Human Rights and Poverty Reduction Strategies: Moving Towards Convergence?

Author(s):  
Gobind Nankani ◽  
John Page ◽  
Lindsay Judge

In light of human rights, poverty has multidimensional faces, so it is quite complicated to define the term poverty. Some scholars have argued that poverty is a cause and consequence of human rights violation, whereas, rest of others found that poverty itself is a violation of human rights. So it is not clear to what extent poverty violates human rights. This ambiguity leads to some other issues such, the exact definition of poverty, the approach of human rights, the link between discrimination and poverty, whether the poverty line standard maintains equity, the legal obligations of duty holders, and the human rights approach in incorporate in poverty-reducing plans. All through the world, there are various types of human rights discriminatory laws that exist and which lead to poverty. It can be said that State actions fail to reduce poverty owing to the absence or inadequacy of policies and programs and the lack of appropriate government expenses, in cases where resources are available. This paper is made with the purpose to clarify the term human rights and poverty. It is necessary to draw a link between human rights and poverty. This paper also has some other purposes, such as, try to find out reasons for poverty, giving importance to the duty bearer obligations, and designing the poverty reduction strategies under the human rights approach.


Author(s):  
Paul Nelson

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), endorsed by 189 governments at the Millennium Summit, propose a concerted global effort to reduce the incidence of severe poverty and many of its most serious manifestations over a twenty-five-year period. The MDGs offer crucial insights into the politics of poverty and poverty reduction in international affairs. Their political dimensions can be analyzed in terms of agency, the nature and limits of accountability, the use and manipulation of quantitative goals for political ends, the dangerous illusion that MDG objectives can be accomplished in large part by mobilizing more development assistance, and the MDGs’ distinctly apolitical approach to the structural causes of poverty. The MDG initiative should be situated in three ongoing streams of debate and discussion: the debate over the relative priority of growth and of human development for poverty reduction; the tension between the assertion of rights and the enunciation of donor-driven goals as the political engine of poverty reduction; and the debate over the roles of markets and of state direction and regulation. While the MDGs concentrate on increasing aid flows to reduce the incidence of poverty and its manifestations, international trade and finance arrangements too often impede rapid progress. This is evident in water privatization, trade rules, and anti-retroviral medicines for HIV/AIDS patients. A way forward is to integrate the MDGs more deeply with human rights guarantees. Donors, for example, must take seriously the 2002 Draft Guidelines for the application of human rights to poverty reduction strategies.


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