Human Rights and Extreme Poverty

A/RES/61/157View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 67b Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2007.

What other versions does this mandate have?

21 versions · 1992–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/178

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2024	A/RES/79/178	Human rights and extreme poverty	3,346	76%Compare
2023	A/RES/77/223	Human rights and extreme poverty	3,464	91%Compare
2020	A/RES/75/175	Human rights and extreme poverty	3,490	77%Compare
2019	A/RES/73/163	Human rights and extreme poverty	2,723	82%Compare
2017	A/RES/71/186	Human rights and extreme poverty	2,466	72%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2002

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2002	A/57/369	Human rights and extreme poverty report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/55/106

What subjects does this mandate have?

15 subjects

Decision-Making Economic Growth Education Human Rights International Financial Institutions Popular Participation Poverty Poverty Mitigation Private Sector Programmes of Action Right to Development Social Isolation Socially Disadvantaged Persons Special Rapporteurs Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

13 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that extreme poverty and exclusion from society constitute a violation of human dignity and that urgent national and international action is therefore required to eliminate them;

Reaffirms also that it is essential for States to foster participation by the poorest people in the decision-making process in the societies in which they live, in the promotion of human rights and in efforts to combat extreme poverty, and that it is essential for people living in poverty and vulnerable groups to be empowered to organize themselves and to participate in all aspects of political, economic and social life, in particular the planning and implementation of policies that affect them, thus enabling them to become genuine partners in development;

Emphasizes that extreme poverty is a major issue to be addressed by Governments, civil society and the United Nations system, including international financial institutions, and in this context reaffirms that political commitment is a prerequisite for the eradication of poverty;

Reaffirms that the existence of widespread absolute poverty inhibits the full and effective enjoyment of human rights and renders democracy and popular participation fragile;

Recognizes the need to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in order to address the most pressing social needs of people living in poverty, including through the design and development of appropriate mechanisms to strengthen and consolidate democratic institutions and governance;

Reaffirms the commitments contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration,¹⁰ in particular the commitments to spare no effort to fight against extreme poverty and to achieve development and poverty eradication, including the commitment to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one United States dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger;

¹⁰See resolution 55/2.

Reaffirms also the commitment made at the 2005 World Summit to eradicate poverty and promote sustained economic growth, sustainable development and global prosperity for all, including women and girls;¹¹

¹¹See resolution 60/1.

Reaffirms further the critical role of both formal and informal education in the achievement of poverty eradication and other development goals as envisaged in the Millennium Declaration, in particular basic education and training for eradicating illiteracy, and efforts towards expanded secondary and higher education as well as vocational education and technical training, especially for girls and women, the creation of human resources and infrastructure capabilities and the empowerment of those living in poverty, and in this context reaffirms the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum in 2000¹² and recognizes the importance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization strategy for the eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty, in supporting the Education for All programmes as a tool to achieve the millennium development goal of universal primary education by 2015;

¹²See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000).

Invites the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to give high priority to the question of the relationship between extreme poverty and human rights, and also invites her to further pursue the work in this area;

Calls upon States, United Nations bodies, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to continue to give appropriate attention to the links between human rights and extreme poverty, and encourages the private sector and the international financial institutions to proceed likewise;

Welcomes the efforts of entities throughout the United Nations system to incorporate the Millennium Declaration and the internationally agreed development goals set out therein into their work;

Takes note of the reports of the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty¹³ submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-first and sixty-second sessions and presented to the Human Rights Council at its second session;

¹³E/CN.4/2005/49 and E/CN.4/2006/43 and Add.1.

Decides to consider the question further at its sixty-third session under the sub-item entitled “Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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