an instrument for the equitable distribution and redistribution of income in order to promote social progress (art. 16 (c)).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- There is greater awareness of this principle today, as reflected, for example, in the Secretary-General's observation that progressive tax policies can play an important role in addressing inequality and poverty and in his exhortation that Governments consider a combination of progressive income taxes and highly redistributive transfers to decrease income inequality and its impact on social development (see A/67/394, para. 56). It cannot be said, however, that current policies in the human rights area have come anywhere near recognizing the fact that tax policy is, in many respects, human rights policy. The regressive or progressive nature of a State's tax structure, and the groups and purposes for which it gives exemptions or deductions, shapes the allocation of income and assets across the population, and thereby affects levels of inequality and human rights enjoyment. Appropriate redistributive measures through taxation and other fiscal policies must be seen as an integral part of a commitment to ensuring full respect for human rights across the entire society. Even IMF now acknowledges that "extreme caution about redistribution - and thus inaction - is unlikely to be appropriate in many cases". It also acknowledges that "on average, across countries and over time, the things that governments have typically done to redistribute do not seem to have led to bad growth outcomes, unless they were extreme" and that "the resulting narrowing of inequality helped support faster and more durable growth, apart from ethical, political, or broader social considerations".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- At present, there is no explicitly stated right to equality, as such, under international human rights law. In order to ground equality as an organizing theme in this area of law, human rights bodies and commentators have relied on provisions such as those in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that proclaim the equal rights of men and women (preamble), that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights (art. 1) and that all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law" (art. 7). These provisions have been paired with those dealing with non-discrimination, which is also considered to be one of the central and foundational principles of international human rights law. Virtually all of the core human rights treaties contain explicit provisions on non-discrimination. Also, for the most part, human rights bodies have been careful to emphasize that the norms of equality and non-discrimination require substantive and not just formal equality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- However, in reading the jurisprudence generated by most of the treaty bodies, it is difficult to escape certain conclusions. First, article 3 of the International Covenants on Human Rights, which asserts equal rights for men and women, has perhaps not been given its fullest reading, especially in terms of access to resources. Second, for all of the attention given to affirmative obligations to eliminate discrimination, much of the work of the treaty bodies seems unduly confined to a focus on specific violations of non-discrimination. Linked to this is a reluctance to develop notions of distributive equality, which has been much debated in the literature, and would give an important added dimension to the effort to combat extreme inequality. Third, the right to equality needs to be given greater attention so that it is able to add substantively to the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies in ways that it has not, thus far. Finally, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has to date done all too little in practice, as opposed to its analysis in general comments, to explore what might be involved in the prohibitions in article 2 (2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights against discrimination based on social origin, property or birth.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 56a
- Paragraph text
- [The challenge of putting questions of resources and redistribution back into the human rights equation has several dimensions:] The nature of the obligation to ensure respect for civil and political rights has been treated all too often as implying that resource considerations are not relevant in evaluating governmental compliance with the relevant international obligations. In other words, questions of the availability of resources and equality of access to those resources were largely eliminated from the most vibrant parts of the international human rights system, and relegated instead to the minor league discussions about economic, social and cultural rights. In the latter context, ironically, they were given overwhelming importance, such that the qualification contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that a State's obligations extended only to the maximum of its available resources is often invoked to excuse basic non-compliance;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 56b
- Paragraph text
- [The challenge of putting questions of resources and redistribution back into the human rights equation has several dimensions:] This artificial marginalization of questions of resources and distribution from the main human rights debates has also been reinforced by the determination of many States to keep the areas of international economics, finance and trade quarantined from human rights. The World Bank can simply refuse to engage with human rights in the context of its policies and programmes, IMF does the same, and the World Trade Organization is little different. When such issues are raised in the Human Rights Council the argument is invariably heard that it is not the appropriate forum and these matters should be dealt with elsewhere. But when efforts are made to raise human rights in such forums, the refrain is that they should rather be dealt with by the Human Rights Council;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 56c
- Paragraph text
- [The challenge of putting questions of resources and redistribution back into the human rights equation has several dimensions:] Leading human rights non-governmental organizations need to overcome their deep reluctance to bring issues such as resources and the need for redistributive policies into their research and advocacy. The result of their current failure to do so is that for all of their excellent work in exposing the magnitude of a specific range of human rights violations (overwhelmingly violations of civil and political rights), the deeper structures that keep in place policies and systems that do little to address extreme poverty and do even less to address extreme inequalities are effectively left in place, and the status quo is reaffirmed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2017
- Document code
- A/HRC/35/26
Document
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 26/3 and is the third report submitted to the Council by Philip Alston in his capacity as Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The focus of the present report is on the idea of replacing or supplementing existing social protection systems with a universal basic income (“basic income”). In recent months, this proposal has drawn increased attention from governments, scholars, and practitioners in a range of different fields, and four major books on the subject have been published in rapid succession. As a report of the Government of India concluded, if “thinkers on both the extreme left and right” have all become basic income supporters, then it is “a powerful idea” which must be discussed seriously, even if that report concludes that the time has not yet come for its implementation. Before exploring the details of the concept and its relationship to human rights, consideration needs to be given to the context in which the proposal has attracted such attention.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- The fundamental values of the international human rights system are under attack in new and diverse ways in 2017. While competing explanations have been proffered, one that is included in most lists is that there is a rapidly growing sense of economic insecurity afflicting large segments of many societies. There is an increasing feeling of being exposed, vulnerable, overwhelmed and helpless, and of being systematically marginalized, both economically and socially. This situation, which previously seemed to be a fate reserved only for those living in low-income countries or in extreme poverty in high- and middle-income countries, now afflicts not just the unemployed and the underemployed, but also the precariously employed and those likely to be rendered unemployed in the foreseeable future as a result of various developments. Many of these individuals previously enjoyed a modicum of security and respect and felt that they had a stake in the overall system of government. As the new insecurity has ballooned and affected ever-greater numbers, many mainstream political parties have either remained oblivious, or have offered solutions that have only exacerbated the problems, further undermining faith in electoral democracy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- The neoliberal policies encapsulated in the 1980s-era Washington Consensus can be seen, especially in retrospect, to have greatly exacerbated economic insecurity, whether or not that was the intent. The State was assumed to be intrinsically inefficient and corruption-prone, and this led to constant pressure to shrink all those parts of it that provided social and basic economic services to the populace, while vindicating and reinforcing the State in its role as the regulator facilitating and legitimizing the privatization of the economy. Social security and social protection was transformed, including through the explicit policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, into a minimalist notion of “social safety nets” designed to avoid the very worst outcomes and make the State look beneficent while empowering officials dedicated to devising ever more efficient “targeting” mechanisms and to rooting out overinclusion while playing down underinclusion. The objectives of promoting tax reform and prudent fiscal policies turned into a race to the bottom to set the lowest individual and corporate tax rates, attracting businesses through expensive exemptions, turning a blind eye to illegal or unconscionably evasive tax practices, and eliminating estate taxes and other measures that would bring about even minimal redistribution. Privatization was promoted even in relation to what were once seen as basic State functions, such as prisons, education and security. In some States, even the justice system has been partly privatized, whether through onerous court fees for the poor or the channelling of consumer and other complaints into private arbitration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- For its part, the human rights community has had all too little to offer in response to the profound challenges associated with deep economic insecurity. The human rights to an adequate standard of living, to work and to social security have been very low on the list of priorities of the major human rights groups and of the principal international and regional human rights organizations, with the exception of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The reasons for this include long-standing arguments that economic issues belong on the agenda of economic rather than human rights bodies, a perception that human rights specialists are not qualified to engage with issues that are presented as technical matters of economic policy, a preference to avoid addressing issues involving redistribution of income or expenditure from a human rights perspective, and the assumption that if civil and political rights are protected, respect for economic and social rights will automatically follow.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- A related problem in the context of the Human Rights Council is the “siloing” of issues, whereby food, health, education, water, and other rights concerns are dealt with in separate silos that stand side by side but are rarely integrated. The Council debates the reports of the individual special procedures mandate holders sequentially and each mandate holder focuses on one particular piece of a large jigsaw puzzle. But there is rarely an occasion to examine the overall picture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- There is a strong risk that when confronted with the challenge of addressing economic insecurity the human rights system will proceed in zombie mode. It will keep marching straight ahead on the path mapped out long ago, even as the lifeblood drains out of the enterprise. Its supervisory and monitoring organs will address themselves ever more insistently to State actors that have made themselves marginal, and they will continue to demand respect for standards that have long since been overtaken by the grim realities of global supply chains. For the most part, the human rights machinery is cumbersome, lacking in agility, and poorly placed to develop new thinking in such contexts. But it will need to do so if it is to remain relevant.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8a
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The increasingly precarious nature of employment in the age of Uber, Airbnb, outsourcing, subcontracting, zero-hours contracts and the like;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8b
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The fact that traditional forms of labour market regulation are becoming ever less relevant to the emerging economy, and that an insistence on their continuing normative validity, however strongly justified, is increasingly impotent in the face of the evolution of global supply chains and other developments based on worker insecurity;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8c
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The likelihood that vast swathes of the existing workforce will be made redundant by increasing automation and robotization, accompanied by the ever-greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the technology elites and the owners of capital;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8d
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The rapid and seemingly unstoppable growth in inequality across the globe, captured by Oxfam’s statistic that the richest 1 per cent of humanity already controls as much wealth as the remaining 99 per cent, and by the detailed national-level economic analyses of Thomas Piketty and others;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 8e
- Paragraph text
- [The present report is premised on the view that the human rights movement needs to address and respond to the fundamental changes that are taking place in economic and social structures at the national and global levels. These include, among others:] The ascent of a new neoliberal agenda, which involves further fetishization of low tax rates, demonization of the administrative State, deregulation as a matter of principle, and the privatization of remaining State responsibilities in the social sector, risks leaving the State in no position to protect or promote social rights meaningfully.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- In its comprehensive and ideal form, a basic income is explicitly designed to challenge most of the key assumptions underpinning existing social security systems. Rather than a system where there are partial payments, basic income guarantees a floor; instead of being episodic, payments are regular; rather than being needs-based, they are paid as a flat rate to all; they come in cash, rather than as messy in-kind support; they accrue to every individual, rather than only to needy households; rather than requiring that various conditions be met, they are unconditional; rather than excluding the well off, they are universal; and instead of being based on lifetime contributions, they are funded primarily from taxation. And simplicity of design promises minimal bureaucracy and low administrative costs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The income is “basic” in the sense that it is designed to guarantee a “floor” on which every recipient can stand. Because people’s needs are highly individualized and context-dependent, the amount that any specific individual requires will depend on factors such as local housing and living costs, the person’s health status, and whether there is any form of support network in place. But in its pure form, basic income would generally be assumed to be a uniform amount, which does not reflect those differentials. There are, however, different versions of the concept that envisage adjusting the amount over time, providing less money for children and more for the elderly, or adjusting for geography. The basis on which the floor is calculated and the amount to be paid will, of course, vary greatly from one country to another. Thus, while a national referendum on basic income in Switzerland proposed a payment of SwF 2,500 per month per adult, a South African initiative envisages a grant of US$15 per person per month, indexed to inflation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Under a basic income system, regular payments would be made to recipients, for example on a monthly basis. Predictability and continuity ensure that redistributive and poverty-reducing goals are met, whereas one-time only payments or lump sums do not ensure a consistent floor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Basic income is intended as a cash grant; not as in-kind support such as food, vouchers or shelter. This means that individuals must have a means by which to receive the income, such as a bank account, or a cell phone capable of managing electronic payments. This might be problematic where neither banking infrastructure nor cell phone coverage are strong, and will also be difficult for groups such as the homeless, people fleeing domestic violence, and persons with psychosocial disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Whereas many aspects of existing social protection systems flow to the household, basic income would go directly to each individual. Some proposals do, however, diverge from this principle and envisage reduced payments which take account of the overall family or household situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The absence of conditionality is a key dimension for most basic income proponents. This means that no conditions, such as children’s attendance at school or proof of job searches, must be met before the income is paid. People are thus not compelled to accept unpleasant or unattractive jobs. The latter would be filled either by machines, or by people attracted by a higher pay level.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- A full basic income is considered a universal entitlement that is automatically paid ex ante to all in a society, regardless of income, wealth, age and gender. It does not require means testing and is not restricted to specific categories of recipients. This idea is troubling to many, who question why the “haves” should receive as much as the “have nots”. Common responses are that any form of means testing to determine eligibility requires a large and inefficient bureaucracy to evaluate claims, creates a burden on disadvantaged people to prove their financial need, stigmatizes the target group, and undermines the freedom to not work — as compared to means-tested welfare that is reduced as people work and earn more. One option for retaining universality but responding to this unfairness critique is a progressive taxation system that effectively takes back much of the basic income payment from high earners. Some challenge the viability of that approach in a world in which elite tax avoidance and evasion schemes are rife.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The universality dimension is often assumed to apply only to citizens or those with a minimum period of legal residence in the country, although some schemes require only fiscal residence. These limits raise important questions in terms of migrant workers, undocumented workers and asylum seekers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Proposals for a form of basic income have been floated by thinkers for centuries. Proponents of the idea trace its historical origins back to Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Johannes Vives’s On Assistance to the Poor (1526), and the works of the Marquis de Condorcet, Charles Fourier, Victor Considerant, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, George Cole, Herbert Simon, and various other political scientists, economists, and public intellectuals. Perhaps the most detailed and specific early set of plans for basic income and related social protection arrangements was put forward by Thomas Paine, a key figure in both the French and American revolutions, in The Rights of Man (1792) and Agrarian Justice (1797).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- In the United Kingdom, basic income proposals were prominent in the period after both world wars. In 1918, Bertrand Russell called for an income for all, sufficient to pay for “necessaries” in post-First World War Britain. And when the Beveridge plan was being debated in 1943, Juliet Rhys-Williams proposed a basic income approach instead of Beveridge’s contributory welfare state plan.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- In the United States of America in the 1960s, Milton Friedman advocated a negative income tax, a concept that bears a close resemblance to a basic income. In the late 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a guaranteed income as the solution to poverty. And by the end of that decade, Richard Nixon, the then President, came close to implementing a universal income supplement, but the scheme was defeated in the Senate by conservatives who thought the programme was too expensive and by liberals who thought the benefit was too low.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In recent years, there has been a strong resurgence in support for the idea of a basic income. Its advocates include philosophers, economists, politicians, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, trade union leaders, futurists and others, and in addition to concerted promotional efforts by civil society groups, support has come from within governments in countries as diverse as Finland and India. Most strikingly, basic income proponents come from many different positions on the political spectrum, ranging from libertarians to socialists.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Scholars from different disciplines have played a key role in debating the merits of the concept and it is appropriate to undertake a brief review of their contributions. The most active proponent is a Belgian philosopher, Philippe van Parijs. In a highly influential paper in 1991 he focused on the fairness of making basic income unconditional, thus making it available even to those who opt to spend their life surfing waves. Invoking the philosophy of John Rawls, he argued that “a defensible liberal theory of justice, that is, one that is truly committed to an equal concern for all and to non-discrimination among conceptions of the good life, does justify, under appropriate factual conditions, a substantial unconditional basic income”. Others have strongly contested this element in the case for a basic income. In a recent book, Van Parijs and Vanderborght go beyond the philosophical dimensions to explore the concept’s history, economic justifications and politics.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- While Van Parijs and Vanderborght write in the liberal-egalitarian tradition, basic income also has strong support from libertarians. Matt Zwolinski argues that in order to justify the system of property rights, it is necessary, as John Locke wrote, to leave “enough, and as good, in common for others”. Thus, a State-financed social safety net might be necessary. For that purpose, a basic income scheme would be preferable to the welfare state because the latter incentivizes wasteful competition among interest groups and is costly and invasive. He avoids addressing questions of the design and implementation of a basic income system but is supportive of the approach developed by another libertarian, Charles Murray.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Murray’s principal book is entitled In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State. He calls for a “guaranteed income” to replace the welfare state which he sees as degrading “the traditions of work, thrift and neighbourliness” while also spawning “social and economic problems that it is powerless to solve”. He rails against the “new cultural consensus” produced by the welfare state, which considers that “the purpose of life is to while away the time between birth and death as pleasantly as possible, and the purpose of government is to make that process as easy as possible”. He argues that a satisfying human life “requires being enmeshed in the stuff of life”, and that by “stripping the institutions of family and community of many of their functions and responsibilities”, the welfare state “drains too much of the life from life”. Replacing the welfare state by a basic income would restore the community to its place as “the locus within which human needs must be met, and the effects could be profound”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Further support for the theory comes from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., which reviews the support given to basic income by free-market and libertarian thinkers such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Robert Nozick, Charles Murray and Matt Zwolinski. Its view is that while the idea may look good on paper, the “further one moves from theory to implementation, the more the theoretical advantages dissipate”. The main objection is affordability, since a universal basic income scheme “would cost far more than the current welfare system”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Some authors on the left of the political spectrum have been enthusiastic supporters of basic income. Guy Standing, a labour economist, has popularized the notion of a “precariat”, a very large segment of the population, whose lives are “dominated by insecurity, uncertainty, debt and humiliation. They are becoming denizens rather than citizens, losing cultural, civil, social, political and economic rights built up over generations”. He argues that in an ever more unequal society, the precariat’s relative deprivation is severe. According to Standing, a basic income would allow people to move in and out of the labour market more easily and would “enable citizens to accept low wages and to bargain more strongly”. Standing has also been involved in important pilot projects in India.