The UN Human Rights Council adopts a resolution on the draft Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights
Press release Tuesday 6 October 2009
At the end of its 12th session, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the draft Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (A/HRC/12/L.30/Rev.1).
In this resolution, the Council recognizes that there is “a widespread commitment to advancing the project of elaborating guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights,” and invites the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepulveda, to “submit a progress report presenting her recommendations on how to improve the draft guiding principles … no later than its fifteenth session” (September 2010). The Council will then “take a decision on the way forward with a view to a possible adoption of guiding principles on the rights of persons living in extreme poverty by 2012.”
With the United Nations
- United Nations Draft Guiding Principles - "Extreme Poverty and Human Rights: The Rights of the Poor"
- 61st Annual Department of Public Information and the NGO community Conference
The International Movement ATD Fourth World welcomes the adoption of this resolution, and the fact that it sets a deadline for the Council to take a decision on the guiding principles. However, it appears that it will not be easy to maintain the focus of the revised draft clearly on the implications of international conventions on the human rights of people living in extreme poverty in all countries, regardless of their economic, social, and cultural status. There are a number of countries who would prefer for the guiding principles to instead become an instrument for advancing the right to development.
In continuing the drafting process that should lead to the adoption of a new text in the area of human rights, the International Movement will draw on the contribution of the 11 NGOs who proposed amendments to the draft guiding principles in December 2008.1 It also encourages local associations and NGOs with grass-roots experience in fighting poverty to contribute to the revision process, in order to ensure that the final document reflects the reality of people’s lives in all parts of the world. (See below for contact information.) The International Movement ATD Fourth World will work to ensure that: The final text of the guiding principles focuses on extreme poverty, which continues to exist in all countries of the world, and therefore refers to the definition used by Leandro Despouy in his final report on human rights and extreme poverty;2 The consultative process called for in the Council’s resolution allows for the participation of NGOs through which people living in extreme poverty express themselves.
Geneva contacts: Janet Nelson, Bruno Romazzotti
Tel. 00-41-22-344-41-15
email contact
