This article is written by Madhab Regmi, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, UNDP Sierra Leone.

Poverty is commonly understood as the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a human condition where people do not have adequate access to their fundamental needs such as income, food, clothing, shelter, health care, security, education etc.

According to UNICEF, almost 22,000 children die each day due to poverty, essentially because they lack adequate nutrition and health care. Nearly half of the world's population live on less than $2.50 a day. More than one billion people in the world live in abject poverty on less than $1.25 per day while the richest 1% people have almost half of the world’s wealth. It underscores that there is a huge gap and inequality in the distribution of the world economy. Thus, poverty is one of the most serious challenges the world is facing today. And poverty, in turn, is a serious threat to political stability, social harmony, peace, and justice.

The traditional view of poverty should be reviewed and redefined now.

Poverty is not merely an economic issue. Rather, it is a multifaceted phenomenon that comprises a lack of both income opportunities and basic capabilities to live in dignity. People living in poverty are stripped from resources, choices, opportunities, capabilities, security etc. necessary for an adequate standard of living which includes the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. They do not have power or influence to design the policies that are supposed to address poverty and their voices are often muted. For these reasons, people who live in poverty are subject to insecurity, exclusion, marginalisation, hopelessness, and powerlessness as a result of the denial of their justice, equality, dignity, and personal freedom.

In this context, the traditional view of poverty should be reviewed and redefined now. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care, and necessary social services…”. However, people living in poverty often lack the means to secure these basic necessities. Since poor people are denied their fundamental rights inherent in UDHR and other national and international rights protocols, poverty should rightly be understood as a human rights issue.

Poverty is, thus, the lack of the protection of human rights which leaves people vulnerable pushing them into economic and social destitution. Conversely, promotion and protection of human rights empower poor people through the power of legal protection for the fulfilment of their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.

Rights-based approach

The rights-based approach recognises people living in poverty as right holders. The rights-based approach respects their dignity and empowers them to know, realise, and claim their rights, including in the design of pro-poor policies, and to hold decision-makers accountable. Similarly, it puts the onus on the state to create favourable environments to promote the capacity of individuals and organisations to combat poverty and empower persons living in poverty to claim their rights.

But poverty is not inevitable — it can be eradicated if governments act responsibly and make it a priority.

People living in poverty are often neglected by service providers, policymakers, politicians, and even by the state though they claim shamelessly that they are working for the benefit of disadvantaged people. They are often treated as less than human. They are denied their dignity, necessity, and recognition as human beings. As a result, they feel disgraced which deepens their sense of powerlessness and diminishes their ability to stand up for the welfare of themselves. They are discriminated against and excluded while providing service, privileges, and rights by the state. In such an adverse situation, they feel that they have no rights as humans, which in itself deepens and feeds the cycle of poverty.

But poverty is not inevitable. It can be eradicated if governments act responsibly and make it a priority to lift up those who are born into poverty. By failing to make it a priority, the state becomes an accomplice in poverty. And in a way, poverty is created by the unjustifiable economic policies and practices of the state. We can end poverty, and the way to do so is through the lens of human rights and applied rights-based development.

States should be legally obliged to take their national and international human rights obligations into account.

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted by consensus the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in September 2012 which stresses that “Eradicating extreme poverty is not only a moral duty but also a legal obligation under existing international human rights law.” By this adoption, member states of the Human Rights Council are obliged to eradicate poverty by law. The objective of the Guiding Principles is to define poverty as a human rights issue and to provide principles on how to apply human rights values while combatting poverty. It serves as directives to how to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the rights of persons living in extreme poverty.

In a nutshell, poverty is directly related to human rights and overcoming the problems of poverty is not a question of charity but a serious human rights issue. States should be legally obliged to take their national and international human rights obligations into account while designing and implementing policies affecting the lives of persons living in poverty.

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