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Philosophers on the left, such as Kathi Weeks, have defended basic income from an autonomist Marxist perspective, arguing that it “attempts to address … the realities of post-Fordist work, to offer a measure of security in an economy of precariousness”. The philosopher Michael Howard supports basic income, claiming that it is not incompatible with Marxism or socialism and should be combined with strategies for full employment. But others on the left have been critical. Alex Gourevitch argues that basic income is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for eliminating authoritarian work conditions, which he sees as the biggest challenge.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Broader political support is suggested by former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who suggests that basic income could possibly be financed out of the profits coming from labour-replacing innovations, or perhaps even from a revenue stream generated by the underlying intellectual property. And a book by the former President of the Service Employees International Union, Andy Stern, also calls for a universal basic income to address a new economy characterized by high unemployment, stagnant wages, declining trade union power, and decreasing job security.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Van Parijs and Vanderborght acknowledge, however, that while Green parties in Europe and the United States are generally supportive of basic income, the concept does not draw strong support from socialist, Christian Democrat or liberal parties.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Perhaps the principal promoter of the concept has been the Basic Income Earth Network. This organization was founded in 1986 by researchers and trade unionists linked to the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium. It was originally the Basic Income European Network, but changed its name in 2004. It consists predominantly of scholars based in Europe and the United States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 30
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- Strong support has also come from technology entrepreneurs. According to media reports, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, the web guru Tim O’Reilly, and “a cadre of other Silicon Valley denizens have expressed support for” basic income, calling it the “social vaccine of the twenty-first century”. Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, the largest start-up “accelerator” in Silicon Valley, is funding a basic income pilot scheme in Oakland, California. He believes that “people should be as free as possible to get ‘as rich as they … want’, so long as the people at the very bottom still have all their basic needs met”. GiveDirectly, funded in part by Google, also seeks to finance basic income experiments in East Africa. Comments made by many of these entrepreneurs suggest that basic income is seen as a way to sustain and legitimize a world in which employment opportunities will be drastically reduced and to reinforce consumer demand which would be greatly weakened without a broad-based minimum redistribution of income.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31a
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- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A bonus basic income is akin to a royalty scheme in which resource-based dividends are distributed directly to citizens annually. Funding comes directly from an external source, such as mineral royalties. Thus, the Alaska Permanent Fund annually distributes dividends from investment earning on mineral royalties to people who have lived in Alaska for at least a year and intend to remain there indefinitely. Some commentators consider this to be a poor example of basic income, because it is predistributive as opposed to redistributive, and involves a small sum and a fluctuating level of payment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31b
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- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A partial basic income is limited, such as to a particular group of recipients. For example, the Netherlands and New Zealand both have universal basic pensions, under which all persons above a certain age receive an income without means testing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31c
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- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A supplemental basic income involves the introduction of a modest basic income alongside the existing social security system. Some commentators do not distinguish between partial and supplemental income. A Finnish pilot project, for example, describes partial income as involving a level of benefit that is “substantially lower” and not aiming to replace other current transfers “to the same extent as in full basic income”. Partial and supplemental basic income approaches can also overlap. The Finnish pilot provides €560 over a two-year period (2017-2018) to some 1,500 randomly selected individuals who are aged between 25 and 58 years and are already receiving a labour market subsidy or basic unemployment allowance. The payment is automatic, unconditional and not means-tested. Consistent with Van Parijs’s approach, the basic income payment substitutes only for existing benefits that are lower than it. It can therefore be cumulated with existing earnings-related benefits and housing allowances. Thus, the Finnish model is partial in the sense that it has been targeted at a specific recipient group on the basis of age and income, and it is supplemental in the sense that it does not completely replace the existing social security system. The preliminary report concluded that the deficiencies of the partial basic income are that it would not substantially change the current system or reduce bureaucracy, it would not solve incentive problems arising from a generous housing allowance, and it is a low amount, especially for single parents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 31d
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- [While the present report has thus far addressed a more or less generic approach to basic income, the reality is that there are a great many variations on the theme and that trying to distinguish them from one another, and then from other social protection schemes, is a major challenge. Following the analysis of David Piachaud, it is helpful to divide the various proposals into four different types:] A full basic income involves the characteristics set out above in part II, section A — namely an income that is basic, individual, cash, regular, universal and unconditional. Nowhere in the world has such a scheme yet been implemented. One was considered in Finland, at a level of €1,000 per month, but concern was expressed about “possible work disincentives, conflicts with earnings-related unemployment security, political controversies, high costs, regional differences in housing costs and possibly the lack of legitimacy”, with the level “too high for some groups and too low for the others”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 32
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- Negative income taxes, inspired by the work of Milton Friedman, ensure that individuals who earn below a certain threshold receive payments from the government, rather than having to pay taxes. It is similar to basic income in that every citizen is automatically and unconditionally eligible, but it differs from the full basic income in that benefits phase out as incomes rise. Amounts may also be adjusted for households.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 33
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- The concept of a basic income on a global scale has attracted little scholarly attention, but at least two organizations, the Global Basic Income Foundation and World Basic Income, are promoting it. According to the latter, a global basic income would be a “global scheme that gathers and redistributes money, in amounts ranging from a few dollars to over $2,000 per month, depending on circumstances”. The long-term goal is redistribution of wealth and natural resources through “collective shareholdings in global companies, international taxes such as a carbon tax or financial transaction tax, royalties on goods like intellectual property or the extraction of natural resources, or fees for the use of shared goods, such as charging airlines a fee for using our shared airspace”. The present report does not seek to examine the feasibility or otherwise of such an approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 34
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- All developed societies have welfare states in one or other of the three principal forms. First, welfare for the poor in the form of non-contributory means-tested programmes. Second, social insurance, social rights and social services, which include a wide array of institutions from contributory pension and unemployment schemes to public education and health insurance. Third, and the least familiar, is the role of the government in the economy, through regulatory, fiscal, monetary and labour-market policies and “in shaping markets, promoting growth, providing employment, and ensuring the welfare of firms and families”. While some see these three conceptions as competing, David Garland argues that none “of these three sectors can exist in that form without the others as structural supports”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 35
