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
Author: Magdalena Sepúlveda
Year: 2009
PDF of Resource
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 the household. CTPs have been identified as effective tools for poverty
eradication due to their capacity to reduce economic inequalities and break the intergenerational
transmission of poverty. Yet these programmes have seldom been discussed or analysed from a
human rights perspective.
The report argues that while CTPs are a tool that can assist States in fulfilling their obligations under national, regional and international human rights law. The transfers may have an impact on the exercise of a number of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. In particular, CTPs have the potential to assist in the realization of the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing.
Related Principles
States parties to major human rights instruments related to economic, social and cultural rights such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) have an immediate minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of all economic, social and cultural rights such as the right […]