A/RES/53/146 Page 3 2. Also reaffirms that, in accordance with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,3 it is essential for States to foster participation by the poorest people in the decision-making process in the communities in which they live, in the promotion of human rights and in efforts to combat extreme poverty; 3. Recognizes that surmounting extreme poverty constitutes an essential means to the full enjoyment of political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, and reaffirms the interrelationship between these goals; 4. Emphasizes that extreme poverty is a major issue to be addressed by Governments, civil society and the United Nations system, including international financial institutions; 5. Invites the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, within the framework of the implementation of the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, to continue to give appropriate attention to the question of human rights and extreme poverty; 6. Notes with appreciation the specific action taken by the United Nations Children’s Fund to mitigate the effects of extreme poverty on children and the efforts of the United Nations Development Programme to give priority to the search for some means of alleviating poverty within the framework of the relevant resolutions, and urges them to continue this work; 7. Invites States, United Nations bodies, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to give appropriate attention to the links between human rights and extreme poverty; 8. Decides to consider this question further at its fifty-fifth session under the sub-item entitled “Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. 85th plenary meeting 9 December 1998