Eradication of Poverty as Basic Human right.
As many of us may know, the Universal declaration of Human Rights proclaims that everyone is entitled to a standard of living adequate to provide for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family. Moreover, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human, International Covenants recognise that freedom from fear and want - can be achieved only if everyone enjoys economic, social and cultural rights, in addition to civil and political rights. In this light, today I would like to offer a few thoughts about human rights and extreme poverty.
Nowadays the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor is a major destabilizing influence in the world. It produces or exacerbates regional and national conflicts, environmental degradation, crime and violence, and the increasing use of illicit drugs. These consequences of extreme poverty affect all individuals and nations. In such circumstances eradicating poverty represents the most important human rights issue requiring immediate attention.
The concept of development applied so far was measured purely in terms of material production and consumption was absolutely incomplete. A materially wealthy society lacking social cohesion could not be a rich society. It is still difficult to conceive of human rights in an underdeveloped society like ours. And we still need to understand that there could be no civil and political rights without economic and social rights.
The current economic crisis had led to an understanding that international monetary policy had failed. Even well-meaning governments in the South were forced to address first the needs of their creditors, and second the needs of their people. Structural adjustment programmes have created hardships, causing unemployment and undermining the basic rights of the poor and disadvantaged.
The 1998 issue of the UNDP Human Development Report shows that the gap between the rich and the poor countries has expanded. Statistics provided in the report show that over one billion people lack basic living necessities. Keeping the number of poor and position of Pakistan on the Human Development index, all people truly concerned about human rights should focus their attention to the poverty-stricken people who account for about one quarter of Pakistan and a fifth of the world's total population. They not only need sympathy, but also actual work and action.
Too many people believed that fighting for human rights in this context was too difficult. That belief disguised a lack of will. Human rights did not grow out of a system, which had experienced only peace and tranquility, but out of one that had experienced war and deprivation of rights. Our poor as well as our human rights organisations have a key role to play in reminding our government and the world of the most extreme violations of human rights and the myriad daily efforts they attempt in defence of human rights and human dignity. A human rights based perspective in the fight against poverty begins with ensuring that the poorest have access to the most basic right to speak for themselves and being heard.
Most of us would agree that eradicating poverty is the greatest challenge facing Pakistanis and the world together, but we must also pay close attention to the fact that poverty constitutes a great threat to the rights and interests of women and children in particular. Due to lack of awareness, most of us believe that human rights are all about civil and political rights, which can be denied to children and women without any major negative impact. But it is time for us to give not only the economic, social and cultural rights their rightful place in human rights machinery as well as in practice, but also to recognise women and children right to enjoy these rights.
The universality, interdependence and indivisibility of all human rights have constantly been underlined by different international agencies and there is a broad consensus today in characterizing the human rights-based approach to development as one that emphasized human dignity, empowerment, participation, equality, non-discrimination, inclusion, and rule of law.
We must not take it out of our sight that resolving issues regarding rights to subsistence and development will be the major challenges in the coming century and also the lifeline of the human rights cause. And poverty eradication lies at the heart of all these challenges. Still there is a tendency to look at poverty solely in terms of income. However, if we look at the issue in a little depth, we would come to realize that it is a multidimensional matter to which human rights are tightly attached. The dimensions of lack of opportunities, unemployment, loss of cultural identity, deprivation and alienation must be looked at together. The corpus of human rights thus should be seen as a totality and there should be no classification between civil and human rights and the others at all.
It is responsibility of the human rights groups and organisations in particular to understand very clearly that poverty is not merely the lack of adequate financial resources. It entails a more profound kind of deprivation, a denial of full participation in the economic, social and political life of society and an inability to influence decisions that affect one's life. It means being powerless in a way that assaults not only one's pocketbook but also one's fundamental human dignity. And in this respect all efforts to eradicate poverty are directed at safeguarding the very basic human rights.
The UNDP and RSPs approaches might be considered by some as developmental approaches, but an understanding of eradication of poverty as the basic human right would help us realize that rights and development based approaches are go hand in hand and what is important is to focus efforts on human dignity. Giving responsibility to all actors is crucial and synonymous with greater participation in the development effort, in particular the participation of women.
We should break once and far all with the idea that economic development can be reduced to statistics. Economic development is about human beings and human rights. The point I want to make is that there can not be a fragmented approach to development. The poverty alleviation programmes encompass social and cultural rights as well. Poverty alleviation efforts and issues figure heavily in work of human rights; however there is a need of clarity on what is going to be done and where. This joint sitting of the people associated with human rights and poverty eradication has allowed discussion on both sets of issues.
There is no denying the fact that poverty is a denial of human rights. UNDP views poverty as a denial of basic human right. For the 1.3 billion people, one third of the population of the developing world who live on less that US $ 1 a day, there can be no doubt that poverty is a harsh denial of human rights. According to UNDP administrator James Gustav Speth in his key not address at symposium on Human Development and Human rights in Oslo recently: "Poverty is embedded in all realms of the existence of poor, not just their income-earning capabilities. Perhaps the most basic human right challenged by human poverty is the right to life" (The New Strait Times, October 15, 1998, "Life and Times," Health Section).
Another mark of human poverty, adult illiteracy, implies that the poor have severe restrictions on their access to knowledge and information, as well as restrictions on other basic human rights, such as political participation. Poverty is an injustice - a denial of freedom from want. The "right of life" to which I just referred posses the biggest challenge to the poor in their efforts to lift themselves out of the poverty trap. All those who struggle to eradicate poverty are in fact working for implementation of the right of the poor to development.
Poverty eradication programmes are strengthening the institutions of civil society with their contribution to civil rights and democracy. Many critics view poverty eradication programmes as international charity. This view has lost some of its force in the recent years, but even if taken this way, it is not an embarrassing approach at all in a selfish world. The realistic view, however, presents poverty alleviation in purely functional terms, where poverty eradication programmes support institution-building for democratic transitions that prevent the rise of conflicts, of social disruption, and of many other social ills.
Before closing my remarks, I would just like to add that we use a term "social mobilization" for implementation of poverty alleviation programmes. The question arises, social mobilization for what? Socialization can not be an end itself. It is only a means. It has to be judged by what it achieves. It has to empower people, the poor and the women. Empowerment itself has to be judged by several criteria. To mention only a few, these relate to the goal of the right to information, right to participate in governance and decision-making, right to resources that exist in the general economy and those that the governments make available, leading to the fulfillment of the poor people's right to dignity through realization of their right to food and nutrition, to work, to health, to education and to shelter.
These will not just happen to people through small, discrete or isolated programmes, but only through validating the ideas associated with these rights through all forums and fighting for these rights through institutional measures both at the grassroots and policy levels in a carefully integrated mode.
If the right to be free of poverty is denied, there is no remedy. The Universal Declaration recognizes not only rights, but also the duty of the international community to create an environment where they can be realized. What better way to act on this obligation for us - the human rights and poverty eradication organisations - to take seriously the goal of eliminating mass poverty in the lifetime of our children.
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