Poverty and Human Rights

This chapter argues that human rights and the SDGs should work together to eliminate extreme poverty. The goals articulated in the SDG agenda should be closely tied to legally binding human rights instruments so that they are viewed as entitlements, rather than policy aspirations. Conversely, the SDGs should be used to provide detailed content to binding human rights. This requires a reconfiguration of human rights, and particularly the traditional assumptions that the role of human rights is to protect individuals against state interference, which militates against effective engagement of human rights in addressing poverty. Instead, freedom requires the state to facilitate realization of individual capabilities; individuals should be regarded as achieving fulfilment through social relationships; and equality should be substantive rather than formal. From these starting points, poverty can be seen to be a gross violation of human rights, requiring immediate and concerted action from state and non-state actors alike.