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Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Such factors often act as a persuasive deterrent against seeking redress from judicial or adjudicatory mechanisms, or may indeed represent an insurmountable obstacle for the poorest and most marginalized. This is especially so for those who have limited mobility, such as older persons or persons with disabilities, or those for whom travel is more difficult or dangerous, including women and children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty, particularly those with disabilities or older persons, may experience additional obstacles in accessing justice when courts and police stations are not appropriately designed, and when court processes are not adaptable. For example, many judicial systems are heavily reliant on paper forms and written submissions, and on the presentation of oral evidence. Often, police stations and courts are not wheelchair accessible. Where measures are not in place to enable judicial bodies to adapt their processes for those in need, including by providing aid to defendants, claimants, witnesses and jurors who require it, such persons are excluded from accessing and benefiting from the justice system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Often, the criteria which govern access to State-funded legal assistance are arbitrary and overly restrictive, and rely heavily on means-testing to determine eligibility. Means-testing is often inaccurate and is unable to take account of the wealth distribution within a household, disadvantaging those who have restricted access to household wealth, such as women and older persons. Furthermore, it fails to realistically reflect the options faced by persons living in poverty; for example, it may disqualify individuals if they have the option of disposing of household assets, even if those assets are used to produce food and generate subsistence income for the household.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Even where legal aid services are available and adequately funded, discrimination in their design and implementation impedes certain individuals and groups from accessing them. For example, some rely on telephone intakes or written applications, failing to take into account the needs and constraints of persons with disabilities, older persons or those with lower levels of literacy. Inadequate or piecemeal support directed towards community-based paralegal programmes also restricts an important and more affordable source of legal assistance. Although all aspects of the legal profession should be regulated, excessive restrictions on the operation of paralegals, or lack of official recognition of their role, can also hamper the support they provide to persons living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In addition, problems associated with ageing affect women disproportionally as a result of the cumulative effect of discriminatory practices women face over the course of their lives, as the Working Group described in its report on discrimination against women in economic and social life (A/HRC/26/39). Women are more likely to take care of men and to be left without spousal support. At the same time, they are more likely to suffer economic disadvantages, exacerbated by discriminatory pension systems that fail to produce equal outcomes for women, and to be excluded from social security and health insurance schemes. They are thus at greater risk of living in poverty. The mere recognition of equal rights for all, without distinction, is thus insufficient to ensure in practice the enjoyment by older women of all human rights, including the right to health.
- Body
- Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Unconditional cash transfers, although without strings attached, differ from basic income schemes in several respects. First, they are generally paid to households and may vary accordingly. Second, unconditional cash transfers often target the poor or other categories such as children or the elderly. Third, the amount of the unconditional cash transfers often differs, depending on the recipient’s situation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- In Canada, two basic income approaches have been the subject of macroeconomic modelling: a full basic income for all Canadians, and a negative income tax under which the richest receive nothing and the poorest receive the maximum income supplement. Neither payment is adjusted for age. In terms of poverty, the conclusion was that: Cancelling existing income transfer programmes in favour of a single basic income results either in dramatically higher levels of poverty, or ethically and politically unsupportable compromises where seniors are pushed into poverty to lift up adults and children. The more acceptable and feasible approach would be to set up a new basic income on top of the 33 transfers that already exist, thus creating only winners, though the main beneficiaries would be middle-aged Canadians.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- However, the negative income tax option would be problematic for 18- to 29-year-olds and for senior women. The Canadian examples demonstrate the potentially positive effects of negative income tax, but warn that a basic income model that replaces existing social support mechanisms could have seriously negative effects on the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Cost calculations for Canada are also revealing. If existing Canadian “de facto” basic income programmes (such as Canada Child Benefit for children, the Guaranteed Income Supplement for the elderly and sales tax credits for working adults), quasi-basic income programmes, earned income tax credits, social assistance and employment insurance were all cancelled, the savings could support a basic income for all Canadians (depending on which programmes were scrapped) of between Can$ 2,655 and Can$ 3,565 per year, with between roughly 1.7 and 1.9 million Canadians falling below the poverty line. Under a scenario in which all existing programmes were kept in place and a supplemental universal basic income was paid to all Canadians of Can$ 1,000 per year, 719,000 Canadians would be taken out of poverty, but at a net cost of Can$ 29.2 billion (equalling Can$ 40,886 per person). To pay for this, the Canadian rate of value added tax would have to be increased from 5 per cent to 9 per cent or income taxes would have to be increased by 20 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene 2012, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Much has been learned through questions in household surveys about intrahousehold inequalities related to water collection. Much less is known about such inequalities concerning sanitation and hygiene, and about water, sanitation and hygiene-related household inequalities concerning age and disability. Given that not all households share resources and assets equally among their members and that some may be relatively more privileged than others, commanding more income and accessing greater consumption opportunities, it is imperative to accurately disaggregate intrahousehold data regarding household resources such as water and sanitation. There is evidence that intrahousehold inequality and poverty may disproportionately affect women, persons with disabilities, children and older persons. Targets and indicators should be phrased to require monitoring of intrahousehold inequalities. They should shine a powerful light on areas that need change and ensure that monitoring is in line with the human rights imperative to overcome inequalities wherever they occur.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights (Art. 2, para. 2) 2009, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Age is a prohibited ground of discrimination in several contexts. The Committee has highlighted the need to address discrimination against unemployed older persons in finding work, or accessing professional training or retraining, and against older persons living in poverty with unequal access to universal old-age pensions due to their place of residence. In relation to young persons, unequal access by adolescents to sexual and reproductive health information and services amounts to discrimination.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Youth
- Year
- 2009
Paragraph
Older women and protection of their human rights 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The discrimination experienced by older women is often multidimensional, with the age factor compounding other forms of discrimination based on gender, ethnic origin, disability, poverty levels, sexual orientation and gender identity, migrant status, marital and family status, literacy and other grounds. Older women who are members of minority, ethnic or indigenous groups, internally displaced or stateless often experience a disproportionate degree of discrimination.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Older women and protection of their human rights 2010, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- In many countries, the majority of older women live in rural areas where access to services is even more difficult due to their age and poverty levels. Many older women receive irregular, insufficient or no remittances from their migrant-worker children. Denial of their right to water, food and housing is part of the everyday life of many poor, rural older women. Older women may not be able to afford proper food due to a combination of factors such as the high price of food and the inadequacy of their income due to discrimination with regard to employment , social security and access to resources. Lack of access to transportation can prevent older women from accessing social services or participating in community and cultural activities. Such lack of access may be due to the fact that older women have low incomes and the inadequacy of public policy in providing affordable and accessible public transport to meet the needs of older women.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Right of everyone to take part in cultural life (Art. 15, para. 1(a)) 2009, para. 16b
- Paragraph text
- [The following are necessary conditions for the full realization of the right of everyone to take part in cultural life on the basis of equality and non-discrimination.] Accessibility consists of effective and concrete opportunities for individuals and communities to enjoy culture fully, within physical and financial reach for all in both urban and rural areas, without discrimination. It is essential, in this regard, that access for older persons and persons with disabilities, as well as for those who live in poverty, is provided and facilitated. Accessibility also includes the right of everyone to seek, receive and share information on all manifestations of culture in the language of the person's choice, and the access of communities to means of expressions and dissemination.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2009
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Assessing poverty among older people is a complex exercise, and several factors cause household surveys to underestimate poverty among older persons. For example, there is a lack of understanding of the dynamics of dependency upon different family members. Disaggregated data on this issue is lacking, which leads to a lack of understanding of how income is distributed within a household and of the specific situation of older persons within that household. Measures of old-age poverty that rely on household income ignore the fact that in many multigenerational households resources are allocated disproportionately towards children and those of working age.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Difficulties in assessing poverty among older people are particularly problematic from a human rights perspective. They result in weaker knowledge of the specificities of old-age poverty, which most likely leads to policy choices that ignore and possibly exclude older people living in extreme poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- While increased longevity is a worldwide phenomenon, the elderly population is by no means uniform, and risk factors for poverty are multiple depending on the country and on personal situation. Core factors include: lack of access to regular income and work and health care, declining physical and mental capacities, and dependency within the household.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- As people grow older, they tend to be progressively excluded from the formal and informal work markets by employers who prioritize a younger workforce. At the same time, they are often not protected by social security systems (addressed below). Without access to work or income, the poorest tend to depend on others for their survival or have to seek less secure sources of income (often begging or undertaking menial work). Research indicates that the older persons who manage to enter and remain in the workforce occupy less attractive jobs, with lower pay than people of prime age.
- 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
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- As people age, they become frailer and their need for health-care services is likely to increase. Such needs incur costs that older persons cannot always cover adequately. For example, when user fees are imposed on health-care services, older persons without a reliable income may not be able to access these services. In these contexts, many may fall into a vicious cycle where poor health engenders poverty and poverty engenders poor health.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Households with children headed by older persons and households consisting only of older persons, in particular single women, tend to be more vulnerable to poverty. The occurrence of poverty is particularly high in countries with large migratory trends and in countries hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Single older persons tend to be poorer in both developed and developing countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Older women are disproportionately disadvantaged: they are marginalized due to their age and tend to be poorer than men. Because of gendered discrimination patterns throughout their life, women are often in a situation where they have accumulated lesser wealth than men. Cultural practices of early marriage and women's longer life expectancy than men worldwide lead to a situation where women are more likely to be widows than men, and being widowed puts older women at higher risk of being poor. In many countries, women have limited access to land and other assets. For example, in India, 60 per cent of older women (compared to 30 per cent of older men) have no valuable assets in their name and research indicates that few female widows can count on family or community support. In urban China, poverty rates are three to four times higher among older women than among older men.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Most older women are excluded from formal social security and health insurance schemes as these are linked to paid, formal-sector employment. In developing countries, the great majority of women work all their lives in the informal sector or unpaid activities. In developed countries too, older women are more likely than men to be poor at old age. On average, in European Union countries, older women have a poverty risk rate of about 22 per cent as compared to 16 per cent for older men. They are less likely to receive a large contributory pension since they are more likely to have stopped work at some point over their lifetime to take on the burden of child rearing and are also more likely to have received lesser wages for their work than men.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Social protection can be divided in two main segments: social insurance and social assistance. Social insurance refers to all contributory insurance schemes providing pre-specified support for affiliated members in the event of contingencies such as injury, sickness, disability and old age. Social assistance encompasses all initiatives providing both cash and in-kind assistance to those living in poverty; these are often financed by general taxation revenues or external aid. Social pensions consist of cash benefits received by persons above a given age without the requirement of compulsory contributions; they are essential components of social assistance. Contributory and non-contributory schemes should be regarded as complementary and mutually reinforcing aspects of social protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- In the absence of contributory social security, social assistance and, in particular, the provision of non-contributory pensions to older persons plays a central role in bridging the existing protection gap. Studies conducted in countries that have established non-contributory schemes demonstrate their positive impact on poverty indicators. In OECD countries with good coverage of formal insurance and the longest experience in investing in this type of pension, poverty rates would be significantly higher without non-contributory schemes. The same is true for middle-income countries that have also invested in social pensions during recent decades.
- 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
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The benefit of social pensions may also reach beyond their direct beneficiaries and assist family members of the older person and any children in their care. In AIDS-affected countries, for example, where older persons are the primary caregivers of children orphaned by AIDS, social pensions may impact positively on child well-being. A study in South Africa found that children living with pensioners are, on average, 5 centimetres taller and that such a pension being given led to an 8 per cent increase in school attendance among those in the poorest percentile of the population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Social pensions, however, should be seen as only one component of a broad social protection system designed to tackle the multidimensional aspects of poverty. The focus on older persons should consist of setting basic, non-contributory pensions as one of the pillars of a comprehensive approach that includes measures to ensure access to basic services (especially health services) and eliminate discrimination based on sex.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- There are essentially two types of non-contributory pensions: (a) universal schemes that ensure that every individual above a given age is entitled to receive pensions; and (b) targeted schemes that are intended to select beneficiaries on the basis of their income or poverty level and their age. To this end, several instruments could be used, such as means testing, proxy means testing, community targeting and/or geographical targeting. There are many experiences of both types of pensions around the world, but evidence described below reveals significant advantages of universal schemes in reducing poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- While including wealthier older people in a universal scheme may be a legitimate concern of States in the context of scarce resources, when there is a high level of poverty and low contributory pension coverage, the proportion of non-poor older people covered by the universal pension is likely to be small. Moreover, evidence suggests that attempts to exclude the wealthiest from a social pension may decrease political support, create disincentives to contributing to other pensions systems and even increase the total costs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Implementing an income- or poverty-targeted system introduces exclusion errors because the selection of beneficiaries is a complex and often controversial process. While the State has some mechanisms to minimize this (e.g. cross-checking targeting and re-targeting exercises), which can significantly increase administrative costs, the exclusion of rightful beneficiaries constitutes a violation of their right to social security. Moreover, those excluded are often the most vulnerable, as they will find it most difficult to claim for their inclusion. Targeting can also create perverse results such as encouraging older people to stop working, in order to keep the benefits.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- For all the above reasons, it can be concluded that a universal pension scheme is most in keeping with human rights obligations as: (a) it responds to the claim of universality of human rights norms; (b) it complies with the principle of equality and non-discrimination; (c) it reduces opportunities for corruption and manipulation in the selection of beneficiaries which typically excludes the poorest; and (d) reduces possible stigmatization as it is available to all who comply with the age requirement.
- 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
- Older persons
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph