A human rights-based approach to measuring poverty

Abstract

A human rights-based approach to poverty is one that goes beyond an identification of unfulfilled needs to address deprivation: it seeks to identify the causes of poverty redefined as the result of a process of exclusion and discrimination. As such, it redefines poverty not simply in static terms, as a condition facing the most disadvantaged segment of the population, but also in dynamic terms as the outcome of societal choices that should be challenged. A human rights-based approach to poverty thus presents a strong relationship to the ‘social exclusion’ understanding of poverty. This understanding contrasts with an approach focused on incomes, in which an individual is deemed poor if his or her income is insufficient to meet the cost of a basket of food and non-food items essential to be an active participant in society,1 and it also contrasts with a multidimensional approach focused on entitlements. Both of these approaches see poverty as a condition facing a group of the population rather than as the outcome of certain policy choices.2 Until the mid-1990s, poverty had been defined in purely monetary terms – as a lack of income. It is now seen, instead, as a multidimensional phenomenon, associated with multiple violations of human rights resulting from the lack of entitlement to a number of goods and services that are essential for the enjoyment of rights.3 The Programme of Action adopted at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development states that: