Module 9

Why is poverty a human rights issue?

What is the range of human rights abuses experienced by those living in extreme poverty?

Reading

  • David Petrasek, « Human rights » in the Sage Encyclopedia of World Poverty, 2nd edition, Mehmet Odekon, ed. 2015

    Irene Khan with David Petrasek, The Unheard Truth, WM Norton, 2009. Chapters 1, 2 and 3.

Video: Why is poverty a human rights issue?

Watch the video lecture by Prof Petrasek – “Why is poverty a human rights issue?”.

Video transcript (.pdf, 121 kb).

If you are having trouble viewing the video on the page, watch the lecture on YouTube.

Indivisibility

In Module 2, when examining economic and social rights, you were introduced to the concept of “indivisibility” – the idea that different categories of human rights are interconnected, so that fulfilling a right to adequate housing or education is dependent on respecting rights to free expression and public participation, and vice versa. This is a particularly important concept in furthering our understanding of a human rights based approach to the problem of extreme poverty.

Video: ‘Indivisibility’ – debating the prioritization of human rights

Watch again the video lecture from Module 3 – "Indivisibility – debating the prioritization of rights"

Video transcript (.pdf, 100 kb).

If you are having trouble viewing the video on the page, watch the lecture on YouTube.