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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 land and the right to food 2010, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In addition to its economic functions of stimulating growth and reducing rural poverty, more equitable access to land for the rural poor contributes to social inclusion and economic empowerment. Access to land also improves food security, since it makes food more easily and cheaply available, providing a buffer against external shocks. Evidence resulting from land redistribution in China suggests that "even though access to land insures household income only moderately against shocks, it provides almost complete insurance against malnutrition". More equitable land distribution and the development of owner-operated family farms are thus desirable on both efficiency and equity grounds. Small family-owned farms can use the land in more sustainable ways, since sustainable farming is often more labour-intensive and requires the linking of farmers to the land. Moreover, where rural areas face high unemployment and underemployment and relative scarcity of land, it is more sensible, from both an economic perspective and a social justice perspective, to raise land productivity than to try to increase labour productivity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- On the other hand, the cost of rent subsidies for low-income households is significantly lower than the cost of subsidies for homeownership. Moreover, for families with a very low and unstable income, rent subsidies can provide a better alternative than homeownership. Research done in Brazil, for instance, has shown that very low-income households tend to sell their private homes, in particular the very poorly located ones, and move back to informal settlements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Children as young as 3 years old were reportedly working in mines and quarries in Sierra Leone in 2012, with children as young as 10 subjected to contemporary forms of slavery in diamond mines. Children break apart, shovel and wash gravel all day, six days a week, for little to no compensation, with wages ranging from USD 0.15-0.60 per day. They are vulnerable to disease, injury and death due to collapsing mine pits. Children working in mines are denied educational opportunities, preventing them from escaping the cycle of poverty and enslavement. Families often cannot afford to send their children to school because they need their labour to supplement family earnings, as 60 per cent of the population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations Development Programme. The civil war in the country exacerbated children's vulnerability to slavery, as numerous child soldiers abducted by armed factions were subsequently forced to work in mining, many children lost their parents and schooling for most children was interrupted.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Poverty is one of the main reasons for children working in mines and quarries sector. In such cases, parents are unable to provide for their basic needs and require children to work in this sector in order to support the family income. Very often children work with their parents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- In order to address poverty, social protection programmes that provide compensation to families for the loss of earnings from children's labour can be effective. Programmes such as Bolsa Familia in Brazil, conditional cash transfer programmes which provide direct cash transfers to poor families who keep their children in school and under regular medical supervision, have significantly contributed to the reduction of child labour. Between 2003 and 2007, Bolsa Familia had successfully raised 20 million people out of poverty, reducing poverty from 22 to 7 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Comprehensive prevention strategies against sale and sexual exploitation of children 2013, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Poverty is too often considered the primary cause of the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography. Poverty does have an impact on families and communities by creating stresses that weaken the family and social fabric and driving children away from their homes in search of better opportunities. However, poverty alone is not the sole driver of the sale and exploitation of children. Children in equally poor situations may not be at similar risk of exploitation. Research has shown that child victims of exploitation are typically from families experiencing high levels of poverty and single or persistent negative shocks, such as drought, loss of employment, death or the severe illness of a family member. The "poverty plus" approach underlines that poverty combined with other risk factors increases vulnerability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Poverty is a key driver of debt bondage across the world. Bonded labourers are frequently reported to live in situations of poverty that are sustained through generations. They often do not own any assets and lack access to land, education, health care and/or decent work opportunities. The majority are trapped in debt bondage because the only source of credit they can obtain is from their employer or recruiter. Life events have been identified as triggering the need for the loans that can lead to debt bondage; these may include illness or accident, marriage, and death in the family. Loans are also commonly needed for subsistence, and for investments such as home improvements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Effective Implementation of the OPSC 2010, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In the face of poverty, inaccessibility to basic social services and lack of opportunity, families find themselves unable to ensure the development and safety of their children. They adopt survival strategies that may endanger their children. Some parents emigrate in search of a better future, leaving their children behind, while some children emigrate on their own initiative or at their family's urging, and are handed over, for a fee, to exploiting individuals who push them into work. These children are more vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and abuse.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Effective Implementation of the OPSC 2010, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- Domestic violence, the absence of one or both parents and poverty mean that it is no longer the case that families always constitute a reference point and safe haven for children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Effective Implementation of the OPSC 2010, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- Such migration, both internal and external, can occur in response to individual imperatives (such as the search for economic or professional opportunities), or to family and communal imperatives in connection with survival strategies or efforts to find suitable social or educational environments for children. Permanent and seasonal migrations, whether cross-border or within a country, are dictated by poverty, deteriorating living conditions, chronic drought, armed conflict and/or political instability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Effective Implementation of the OPSC 2010, para. 100
- Paragraph text
- Poverty and lack of a family environment are often the cause of institutionalization.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The different forms of family and their recognition by the State are influenced by a multitude of normative factors, such as culture, religion and caste, and behavioural factors, such as livelihoods, sexuality and social status. Although several international forums recognize family diversity, including "in different cultural, political and social systems", many of the aforementioned non-traditional forms of family are not recognized by all States. The family is often defined by legal systems as a unit founded on marriage between a man and a woman, affecting rights relating to, for example, inheritance, property, child custody, pensions, tax relief and social service provision. Laws and public institutions in some States require a male family member or male guardian to initiate or conclude official transactions, thus placing families headed by women or consisting solely of women at a disadvantage. Families headed by women, like those headed by children, are more seriously affected by poverty because of the discrimination they suffer. Given that State recognition is often a condition for families to receive services and benefits, such as accommodation and protection provided by the State and/or non-State actors, lack of recognition leads to the marginalization of these families.
- Body
- Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 73d (vi)
- Paragraph text
- [According to general recommendation No. 29 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the family is a social and legal construct and, in various countries, a religious construct. It also is an economic construct. The Working Group recommends that States:] Assess, quantify and take account of the impact of women and girls' status in the family in all poverty-reduction policies.
- Body
- Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Equality of opportunity in education 2011, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- A number of in-kind incentives, such as school meal programmes, especially in poverty-stricken areas, are implemented in order to ensure that income deprivation or poverty in general does not result in exclusion from schools. In broad terms, State investment in social-protection policies and its contribution to alleviating the burden on families and child poverty plays an important role in the promotion of education.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to education
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
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 poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- 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
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Many societal changes without adequate State responses contribute to homelessness. For example, the break-up of traditional family structures is a prevalent cause of homelessness. Men who move to cities for economic reasons often forgo shelter in order to save money to send back to their families in rural areas. In many States, long traditions of extended family support and kinship responsibility at the community level have been eroded. Illness, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, is both a major cause and effect of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The ongoing legacy of discriminatory customary and statutory laws on divorce, inheritance and matrimonial property - as well as social practices that attribute housing to male heads of households and the resultant poverty - deprive women of security of tenure and render them particularly vulnerable to homelessness. When women are widowed, separated or divorced, need to leave violent households or flee situations of armed conflict or natural disasters, or are evicted from their homes, they face significant risks of becoming homeless. Divorced and widowed women in Bangladesh and Lebanon, for example, are reported to be living in dilapidated shacks in dangerous informal settlements and women fleeing violence in Kyrgyzstan and Papua New Guinea are left with few housing options.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Homelessness among children and young people has reached critical proportions. Factors that push children into leaving home include parents' unemployment and poverty; family disintegration and parental abuse; parental drug and alcohol addictions; and being orphaned owing to HIV/AIDS, Ebola, armed conflict or natural disaster. Some families, unable to support children because of extreme poverty, abandon or send them to urban areas to work. Children raised in residential institutions often find themselves homeless when they reach the age at which institutional care ceases. Identified "pull" factors include "spatial freedom, financial independence, adventure, city glamour and street-based friendships or gangs".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Most families of street-connected children have experienced persistent discrimination, poverty and social exclusion. Street-connected children and young people face particular challenges, including the threat of being removed from their parents for neglect and put into orphanages or foster systems. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex young people are overrepresented in homeless populations in some countries and face additional stigmatization and social exclusion from their families and communities, and are more vulnerable to violence and more likely to be turned away from shelters.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- LGBTQI+
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Human rights based approach to recovery from the global economic and financial crises, with a focus on those living in poverty 2011, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Since the global economic and financial crises in the financial markets arose in 2007, they have had a devastating impact on poverty rates and presented a serious threat to the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Their disastrous impact has been amplified by a number of pre-existing social and economic realities: the world had been plagued in preceding years by consecutive fuel and food crises, unemployment was already unacceptably high, a majority of workers were employed in the informal sector, and only 20 per cent of the world's working-age population and their families had effective access to social protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Human rights of migrants in the post-2015 development agenda 2014, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- A target on providing social protection to reduce the vulnerabilities of the poor, including marginalized groups, including migrants, is essential. Indicators could include the proportion of migrants with access to, and cross-border portability of, earned social benefits (e.g. pensions). Under article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States recognize the right of everyone to social security. In its general comment No. 19, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined the right to social security as encompassing "the right to access and maintain benefits, whether in cash or in kind, without discrimination in order to secure protection, inter alia, from (a) lack of work-related income caused by sickness, disability, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, old age, or death of a family member; (b) unaffordable access to health care; (c) insufficient family support, particularly for children and adult dependents". It went on to say that "the right to social security includes the right not to be subject to arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions of existing social security coverage, whether obtained publicly or privately, as well as the right to equal enjoyment of adequate protection from social risks and contingencies".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Human rights of migrants in the post-2015 development agenda 2014, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- With regard to remittances, the World Bank estimates that $436 billion will be sent as remittances in 2014. Private money transfers play a role in increasing household incomes and ultimately improving health and educational outcomes in countries of origin. Consequently, a target on reducing to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances, as suggested by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, would go a long way to improving the economic status of families. Reducing the cost of sending remittances should not, however, be used in lieu of a national policy for poverty reduction, taking into account that remittances are privately owned sums of money.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations System Task Team on the Post-2015 Development Agenda has noted that, in developing countries, access to water and sanitation, among others, are much worse for low-income and rural families. Despite progress in poverty reduction in the overall picture, the report argues, major inequalities persist.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Joint report with SRSG Violence against Children on child-sensitive complaint mechanisms 2011, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- It is argued that the stronger the links are between the child protection system and the community, the less need there is for mandatory reporting, because child welfare personnel will become aware of most cases of violence without it. Mandatory reporting may also create an adversarial relationship between families and child protection authorities, and discourage families from seeking assistance voluntarily; and it can stigmatize families affected by extreme poverty and unemployment when the scope of mandatory reporting includes neglect. These concerns underline the need for mandatory reporting to be adapted to the needs and circumstances of each society.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- In many cases, poverty will make parents involuntary accomplices to the exploitation of their own children. In Haiti (see A/HRC/12/21/Add.1), parents from poor families will often send one or more of their children to stay with more affluent families, who may be relatives, family friends or complete strangers. In its idealized form, the practice should ensure that the host family takes care of the child and pays for its schooling, while expecting the child in return to take up a modest set of household chores. In reality, the majority of the estimated 150,000-500,000 so-called restavèk children in Haiti are exploited in domestic servitude. They frequently work extremely long hours without pay, are deprived of schooling, health care and adequate food or shelter and often suffer physical and sexual abuse. The practice is so associated with abuse that the word restavèk (which literally means "to stay with" in Haitian Creole) has become a pejorative term.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The global economic crisis is another element affecting global migration. Although remittances have proven to be more resilient than other forms of capital flow, the impact of the economic crisis has led to a drop in remittances affecting receiving families and countries across the world. Moreover, cuts in public budgets and services as a result of the crisis particularly affect migrants, who often need to resort to public services and infrastructure in the host country. The increase in unemployment disproportionately affects migrant workers in those sectors significantly affected by the economic crisis, such as construction, tourism and domestic work. With no regular employment and little income, migrants are less likely to afford to pay rent or mortgages. They are thus at risk of defaulting and becoming homeless. As explained in the Special Rapporteur's annual report to the Human Rights Council in 2009 (A/HRC/10/7), in Spain migrants were particularly affected by the crisis, and it is estimated that 180,000 Latin American families were at risk of default in 2008. Furthermore, discrimination and xenophobia are on the rise, including as a result of the economic downturn, and many Governments have succumbed to demagogic policies matching or reinforcing the nationalistic sentiments of their constituencies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- When children do not have documents they face triple discrimination: as children, as migrants and as being undocumented, and thus they constitute one of the most vulnerable groups. Their right to adequate housing, as well as other economic, social and cultural rights, are often severely affected in those circumstances. Among undocumented children, a particularly difficult situation is that of unaccompanied migrant children, who, because their parents are unable to work or they have no parents to look after them, are forced into poverty and exclusion. Often living on the streets, in parks and in front of shops, these children are excluded from child protection services and are denied adequate housing. In certain countries, unaccompanied children are detained for living on the streets and are institutionalized in prison-like conditions or deported to countries where they have no family to care for them (see A/HRC/14/30, paras. 58 and 59).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Penalization of people living in poverty 2011, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- These laws are being implemented in a context in which the economic and financial crises have resulted in an unprecedented increase in foreclosures and evictions, forcing a growing number of families to live on the streets. Instead of using public funds to assist these families, States are instead carrying out costly operations to penalize them for their behaviour. Where there is insufficient public infrastructure and services to provide families with alternative places to perform such behaviours, persons living in poverty and homelessness are left with no viable place to sleep, sit, eat or drink. These measures can thus have serious adverse physical and psychological effects on persons living in poverty, undermining their right to an adequate standard of physical and mental health and even amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph