- ATD Fourth World

October 17, 2007 – International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Message from Eugen Brand, Director General, International Movement ATD Fourth World

On October 17, 1987, here in the very place where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed, the history of the very poor was inscribed in the history of humanity. On that day, Fr. Joseph Wresinski engraved an appeal, a “Call to Action” on the stone of this plaza - calling for all people to recognize their common humanity and to unite with the victims of “hunger, ignorance and violence.”

We are responding today to this Call, that grew out of the soil of humiliation and suffering. Muddy land that used to be a garbage dump and where families were living; it’s here that Joseph Wresinski forged an alliance between the people living in deep poverty and others on behalf of their common humanity and equal dignity.

He was convinced that those with revolt in their hearts would not be freed of it unless others were freed of their own blindness. Faced with the disdain that society can replicate from one generation to the next, this alliance was indispensable.

This October 17, 2007, our minds and hearts are brimming with the names and faces of the men and women, children and young people, the families who have gone before us, who could no longer put up with the shame, the looks that see right past you, as though you were not there. Tonight we are carried on a wave of song that unites us with their hope. The voices rising up to meet us, coming from 141 countries through the Call to Action “Ending Extreme Poverty, A Road to Peace” bring to light this enormous chain of people who struggle for justice and call for brotherhood and sisterhood. It is a human chain where you children and you young people are taking the lead.

And because it has become possible to go beyond fear, to look one another in the eye, to unite our voices, to sit down together around the table, to understand our personal and collective histories - because of this a new intelligence is emerging. Peace becomes possible. The dignity of each person replaces humiliation, learning from one another takes the place of ignorance, and personal commitment gives hope where once there was despair.

But we must remain vigilant. The reality is that “ Human rights are violated. ” In every country, individuals, families or whole communities and populations are displaced, forced into exile, pushed out or stripped of everything. The strong continue to decide for the weak, on the pretext of protecting them. Some live with more and more security, at the price of complete insecurity for others.

Political strategies aiming to reduce the number of people living in poverty by 10, 30 or 50% risk using the terrible logic of “creaming off” those in the least difficult situations, and then being resigned to the inevitable results. Such strategies distract us from what is essential—the access of all people, without exception, to the fundamental rights for all.

Let’s take action

In the face of climate change, let us dare to take action so that sustainable development is thought out with the people who have to make a life in the most rudimentary conditions; who have to carefully manage every bit of the water, electricity and wood that are our precious collective resources.

In the increasingly globalized economy, let’s dare to take action with the people who have to reorganize their schedules all the time, day and night to cope with unemployment, informal odd jobs or the frustration of having no work at all.

All these people have to be around the table.

In this world where instant communication matters so much, let us dare to make room for the people who walk for hours to get news of someone else. All of them are convinced that to overcome poverty we have to communicate and share our knowledge.

In the face of the conflicts that cover our soil with blood, let us dare to learn from people who know the violence of an unbearable life and because of that carry within themselves a peace that the world is not even aware of, a kind of peace that comes from learning to forgive.

We have to be convinced that through this new partnership, the thinking of our time, our political and civic life, the spirit of our laws and institutions, our religious and spiritual convictions, will all be nourished, renewed and deeply transformed.

“ To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty. ” Let us create the means to meet this challenge! In all cultural, political and spiritual arenas, let us make time and create the places where people in extreme poverty and others, from all walks of life, can learn together, over the long term, how to exercise this responsibility of uniting in order to invent a culture where the best of each individual and of each people becomes the history of humanity itself.

This October 17th, along with all the artisans of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we are reaffirming our commitment to make a world where all “human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want.”

With all those who signed the Call to Action, we reaffirm today our responsibility for a world that is rich because no one is left out.

With the words of Joseph Wresinski, we are reaffirming our passion to create a world where justice and what’s in our hearts finally become one.