A/HRC/29/31
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
27 May 2015
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Twenty-ninth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and
human rights, Philip Alston*
Summary
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
focuses on the relationship between extreme poverty and extreme inequality and argues that
a human rights framework is critical in addressing extreme inequality.
In the report, the Special Rapporteur provides an overview of the widening
economic and social inequalities around the world; illustrates how such inequalities stifle
equal opportunity, lead to laws, regulations and institutions that favour the powerful, and
perpetuate discrimination against certain groups, such as women; and further discusses the
negative effects of economic inequalities on a range of civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights.
The Special Rapporteur also analyses the response of the international community,
including the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to the
challenge of extreme inequality, finding that human rights are absent in the inequality
debate and little has been done to follow up on any of the studies or recommendations
emerging from the United Nations human rights system.
To conclude, the Special Rapporteur proposes an agenda for the future for tackling
inequality, including: committing to reduce extreme inequality; giving economic, social
and cultural rights the same prominence and priority as are given to civil and political
rights; recognizing the right to social protection; implementing fiscal policies specifically
aimed at reducing inequality; revitalizing and giving substance to the right to equality; and
putting questions of resource redistribution at the centre of human rights debates.
*
Late submission.
GE.15-10592 (E)