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Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The human rights obligations of States are classified as obligations to respect, to protect and to fulfil. The obligation to respect requires that States’ regulatory frameworks refrain from interfering directly or indirectly with people’s existing access to water and sanitation. To that end, States must ensure that their regulatory framework prohibits disconnections from water and sanitation services due to users’ inability to pay, as it is a retrogressive measure and violates the human rights to water and sanitation, must ensure, when extending piped networks to informal settlements, that these services are affordable so as not to interfere with people’s access, and must avoid discriminatory or unaffordable increases in the price of water and sanitation services due to inadequate regulation. Furthermore, preparedness for situations of armed conflict, emergency situations, natural disasters and effects of climate change requires that States embrace in their regulatory frameworks the obligations relevant to water and sanitation provision pursuant to international humanitarian law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- In the United States of America in the 1960s, Milton Friedman advocated a negative income tax, a concept that bears a close resemblance to a basic income. In the late 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a guaranteed income as the solution to poverty. And by the end of that decade, Richard Nixon, the then President, came close to implementing a universal income supplement, but the scheme was defeated in the Senate by conservatives who thought the programme was too expensive and by liberals who thought the benefit was too low.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- In the projects assessed herein, most funders did not demonstrably ensure that a sustainable financing strategy would be established for long-term service provision. In only one project were community committees created that were tasked with setting tariffs for piped water services that were being extended to their neighbourhoods. Another project entailed immediate affordability concerns as it required households to pay for connection costs to a piped water network; the national regulation established a maximum discount of 60 per cent of that cost for users in situations of poverty. Overall, in the projects reviewed, little evidence exists indicating that funders support governments and service providers in developing specific schemes to ensure reconciliation between economic sustainability and access to services for users with insufficient economic means.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Access to information in international organizations 2017, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- In his 2016 report detailing the refusal of the United Nations to acknowledge responsibility for the tragic outbreak of cholera in Haiti, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights noted the following: “It has been suggested to the Special Rapporteur by several sources that the legal advice originally submitted to the Secretary-General took a rather different approach to these crucial issues [the responsibility of the United Nations for the cholera outbreak] from that which was finally adopted, but this cannot be confirmed since none of the analyses of the Office of Legal Affairs have been made public. If true, however, it might explain why the arguments adduced in order to abdicate responsibility are both peremptory and inadequately justified (A/71/367, para. 33).”
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Decisions related to the coverage of projects can have an impact on the beneficiaries, particularly the population in the most vulnerable situations. Applying a human rights approach to development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector would involve a greater emphasis on providing services for those populations who predominantly live in small, dispersed rural communities or in peri-urban areas. In the latter case, the informal nature of settlements may impede such dwellers from being connected to citywide systems. The principle of equality and non-discrimination sometimes requires the adoption of targeted measures and affirmative action in order to achieve substantive equality (Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 18 (1989) on non-discrimination, para. 10). Thus, funders and partner States should work together and identify individuals and groups to target, particularly those who are in vulnerable situations, and not be limited to identifying those who are financially disadvantaged, often called “the poor”.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Under a basic income system, regular payments would be made to recipients, for example on a monthly basis. Predictability and continuity ensure that redistributive and poverty-reducing goals are met, whereas one-time only payments or lump sums do not ensure a consistent floor.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 26/3 and is the third report submitted to the Council by Philip Alston in his capacity as Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
- 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
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Patterns of inequality are often starkest in developing countries. In Africa, if current trends continue, the number of households living in informal settlements will continue to increase while the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals is predicted to rise by almost 50 per cent in the next decade.
