About the campaign
27 May 2009, 05:59PM
A boy goes to collect water, walking on a municpal water pipe that cuts through a large pile pf rubbish in Mumbai's biggest slum, Dharavi, home to over one million people. © Mark Henley/PANOS
Poverty is a violation of human rights. Every person, everywhere in the world, has a basic right to an adequate standard of living – the right to food, water, housing, health and education.
The experience of people living in poverty is defined by a lack of income, but also, very importantly, by a combination of deprivation, insecurity, exclusion and powerlessness. These are abuses of human rights.
Amnesty International has spent almost 50 years researching and campaigning on human rights. Our experience has taught us that no solution to poverty without human rights at its core will have any long term impact.
Our campaign Demand Dignity aims to hold national and international leaders accountable for the human rights violations that drive and deepen poverty; and it will defend every person’s right to live with dignity.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Globally more than one billion people experience human rights violations that cause extreme poverty. The right to health, adequate housing, water, food, and education are all protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"I am often asked what is the most serious form of human rights violations in the world today, and my reply is consistent: extreme poverty."
Mary Robinson
Former President of Ireland, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience
Denying people these rights has catastrophic consequences.
It means every three seconds a child dies from extreme poverty and every minute a woman dies from pregnancy and childbirth complications. It means 6,000 people die of HIV/AIDS every day and 800 million people go to bed hungry each night. It forces one in six people to live in slums and it denies women and Indigenous people land and resources.
Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign seeks to break the vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion by addressing the human rights violations that are at its core. We will work to ensure all people have access to the resources, capability, security and power to fulfil their human rights, and to live with dignity.
We have identified four key areas where we think our experience and efforts can effect lasting change.
Dignity and Indigenous poverty
Worldwide, Indigenous peoples are the most affected by extreme poverty and usually rank at the bottom of any social or economic indicator. In Australia, it’s no different. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are denied rights to the highest attainable standard of health, adequate housing and freedom from discrimination.
"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life."
Nelson Mandela
Former South African President and Nobel Peace laureate Prize
Indigenous Australians on average die 17 years earlier than other Australians, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are twice as likely to die in infancy. A major focus of our Demand Dignity campaign in Australia is to concentrate on the poverty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read The shocking reality in the heart of Australia.
Maternal Mortality
Almost every one of the more than half a million women who die each year of pregnancy-related complications would have been saved by proper medical care at the right time. Fees for health services, including essential obstetric services and contraception, often keep women who are living in poverty from obtaining the care they need.
Women die in large numbers because of poverty, injustice and powerlessness - in their intimate relationships, families and communities. They face discrimination not only in their homes and families but on an institutional level, with no enshrined rights or recourse.
When a woman dies her family is impoverished further - through loss of livelihood, unpaid work for the family, the care and education of children.
Read Giving life, risking death in Burkina Faso and Birth and death in Sierra Leone.
Slums
More than 200,000 communities in the world can be defined as slums - they are home to more than 1 billion people across all continents.
These neighbourhoods share common characteristics such as inadequate housing, sanitation and drainage; poor or nonexistent water and electricity services; overcrowding; and high levels of violence.
Many are classified as "illegal", in all of them residents have very insecure rights of tenure, placing them at constant risk of forcible eviction.
People living in slums face obvious deprivation of resources and assets. They also face high levels of insecurity due to the constant threat of violence from police and criminal gangs, and from being forcibly evicted with little or no warning.
Access to justice is routinely denied because of discrimination and the criminalisation of poverty. In the processes and decisions that impact on their lives, the voices of people living in slums are routinely ignored.
Read Justice denied for Cambodia’s Group 78.
Corporate Accountability
Corporations and other businesses have an enormous impact on the rights of individuals and communities. This impact can be positive, yet all too often, human rights are violated as corporations exploit the corrupt, weak or non-existent systems of regulation in countries, and the people affected have no way to hold those corporations to account.
Particularly in the extractive industries, projects are often undertaken without adequate assessment of the potential impact on human rights, including environmental and social impacts. Communities are often forcibly relocated from their lands. But even if they are not, their traditional livelihoods - and lives - can be destroyed or threatened as their land is contaminated and their water supply polluted.
Conflict and violence can escalate as companies seek to protect their assets. In the worst cases, corporations and governments collude to shut down peaceful expressions of concern and demands for justice - through violence, intimidation, or trying to impose gag orders to reduce bad publicity.
Many of the world’s most resource-rich countries are also the world’s poorest, particularly those that rely on natural resources for the majority of their national income. Twelve of the world’s 25 most mineral-dependent states, and six of the world’s most oil-dependent states, are classified by the World Bank as "highly indebted poor countries" with the world’s worst human development statistics.
Read Environment and health laid waste in Nigeria and 25 years fighting for justice in Bhopal.
Millenium Development Goals
In 2000, 191 countries signed the Millennium Declaration and committed to "uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level". From the declaration came an eight point plan to halve extreme poverty by 2015 - they are known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)
The World Bank has put together a statistical explanation of the goals. It includes maps of key indicators for each of the goals and data for each country.
More info
Amnesty International have created Dignity University an online resource to enable you to be the best advocate for human rights for all people.
Make an impact
Fatimata, 20, proudly holds her first born baby © AI
Millions of people continue to face a daily struggle to live in dignity. Join us now and urge the MDG Summit Presidents to ensure that human rights are at the heart of the MDGs and the global fight against poverty.
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