Response to World Poverty and Human Rights: Should We Stop Thinking about Poverty in Terms of Helping the Poor?

2017 ◽  
pp. 97-105
Author(s):  
Alan Patten
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Poor ◽  
World Poverty

Do We Owe the Global Poor Assistance or Rectification?

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Risse
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Global Order ◽  
The Poor ◽  
World Poverty

A central theme throughout Thomas Pogge's pathbreaking World Poverty and Human Rights is that the global political and economic order harms people in developing countries, and that our duty toward the global poor is therefore not to assist them but to rectify injustice. But does the global order harm the poor? I argue elsewhere that there is a sense in which this is indeed so, at least if a certain empirical thesis is accepted. In this essay, however, I seek to show that the global order not only does not harm the poor but can plausibly be credited with the considerable improvements in human well-being that have been achieved over the last 200 years. Much of what Pogge says about our duties toward developing countries is therefore false.

Óscar Romero and the Politics of Sainthood

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez ◽  
Anna L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Holy See ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity ◽  
The One

In this article, we explore the debates surrounding the proposed canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an outspoken defender of human rights and the poor during the civil war in El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980 by paramilitary death squads while saying Mass. More specifically, we examine the tension between, on the one hand, local and popular understandings of Romero’s life and legacy and, on the other hand, transnational and institutional interpretations. We argue that the reluctance of the Vatican to advance Romero’s canonization process has to do with the need to domesticate and “privatize” his image. This depoliticization of Romero’s work and teachings is a part of a larger agenda of neo-Romanization, an attempt by the Holy See to redeploy a post-colonial and transnational Catholic regime in the face of the crisis of modernity and the advent of postmodern relativism. This redeployment is based on the control of local religious expressions, particularly those that advocate for a more participatory church, which have proliferated with contemporary globalization

The Global Rise of Social Cash Transfers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz Leisering
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Security ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Social Cash Transfers ◽  
The Right

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) proclaimed the equality of all human beings in dignity and rights. The right to social security, however, has been taken more seriously only since the 2000s, through calls for ‘Social security for all’ and ‘Leaving no one behind’. The book investigates a major response, social cash transfers to the poor. The idea of simply giving money to the poor had been rejected by all major development organizations until the 1990s, but since the early 2000s, social cash transfers have mushroomed in the global South and on agendas of international organizations. How come? What programmes have emerged in which countries? How inclusive are the programmes? What models have international organizations devised? Based on unique quantitative and qualitative data, the book takes stock of all identifiable cash transfers in all Southern countries and of the views of all major international organizations. The author argues that cash transfers reflect broader changes: new understandings of development, of human rights, of global risks, of the social responsibility of governments, and of universalism. Social cash transfers have turned the poor from objects of charity into rights-holders and agents of their own lives and of development. A repertoire of cash transfers has evolved that has enhanced social citizenship, but is limited by weak political commitments. The book also contributes to a general theory of social policy in development contexts, through a constructivist sociological approach that complements the dominant approaches from welfare economics and political economy and includes a theory of social assistance.

Human Rights and 21st Century Challenges

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
First Century ◽  
World Population ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Relative Share ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century

The world faces significant and interrelated challenges in the twenty-first century which threaten human rights in a number of ways. This book examines the relationship between human rights and three of the largest challenges of the twenty-first century: conflict and security, environment, and poverty. Technological advances in fighting wars have led to the introduction of new weapons which threaten to transform the very nature of conflict. In addition, states confront threats to security which arise from a new set of international actors not clearly defined and which operate globally. Climate change, with its potentially catastrophic impacts, features a combination of characteristics which are novel for humanity. The problem is caused by the sum of innumerable individual actions across the globe and over time, and similarly involves risks that are geographically and temporally diffuse. In recent decades, the challenges involved in addressing global and national poverty have also changed. For example, the relative share of the poor in the world population has decreased significantly while the relative share of the poor who live in countries with significant domestic capacity has increased strongly. Overcoming these global and interlocking threats constitutes this century’s core political and moral task. This book examines how these challenges may be addressed using a human rights framework. It considers how these challenges threaten human rights and seeks to reassess our understanding of human rights in the light of these challenges. The analysis considers both foundational and applied questions. The approach is multidisciplinary and contributors include some of the most prominent lawyers, philosophers, and political theorists in the debate. The authors not only include leading academics but also those who have played important roles in shaping the policy debates on these questions. Each Part includes contributions by those who have served as Special Rapporteurs within the United Nations human rights system on the challenges under consideration.

The Big Push Déjà Vu: A Review of Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Easterly
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Development Economics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Poor ◽  
World Poverty ◽  
Incentive Problems ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Déjà Vu ◽  
Big Push ◽  
Made In

Jeffrey Sachs's new book (The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Penguin Press: New York, 2005) advocates a “Big Push” featuring large increases in aid to finance a package of complementary investments in order to end world poverty. These recommendations are remarkably similar to those first made in the 1950s and 1960s in development economics. Today, as then, the Big Push recommendation overlooks the unsolvable information and incentive problems facing any large-scale planning exercise. A more promising approach would be to design incentives for aid agents to implement interventions piecemeal whenever they deliver large benefits for the poor relative to costs.

Child Combatants of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Nepal: A Human Rights Perspective, 1996–2013

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar Meher
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
People's Liberation Army ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
The Poor ◽  
People’S Liberation Army ◽  
Human Rights Violation ◽  
Major Target

The study analyzes involvement of children in the decade-long Maoist armed conflict in Nepal, an issue of grave human rights violations. An armed conflict affects all sections of the society irrespective of caste, class, gender, region, and religion. However, children have been one of the most vulnerable groups in the Maoist conflict in Nepal. The decade-long Maoist conflict in Nepal has various implications on children such as disruption of education, separation from families, killing and maiming, illegal detention, disability resulting from the conflict, etc. Thus, there has been gross human rights violation of children during the conflict. But one of the worst forms of implications of the Maoist conflict has been the recruitment of children as combatants by the Maoist Army, otherwise known as the People’s Liberation Army, formed in 2001, in their fight against the state forces, which is the focus of this study. The article explores how the poor disadvantaged children have been the major target of recruitment by the Maoist. It discusses the role played by the child recruits during the conflict. Besides, it examines the role played particularly by the United Nations as well as the Nepali civil societies in the protection, rehabilitation, and reintegration of children into the civil society.

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