- 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
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 90f
- Paragraph text
- [In addition, the Special Rapporteur recommends that regulatory actors:] Ensure that tariff-setting reconciles financial sustainability with affordability, while prioritizing and protecting the needs of those living in poverty;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- A basic income could have vastly different effects, depending on the starting point. In wealthier countries with more established social welfare systems, there is a greater risk that replacing existing social support schemes would leave the poor worse off. But in a country with only a minimal social support scheme in place, any regular, unconditional transfers to the poor and marginalized would be a net positive in the absence of more attractive alternative schemes such as a social protection floor. Despite the importance of the current debate in India and the pilot projects in Kenya, most of the policy debate has focused on developed countries and their specific needs and perspectives. If the concept is to achieve broader uptake, the debate needs to be expanded and diversified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The “floor” proposed by Van Parijs and Vanderborght is not “sufficient to cover what would be regarded as basic needs”. Although clearly reluctant to put a figure on their proposal, they suggest an amount of 25 per cent of current gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which is “modest enough [to be] sustainable and generous enough for it to be plausible that it will make a big difference”. They calculate that this would have amounted in 2015 to $1,163 per month in the United States, $1,670 in Switzerland and $9.50 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They do not claim that this level is high enough to get every household out of poverty, although the United States figure would be higher than the official poverty line. They also emphasize that if individuals currently receive benefits higher than the basic income, it “must be topped up by conditional supplements” so that the total disposable incomes of poor households are not lowered vis-à-vis their current levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The Economist, relying upon the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s “universal basic income calculator”, concludes that the United States could pay every citizen $6,300 per year if it scrapped all its non-health transfer payments. In other words, if it paid its citizens 25 per cent of GDP per capita ($13,956 per year) as Van Parijs and Vanderborght propose, it would need to raise taxes to cover the difference between $13,956 and $6,300. The Cato Institute calculated that paying 296 million United States citizens the poverty-line amount of $12,316 per year would cost $4.4 trillion. Even if all federal and state social assistance spending for the poor (around $1 trillion) and all “middle-class social welfare programmes such as Social Security and Medicare” (depending on the calculations, costing between $2.13 and $2.5 trillion) were eliminated, there would still be a funding gap of roughly $1 trillion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Development cooperation and the human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- Outcomes in ex post human rights assessments should inform several characteristics of beneficiaries gaining access to services, allowing impacts to be assessed for populations living in conditions of poverty or vulnerability and identifying reductions in inequality. In particular, those data must go beyond limited assessments of access and availability of services (for example, the number of houses connected to a piped network) and should include ways of identifying discrimination and inequalities, collection time and other barriers to physical access, water quality, safety, acceptability and affordability.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
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.
- 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
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- It is notable that some important multilateral funders, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, view water as a socially vital economic good and aspire to similar goals of creating inclusive economic growth and equity and reducing poverty. As indicated previously, such goals may claim to produce outcomes that contribute to improved access to water and sanitation. However, it may result in part from a lack of concrete human rights consistency that programmes and projects are oriented to hastily pushing money out of the door (see A/70/274, para. 36). A framework with solid grounding in human rights, backed by the commitment of the staff and boards of those institutions, would provide safeguards against such risks, ensuring that loans for water and sanitation projects and programmes do not produce negative outcomes for some individuals or groups, but rather increase the realization of the rights of the most disadvantaged.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- It is of crucial importance to monitor, in a rights- and gender-sensitive manner, progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and to make sure that national and local mechanisms track compliance with and progress made to realize the rights to water and sanitation, including in terms of gender equality. Gender equality is central to the Goals (see Goal 5) and is reflected in several targets, including target 6.2. Gender equality in access to water, sanitation and hygiene will have a positive impact on other goals and targets, including those on ending poverty (Goal 1), on promoting decent work and economic growth (Goal 8), on reducing inequality (Goal 10) and on making cities and human settlements inclusive and sustainable (Goal 11). Since gender inequalities are so profound in water and sanitation and, at the same time, manifest themselves in all human rights and throughout the entire development agenda, a comprehensive approach would allow for using similar indicators and information collected through the monitoring of different human rights and development targets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Integrating human rights law and principles into development cooperation provides a clear legal framework for the human rights to water and sanitation that States have already recognized. In addition, the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation and human rights principles offer guidance on who and what to prioritize in planning and programming international cooperation, as well as on how policies, programmes and interventions should take place. It is critical to use the language of the human rights to water and sanitation explicitly because, as stated by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the human rights language recognizes the dignity and agency of all individuals and is therefore intentionally empowering (see A/70/274, para. 65).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Interlinkages between recognition, justice and development 2016, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- The Working Group stresses that there is a clear connection between poverty and racism. In countries that have a history of transatlantic trade in Africans, the demographic structure is such that the poorest population group is disproportionately composed of people of African descent. Faced with structural discrimination and invisibility, people of African descent encounter an uphill battle in claiming their rights, thus perpetuating multigenerational poverty.
- Body
- Working Group of experts on people of African descent
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- While the majority of countries affected by attacks are among those with a low human development coefficient, one cannot conclude that there is a strict correlation between poverty, inequality and attacks. Yet it is undeniable that poverty is a common feature of most affected countries and that, combined with other factors, it contributes to and facilitates attacks against persons with albinism.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Funders must face those challenges head-on to create proper arrangements to ensure that funding actually reaches its destination, thereby effectively generating benefit for the poor and realizing the human rights to water and sanitation.
- 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
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- [The Independent Expert makes the following recommendations to States affected by attacks against persons with albinism:] [Poverty] Continue adopting measures to address poverty, in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which pledges to leave no one behind, including persons with albinism;
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. B.
- Paragraph text
- [Recommendations to Member States:] In the context of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, continue and expand targeted poverty reduction programmes that reduce the vulnerability of the individual to debt bondage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Various authors have pointed out the connection between poverty and witchcraft and stressed that people with albinism in various parts of Africa experience attacks and threats to their safety as a result of superstitions, including witchcraft, which tend to thrive in time of economic deprivation.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The Committee's recognition in its general comment No. 6 and in periodic reviews that the right to life requires positive measures to address homelessness and poverty stands in marked contrast with the absence of consideration of these obligations in the Committee's consideration of alleged violations under the Optional Protocol.
- 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)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Development cooperation in the water and sanitation sector 2016, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- While those international commitments were being negotiated and settled during the 1990s and 2000s, various funders were simultaneously establishing their own policies. Regarding the policies of several multilateral agencies, a popular focus since then has been the so-called "pro-poor" or social safety nets approaches, which aim to target the poorest groups. Those orientations have been the subject of both intense theoretical debates that focus on the various social effects of targeted or universal interventions and empirical research assessing the outcomes of various programmes. An observed trend is that "pro-poor" approaches have not been effective in certain sectors, owing to their inability to meet the needs of the poor; this has been particularly the case in the water and sanitation sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Report of the SR on the right to health and Agenda 2030 2016, para. 103l
- Paragraph text
- [As a matter of priority, the Special Rapporteur recommends that:] Member States consider expanding the focus of investment in physical health and reduction of mortality, traditionally based on the classical determinants of health such as poverty, education, housing and water and sanitation, to address other determinants, including the quality of physical and psychosocial environments;
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 56c
- Paragraph text
- [The challenge of putting questions of resources and redistribution back into the human rights equation has several dimensions:] Leading human rights non-governmental organizations need to overcome their deep reluctance to bring issues such as resources and the need for redistributive policies into their research and advocacy. The result of their current failure to do so is that for all of their excellent work in exposing the magnitude of a specific range of human rights violations (overwhelmingly violations of civil and political rights), the deeper structures that keep in place policies and systems that do little to address extreme poverty and do even less to address extreme inequalities are effectively left in place, and the status quo is reaffirmed.
- 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
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The goals and policies of the Bank have changed radically since 1944. The Articles of Agreement contain no mention of either of its current proclaimed "twin goals" of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. The General Counsels have played a key role in the necessarily dynamic interpretation of the Articles required to reflect and justify that evolution.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- In December 2014, the Secretary-General presented a synthesis report containing his vision for the negotiations of the new sustainable development goals (A/69/700). In the report, the Secretary-General spoke of gross and intolerable inequalities, and argued that income inequality specifically was one of the most visible aspects of a broader and more complex issue, one that entailed inequality of opportunity. He underlined that, as States implemented the new agenda, they must address inequalities in all areas, agreeing that no goal or target be considered met unless met for all social and economic groups. The defining challenge of the time was to close the gap between the determination to ensure a life of dignity for all, and the reality of persisting poverty and deepening inequality (ibid., paras. 65 and 67-68).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 70a
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur would like to make the following recommendations to other stakeholders:] International organizations and the donor community have an important role to play in providing a forum for stakeholder dialogue and partnership to address contemporary forms of slavery in supply chains and to empower communities. They are encouraged to assist the States and other actors, if needed, by providing technical assistance for research, capacity-building, remediation and for addressing root causes through human rights-based development and poverty reduction programmes;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph