Poverty as a Violation of Human Rights: Inhumanity or Injustice?

Abstract

Abstract The proposal that poverty be regarded as a violation of human rights and therefore abolished is presented as a new paradigm in the fight against poverty that has the potential to galvanize an effective strategy for ending poverty through an international human rights framework. In the words of Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General Social and Human Sciences Sector UNESCO: If . . . poverty were declared to be abolished, as it should with regard to its status as a massive, systematic and continuous violation of human rights, its persistence would no longer be a regrettable feature of the nature of things. It would become a denial of justice. The burden of proof would shift. The poor, once recognized as the injured party, would acquire a right to reparation for which governments, the international community and, ultimately, each citizen would be jointly liable.