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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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:] 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
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. 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. 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 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. 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
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. 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. 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. 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
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The section below looks through a human rights lens at some of the specific measures that States are designing and implementing, and highlights the ways in which they may pose a threat to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights of the most vulnerable sectors of societies.
- 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
- 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. 46
- Paragraph text
- Reductions in the public wage bill will severely impede the delivery of social services. If remuneration to the providers of basic education and health care is reduced, this could have a potentially drastic impact on individuals' ability to easily and effectively have access such services. Limited or decreased staff numbers may hamper the ability of social services to respond to public demand, and the removal of allowances or incentive schemes might have an adverse impact on the efficiency of employees.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- 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. 47
- Paragraph text
- The above measures will have a disproportionate impact on people living in poverty, particularly those in rural areas and the most disadvantaged, who already face numerous barriers in gaining access to health care and education services. By adopting policies that threaten to reduce the wages of those essential to the provision of such services, States would also jeopardize their ability to provide for the widest possible enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. These measures run a real risk of constituting unjustified retrogressive measures if they impede the State's ability to maintain minimum essential levels of enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- 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. 65
- Paragraph text
- The recovery from the crises presents an opportunity for States to ensure a social protection floor for everyone under their jurisdiction. This concept refers to a minimum level of social protection that everyone should enjoy. A national social protection floor is a basic set of rights and transfers that enables and empowers all members of a society to have access to essential services (such as adequate nutrition, health, education, housing, water and sanitation) and income security (through social transfers). The term "social floor" can correspond to the existing notion of "core obligations", to ensure the realization of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- 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. 68
- Paragraph text
- Social protection systems must also incorporate effective and meaningful participatory mechanisms that ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the programmes and compliance with the fundamental right to participate.
- 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
- 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. 69
- Paragraph text
- A rights-based approach also requires policymakers to ensure that all persons are protected in an equal and non-discriminatory manner. This principle implies a preference for social protection systems that are universal. While policies should prioritize the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in line with human rights standards, they must also form part of longer-term strategies to progressively ensure universal coverage. States must carefully screen policy choices to avoid the unfair exclusion of disadvantaged and disempowered groups and actively seek out ways to ensure that they are reached. In this regard, social protection programmes must be physically and culturally accessible to all.
- 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. 83
- Paragraph text
- The human rights framework obliges States to take measures to ensure that individuals under their jurisdiction are protected from infringements of their rights by third parties, and to take all available legal or policy measures to prevent third parties from violating economic, social and cultural rights. Accordingly, States should take immediate steps to regulate the actions of banking and financial sector entities under their control, in order to prevent them from violating or infringing upon 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
- 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. 91
- Paragraph text
- Increasing participation in policymaking allows States to assess more adequately the root causes of deprivation in any given community, the structural challenges to poverty alleviation, the local cultural, ethnic or societal obstacles to successful poverty reduction, and the best means of reaching the most vulnerable. It therefore increases the likelihood that policies will be effective in reaching the poorest members and segments of society and will improve their degree of enjoyment of human rights.
- 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
- 2011
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- In addition to highlighting the intrinsic linkages among all rights, the principal significance of this bold assertion was to signal that economic, social and cultural rights are as important as civil and political rights and must be accorded equal attention. And the past quarter of a century has indeed seen a great number of important initiatives, especially in sectoral areas such as the right to housing, the right to food, the right to health and the right to water, and more consistent tribute being rendered to the principle of indivisibility. But acceptance in law and in practice of the idea that economic and social rights are actually human rights, with the set of clear legal consequences that this entails, rather than a set of concerns synonymous with development or social progress, remains marginal. This marginality manifests itself in the work of United Nations human rights bodies, in both the theory and practice of the great majority of States, in the work of many of the most prominent civil society groups focusing on human rights, in the interests and priorities of scholars and commentators and, perhaps most counter-intuitively, even in the work of most international agencies promoting poverty alleviation and social development. As a result, the principal of indivisibility continues to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Economic and social rights are also of central importance to efforts to tackle extreme inequality and its consequences. The thoroughly documented increases in global wealth and income inequality threaten to undermine the social fabric, to turn civil and political rights into a tool that will be used predominantly to protect the rights and interests of the wealthy and to entrench forms of economic and political liberalism that ignore the needs and deny the rights of those living in poverty. In many respects, the approach currently taken by the international human rights system all but ensures the worst of all possible outcomes. On the one hand, the correct approach insists that economic and social rights are indivisible from, and of equal importance to, civil and political rights, thus suggesting that they can provide a meaningful response to extreme poverty, extreme inequality and other forms of rampant social injustice. On the other hand, the international human rights system systematically marginalizes those rights in many respects, and tolerates a situation in which the majority of States avoid the recognition, institutionalization and accountability that alone can establish solid foundations upon which to build respect for economic and social rights as full-fledged human rights and thus provide powerful and principled arguments to reduce levels of inequality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- However, in the 50 years since the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were adopted, extensive experience has been gained at both the international and national level, which enables us to identify the key ingredients in successful approaches to the recognition and implementation of human rights obligations. Three are of particular salience in relation to economic and social rights: (a) the need to accord legal recognition to the rights; (b) the need for appropriate institutional arrangements to promote and facilitate realization of the rights; and (c) the need for measures that promote governmental accountability. This can be termed the recognition, institutionalization and accountability framework, or the RIA framework, and its implications for economic and social rights are considered below.
- 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
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph