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Follow-up to the Durban Review Conference 2009, para. 1f
- Paragraph text
- [Recommends that the States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:] Be mindful that their response to the current financial and economic crisis should not lead to a situation which would increase poverty and underdevelopment and, potentially, a rise in racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance against foreigners, immigrants, indigenous peoples, persons belonging to minorities and other particularly vulnerable groups all over the world;
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2009
Paragraph
The right of persons with disabilities to social protection 2015, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Like other programmes, conditional cash transfer programmes must take into account disability-related needs. However, there is growing evidence that the conditionalities attached to these programmes tend to exclude persons with disabilities owing to structural barriers. This includes, for instance, the lack of inclusive education that precludes children with disabilities from attending school or the lack of accessible information that impedes deaf persons from participating in training or meetings with the social services. In response, some conditional cash transfer programmes have opted to exempt persons with disabilities from the conditionalities that they cannot fulfil because of existing external barriers. While such exemptions allow persons with disabilities to fight short-term poverty, they contradict the overall goal of investing in human capabilities to promote social inclusion and active participation, and represent a missed opportunity to address longer-term poverty.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The right to social security (Art. 9) 2007, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Committee) is concerned over the very low levels of access to social security with a large majority (about 80 per cent) of the global population currently lacking access to formal social security. Among these 80 per cent, 20 per cent live in extreme poverty.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Relevant economic factors include advance or deferred payment designed to increase dependency, payment that keeps workers below the poverty level, payment in kind only or prohibitions to freely change employers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Disability-inclusive policies 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Furthermore, household poverty rates do not consider the allocation of resources within a household. Evidence shows that persons with disabilities often do not get a share of their household's resources. For instance, if resources are tight, parents may pay for the education of their non-disabled children but not for those with a disability. Studies using multidimensional indices of poverty therefore show a greater poverty gap between persons with and without disabilities. All those considerations need to be taken into account to fight poverty among persons with disabilities and to achieve the goal of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Access to rights-based support for persons with disabilities 2017, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Support must be affordable for all persons with disabilities. Support services represent a significant cost for persons with disabilities, preventing them from climbing out of poverty. States must ensure that support is available at nominal or no cost to the maximum extent of their available resources, and take into account the gender disparity in income and access to financial resources. Social protection systems can constitute a powerful strategy to facilitate access to support services for persons with disabilities (see A/70/297, para. 9). Qualifying conditions for accessing support must be reasonable, proportionate and transparent, and should not be limited to those persons protected by social insurance schemes. Additionally, States should include the provision of essential assistive devices and technologies in the coverage of national health insurance and/or social protection schemes, on the basis of the World Health Organization priority assistive products list (ibid.). States should also consider waiving import duties and taxes on assistive devices and technologies that are not produced domestically (ibid., para. 48).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Poverty and social exclusion, including women's high levels of illiteracy and poor health, lock women into a persistent state of dependence and deprivation and often make long-term participation in political and public life an unviable option. Programmes addressing poverty and social exclusion and containing strong empowerment components for marginalized women, including those who face multiple discrimination, enhance the opportunity and capacity for these particular women to participate meaningfully in political and public life.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) 2012, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000) and the accompanying Millennium Development Goals provide a global agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives, including through the promotion of access to education. Millennium Development Goal 2, to achieve universal primary education, is an enabling factor for technical and vocational education and training. Millennium Development Goal 3, to promote gender equality and empower women, is relevant for technical and vocational education and training, namely, to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to education
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Privatization and the right to education 2014, para. 97
- Paragraph text
- The existing disparities in education should not be aggravated by private providers catering to persons with means, to the detriment of the poor. Universal access to free, basic education for those excluded owing to poverty must be an overriding development concern. This access should be recognized as a key instrument for putting an end to the intergenerational transmission of poverty. It is imperative to create a global movement that urges all the Governments of the world to abide by the pledges made in the Millennium Declaration (2000) to ensure social justice and equity and to take seriously the task of regulating privatization in education in view of future pledges regarding the total eradication of poverty before 2030 and for the common well-being.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to education
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The world is now paying a high price for having focused almost exclusively on increasing production over the past half-century. Undernutrition remains considerable, largely because agrifood systems have not contributed to the alleviation of rural poverty. One in seven people on a global level are still hungry. About 34 per cent of children in developing countries, 186 million children in total, have a low height for age, the most common symptom of chronic undernutrition. Although the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index, adjusted for inflation, indicates that food costs declined from the early 1960s until 2002 (apart from a peak in 1973-1974), the poorest are still too poor to feed themselves in dignity because agriculture has not been designed to support the livelihoods of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The impacts of increasingly globalized food chains and the uniformization of diets across the globe have disparate impacts across population groups. As a country transitions towards higher income levels, the burden of overweight and obesity shifts. The poorest segment of the population is at low risk of obesity in poor countries, but in upper-middle income developing economies (with a gross national product per capita of over about US$ 2,500) and in high-income countries, it is the poorest who are most negatively affected. In high-income countries, while the poor bear a disproportionate burden of overweight or obesity, women are particularly at risk because their incomes are on average lower than those of men, and because men in the low-income group often are employed on tasks that are physically demanding and require large expenses of energy. Overweight or obese women tend to give birth to children who themselves tend to be overweight or obese, resulting in lower productivity and discrimination. Thus, socio-economic disadvantage is perpetuated across generations by the channel of overweight or obesity.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Certain investments can significantly reduce the burden that household chores impose on women. In rural areas, such measures include the provision of water services and afforestation projects to reduce the time spent fetching water and fuelwood. In both rural and urban areas, measures would include the establishment or strengthening of child-care services and care for the elderly or persons with illness/disability. By reducing the time poverty of women, their economic opportunities would expand, since it would be easier for them to seek employment outside the household; access incomes and increase their economic independence, which, in turn, would strengthen their bargaining position within the household. In order for such opportunities to be seized, access to education for girls and life-long training must be improved and societal perceptions of gender roles which discriminate against women must be changed. Improved education and employment prospects are mutually reinforcing, as the demand for education (investment in human capital) will increase in proportion to increase in the demand for a qualified female workforce.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Women in many parts of the world are confronted with other discriminatory policies and societal norms that prevent them from accessing their fundamental right to adequate food and nutrition. Limited access to education and adequate public health care, as well as early marriage and pregnancy, domestic violence and unequal employment opportunities impose restrictions on women's mobility, decision-making power and control over the family income. Migration as a result of natural disasters, climate change and conflict has also had a disproportionate effect on women, particularly those living in rural areas and among the urban poor.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Climate change is already having a significant impact on approximately 1 billion of the world's poor. In achieving the target set out in Millennium Development Goal 1, poverty rates have been halved, with 700 million fewer people living in extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990. In the Human Development Report 2013, however, the United Nations Development Programme warns that if environmental degradation continues at the current rate, the gains in poverty reduction will be reversed, plunging over 3 billion people into extreme poverty and hunger. Without the implementation of serious measures to combat climate change, the number of people at risk of hunger is projected to increase by 10-20 per cent by 2050.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- With the Millennium Development Goals reaching their target date in 2015, the international community is currently reflecting on the progress made to date. The establishment of the Goals reflects the most significant collective effort ever made at the international level to tackle extreme poverty and hunger. While significant progress has been made over the past 14 years, much remains to be done. As mentioned above, the international community is discussing the possible successor framework in the form of the sustainable development goals, which are currently under negotiation.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The gradual substitution of policies focused on low prices of foodstuffs by rights-based social protection, as a means of ensuring access to adequate food for the poorest groups of the population, again illustrates the importance of a careful sequencing of reforms. Today, 75 to 80 per cent of the world population still does not have access to social security to shield them from the effects of unemployment, illness or disability - not to mention crop failure or soaring food costs. There is now an international consensus in favour of making the full realization of the right to social security a priority. On 12 June 2012, the International Labour Conference adopted Recommendation No. 202 concerning national floors for social protection, with 453 votes in favour and 1 abstention. The G-20 has subsequently acknowledged the importance of this objective. In the long run, the establishment of robust social protection schemes in line with this recommendation should protect not only poor households but also vulnerable households against the risk of falling into poverty. Thus, governments would shift away from their exclusive focus on maintaining low prices of food items, a focus that has often come at the expense of food producers, particularly the least competitive among them. Cash transfers to poor families, such as the Oportunidades programme in Mexico (A/HRC/19/59/Add.2, paras. 21-27), the Bolsa Família in Brazil (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, para. 33) or the Child Support Grant in South Africa (A/HRC/19/59/Add.3, para. 39), have shown their effectiveness in reducing child poverty, and hunger. As long as gaps remain in social protection, however, food price inflation will continue to be a serious threat to the right to food of low-income households. Thus, while low food prices may not be a long-term solution - both because of the fiscal cost of subsidies to farmers and because a policy focused on keeping prices low may ultimately harm the least competitive food producers - they remain, in the short term, vital. Social protection schemes should be strengthened in all countries, and the social protection agenda and the agricultural agenda should be better aligned with each other, to gradually succeed in making the transition.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Finally, because global food systems have been shaped to maximize efficiency gains and produce large volumes of commodities, they have failed to take distributional concerns into account. The increases in production far outstripped population growth during the period from 1960 to 2000. But these increases went hand in hand with regional specialization in a relatively narrow range of products, a process encouraged by the growth of international trade in agricultural products. The associated technological and policy choices concentrated benefits in the hands of large production units and landholders at the expense of smaller-scale producers and landless workers, resulting in the growth of inequality in rural areas and a failure to address the root causes of poverty. Of course, there were important evolutions throughout the period. The 1960s and 1970s were characterized by a State-led type of agricultural development, under which governments, eager to provide urban populations with affordable food or to export raw commodities in order to finance import substitution policies, either paid farmers very low prices for the crops produced or supported only the largest producers who could be competitive on global markets, thus accelerating rural migration. In the 1980s, the introduction in most low-income countries of structural adjustment policies resulted in a retreat of the State from agricultural development. It was anticipated that trade liberalization and the removal of price controls would encourage private investment, making up for the reduction of State support. Overproduction in the highly subsidized farming sectors of rich countries put downward pressure on agricultural prices, however, discouraging the entry of private investors into agriculture in developing countries. If there was private investment at all, it went to a narrow range of cash crops grown for export markets.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In 2013, a coalition of NGOs Guatemala sin Hambre engaged in strategic litigation to claim the right to food of children suffering from chronic malnutrition and living in conditions of extreme poverty. The judgements were delivered in April 2013 by the Child and Adolescence Court of the Zacapa Department which, based on the facts, found violations of the right to food, the right to life, the right to housing and the right to an adequate standard of living. Specifically with regard to the right to food, the court grounded its reasoning on article 51 of the Constitution, which protects the right to food for children, as well as on article 11 of the Covenant and article 25 of the Universal Declaration. To define the right to food and the obligations that stem from it, the court cited general comment No. 12.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The emergence of the Social Protection Floor Initiative at the international level has been well documented. In telegraphic form, most analyses begin with the harsh adjustment policies associated with the "Washington Consensus" of the 1980s, the reaction to those policies by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other actors, the World Summit for Social Development in 1995, the poverty reduction strategies championed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), starting in the late 1990s, and the focus on poverty in the Millennium Development Goals. Social security then began to re-emerge as a priority concern, thanks in large part to the engagement of ILO. It launched a global campaign on social security in 2003, followed by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization in 2004, along with a series of other steps endorsed by the International Labour Conference.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- While the Bank has participated in the deliberations of the Social Protection Inter-Agency Cooperation Board, recent developments appear to confirm that it is doing so very largely on its own terms, built around risk management and safety nets, and remains reluctant to buy in to the Social Protection Floor Initiative in a meaningful way. Its response to that remark would doubtless be to point to the fact that 870 million of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty, as defined by the Bank, are not covered even by safety nets. Under those circumstances, surely it is only prudent to begin with minimum aspirations? However, the Initiative envisages a gradual ratcheting up of aspirations, rather than the immediate introduction of full-blown social protection floors in low- or medium-income countries.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- In the realms of human rights and the Initiative, the current draft of the post-2015 agenda is a considerable disappointment. The almost complete omission of substantive references to human rights in the draft is a throwback to the United Nations development decade strategies of the 1960s and 1970s. However, they were drafted at a time when the human rights framework was in its infancy and development was seen largely as a technocratic process. Similarly, the very low standards set in relation to social protection are inconsistent with the high-flown rhetoric of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere. As it stands, the first goal proposed by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals might be considered to be in violation of deceptive advertising laws designed to protect consumers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Adequate and effective complaint and oversight mechanisms are critical sources of protection for at-risk groups that experience abuses in detention. All too often proper safeguards are absent or lacking in independence and impartiality, while fear of reprisals and the stigma associated with reporting sexual violence and other humiliating practices discourage women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons from reporting. In many cases, the vulnerability and isolation of women and girls is compounded by limited access to legal representation, inability to pay fees or bail as a result of poverty, dependence on male relatives for financial support and fewer family visits.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace 2016, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- In recent decades, economic globalization, implemented with as few regulations on companies and capital as possible, has been touted by many economists as an essential vehicle to global prosperity and the end of poverty. The economic system that grew out of that philosophy has indeed led to a rise in global economic productivity and wealth, but it has also contributed to a dramatic rise in the power of large multinational corporations and concentrated wealth in fewer hands. At the same time, States' power to regulate those business entities has eroded. Further, the world's recent economic growth has not been shared equally. Productivity and economic output have increased, but so has inequality, with the fruits of that growth going primarily to the wealthiest.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Report on expert consultation on access to medicines 2011, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health encompasses access to medical services and the underlying determinants of health, such as water, sanitation, non-discrimination and equality. As access to medicines is an integral and fundamental part of the right to health, Governments and the international community as a whole have a responsibility to provide access to medicines for all. Yet massive inequalities remain in access to medicines around the world, as up to 2 billion people (or one third of the world's population) lack access to essential medicines. Most of them live in low- and middle-income countries, where the needs of persons living in poverty, women, children and undocumented migrants, as well as other marginalized and vulnerable groups who are often discriminated against in terms of access to medicines, are ignored or underestimated.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Similar lessons can be learnt from post-disaster situations. Disasters occur in a social context framed by complex issues of power, politics and longstanding vulnerability and poverty, including widespread tenure insecurity. Understanding this complexity is fundamental to developing and implementing successful responses. This is illustrated in the case of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in October 1998. According to official estimates Hurricane Mitch left 21 cities severely damaged, 82,735 houses damaged, 66,188 houses destroyed and 44,150 people homeless. In addition 123 health centres and 531 roads were damaged and eight health centres and 189 bridges were destroyed. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million people were negatively affected.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Given the lessons of the past two decades, and the institutional reforms already initiated, humanitarian agencies, and one would assume bilateral donors, are now much more aware of the risk of doing unintended long-term harm through well-meaning early action which ends up increasing the vulnerability of the poor. In the area of the right to adequate housing and particularly on the issues of security of tenure, location, cultural adequacy and availability of services, facilities and infrastructure, at least, the time has come for "Do no harm" guidelines to move to a next step where specific tools for timely analysis and proactive interventions ("Do the right thing") are provided at the field level.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The impacts of both conflicts and disasters for the individuals, families and communities affected can be devastating. These include the loss of life and livelihoods; destruction of homes, property and infrastructure; disruption or termination of essential services; and the prolonged and sometimes even permanent forced displacement from land, home and community. Although wealth and power do not offer any immunity from these impacts, it is in most cases the poor and socially disadvantaged who are worst affected; and it is also they who are least able to withstand economic shocks and so generally take the longest to recover.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The poor often stand to lose most in disaster contexts because they often have to settle on fragile and exposed land that is highly susceptible to the effects of disasters. When a disaster strikes, their pre-existing vulnerabilities are exacerbated, with women, children and marginalized groups bearing the brunt of the impact. After the disaster, the poor often also find their attempts to return to their homes officially denied on the grounds that return would be unsafe, and/or not permissible as they did not have official proof of a right to live there in the first place. This can have dramatic consequences for the livelihoods of individuals, families and entire communities. In the case of conflicts, the displacement and dispossession of specific groups are often deliberate strategies of one group or side in the conflict against another. This can result in the total destruction and/or secondary occupation of their lands and homes, and obstruction of their attempts to return and reclaim what was theirs.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2011
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Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 28
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- Significant increases in the supply of private rented housing are therefore necessary to help empower lower income tenants in the rental market and relieve affordability problems. In addition, demand-side policies are required to increase the affordability of the rental sector for the poor. Although most Governments have focused their efforts on increasing individual homeownership, there are some good examples of supply- and demand-based policies aimed at encouraging the small-scale private rental sector and increasing rent affordability for low-income households. Such interventions include taxation, direct or indirect subsidies, and regulation. State policies towards the informal rental sector also affect the accessibility of the poorest to rental arrangements.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
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