Poverty and human rights

Everyone, everywhere has the right to live with dignity. That means that no-one should be denied their rights to adequate housing, food, water and sanitation, and to education and health care.

Amnesty International is increasingly documenting how human rights violations drive and deepen poverty. People living in poverty have the least access to power to shape the policies of poverty and are frequently denied effective remedies for violations of their rights.

Amnesty International is working to hold governments, big business and other powerful actors to account for human rights violations which target people living in poverty, driving that poverty deeper still.


Homes set ablaze during forced eviction at Mittapheap 4 village, Cambodia, 20 April 2007

UN discusses crucial step on economic, social and cultural rights

(24 October 2008)
The UN General Assembly will this month discuss taking a crucial step to secure access to justice for everyone whose economic, social and cultural rights are violated and who is denied a remedy at the national level.
Video: How things could change


Kibera slum in Kenya

Poverty Day to address human rights and dignity

(17 October 2008)
This year's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is a call to everyone, from policy makers to the public, to recognise the rights and dignity of people living in poverty.

Video: Working against poverty in Kenya


Shelters made from materials salvaged from ruins of Cambamba II neighbourhood, Luanda, Angola, February 2007

Angola bad choice to host World Habitat Day

(6 October 2008)
The choice of the Angolan capital Luanda to lead the global observance of this year's World Habitat Day provoked controversy among housing and human rights organizations.

Read more: Human rights violations in cities around the world


This work is part of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity campaign, which aims to end the human rights violations that drive and deepen global poverty. The campaign will mobilize people all over the world to demand that governments, corporations and others who have power listen to the voices of those living in poverty and recognise and protect their rights. For more information visit the Demand Dignity section.

News and Updates

Brazil: Indigenous community faces eviction

26 October 2012

The Brazilian authorities must immediately suspend a court order to evict 170 Guarani–Kaiowá indigenous people from a portion of their ancestral lands.

Op-Ed: Europe’s Roma discrimination shame

26 October 2012

Anti-Roma feeling in many European countries still translates into official policies that result in segregation of Roma from the rest of society, deepening and exacerbating their existing poverty and marginalization.

Serbia: Belvil forced eviction highlights need for new laws

17 October 2012

The new Serbian government must introduce legislation which prohibits forced evictions, Amnesty International said in a briefing published today.

France: Scores of Roma left homeless in forced eviction near Paris

15 October 2012

Around 150 Roma inhabitants have been evicted from an informal settlement in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

China: Rise in forced evictions fuelling discontent

11 October 2012

Violent forced evictions in China are on the rise as local authorities seek to offset huge debts by seizing and then selling off land in suspect deals with property developers.

Issues

Appeals for action

Call for governments to sign up to defend economic, social and cultural rights

13 August 2009

Hunger, homelessness and preventable diseases are not inevitable social problems or simply the result of natural disasters – they are a violation of people’s economic, social and cultural rights.

Nicaragua must lift the total ban on abortion

27 July 2009

Nicaragua’s total ban on abortions is endangering the lives of girls and women across the country.

Oil companies and the Nigerian government must clean up the oil industry in the Niger Delta

30 June 2009

Hundreds of thousands of people are affected by oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Particularly the poorest and those who rely on traditional livelihoods such as fishin

Video and Audio

Teargas in Egypt's Tahrir Square

29 June 2011

Amnesty International's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui reports from demonstrations in Tahrir Square, Cairo.

World Habitat Day - Slideshow 2

World Habitat Day - Slideshow 2

Out of sight - In their own words

Maja was with her children on the day of the resettlement, and she describes here what conditions are like in the settlement of Rakovica...