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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
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The widespread persistence of extreme poverty, despite the progress made in recent years, serves to highlight the central importance of the struggle to achieve economic and social rights. Many hundreds of millions of people continue to suffer from extreme poverty, and by no means only in the poorest countries, in what is a grave affront to any notion of universal human rights. While such poverty is a phenomenon that fundamentally undermines most, if not all, civil and political rights, its most obvious and brutal manifestation is in the premature deaths and severely deprived lives that result from the denial of economic and social rights. While it is true that many developed and a few developing States have radically diminished extreme poverty without adopting a strategy based on the recognition of economic and social rights, experience more broadly suggests that the failure to take those rights seriously diminishes the prospects for eliminating extreme poverty, even in contexts where overall economic growth levels are high.
- 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
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- A strong case is also to be made for attributing the resurgence of right-wing populism, at least in some of the many countries in which it is occurring, to the growth of inequality and the widespread neglect or denial of economic and social rights.
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2016
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Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 15
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- 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
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
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 66
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- That can be applied to the plight of those living in extreme poverty, who continue in most societies to be marginalized, stigmatized and the objects of condescension and charity. Recognition of their human rights does not guarantee them food, education, or health care, but it does acknowledge their dignity and agency, empower them and their advocates and provide a starting point for a meaningful debate over the allocation of societal resources in contexts in which their interests have been systematically ignored. It is indeed a technocratic illusion to assume that those dimensions can be ignored as long as bureaucratically directed projects and policies are well designed by the staff of the Bank. Similarly, it makes a huge difference if education reforms are premised on the right to education of the beneficiaries, as opposed to the good intentions or largesse of the World Bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
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The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 17
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- The author of the opinion then seeks to demonstrate that economic considerations demand a focus on criminal justice. It is argued that crime and violence impede economic development, reduce investment and employment growth and make countries less competitive. They undermine strategies to increase levels of social and human capital, which are key to economic growth, divert funds away from development and other productive activities, weaken the economies of fragile States and can exacerbate conflict. They also disproportionately affect the poor, by undermining employment, reducing mobility and hindering access to basic services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- 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. 20
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- 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. 32
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- 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
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The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 59
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- Fourth, the Bank needs to bring its operational policies into line with mainstream development theory, especially its own. In 1999, Amartya Sen published a landmark study entitled Development as Freedom, based on lectures given at the Bank. Sen made a powerful case that freedom and the enjoyment of a range of rights were integral to achieving meaningful development. More recently, William Easterly has argued that "the cause of poverty is the absence of political and economic rights, the absence of a free political and economic system that would find the technical solutions to the poor's problems". He dismissed policies that seek to artificially separate human rights from development as technocratic illusions. The Bank itself has often paid lip service to the consensus that has emerged since the end of the cold war that recognizes that "democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing," as proclaimed in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by consensus by 171 States in 1993. By staunchly maintaining the technocratic illusion, not in its conceptual work, but in its operations where it really matters, the Bank has not only placed itself firmly outside mainstream development thinking and policies formally endorsed by all States, but perhaps more problematically has sent the message that rights and development can, and in its own case must, be kept separate. The flow-on effect of that negative example cannot be underestimated;
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 13
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- 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. 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
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The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 12
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- Although a report as brief as this can only skim the historical surface, at least five factors ensured that social protection in general, and the right to social security in particular, were of marginal importance for most of the twentieth century. First, the artificial and in some respects arbitrary division of the concept of human rights into two different categories of rights governed by very different assumptions, condemned economic and social rights to second-class status for much of this period. Second, the often proclaimed interdependence and indivisibility of the two sets of rights resolutely failed to address in practice the fact that individuals living in extreme poverty were unable to realize effectively many of their civil and political rights. Third, the mistaken notion that civil and political rights are largely costless, while economic and social rights are inevitably extremely costly, was used to legitimize the assumption that social security was a quintessentially costly right and thus only really of relevance to rich countries. Fourth, where it was officially accepted, social security was largely conceptualized as a tool for protecting workers in the public sector and in the formal sector more generally. Thus only minimal efforts were made to develop a more inclusive notion that built upon both formal and informal structures and processes to ensure that all persons were covered by some type of security arrangement. Fifth, many of those problems were exacerbated by the impact of the cold war on the human rights framework. A sixth factor was the extent to which individual United Nations agencies claimed different issues as their own and sought to develop forms of exclusive jurisdictional competence. Under that scheme, social security "belonged" to ILO. The rest of the United Nations system thus more or less kept away from the issue, except in the most general terms. That also meant that, some official rhetoric notwithstanding, the United Nations human rights system developed in relative isolation from what should have been the closely related work of a number of the specialized agencies.
- 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
- 2014
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The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 52
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- Third, technocratic solutions, no matter how innovative and data-driven, will not work unless they are genuinely empowering of those whom they purport to help. In that regard, extreme poverty is a classic case study in the centrality of human dignity as a guiding principle of human rights. The poor, we have too often been told by our politicians and others, are usually to blame for their own plight, whether because of laziness, incompetence, mendacity, or whatever. Those unjustified stereotypes provide yet another justification for preferring technocratic approaches through which we measure the poor and work out how we are going to make minimal provision for them, at least in the long term. As Keynes reminded us, in the long term we are all dead. Those living in extreme poverty will be dead even more quickly, so that long-term solutions may be little more than an illusion. Short-term empowerment and respect are what is needed. We need to reassert a common humanity, shared responsibilities and the centrality of human dignity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 39
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- Finally, much has been made in the context of the Covenant of the importance of establishing benchmarks against which governmental performance can be evaluated. As the United Nations Development Group has observed, the immediate realization of a social protection floor is not a realistic policy goal for most countries in the region. but progress can be achieved through "setting a benchmark for the benefit levels. The benchmark may be taken as the national poverty line for tax-financed, universal schemes and relative benchmarks as laid out in the ILO's social security Conventions."
- 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
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 51
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- Second, an indispensable step is to 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 33
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- When acting as a member of an international organization, a State remains responsible for its own conduct in relation to its human rights obligations within and outside its territory. This includes identifying the possible human rights impact of measures agreed at the international level, including the impact on persons living in poverty. Therefore, when a State makes decisions about loans as a member of an international financial institution, careful consideration of human rights obligations would mitigate against imposing conditions regarding fiscal policies that may jeopardize the human rights of the borrower State's population or undermine that State's ability to use maximum available resources to realize economic, social and cultural rights.
- 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
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 22
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- Decision-making processes regarding tax and public revenues must therefore be based on full transparency and the broadest possible national dialogue, with effective and meaningful participation of civil society and those who will be directly affected by such policies, including people living in poverty. Fiscal policies should be subjected to the scrutiny of the population during design, implementation and evaluation stages, with the various interests transparently identified. This will require capacity-building and fostering fiscal literacy in the population. The population should have access to all relevant information in an accessible and understandable format, and inclusive mechanisms should be put in place to ensure that they are actively engaged in devising the most appropriate policy options. Owing to the asymmetries of power, expertise and interests in this debate, specific measures should be taken to ensure equal access and opportunities to participate, particularly for people living in poverty.
- 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
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 21
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- The generic term "social protection" has been used to describe a wide range of past and present policy approaches. In recent years, however, the main debate has been between those who support what are termed "social safety net" approaches and those who seek "social inclusion" and acknowledge "social citizenship". The principal response of the World Bank to the backlash against the austerity and adjustment policies of the Washington Consensus was to advocate social safety nets. The concept of social risk management gained special prominence, both as a means to protect the basic livelihood of the most vulnerable, or those living in chronic poverty, and to promote better managed risk-taking in response to economic and other shocks. However, the safety net approach was also widely criticized for failing to devote enough attention to structural poverty and inequality, and for its emphasis on the narrow targeting of groups for assistance. In response, rights-based approaches were promoted, not only within the human rights community, but by a broader range of development scholars and institutions. But the general debate is far from settled and critics argue that many of today's approaches to social protection continue to show a "bias towards more ameliorative and less transformative approaches to social protection, which are likely to leave the underlying causes of injustice in place."
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 37
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- Certainly, poverty reduction is more effective and sustainable when combined with investments in areas such as education, health and food security. These areas are also critical for ensuring the realization of rights in the present and future and for overcoming the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 30
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- The consequences of that approach in relation to the Initiative are enormous. First, it means that complex systems for selectivity will trump aspirations to achieve universal coverage. Second, the level of protection that is set will remain extremely low. The Bank's own figures indicate that while the poorest 20 per cent of households account for 25 per cent of all spending on safety nets, the resulting transfers make up only 23 per cent of the income or consumption of a poor household. Third, social safety nets are generally not protected by law and the poorest are thus left highly vulnerable to changing policy winds. Fourth, the human rights dimension is effectively eliminated. Social protection remains a charitable undertaking, advocated for reasons of efficiency and productivity, and not a matter of right. The empowerment dimension is thus lost, as is the rest of the rights-based framework. Finally, over time, the Initiative will gradually be marginalized and its momentum destroyed. As noted below, especially for low-income countries, affordability is the crucial issue and the United Nations, along with agencies such as ILO, WHO and UNICEF, for all their eagerness to assist and advise, can only go so far in that regard. Ultimately, the World Bank and the IMF need to support proposals to create the fiscal space necessary for social protection floors to be adopted in many countries and if that support is absent, the overall initiative will be undermined.
- 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
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Future advocacy for social protection floors needs to acknowledge the lessons that are to be learned from past experience. First, the reality is that in many states the political will to eliminate poverty is lacking and, in the absence of a major change in priorities, the situation will at best improve only incrementally. Far from being a tragedy about which nothing can be done because of financial constraints, the persistence of extreme poverty is the result of a series of deliberate and conscious decisions by key actors who have chosen to prioritize other goals. Those living in poverty have been largely disempowered and their economic position reflects their political marginality. Extreme poverty remains a scourge which the international community has lamented at great length and with a collective gnashing of teeth, but that same community has all too often refused to take the measures required to eliminate the problem. Embracing the Social Protection Floor Initiative would constitute a compelling change of course and mark a genuinely new beginning in the struggle against extreme 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
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Poverty eradication, by contrast, is an important focus. The draft proclaims that: "Poverty eradication is the greatest global challenge facing the world today" and accordingly Goal 1 is "to end poverty in all its forms everywhere." The specifics that follow, however, leave much to be desired. Proponents of the Social Protection Floor Initiative can take some consolation from the fact that social protection is mentioned three times. It is identified as a means by which to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work (target 5.4) and is proposed as a means of promoting greater equality, along with fiscal and wage policies (target 10.4). The main provision of relevance calls upon States to "implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable" (target 1.3). That is a mixed bag. The fact that the social protection measures called for are "for all" implies universality and the fact that "floors" are listed as one means by which this might be achieved is a nod in the direction of the Initiative. However, the draft clearly avoids giving any specific endorsement to the Initiative and says nothing about minimum guarantees, legal entrenchment or rights and the goal set to be achieved over a period of 15 years is determinedly vague and open-ended. In short, it is far more consistent with the social safety net philosophy than with the social inclusion and rights-based approach of the Initiative.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- A well-placed tax threshold (namely, the income below which an individual or household is exempted from income tax) is also crucial for ensuring that the taxation system does not jeopardize the ability of people living in poverty to enjoy minimum essential levels of economic, social and cultural rights. Unfortunately, in some countries, households are required to pay tax before they earn enough to even meet minimum food basket requirements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Every community or demographic has its own power dynamics; therefore, even participatory mechanisms targeted at people living in poverty are vulnerable to "elite capture" by more powerful individuals within a community. Processes that do not actively reach out to new and marginalized groups will reinforce the status quo and undermine the principle of equality. Therefore, to prevent dominant groups from co-opting participatory processes, officials must be trained to detect and understand how power is exercised to control and exclude disadvantaged groups. They should diagnose and counteract power relations and ensure that their own actions do not reproduce or legitimize these power dynamics.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- Government agencies and policymakers must be prepared to give value to the findings of participatory processes, critically examine their own practices and attitudes, and allow the necessary resources and time to enable people living in poverty to participate effectively. Instituting meaningful participation will require the State to relinquish unilateral control over some areas of policy traditionally seen as government prerogative, for example budgets. Similarly, while successful participation is frequently dependent on some form of State engagement, States should not seek to "own" all spaces of participation, and must protect and promote the role of NGOs and civil society.
- 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
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- To fully respect dignity and autonomy, participatory processes must be meaningful for those living in poverty and they should be able to exert influence over the final outcome. They should be included in all stages of the relevant decision-making processes so that they have the chance to set priorities or question the agenda in fundamental ways.
- 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
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Through meaningful and effective participation, people can exercise their agency, autonomy and self-determination. Participation also limits the capacity of elites to impose their will on individuals and groups who may not have the means to defend their interests. Conceived as a right, participation is a means of challenging forms of domination that restrict people's agency and self-determination. It gives people living in poverty power over decisions that affect their lives, transforming power structures in society and creating a greater and more widely shared 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
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- For instance, in terms of accessibility, organizers must ensure that the meeting locations are neither exclusionary nor prove to be a further obstacle to participation for people living in poverty. Community-based processes will reduce costs and travel time for participants, increasing the likelihood of their involvement. Participatory processes must also extend to remote rural communities. Organizers must provide adequate notice, via an appropriate mode of communication; this will vary depending on the community, taking into consideration the principles of acceptability and adaptability. Traditional and personal methods of communication should be considered and may be more likely to reach people living in poverty than official bulletins or announcements on websites.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
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