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- In comparing basic income schemes with the welfare state, it is important to note that some of the proposed forms of basic income are intended to replace the welfare state, while others complement it or only partly replace it. Charles Murray proposes a radical form of basic income designed to replace the welfare state, and to eliminate “programmes that are unambiguously transfers — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare programmes, social service programmes, agricultural subsidies, and corporate welfare”, but that would keep in place State-funded education. But others have argued that “a basic income should not be understood as being, by definition, a full substitute for all existing transfers, much less a substitute for the public funding of quality education, quality health care, and other services”. This approach is supported by commentators for whom basic income schemes “would not necessarily replace contributory benefits”. A Canadian study proposes that a new basic income should come on top of 33 existing income support programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 36
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- Most of its proponents do not envision basic income directly replacing the third conception of the welfare state, namely the role of the government in the economy. As far as the second conception is concerned, many proponents appear to leave public education and social services mostly untouched. Even Murray would leave State-funded education and child protection services in place, although individuals would have to fund their own health insurance. But most basic income proposals appear to want to replace, in whole or in part, either the existing contributory social insurance schemes, or the non-contributory social assistance measures for the poorer groups in society, or both.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 37
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- As for similarities, some existing non-contributory programmes in developed countries are already close to the concept of basic income. Many European countries, for example, have universal child-benefit systems that transfer cash to parents with few, if any, conditions attached and that are paid from public funds to all parents with children of a certain age, even if benefit levels might vary according to the number of children or the income of the parents. The main difference between basic income and such programmes appears to be that the latter restrict payments to specific groups such as children or the elderly.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 38
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- However, many social insurance and social assistance programmes that are integral parts of the welfare state differ in crucial respects from basic income. A study of 108 countries where child benefit or family benefit schemes were anchored in national legislation found that only 49 of them had non-contributory schemes. And contributory schemes generally only cover those in formal employment. They are therefore not universal, and often impose conditions, such as actively searching for work or undergoing medical tests. Moreover, they often go well beyond a floor, by compensating in part or in full for lost earnings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 39
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- The past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in cash transfer programmes in low- and middle-income countries, including conditional cash transfers and unconditional cash transfers. The World Bank, which strongly supports conditional cash transfers, defines them as “periodic monetary benefits to poor households that require beneficiaries to comply with specific behavioural requirements to encourage investments in human capital (such as school attendance, immunization, and health check-ups)”. Unconditional cash transfers have no such strings attached. The largest conditional cash transfer in the world is Bolsa Família in Brazil, with more than 70 million beneficiaries, while the largest unconditional cash transfer is Dibao in China, with about 75 million beneficiaries. Conditional cash transfers have long been considered a hallmark of Latin American countries. While African countries have focused more on unconditional cash transfers, conditional cash transfers have expanded in Africa in recent years, albeit with relatively “soft” conditions attached.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 40
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- To understand the differences and similarities between cash transfers and basic income, it is helpful to look at the experience in particular countries. Mexico had one of the first conditional cash transfer programmes, PROGRESA, which was introduced in 1997. It was greatly expanded over time and was renamed Oportunidades. It is aimed at combating intergenerational poverty and is targeted only at poor households. The conditions are that children do not miss more than three days of school per month and that household members attend a medical clinic once a month. Mexico also has unconditional cash transfers, such as the Pensión Ciudadana Universal in Mexico City, a monthly electronic transfer to senior citizens of at least half the minimum wage, with no conditionality other than age and residency, and Setenta y Más, another unconditional cash transfer for people over 70 years of age who reside in smaller localities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 41
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- Another famous example is the Bolsa Família in Brazil — Latin America’s largest conditional cash transfer programme — which was introduced in 2004, building on earlier, smaller, cash transfer programmes. Indigent and poor families wanting to receive the cash benefit are required to visit health clinics regularly and/or to meet minimum school attendance requirements. Brazil also has unconditional cash transfer programmes, such as the Benefício de Prestação Continuada, which is disbursed to the elderly and to individuals with disabilities living in low-income households. The Bolsa Família was enacted the day after another law that established a citizen’s income for every Brazilian citizen or foreigner residing in the country for more than five years, regardless of their socioeconomic condition. But the latter law was never implemented and is often confused by the public with other existing minimum income programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 42
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- Many African countries have unconditional cash transfers in the form of “social pensions” provided to all citizens above a certain age, without prior conditions. A newer phenomenon is the introduction of universal unconditional cash transfers in the context of subsidy reform. In 2010, the Islamic Republic of Iran introduced a “cash subsidy” of around $45 per month payable to all Iranians living in the country, to compensate for subsidy reductions on gasoline, gas, water and electricity. Similarly, Saudi Arabia is currently introducing a “household allowance” — a cash transfer to the poor and the middle classes (decreasing with income) to compensate for planned subsidy reforms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Unconditional cash transfers, although without strings attached, differ from basic income schemes in several respects. First, they are generally paid to households and may vary accordingly. Second, unconditional cash transfers often target the poor or other categories such as children or the elderly. Third, the amount of the unconditional cash transfers often differs, depending on the recipient’s situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 44
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- While Van Parijs and Vanderborght claim that such programmes are “still a long way from an unconditional basic income”, others have argued that experience with these cash transfer schemes “gives empirical support to arguments in favour of a universal unconditional basic income”, and that they offer guidance for the optimal design of basic income schemes in high-income countries. Still, whether these existing cash transfer programmes are a stepping stone to full basic income schemes remains uncertain. Lavinas has argued that the Bolsa Família is the “antithesis” of a citizen’s income and “cannot be seen as a starting point toward a universal and unconditional income”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 45
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- Internationally, social protection floors have been promoted in the context of the Social Protection Floor Initiative, launched in 2009. This initiative culminated in the 2011 report by the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group (the “Bachelet report”) and in the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202). And Sustainable Development Goal 1 advocates “appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 46
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- Under the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), States should establish and maintain social protection floors ensuring that, at a minimum, “over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level”. This comprises essential health care, including maternity care, and basic income security for children, for active-age adults in cases of sickness, unemployment, maternity and disability, and for older persons. These goals may be achieved through any of the following schemes: universal benefit, social insurance, social assistance, negative income tax, public employment and employment support.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 47
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- Basic income is thus not at odds with social protection floors, with universality being a key assumption of both. While basic income proponents have suggested that the reference to “basic income security” in recommendation No. 202 is a much broader concept than their idea of basic income, they see social protection floors as a “significant step toward basic income by legitimizing the idea of basic income security as an essential ingredient for human development”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 48
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- A basic income could have vastly different effects, depending on the starting point. In wealthier countries with more established social welfare systems, there is a greater risk that replacing existing social support schemes would leave the poor worse off. But in a country with only a minimal social support scheme in place, any regular, unconditional transfers to the poor and marginalized would be a net positive in the absence of more attractive alternative schemes such as a social protection floor. Despite the importance of the current debate in India and the pilot projects in Kenya, most of the policy debate has focused on developed countries and their specific needs and perspectives. If the concept is to achieve broader uptake, the debate needs to be expanded and diversified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 49
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- Between 1974 and 1979, a negative income tax experiment ran in the Canadian city of Dauphin. Subsequent analysis of the data confirmed various positive effects, including a drop in hospitalization rates, especially for mental health and accident admissions, as well as an increase in year 12 school registrations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 50
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- In Canada, two basic income approaches have been the subject of macroeconomic modelling: a full basic income for all Canadians, and a negative income tax under which the richest receive nothing and the poorest receive the maximum income supplement. Neither payment is adjusted for age. In terms of poverty, the conclusion was that: Cancelling existing income transfer programmes in favour of a single basic income results either in dramatically higher levels of poverty, or ethically and politically unsupportable compromises where seniors are pushed into poverty to lift up adults and children. The more acceptable and feasible approach would be to set up a new basic income on top of the 33 transfers that already exist, thus creating only winners, though the main beneficiaries would be middle-aged Canadians.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- However, the negative income tax option would be problematic for 18- to 29-year-olds and for senior women. The Canadian examples demonstrate the potentially positive effects of negative income tax, but warn that a basic income model that replaces existing social support mechanisms could have seriously negative effects on the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 52
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- Basic income proponents have devoted relatively little attention to the biggest question of all, which concerns affordability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 53
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- The “floor” proposed by Van Parijs and Vanderborght is not “sufficient to cover what would be regarded as basic needs”. Although clearly reluctant to put a figure on their proposal, they suggest an amount of 25 per cent of current gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which is “modest enough [to be] sustainable and generous enough for it to be plausible that it will make a big difference”. They calculate that this would have amounted in 2015 to $1,163 per month in the United States, $1,670 in Switzerland and $9.50 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They do not claim that this level is high enough to get every household out of poverty, although the United States figure would be higher than the official poverty line. They also emphasize that if individuals currently receive benefits higher than the basic income, it “must be topped up by conditional supplements” so that the total disposable incomes of poor households are not lowered vis-à-vis their current levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- But how would these expenditures be paid for? Piachaud notes that a full basic income that “replaces social security is far more costly than social security, and this has to be paid for from higher taxes on all incomes with far-reaching economic consequences”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The Economist, relying upon the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s “universal basic income calculator”, concludes that the United States could pay every citizen $6,300 per year if it scrapped all its non-health transfer payments. In other words, if it paid its citizens 25 per cent of GDP per capita ($13,956 per year) as Van Parijs and Vanderborght propose, it would need to raise taxes to cover the difference between $13,956 and $6,300. The Cato Institute calculated that paying 296 million United States citizens the poverty-line amount of $12,316 per year would cost $4.4 trillion. Even if all federal and state social assistance spending for the poor (around $1 trillion) and all “middle-class social welfare programmes such as Social Security and Medicare” (depending on the calculations, costing between $2.13 and $2.5 trillion) were eliminated, there would still be a funding gap of roughly $1 trillion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Cost calculations for Canada are also revealing. If existing Canadian “de facto” basic income programmes (such as Canada Child Benefit for children, the Guaranteed Income Supplement for the elderly and sales tax credits for working adults), quasi-basic income programmes, earned income tax credits, social assistance and employment insurance were all cancelled, the savings could support a basic income for all Canadians (depending on which programmes were scrapped) of between Can$ 2,655 and Can$ 3,565 per year, with between roughly 1.7 and 1.9 million Canadians falling below the poverty line. Under a scenario in which all existing programmes were kept in place and a supplemental universal basic income was paid to all Canadians of Can$ 1,000 per year, 719,000 Canadians would be taken out of poverty, but at a net cost of Can$ 29.2 billion (equalling Can$ 40,886 per person). To pay for this, the Canadian rate of value added tax would have to be increased from 5 per cent to 9 per cent or income taxes would have to be increased by 20 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Finally, a simulation for the region of Catalonia, in Spain, suggests that a basic annual income of €7,968 for those aged over 18 and of €1,594 for minors would require a 49.57 per cent flat tax rate and extra financing of €7 billion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Van Parijs and Vanderborght admit that a universal basic income at 25 per cent of GDP per capita would result in “far higher rates of taxation because of the need to keep funding other public expenditures”. They then proceed to point to some (relatively small-scale) basic income experiments, negative income tax experiments and econometric models, none of which provides a clear answer on affordability. After discussing alternative financing models, such as taxes on capital, nature, money and consumption, they conclude that “none of these alternative sources offers a panacea, or any robust assurance that a generous basic income is economically sustainable, or any reason to believe that, in the short run at any rate, we can dispense with the income tax”. That leads them to explore alternatives to their core idea of a universal basic income — including a categorical basic income, a household basic income and tax surcharge, and their preferred alternative, a partial basic income: “one that makes no claim to being sufficient to live on if one lives alone”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- The most committed proponents of basic income proclaim their approach to be utopian, not in the sense of being unrealistic or unachievable, but as providing a highly ambitious, sweeping, and progressive vision. Critics or sceptics who raise objections based on unaffordability, the unacceptability of unconditionality or the unrealistic change in mentality required will often be dismissed as unimaginative defenders of an obviously unsatisfactory status quo.