Is Poverty a Violation of Human Rights

Background

Arjun Sengupta - Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. Professor Arjun Sengupta has held numerous positions of high office in the Government of India.  In the 1980s he was Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of India.  Subsequently, he was an Executive Director of the IMF in Washington DC.  Thereafter he was an Indian Ambassador to the European Union.  He has also held various prestigious academic positions.

 Currently, he is Adjunct Professor at Harvard University and also Chair of the Centre for Development and Human Rights in New Dehli. Professor Sengupta served as the UN Independent Expert on the Right to Development for six years.  Since 2004 he has served as the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty.  As such, his UN reports and other publications have shaped the contemporary debate about one of the most controversial human rights topics.

Background of the Talk"...poverty may be defined as a human condition characterized by sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights." (United Nations Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, 2001) The United Nations human rights system's

mounting commitment and growing efforts to isolate poverty and to examine its relationship and impact on the protection of the basic human rights represents an awakening to the decisive and devastating impact of poverty on human rights. The world has never been as rich as it is today, yet over one billion people suffer from extreme poverty.

Words and Expressions

panelist

a member of a panel

e.g. In such event, the Provider shall have the discretion to appoint a substitute Panelist.

maneuverability

the quality of being maneuverable

e.g. The tractors are featured by compact construction, convenient operation, high maneuverability and low fuel consumption.

arable

(of farmland) capable of being farmed productively

e.g. In Holland thousands of hectares have been reclaimed from the sea and turned over to arable land and pasture.

cleptocracy

alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, from Greek klepto (theft) and kratos (rule), is a term applied to a government that extends the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats), via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service. Political corruption is closely tied to the internal workings of a Kleptocracy.

remiss

failing in what duty requires

e.g. It is remiss of her to forget to pay the bill.

hilt

the handle of a sword or dagger

e.g. He had studded the sword hilt with jewels.

apartheid

a social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against people who are not Whites; the former official policy in South Africa

e.g. His talk about apartheid created agitation.

complicity

guilt as an accomplice in a crime or offense

e.g. The jury acquitted him of all complicity in that murder.

composite

a conceptual whole made up of complicated and related parts

e.g. Being a composite of more than one color or mixed with black or white.

remuneration

wage: something that remunerates; the act of paying for goods or services or to recompense for losses

e.g. He received generous remuneration for his services.