POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Despite recognition in the Millennium Declaration of the importance of human rights, equality, and non-discrimination for development, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) largely bypassed these key principles. The fundamental human rights guarantees of equality and non-discrimination are legally binding obligations and do not need instrumental justifications. That said there is a growing body of evidence that human rights-based approaches, and these key guarantees in particular, can lead to more sustainable and inclusive development resulT. 

Discrimination can both cause poverty and be a hurdle in alleviating poverty. Even in countries where there have been significant gains toward achieving the MDGs, inequalities have grown. The MDGs have supported aggregate progress—often without acknowledging the importance of investing in the most marginalized and excluded, or giving due credit to governments and institutions which do ensure that development benefits these populations. Recognition of this shortcoming in the MDGs has brought an increasing awareness of the importance of working to reverse growing economic inequalities through the post-2015 framework, and a key element of this must be actively working to dismantle discrimination.[ii]

The post-2015 framework should be grounded in afundamental guarantee of equality and non-discrimination. Under international law, this requires states to identify and eliminate discrimination and ensure equality. This may require legislative or administrative reform to repeal discriminatory provisions or address discriminatory practices by the government or private actors, a change in resource allocation, or educational measures. The post-2015 frameworkshould embody the responsibility of states, when acting together or alone, to take proactive measures to identify and address entrenched discrimination, both direct and indirect. Itshould embody the responsibility of states, international institutions, and corporations to avoid and remedy discrimination for which they are directly or indirectly responsible. The framework should go some way toward achieving this by including goals, targets, and indicators directed at reducing discrimination and ensuring that the social and economic needs of the most marginalized communities are being addressed fairly, and at reducing wealth inequalities more broadly.
Recommendations
Targets and indicators in the post-2015 framework should be designed to reduce existing inequalities, address entrenched discrimination, and realize the social and economic rights of the most in need while also remaining feasible, affordable, and implementable.
The post-2015 framework should emphasize the importance of development reaching the most marginalized populations, including indigenous peoples. It can go some way toward achieving this by including:
A specific target of addressing the social and economic needs of the most marginalized or discriminated against groups in each country. The framework should establish the methodology for identifying marginalized or disadvantaged groups, but the groups identified would vary country to country.
Indicators should look to identify structural discrimination, including consideration of discriminatory laws and discrimination by private actors. Considerations should include whether governments have non-discrimination laws that bind public and private entities (with a definition of discrimination consistent with international human rights law), require public and private institutions to develop non-discrimination action plans, and fully implement such laws and policies.
Indicators should measure realization of urgent social and economic needs of the most marginalized populations.
Indicators should measure respect of indigenous peoples’ rights, including land and cultural rights, and recognize free, prior, and informed consent.
Indicators which measure the achievement of each target for the most marginalized or discriminated against groups in each country.
In order to achieve this, disaggregated data will be essential. It may not be feasible to disaggregate date by all potential grounds of discrimination.[iii]At a minimum, states and international institutions should collect disaggregate by gender, demographic group (i.e. ethnic background, language, religion), locale (rural/urban/slum household, state/territory), age, and disability.[iv]States and international institutions should also analyze all existing disaggregated data.
The post-2015 framework should emphasize the importance of development reaching the poorest. It can go some way toward achieving this by including:
A specific target of addressing the social and economic needs of the poorest two wealth quintiles in each country.
Indicators which measure the achievement of each target by wealth quintiles. This will require the collection of data along wealth quintiles.
A specific target on reducing income inequalities within countries, with an emphasis on reducing the gap between the richest and poorest quintiles (20:20 gap) or between the top quintile and the bottom two quintiles (10:40 gap).[v]
Populations at Risk of Discrimination
Human rights advocates have long observed the close link between discrimination and poverty.[vi]While disaggregated data is not available with respect to each marginalized group, recently published data suggests that more than two thirds of extremely poor people in low income countries and lower-middle income countries live in households where the head of household is from an ethnic minority group.[vii]It also tells us that more than three quarters of extremely poor people live in rural areas.[viii]Further, more than 80 percent of people with disabilities live in developing countries, illustrating both the confluence of poverty and disability and the importance of proactively addressing the needs of people with disabilities in development strategies.[ix]
Human rights law prohibits discrimination on the basis of a wide range of prohibited grounds. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or ‘other status.’[x]The ICCPR and ICESCR include further an undertaking to “ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all” rights in their respective covenants.[xi]Children are to be protected against discrimination on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.[xii]These lists are far from exhaustive. Other human rights treaties have since prohibited discrimination on the grounds of marital status,[xiii]descent or ethnic origin,[xiv]disability,[xv]nationality,[xvi]age,[xvii]and economic position.[xviii]Treaty bodies have interpreted treaties to prohibit discrimination on the basis of geographical residence, health status, and sexual orientation.[xix]Human rights law also protects against discrimination on the basis of gender identity, family status, health status (e.g. HIV status), homelessness, or because they engage in sex work.[xx]
In one of the most comprehensive statements of the meaning of discrimination and state economic, social, and cultural rights obligations, the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has stated that “discrimination constitutes any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference or other differential treatment that is directly or indirectly based on the prohibited grounds of discrimination and which has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of [human] rights. Discrimination also includes incitement to discriminate and harassment.”[xxi]Both direct and indirect forms discrimination are prohibited. “Direct discrimination occurs when an individual is treated less favourably than another person in a similar situation for a reason related to a prohibited ground.… Indirect discrimination refers to laws, policies or practices which appear neutral at face value, but have a disproportionate impact on the exercise of [human] rights as distinguished by prohibited grounds of discrimination.”[xxii]
The Need to Dismantle Entrenched Discrimination and Inequality
Discrimination is a key underlying cause of inequality and needs to be addressed by the post-2015 framework if it is to successfully reduce inequality more broadly. By supporting aggregate progress, the MDGs have rewarded strategies directed at “low-hanging fruit” as much as strategies directed at the most deprived populations.[xxiii]The post-2015 framework should support development strategies which are designed to reach and benefit the most marginalized, excluded and in need populations. This includes addressing the urgent social needs of such populations as well as assessing difficulties that marginalized and excluded groups experience in enjoying economic, social and cultural rights, and taking the necessary steps to address these difficulties.[xxiv]
Despite significant progress on the MDG on safe drinking water, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), the WHO, and others have documented discrimination in access to water and sanitation on the basis of race and ethnicity, including indigenous peoples in Costa Rica and Rwanda; Dalits in Bangladesh; Roma in Slovenia and Portugal; and poor communities of Korean descent in Japan.[xxv]
The relationship between discrimination and poverty is overwhelmingly evident in developed as well as in developing countries. As the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination has recognized, in the US, “racial, ethnic, and national minorities, especially Latino and African American persons, are disproportionately concentrated in poor residential areas characterised by sub-standard housing conditions, limited employment opportunities, inadequate access to health care facilities, under-resourced schools, and high exposure to crime and violence.”[xxvi]The US Census reported that in 2009, 25 percent of black people and people of Hispanic origin live below poverty level, compared to 14 percent of people of all races.[xxvii]
Racial and ethnic minorities have long been disproportionately represented in the US criminal justice system.[xxviii]While accounting for only 13 percent of the US population, African Americans represent 28.4 percent of all arrests. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics approximately 3.1 percent of African American men, 1.3 percent of Latino men, and 0.5 percent of white men are in prison.[xxix]Because they are disproportionately likely to have criminal records, members of racial and ethnic minorities are more likely than whites to experience stigma and legal discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, jury service, and the right to vote.[xxx]
In Europe, Roma are among the poorest as well as being among the most discriminated against.[xxxi]In Bosnia and Herzegovina for instance,Human Rights Watch documented pervasive discrimination against Roma and other national minorities in the constitution, national laws, and public institutions.[xxxii]This research shows the wider impact of discrimination on the daily lives of Roma in accessing housing, education, health care, and employment.
The relationship between discrimination, inequality, and poverty can also be seen, for instance, in Burma. Discrimination against certain ethnic minorities is widespread in Burma and addressing this discrimination should be a key element of poverty reduction strategies.[xxxiii]The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group, are among the most marginalized in Burma. The Burmese government has long denied Rohingya the right to obtain citizenship in Burma, which has facilitated human rights abuses against them and rendered them stateless, posing a serious obstacle to achieving a durable solution to the sectarian violence in Arakan State and resolving the situation of Rohingya refugees.[xxxiv]The Rohingya face restrictions on movement, employment and access to opportunity, education, marriage, and on other aspects of their everyday lives.[xxxv]For decades they have faced violent abuses by state security forces such as abusive forced labor, rape, arbitrary detention and torture, and killings, based on ethnic and religious grounds.[xxxvi]This discrimination has played a role in pushing Rohingya into increased poverty and is a hurdle in the realization of social and economic rights.[xxxvii]Discrimination also limits peoples’ ability to participate in the development of poverty reduction strategies or government policies and limit access to justice, compounding the problem. As international donors enhance engagement with the Burmese government in response to significant governance and human rights reforms, donors and the government should work to address the urgent social needs of the most in need.

As set out below, dismantling discrimination and addressing inequality requires a range of fully implemented laws, policies and programmes, and may include temporary special measures. It may also require a change in resource allocation, with devotion of greater resources to marginalized groups