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- But these contrasting views accurately reflect the conclusion that emerges from a comprehensive survey of the many different utopias the world has known, which is that “utopias are essential but potentially dangerous”. In this case, the danger is that the single-minded pursuit of basic income as a magic bullet, capable of resolving many deeply troubling challenges, will distract attention from the deeper underlying complexities and values. But the utopian vision may also provide the much-needed impetus to rethink the optimal shape of social protection explicitly designed to achieve universal realization of the human right to an adequate standard of living in the twenty-first century. At a comparable watershed moment, Lord Beveridge introduced his 1943 report that laid the groundwork for the British welfare state by insisting that a “revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- Thus, the basic income concept should not be rejected out of hand on the grounds that it is utopian. Policymakers at the national and international levels need to develop the sort of creativity in social policy that is capable of matching and responding to the technological innovations and other developments that have brought us to this crossroads. Despite the magnitude of the challenge and the breathtaking scope of the proposed solution, there is an option, which Van Parijs seems to have subtly embraced, to move in an incremental fashion towards the overall goal. As Anthony Atkinson has observed, inspired by Amartya Sen’s work, “the aim is progressive reform rather than transcendental optimality”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- The most prominent path chosen to date has focused on respect for labour rights. But significant questions arise as to whether the tools used to tackle economic insecurity in that context have been, or are likely to be, effective in responding to the emerging conditions in the global labour market. For example, in its general comment No. 18 (2005) on the right to work, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights calls on States “to reduce to the fullest extent possible the number of workers outside the formal economy”, “to ensure that privatization measures do not undermine workers’ rights”, and to ensure that enhanced labour market flexibility does “not render work less stable or reduce the social protection of the worker”. All of these important objectives are grounded in human rights law, but the question is how best to respond to the reality that the trends in most industries seem to be heading rapidly in the opposite direction.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, an ILO report entitled Decent Work in Global Supply Chains responded to the “negative implications for working conditions” of “the dynamics of production and employment relations within the global economy” by proposing a series of steps such as promoting international labour standards, closing governance gaps and promoting inclusive and effective social dialogue. Unsurprisingly, after lengthy debate on the report, the 2016 International Labour Conference expressed its “concern that current ILO standards may not be fit for purpose to achieve decent work in global supply chains”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- It does not follow from the gap between theory and practice that labour rights should be compromised, let alone abandoned, but it does highlight the fact that traditional approaches might not have much traction in the face of the systematic weakening of labour market institutions, the dramatic increase in more flexible working conditions, and the greatly increased insecurity, including the loss of non-wage benefits, for those who remain employed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- This is where the basic income debate comes in. A focus on social protection more broadly defined might be a more propitious entry point to tackle these issues. Governments remain centrally responsible for ensuring appropriate levels of social protection within their borders, they have a self-interest in promoting stability and economic security, and they control the resources needed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66a
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Discouraging laziness and incentivizing work;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66b
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Efficiency, in terms of avoiding welfare fraud, duplicative programmes, double-dipping, and bloated bureaucracies. As one commentator rejoiced: “we get to fire a couple of million bureaucrats”;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66c
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Adaptation to technological advances, both in terms of compensating for vast numbers of jobs lost in an age of automation and robotization and to ensure some basic redistribution of wealth in an era characterized by exponential growth in the wealth of technology entrepreneurs;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66d
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] The right to work, either in the sense of promoting full employment for the community or of the individual being able to choose satisfying work;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66e
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Freedom, in the sense of the ability to make career and related choices, or the ability to exercise political rights because of a degree of economic security;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 66f
- Paragraph text
- [One of the biggest challenges in relation to basic income is to move beyond its chameleon-like character. There are many versions of it, and each is supported by a diverse array of actors, precisely because they see different attractions in the concept. To assess the utility and acceptability of basic income from a human rights perspective, it is helpful to identify the main categories of motivation.] Fairness and social justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- All of these motivations are persuasive on their own terms, but unless they are integrally linked to the last category the likelihood is that what will emerge will be another strategy designed to promote productivity and efficiency, but without concern for the far more fundamental goals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- How then should human rights actors and institutions respond to the crisis of economic insecurity and the phenomena associated with it? And where might a campaign to achieve a basic income fit into the overall equation?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- The starting point is to acknowledge that economic insecurity represents a fundamental threat to human rights. It is not only a threat to the enjoyment of economic and social rights, even though they are a principal concern. Extreme inequality, rapidly increasing insecurity, and the domination of politics by economic elites in many countries, all threaten to undermine support for, and ultimately the viability of, the democratic systems of governance upon which the human rights framework depends.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Second, the right to work, the right to social security, and above all the right to an adequate standard of living need to be given a prominent place on the human rights community’s agenda. If these rights are marginalized, the overall agenda will become increasingly less relevant to the most pressing and urgent questions of the day.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Third, contrary to the orthodoxy promoted by economic institutions and corporate actors in recent years, there needs to be a resurgence of support for the central role of the State, and recognition of the importance of fair and progressive fiscal policies, and of the indispensability of policies to ensure redistributive justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, the implications for gender equality from growing economic insecurity are almost unremittingly negative. It remains true that “the average woman’s career remains shorter, more disrupted and less remunerative than the average man’s”, and the consequences flow through into social security and related arrangements. Proponents of women’s human rights need to become more involved in debates over social protection and basic income.