HUMAN RIGHTS AND POVERTY

HUMAN RIGHTS AND POVERTY
INTRODUCTION
The inhuman living conditions of the people especially in the developing countries makes one raise questions of the existence of the human rights. What is UN doing about it all? What has happened to the Human Rights bodies in every country that accepted to sign the human rights charter of the UN? What has happened to the dignity of the human being that was targeted by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). With such questions and search that this paper is written. In this paper we will focus on the definition and meaning of the term human rights. Later the different dimensions of Poverty that has affected the human race will be discussed. Finally we will discuss the implementation of the Human Rights is the duty of International and Regional and National bodies.
HUMAN RIGHTS
There are several definitions and explanations to the concept of human rights. Here we see a few of them. Burnell defines as, “Rights are entitlements of individuals or groups, and differ from ideas of justice or human dignity. Human rights are either the rights everyone has because they are human or those generally recognized as such by governments or in international law”(Burnell, 2008:357). He is right in saying that just because one is a human being he is entitled to human rights. Such human rights are generally recognized as such by Governments and International laws.
Though the human rights are looked at one a single concept yet distinctions are made between certain inherent elements of the same. “Distinctions are often made between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social, and cultural rights, on the other hand” (Ibid). The civil and political rights are assured by the Government which involves rights that are provided to the citizens of the country without any discrimination. Economic rights involve aspects that are needed for basic human living standards involving basic things such as food, shelter and clothing. Social and Cultural would involve other factors that are needed for social and cultural expressions.
The next question is: what is the mechanism to take care of the human rights globally, nationally and locally? “The human rights conduct of states is regulated with varying degrees of effectiveness, by legal and political regimes at international, regional, and national levels.” (Burnell, 358). At the International level there is the United Nations Organizations which promotes human rights in all the countries of the world. “The international human rights regime consists of a large body of international law and a complex set of institutions to implement it. Chief among these institutions was the UN commission on the Human Rights, established 1945-7. In 2006 the UN replaced the Commission with the Human Rights Council in an attempt to improve human rights performance” (Ibid). It is effective as a promotional Institution. At the Regional level groups of Countries come together and form a group to organize themselves in protection of human rights. At the national level each country is responsible to set up institution to take care of the issues of human rights.
WHAT IS POVERTY?
The understanding and explanations to poverty has been varied. The wiky pedia has this to say, “Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens." (wiky pedia website). This explanation is from the point of view of deprivations that a person encounters because one is poor. There other aspects which Gordon points out as poverty has social, political and economic aspects. It takes place within a country with a particular political system and way of governing. (Gordon, 2001: 9)
That takes us to the next question of measuring the poverty. Again Gordon says, “One common approach to poverty is to base it on the amount of income that an individual or household has. This is an economic measure and largely sees poverty as an economic condition. Poverty in this sense can be measured by establishing an income level, a `poverty line` below which a person is considered to be in poverty”. (Ibid. 10) Another means to measure wealth is the Gross National Product (GNP) per capita of a country. Yet another way is by Human Development Index (HDI), which captures the various experiences of poverty beyond mere economic definition. It considers various dimensions of poverty and the problems that the poor face than mere poor income. Poverty is also seen relative to the lives of other people who live in the country as social exclusion that poor people are excluded from active participation in the society. (Ibid. 10-13)
It is interesting to note that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has yet another measurement called the Human Poverty Index (HPI), again with several variants. The HPI is an average of three or four measures of deprivation: vulnerability to death at a relatively early age, deprivation in knowledge, and lack of decent living standards. It is interesting to note that the UNDP has developed two different HPIs, one for industrialized countries and one for developing countries as there are different variants in each settings (Allen, 2000:16).
POVERTY - A CHALLENGE TO HUMAN RIGHTS
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR) states that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” (Buitenweg,2007:51). Adequate standard of living for every one is a great challenge today.
It is not surprising that the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targeted in alleviating poverty by assuring standard of living to the poor. The World Bank`s Development Goals of which four are directly linked to the alleviation of Poverty. Reduction of poverty by one half the proportion of the people in extreme poverty by 2015. Mortality reduction by two thirds the mortality rates for infants and children under 5 and by three-fourths the mortality rates for mothers by 2015. Achieving universal primary education for all, in all countries by 2015. Health Provision access to reproductive health services for all individuals of appropriate age no later than 2015. (Allen,4)
It is alarming to note the statistics published by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Six million children under the age of five, die each year due to hunger. Around 840 million people suffer due to malnutrition. In Africa alone 34 percent of the population is severely malnourished. The UN Habitat, the UN Human Settlements Programme points out that more than a billion people live in inadequate housing conditions in the urban areas slums and on the pavements. The plight of the people in the developed countries is no better. For example in Dublin about 7000 people become homeless each year. And in the United States of America about 750,000 people are homeless every night. (Buitenweg, 52). Poverty and inhuman situations are prevalent all parts of the world. In every country there are poor and inhuman situations.
IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The effort of the International, Regional and the National bodies in the effort to eradicate and reduce inhuman situations are noteworthy. Yet we see the situations have not changed much. It is because of several reasons. Most common is again the poverty of the nation which cannot assure standard of living for all the citizens of the country. In the words of Burnell, “Most developing countries are poor and cannot afford the full implementation of human rights. Most developing countries have little power in the global economic system, and are consequently vulnerable to the policies of powerful states and non-state actors that are often unfriendly to human rights” (Burnell, 362).
Another common argument is that development should have priority over human rights, meaning for the sake of development one the country should even be ready to sacrifice human rights. It is proposed even some restrictions of human rights to achieve development (Ibid). But the UNO is right in pointing out that “development and human rights as interdependent, not in the sense that each always helps other, but in so far as improvements in each make the achievement of each other easier. Crises of development are often accompanied by crises of human rights, as countries like Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia show. Development success is good news for human rights as South Korea and Taiwan illustrate” (Ibid:370). It is logical that there can be no true development in a country which does not assure human standards of living to its citizens.
CONCLUSION
In the above pages we noted that every human person has human right just because one is human. The human rights are individual as well as group based. There are different classifications of human rights in to political, civil, social, cultural and economical rights. There are Organizations at the Global level, Regional levels and National levels to promote and implement the human rights. The UNO which is a International regime is effective as a promotional body and so is the regional bodies which are effective likewise. The implementation of the at the national levels in the developing nations are a challenge since due to poverty and the eagerness for development bypassing human rights.
The plight of the poor in both developed and developing countries are pitiable. The inhuman situations of the poor insist that human rights be implemented immediately and effectively. At the International level the United Nations Organization has been attempting repeatedly to insist the nations to provide Human Rights assurance to all the people of the world. In this effort the UN has insisted on good governance in the country. Kofi Annan the previous Secretary General of the United Nations said, “UN programmes now target virtually all the key elements of good governance.....without good governance no amount of funding, no amount of charity will set the developing world on the path to prosperity. Member states have increasingly recognised that good governance is indispensable for building peaceful, prosperous and democratic societies” (Allen, 380). As final word it can be said that there can be no development without human rights; and no human rights without good governance. It is the sole responsibility of the nation to implement human rights and assure human standard of living and human dignity to all its citizens.

REFERENCES
Burnell, peter and Randall,Vicky (2008) Politics in the Developing World, New York: Oxford University press.
Buitenweg, Rob (2007) Human Rights and Human Plights in a Global Village Atlanta: Clarity Press.
Allen, Tim and Alan Thomas (ed) (2000) Poverty and Development into the 21st Centuary, Oxford University Press.
Gordon Wilson and Ann LeMare (2001) U2123/TU871 Preparing for Development, The Open University Sup 57464. (text book)
Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty accessed on 14.10.08) 21.30.