Human Rights and Extreme Poverty

A/RES/67/164View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 69b Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2012.

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?

3 subjects

Human Rights Poverty Poverty Mitigation

What’s in this document?

22 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 and affected by poverty and in vulnerable or marginalized groups or situations 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,¹⁵ 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;

¹⁵Resolution 55/2.

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;¹⁶

¹⁶See resolution 60/1.

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 by 2015;¹⁷

¹⁷See resolution 65/1.

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, and in this regard takes note of International Labour Organization Recommendation No. 202 on social protection floors;

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;

Also encourages States to take all necessary measures to eliminate discrimination against all persons, in particular those living in poverty, to refrain from adopting any laws, regulations or practices denying or limiting the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including economic, social and cultural rights, and to ensure that people, in particular those living in poverty, have equal access to justice;

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, in this context reaffirms the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum on 28 April 2000,¹⁸ 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;

¹⁸See 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 international financial institutions to proceed likewise;

Takes note with appreciation of the guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights,Error: Reference source not found adopted by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 21/11Error: Reference source not found as a useful tool for States in the formulation and implementation of poverty reduction and eradication policies, as appropriate;

Encourages Governments, relevant United Nations bodies, funds, programmes and specialized agencies, other intergovernmental organizations and national human rights institutions as well as non-governmental organizations and non-State actors, including the private sector, to consider the guiding principles in the formulation and implementation of their policies and measures concerning persons affected by extreme poverty;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to disseminate the guiding principles, as appropriate;

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 undertaken by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and her reports, submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh sessions;¹⁹

¹⁹A/66/265 and A/67/278.

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

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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