Poverty as a Violation of Human Rights
Poverty is defined by economic standards based on income levels and access to basic human necessities, that is food, water, and shelter. It is a state of life affecting all of humanity.
According to DoSomething.Org, a global Movement, nearly half of the worlds’ population live in poverty-more than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day and more than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty that is less than $1.25 a day.
The internationally agreed-upon measurement of poverty currently lies at $2 per day.
A right refers to legal entitlement to have something or act in a certain way. There are two kind of rights; individual rights and collective rights. Individual rights refer to freedom to act, work and behave without punishment from members of an organization through legal, regulatory and societal standards. On the other hand collective rights refer to the rights held by a group e.g. environmental rights that is right to clean air, water and land.
The ongoing debate on whether global poverty should be regarded as a violation of human rights has brought about many ideas from various people across the world.
According to Tom Campbell in his book: Poverty as a Violation of Human Rights- inhumanity or injustice? classified poverty as a violation of human rights from a philosophical stand point. The idea of poverty as a Human Rights violation is clearly intended to send a powerful moral message that this division of Human Rights cannot be held as an opinion. This can also be seen as a move towards bringing new mechanisms to bear on the elimination of poverty (pg11). Treating poverty as a violation of human rights is also a way of encouraging the constitutionalization of social and economic rights so that courts will be given the task of setting minimum welfare standards
Global poverty can be argued as violation of human rights in essence that it involves non-fulfillment of human rights as well as a specific causal relation of human agents to such non-fulfillment. This not only includes interactional violations but also institutional violations caused by human agents through the imposition of institutional arrangements. This evidence justifies the fact that there exists a supernatural institutional regime that foresee ably and avoidably produces massive human rights deficits. By collaboratively imposing this institutional scheme it is clear that poverty can be deemed as a violation of human rights.
The international organizations i.e. World Bank, UNDP, UNESCO are important because they are mandated to make better conditions in regard to extreme poverty. These organizations are against the fact that poverty is violation of human rights. Poverty in this case is like a disaster that can befall humankind and when it reaches an extreme point these organizations come through to aid in any way possible thus the foundation of such organization.
In conclusion poverty can be said to be a violation of human rights which involves both the non-fulfillment of a human right and a certain causal responsibility of human agents for this non-fulfillment.
References
McNeill, Desmond, and Asunción Lera StClair. Global poverty, ethics and human rights: the role of multilateral organisations. Routledge, 2009.
Campbell, Tom. “Poverty as a violation of Human Rights: Inhumanity or Injustice.” Freedom from poverty as a human right–Who owes what to the very poor (2007): 55.
Salomon, Margot. “Global Poverty, Ethics and Human Rights: The Role of Multilateral Organisations.” (2012): 321-324