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Fifth, proponents of a basic income need to ensure that particular schemes to implement the concept are not narrowly linked to citizenship at the expense of all others who are part of the community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Sixth, and most important, the debates over social protection floors and basic income need to be brought together. They have thus far been kept largely separate, in a counterproductive and ultimately self-defeating way. It is true that there are points of divergence between the two concepts, but they have vastly more potential if their synergies are recognized, rather than being ignored. Among the differences are the following: (a) the social protection floor mostly draws on experience in developing countries, while basic income advocates tend to emphasize developed countries; (b) social protection floors aim to guarantee both income security and access to essential social services, while basic income schemes only guarantee income; (c) the concept of basic income security is broader than basic income cash transfers, since it also includes in-kind transfers; (d) social protection floors focus not only on achieving social guarantees for all, but also on gradually implementing higher standards; (e) social protection floors are not viewed as alternatives to social insurance institutions, while some basic income proponents aim to replace existing social insurance institutions; and (f) the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) is premised upon human rights, unlike most basic income schemes. But the proponents of the two approaches have an immense amount in common, and if it is recognized that basic income is not an idea that can be achieved in a single leap, there could be no better and more elaborate and widely supported programme than that for the social protection floor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Global Fund for Social Protection: international solidarity in the service of poverty eradication.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2021
- Document code
- A/HRC/47/36
Document
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2011
- Document code
- A/HRC/17/34
Document
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- International human rights law stipulates concrete obligations to ensure the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. These obligations are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in a number of human rights treaties at the regional and universal levels. The most direct obligations are those set forth in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with which 160 States must comply. Several other treaties also establish compulsory obligations regarding economic, social and cultural rights, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, among others. These international treaties, in conjunction with a great number of universally agreed declarations and soft law instruments, determine the legal framework that States must comply with at the domestic level, even in time of crisis. The Expert's evaluation in the present report is based primarily, but not exclusively, on the obligations enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Even when resources are limited, States are legally bound to respect, protect and fulfil international human rights obligations. For State parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this means, for example, that they must dedicate the maximum amount of resources available to progressively achieve the full realization of all economic, social and cultural rights. The human rights perspective distinguishes between the inability and the simple unwillingness to act. States cannot use the economic damage caused by the crises to justify actions or omissions that amount to violations of basic human rights obligations. While economic, social and cultural rights are often subject to the principle of "progressive realization" depending on the availability of resources in each State, this principle also prescribes particular modes of conduct that are compulsory for all States, regardless of their level of development. These obligations considerably limit the discretion of States with regard to the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights, and require immediate action.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- States must devote the maximum available resources to ensure the progressive realization of all economic, social and cultural rights as expeditiously and effectively as possible. In its general comment No. 3, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated that this is so even during times of severe resources constraints, whether caused by a process of adjustment, economic recession, or by other factors. This obligation imposes limitations on a State's freedom to allocate available resources. The resources "available" are not only the resources within a State, but also those available from the international community through "international assistance and cooperation". States that do not possess the necessary resources are obliged to "actively seek assistance" to ensure, at the very least, minimum essential levels of enjoyment of human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- While several external factors affect the availability of domestic resources, such as the provision of official development assistance (ODA) and the role of international trade, compliance with this principle also depends on how the State generates and mobilizes resources to fund compliance with human rights obligations. For example, if a State generates too little revenue or allocates a high proportion of its budget to defence, its ability to provide sufficient levels of public services will be compromised.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- State parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have an immediate minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of all economic, social and cultural rights. These minimum essential levels are those which are crucial to securing an adequate standard of living through basic subsistence, essential primary health care, basic shelter and housing, and basic forms of education for all members of society.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to achieve these minimum essential obligations is not dispensed with during times of crisis and recovery. Even during times of severe resource constraints, when available resources are demonstrably inadequate, the obligation remains for States to demonstrate that every effort has been made to use all resources that are at its disposal, in an effort to satisfy, as matter of priority, minimum essential levels and to protect the most disadvantaged and marginalized members or groups of society by adopting relatively low-cost targeted programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- In the context of recovery from successive crises, this principle obliges States to ensure that any programmes or policies that are integral to delivering essential services (for example, primary education, basic health care and social assistance programmes) are protected, to the greatest extent possible, from reduced expenditure. The duty of the State to prioritize the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable people does not imply that the State may adopt a very narrow approach. States continue to have responsibilities to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible towards the widest possible enjoyment of rights by all, which means maintaining services beyond a basic level.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- There is a strong presumption that deliberately retrogressive measures that affect the level of enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights are in violation of human rights standards. Examples of retrogressive measures might include the adoption of policy or legislation with a direct or collateral negative effect on the enjoyment of rights by individuals, or unjustified reductions in expenditures devoted to implementing public services that are critical for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, such as those which guarantee basic health care, ensure access to primary education, or make available assistance for food and shelter.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted that, in adopting retrogressive measures, States must demonstrate that they have been introduced after the most careful consideration of all alternatives and that they are duly justified by reference to the totality of the rights provided for in the Covenant, in the context of the full use of the maximum available resources.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- If a State uses "resource constraints" as an explanation for any retrogressive measure, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will assess the situation considering, inter alia, the country's level of development, the severity of the breach, whether the situation concerned the enjoyment of the minimum core content and whether the State had identified low-cost options, or had sought international assistance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph