Human Rights and Extreme Poverty

A/RES/65/214No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 68bHuman rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2011.

What other versions does this mandate have?

21 versions · 1992–2024

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

2024A/RES/79/178Human rights and extreme povertyLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/77/223Human rights and extreme povertyCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/75/175Human rights and extreme povertyCompare with previous version
2019A/RES/73/163Human rights and extreme povertyCompare with previous version
2017A/RES/71/186Human rights and extreme povertyCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What does this mandate say?

20 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;

Also reaffirms 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, social and cultural 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, community-based social organizations 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 extreme 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, 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;

Also reaffirms 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;

Further reaffirms the commitment made at the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals to accelerating progress in order to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;

Recalls that promoting universal access to social services and providing social protection floors can make an important contribution to consolidating and achieving further development gains and that social protection systems that address and reduce inequality and social exclusion are essential for protecting the gains made towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals;

Encourages States, when designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social protection programmes, to ensure gender mainstreaming and the promotion and protection of all human rights in accordance with their obligations under international human rights law, through this process;

Welcomes the ongoing efforts to strengthen and support South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation, and stresses that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, North-South cooperation;

Encourages the international community to strengthen its efforts to address challenges that are contributing to extreme poverty, including those derived from the financial and economic crisis, the food crisis and ongoing concerns over food security, as well as the increasing challenges posed by climate change and the loss of biodiversity in all parts of the world, especially in developing countries, by enhancing its cooperation to help to build national capacities;

Reaffirms 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 on 28 April 2000, 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;

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 international financial institutions to proceed likewise;

Invites States, as well as relevant United Nations agencies and treaty bodies, relevant special procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, especially those working with people living in extreme poverty, and other relevant stakeholders, to contribute to the work of the High Commissioner by expressing their views, comments and suggestions on the progress report on the draft guiding principles submitted by the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty;

Invites the independent expert and relevant stakeholders, including representatives of States, development and human rights practitioners and organizations at the local, national, regional and international levels, to participate in the two-day consultation on the progress report on the draft guiding principles that the High Commissioner will organize, within existing resources, in Geneva before June 2011;

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;

Also welcomes the work on social protection and human rights undertaken by the independent expert and her reports, submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth and sixty-fifth sessions;

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

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Human Rights and Extreme Poverty

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