Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights

Organization(s): OHCHR
Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda
Year: 2012
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These Principles are the first global policy guidelines focused specifically on the human rights of people living in poverty. They are intended for use by governments to ensure that public policies, including poverty eradication efforts, reach the poorest members of society, respect and uphold their rights, and take into account the significant social, cultural, economic and structural obstacles to human rights enjoyment faced by persons living in poverty. The Human Rights Council adopted the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights by consensus through its resolution 21/11, in September 2012.

while all human rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural – apply to and should be enjoyed by persons living in poverty, these principles focus on some specific rights whose enjoyment by persons living in poverty is particularly limited and obstructed, and in relation to which State policies are often inadequate or counterproductive.