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

Urgent plan needed to tackle housing crisis in Haiti

10 February 2012

The death of a child amid a fire at an earthquake survivors' camp in Haiti highlights the authorities' need to resolve the dire housing crisis.

Urgent plan needed to tackle housing crisis in Haiti

10 February 2012

The death of a child amid a fire at an earthquake survivors' camp in Haiti highlights the authorities' need to resolve the dire housing crisis.

Panama: Protester deaths need proper investigation

8 February 2012

Two activists in Panama have been killed in clashes between security forces and the Ngäbe-Buglé people during anti-mining protests.

Israel: Cancel plan to forcibly displace Jahalin Bedouin communities

8 February 2012

A new report by Amnesty International urges the Israeli military to end demolitions displacing thousands of Bedouins in the West Bank.

Chad: Hundreds of families forcibly evicted from their homes

7 February 2012

Chadian authorities forcibly evicted more than 670 people from their homes to make way for a hotel in the capital N'Djamena.

Issues

Appeals for action

Shell: Own up, Pay up, Clean up

1 February 2012

Shell must accept its share of responsibility for oil pollution in the Niger Delta

Protect the right to housing in new Romanian housing law

6 July 2011

The human right to adequate housing is not currently recognized or adequately protected in Romanian legislation.

Bhopal - Indian government must end 25 years of injustice

16 October 2009

When thousands of tonnes of deadly chemicals leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India on 2 December 1984, around half a million people were exposed.

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.

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...

Out of sight - In their own words

 

On August 21, 2009, the homes of 175 Roma families were demolished...