Search Tips
sorted by
30 shown of 30 entities
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Unpaid care work and women's human rights 2013, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Even those women who are able to combine unpaid care work with formal jobs are disadvantaged; their work histories and social security contributions are more likely than those of men to be interrupted by periods of full-time caregiving, and therefore they are less likely to receive an adequate pension on retirement. Thus, the gendered division of unpaid care work is one of the key reasons why older women are more likely to live in poverty than their male counterparts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 90
- Paragraph text
- For older persons, financial security and health are closely linked: expenses for health care and medicines account for as much as three quarters of the income of the poorest groups. Under these circumstances, the positive impact of social protection initiatives on older persons' standards of living can be nullified by the burden posed by health-care-related costs.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Unpaid care work and women's human rights 2013, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Women, especially women living in poverty, face multiple, overlapping and variable obstacles to their enjoyment of rights due to care responsibilities they carry throughout their life cycle. Girls may be withdrawn from school or unable to achieve their full potential owing to care work in the home, restricting their future opportunities; during pregnancy or early childcare women are more likely to face employment loss or labour insecurity; while older women find themselves with lower levels of retirement savings because of caring responsibilities. These life-cycle risks have a profound effect on the enjoyment of their rights as well as on the inter-generational transmission of poverty. If women are unable to enjoy a particular human right on an equal basis with men, this is unequivocally a violation of the right in question.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Unpaid care work and women's human rights 2013, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Considering the limited length of this report and the mandate's focus on extreme poverty and human rights, no attempt is made to assess the extensive issue of human rights and care holistically. Rather, the report focuses specifically on the human rights of unpaid caregivers, in particular women living in poverty who provide unpaid care. Other relevant human rights implications of unpaid care work - such as tensions between care and unwanted dependency, abuses against persons with disabilities or older persons, and children's right to receive quality care - are not addressed, and only brief recommendations are made on paid domestic work. The Special Rapporteur hopes that this report will nevertheless encourage broader discussion of the human rights implication of care work.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- In some countries, structural discrimination against women and increased competition for family resources from younger members often means older women lose control of assets once owned by their husbands and are left without a source of income. In extreme cases, they are subjected to accusations of witchcraft. The context in which accusations of witchcraft are made is complex, resulting from deep-seated cultural beliefs, and the need to apportion blame and seek redress for a negative event, such as a death in the family or crop failure and poverty. Nevertheless, the low status of women and their inability to defend themselves makes them the primary targets of such violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Social protection and old age poverty 2010, para. 93
- Paragraph text
- The living conditions of persons living in extreme poverty clearly impact on their health status throughout their life. Higher incidence of ill-health and premature mortality correlates with socioeconomic factors in all regions of the world. Ageing increases a person's susceptibility to illness and disability, and this phenomenon is further aggravated by poverty as they are less likely to be able to afford health care and more likely to maintain poor nutritional diets. They are also more likely to have engaged in physically demanding work for a living. Therefore, policies must take into account that older persons living in poverty may have a greater need for health care.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
30 shown of 30 entities