By adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after the extreme violence and suffering of the second World War, the world’s nations proclaimed their refusal to accept that any person be crushed by other people. They affirmed the basic humanity of all people.
Yet still today, in both north and south, in both east and west, in both...
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For me, poverty is about neglected areas that are not taken care of, or where there are no resources for families such as libraries, good schools and good stores. In the stores here, most of the groceries are out of date. The store owners think that we’re content to live this way because they think we do not have a voice, but that is not the...
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I had heard that a group of people suffering with chronic diseases were organising a walk. I know very well what chronic disease means in terms of losing one’s health and never being the same again, as well as the anguish experienced by a poor patient lacking medical treatment. Despite this challenge, you need to be strong so that you and...
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This title was the theme of the second Joseph Wresinski Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held in Guatemala City.
For five days, close on 50 people from nine countries worked together. We concluded the forum by reflecting on how our countries and communities can identify future commitments in the struggle against poverty, while...
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A workshop for students was held at the Asian Institute of Technology. A number of topics were discussed, including: “What is extreme poverty from a multidimensional perspective?”, “Frugal innovation, social business and the Sustainable Development Goals”, and “Resilience and adaptability of people in poverty and the...
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I live in Cameroon. Some friends and I went to the village of Koumenke, that I know well, to commemorate October 17. We toured the village and met young people and parents. The aim was to understand the situation that the population was experiencing as this was the first October 17 event here.
We learned that few children were able to complete...
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On 17 October 1987, more than 100,000 people gathered on the Trocadero Plaza in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948.
On the Commemorative Stone in Honor of The Victims of Extreme Poverty, inaugurated that day, were engraved the words: Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human...
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Key principles for engaging with people living in poverty
Before joining the literacy program, my life had a bitter taste. I did not recognize numbers. To wake my children up for school, I relied on the position of the sun. I sold eggs at the market place and asked my husband to count how much I had earned. These difficult situations prompted me...
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‘‘We must all work together to advance the rights of those living in extreme poverty and ensure that their voices are heard and their dignity respected.’’ Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (2008-2014).
In 2012 the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted...
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More frequently around the world, we hear people living in precarious situations say, as one man from Burkina Faso told us, “Even in extreme poverty, a person has ideas. If these ideas are not acknowledged, people sink even further into poverty.” All people, regardless of their living conditions, look at the world, experience the world...
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The following two themes, which take into account the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2019, are proposed for the October 17 commemoration this year:
1...
