The question of whether poverty is a human rights issue is a controversial one. On the one hand, in development economics theory, poverty is defined as deprivation or a lack of income and has to be solved through economic growth. On the other hand, from the perspective of international human rights laws, poverty is first and foremost as a denial of fundamental rights and as such it’s a human rights crisis. However, in the final analysis and based on both my experience as a citizen of one the poorest countries in the world (the DR Congo) and development economics background, I believe that poverty is first a human rights phenomenon, not an economic one. To support my stance, I will first clarify the basic concepts of this essay, notably poverty and human rights. Second, I will rely on international human rights instruments to show how poverty fits into the human rights framework. Finally, I will outline the different ways in which a better understanding of poverty as a human rights phenomenon would assist the efforts of poverty reduction. To begin with, poverty is generally defined as a lack of an adequate income to meet basic needs, especially food, but also shelter (housing), access to education, health care facilities and clean water. According to the World Bank, the minimum income required to afford the most pressing need (food) is US$ 1.25 per day, which is the international poverty line. People or households living below that poverty line are poor, accordingly. Based on this line, the World Bank estimates that more than one billion people worldwide are poor. Is this income-based treatment of poverty convincing? Not so because poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon. The list of basic needs enumerated in the definition above... ... middle of paper ... ...l or a government gift, but rather as fundamental human rights that must be fully enjoyed. In conclusion, I have argued in this essay that poverty is unequivocally a human rights issue. A better understanding of the human rights frame as explained above is crucial to improving the lives of those trapped into poverty. Economic growth alone as advocate by economist cannot lead the anti-poverty campaign to success. The roles of international human rights advocate, local communities, development partners and national governments are so critical in promoting human rights and eradicating poverty, accordingly. Works Cited 1. United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report-2011 2. Khan, I. (2009). The Unheard Truth. Poverty and Human Rights, published by Amnesty International 3. Transparency International, Corruption Perception Index, various reports
Many of us view poverty as mainly a third world issue, because it tends to have little effect on the majority of individuals on a recurring basis. Yet, it is a difficult situation prevalent in all types of civilization, despite the overall advances in technology, medicine and education that one country may have over the other. Poverty does not necessarily have to affect a specific individual, but as a country, it affects all levels of production; even when the production of a single country begins to falter, it could potentially have major effects on others, creating a continuous cycle.“Poverty is color blind”, it does not discriminate, and is a societal problem that needs to be dealt with today (Fullerton, par. 3). If not helped or solved,
Smith, Stephen C. Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.
People can argue about whether poverty is more of a state of mind, choice, or something that people are forced to live in. As stated on the online dictionary, poverty is defined as the state or condition of having little or no money or goods, and is the condition of being poor. Poverty can be found in an individual household or in individual communities, societies, etc. Wherever poverty is found, the fact is that the people in it are struggling to keep money and goods for themselves or families. The questions that most people wonder are how these people in poverty will get out of the state and more like will they get out of being in the state. A more wandering question is whether people in poverty want to be in poverty to get more dependency
The documentary, Poor Us: An Animated History of Poverty, takes viewers through a detailed history of poverty on Earth. From hunter-gatherers to modern times, poverty in the world is demonstrated in the documentary. One can ask many questions while watching the documentary such as, “What is poverty?” and “Why does poverty exist today?” These questions are partially answered and speculated on in the documentary, although it may be hard to completely answer the questions as it can be argued that there is no one single answer. Poverty, according to the documentary, is the struggle to obtain resources in order to continue living. These resources are basic needs such as clean water, food, shelter and health care. The documentary, however, argues
Poverty is not just an issue reserved for third world countries. Instead, poverty is a multifaceted issue that even the most developed nations must battle
Poverty can be described as many things, it can be described as hunger, lack of shelter, not having access to school, not knowing how to read and much more. Despite the definitions, one thing we know for sure is that poverty is a complex societal issue. Poverty is a large cause of social tensions and threatens to separated a nation because of the issue of inequalities, more specifically, income inequality. Poverty is a main impact of globalization, it can affect a whole nation by furthering inequalities. Overall, has affected all of developing countries and has a crucial impact on developed countries.
Handbook of Development and Relief where it stresses that every human being has the right
In conclusion of my definitions of poor and poverty is that to get the true definiton of poverty you have to think about the many other definitions and include all of them together and then decide when and how you can say that you or anyone else are actually considered to be poor or in poverty. It takes a lot of thought in thinking of what each of these words mean and many things should be taken into consideration before applying them.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report (2000) Human Rights and Human Development (New York) p.19 [online] Available from: [Accessed 2 March 2011]
Poverty, also known as the silent killer, exists in every corner of the world. In fact, almost half of the world’s population lives in poverty. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 46.7 million people living in poverty the year of 2014 (1). Unfortunately, thousands of people die each year due to this world-wide problem. Some people view poverty as individuals or families not being able to afford an occupational meal or having to skip a meal to save money. However, this is not the true definition of poverty. According to the author of The Position of Poverty, John Kenneth Galbraith, “people are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls radically behind that of the community”, which means people
When one hears poverty they think of having no money or a house and being on the streets like a homeless person. That is in fact true but, poverty is more than that it is more widespread across income levels. Not just those at the absolute bottom of income earned and wages. 12% of Americans are unable to meet their basic needs 20% being 18 years or younger (mit.edu). Poverty does not just affect people on the individual level it also can have effects on communities as a whole.
The intertwining of sets of human rights needs to be the reality when enjoying rights; those who don’t have the basic/positive rights of education cannot take part in political rights or exercise rights such as freedom of expression. On the other hand situations in developing countries such as famine are less likely to occur when there is the ability to exercise political rights and the right to vote. The international community along with experts and academia need to put forward debates on and bring new ideas to the conversation of the interlacing of civil and political and social and economic rights to dissolve this false dichotomy that are putting limits and constraints on the protections of individuals.
In a contemporary world, poverty is inter-linked with systemic deprivation of rights and related to the notion of Human Development
As one of the biggest problems facing the world today, poverty continues to have significant negative implications for the society. The effects of poverty are extremely severe and far-reaching, so much so that it was one of the top Millennium Development Goals agreed upon at the Millennium Summit of the UN back in 2000 (Hatcher, 2016). To understand the effects that poverty has on the society, one must critically analyze the societies in which poverty is rampant, as well as analyze poverty from the relative perspectives that it presents. The core aim of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of poverty and elaborate on the diverse ways in which it continues to affect societies across the world.
Has anyone ever considered thinking about what the world is really going through? How many people don’t have the necessities in order to survive? If so, what are these people going through? Poverty is the state of one who lacks a standard or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Sometimes events occur that changes a person’s perspective on life. Poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/her. Over half of the world is going through this tragedy and we, being the ones who created it, have the responsibility to end it.