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A contemporary view of ‘family’ in international human rights law and implications for the SDGs

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2018

This paper examines the interplay between the obligations related to the ‘family’ that States have assumed through various human rights treaties adopted over the decades, and the recent commitments undertaken under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. International human rights instruments recognize the ‘family; as the fundamental unit of society...

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Is biometric technology in social protection programmes illegal or arbitrary? An analysis of privacy and data protection (ESS ─ Working Paper No. 59)

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2018

Social protection programmes require processing significant data amounts, including often-sensitive information such as household assets, health status and physical or intellectual disabilities. Increasingly, social protection programmes use unique, intimate biometric-technology data such as fingerprints, iris structure and face topologies. Inextricably linked to the individual body, they are more sensitive...

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Ensuring Inclusion and Combatting Discrimination in Social Protection Programmes: The role of human rights standards  

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2017

Recent years have witnessed the significant expansion of social protection programmes around the world. Yet, a vast number of poor and vulnerable people, including children, women, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, remain uncovered, especially in lower-income countries. This article argues that a better understanding of the principle of...

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International Social Security Review Special Issue: Special Issue: The human right to social security

Resources - Author: Catalina Devandas, Christina Behrendt, Francie Lund, Gabriele Köhler, Katja Hujo, Laura Alfers, Magdalena Sepúlveda, Rachel Moussié, Roddy McKinnon, Valeria Esquivel / Year: 2017

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 asserts that social security is an inalienable human right. Realizing this human right is often considered, simply, as a matter of political will and of administrative aptitude. In these terms, the progressive realization of the human right to social...

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Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2012

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...

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Report on taxation and human rights (A/HRC/26/28), submitted by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2014

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights presents fiscal policy, and particularly taxation policies, as a major determinant in the enjoyment of human rights. Taxation is a key tool when tackling inequality and for generating the resources necessary for poverty reduction and the...

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Report on participation of people living in poverty (A/HRC/23/36), submitted by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2013

This report focuses on the right to participation of people living in poverty. Participation is a basic human right in itself, a precondition or catalyst for the realization and enjoyment of other human rights, and of fundamental importance in empowering people living in poverty to tackle inequalities and asymmetries of...

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The Human Rights Approach to Social Protection

Resources - Author: Carly Nyst, Magdalena Sepúlveda /

This report sets out to elaborate and promote a human rights framework for social protection, identifying best practices and disseminating lessons learned. It provides an in-depth analysis of the application of central human rights principles of the human rights framework – equality and non-discrimination (including accessibility, acceptability, affordability and the incorporation...

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From Undeserving Poor To Rights Holder : A Human Rights Perspective On Social Protection Systems

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2014

Summary: Over recent years, social protection strategies have rapidly gained striking political support and widespread acceptance in development discourse and practice. However, although development actors generally acknowledge that human rights should play an essential role in poverty reduction, there has been a lack of deep analysis of the implications...

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Report on a human rights approach to the global and financial crisis (A/64/279). submitted by the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2009

This report addresses the impact of the current global financial crisis on people living in extreme poverty and the enjoyment of their human rights. It stresses that the crisis offers an opportunity to move beyond the restructuring of the global financial and monetary systems and to place people at the...

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Report on the importance of gender sensitive social protection systems in achieving the MDGs (A/65/259) submitted by the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2010

Summary The present report highlights the importance of social protection measures in the Millennium Development Goals agenda. It also stresses that social protection measures designed, implemented and evaluated within the framework of a rights-based approach are more likely to ensure the achievement of the Goals and to result in...

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Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on her Mission to Paraguay (A /HRC/20/25/Add. 2)

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2012

The report focuses on a number of flagship programmes, including the Tekoporã conditional cash transfer programme, the Abrazo (“hug”) Programme and the Family Health Units Programme. The report recognizes that major strides have been made in the area of rights-based public policy planning. It also reviews the achievements of the social protection...

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Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on her Mission to Namibia (A /HRC/23/36/Add.1)

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2013

While acknowledging the compounded challenges faced by Namibia – including limited institutional capacity, and the fact that Namibia has one of the world’s lowest population densities – this report concludes that progress has not been fast enough. There are still unacceptable levels of inequality along the lines of gender, race,...

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Report on Cash transfer programmes (CTPs) from a human rights perspective (A/HRC/11/9), submitted by the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty

Resources - Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2009

This report focuses on cash transfer programmes (CTPs) from a human rights perspective. CTPs are non-contributory programmes  providing payments in the form of cash to individuals or households. The primary objective of  CTPs is to increase the real income of beneficiaries in order to enable a minimum level of  consumption within...

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Joint report of the Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty and human rights and the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation: Mission to Bangladesh (A /HRC/15/55)

Resources - Author: Catarina de Albuquerque, Magdalena Sepúlveda / Year: 2010

In the report, the Independent Expert on water and sanitation highlights the problems relating to sanitation, water quality and availability, and menstrual hygiene. The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty focuses on social protection programmes for education, women, older persons, emergency relief and decent work, and points out the challenges...

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Social Protection and Human Rights