Cover Art Concept Respect for the autonomy and dignity of people in a situation of poverty is a guiding principle on which this report is based. The cover depicts these individuals participating effectively in the formulation of policies to reduce and eliminate poverty. Empowered, they are putting up scaffolding and building ladders to overcome obstacles and reach the plaza, which represents the public space for debate and collective action. Also present is a sense of how poverty intersects with other factors, such as race or ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression. States have the obligation to guarantee access to the necessary tools to facilitate participatory debate and the collective construction of effective policies to eradicate poverty. Cover design: Anto Fraccaro / IACHR OEA/Ser.L/V/II.164 Doc. 147 7 September 2017 Original: Spanish INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Report on Poverty and Human Rights in the Americas 2017 iachr.org OAS Cataloging-in-Publication Data Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Unit on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Report on poverty and human rights in the Americas : approved by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights on September 7, 2017 / [Prepared by the Unit on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]. p. ; cm. (OAS. Official records ; OEA/Ser.L/V/II) ISBN 978-0-8270-6784-4 1. Poverty--America. 2. Human rights--America. I. Title. II. Series. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.164 Doc. 147 Report prepared thanks to the financial support of the European Commission and the Spanish Fund for the OAS/AECID. The views herein expressed belong to the Inter- American Commission only and cannot be attributed to the European Commission or the Spanish Fund for the OAS/AECID. INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Members Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli Margarette May Macaulay Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez Paulo Vannuchi James L. Cavallaro Luis Ernesto Vargas Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão Assistant Executive Secretary for the Case, Petition and Precautionary Measure System Elizabeth Abi-Mershed Assistant Executive Secretary for Monitoring, Promotion and Technical Cooperation María Claudia Pulido Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (ESCER) Soledad García Muñoz Approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on September 7, 2017. INDEX CHAPTER 1 | INTRODUCTION 9 CHAPTER 2 | THE CONCEPTUALIZATION AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF POVERTY 21 A. Poverty and Extreme Poverty in the Americas 21 1. Conceptualization of Poverty at the International and National Level 21 2. Poverty from a human rights perspective 37 3. General Poverty Figures for the Americas 40 B. The Inter-American and Universal Legal Framework on Poverty 42 1. Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights 42 a. The Organization of American States’ (OAS) Efforts to Eradicate Poverty 42 b. The Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights and the Work of the IACHR 48 c. Working Group to Examine the National Reports Envisioned in the Protocol of San Salvador 86 2. Universal System 89 a. Human Rights Mechanisms and Steps towards Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 89 b. The 2030 Agenda: Sustainable Development Goals 92 CHAPTER 3 | DIFFERENTIATED EFFECTS OF POVERTY 99 A. Women 100 B. Children and Adolescents 109 C. Indigenous Peoples 115 D. The Afro-descendent Population 120 E. Migrants 126 F. Persons Deprived of Liberty 130 G. Persons with Disabilities 134 H. LGBTI Persons, Groups and Communities 139 I. Older Persons 144 CHAPTER 4 | PUBLIC POLICIES, POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 151 A. Measures Adopted by States to Reduce Poverty 151 B. Fiscal Policy to Combat Poverty 156 CHAPTER 5 | ACCESS TO JUSTICE 161 CHAPTER 5 | CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 173 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 1: Introduction | 9 INTRODUCTION 1. The Inter-American System and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in particular, have been progressively addressing poverty and extreme poverty affecting a significant number of people in the Americas. In 2001, the Commission issued its Report on the Human Rights Situation in Paraguay indicating that poverty is one of the major human rights concerns in the hemisphere,1 and that it represents "a generalized violation of all human rights, civil and political, as well as social, economic, and cultural."2 2. Currently, and in the context of this report, the IACHR considers that poverty represents a human rights problem resulting in an impediment to the enjoyment and exercise of human rights on a true equal basis by the individuals, groups and communities living with it. In certain cases, it also involves violations of human rights for which the State may bear international responsibility. Extreme poverty constitutes a serious human rights problem because of the intensity with which it undermines the enjoyment and exercise of human rights. 3. Taking into account that human rights are indivisible and interdependent, the Inter-American Commission (hereinafter the "IACHR" or "the Commission") has emphasized that the violation of economic, social, and cultural rights generally also entails a violation of civil and political rights. Through its various mechanisms, the Commission has observed that the high degree of structural discrimination and social exclusion to which certain groups living in poverty are subjected renders their civic participation, access to justice, and their effective enjoyment of human rights illusory.3 From a human rights perspective, poverty and extreme poverty impair both categories of rights and overcoming them both, therefore, is associated with access to, and satisfaction of, human rights in its widest sense. 4. The Commission considers that, although poverty is usually associated with a shortage of financial resources that does not necessarily mean that economic factors are solely responsible for poverty. Economic growth does 1 IACHR, Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Paraguay, OEA/Ser./L/VII.110 doc. 52, March 9, 2001, para. 5 2 Ibid., para. 17; IACHR, The Work, Education and Resources of Women: The Road to Equality in Guaranteeing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.143. Doc. 59, November 3, 2011, para. 1. 3 IACHR, Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Paraguay, Op. Cit., para. 4 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR 10 | Report on Poverty and Human Rights in the Americas not automatically translate into a higher standard of living for excluded and marginalized individuals and groups, unless appropriate measures or public polices - from a human rights perspective - are adopted so as to generate conditions for real equality. Equally, notwithstanding the close ties between democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, this does not mean that democracy per se and the rule of law translate into full and effective enjoyment of human rights by persons living in poverty. 5. One of the main challenges faced by persons living in poverty is the condition of invisibility to which they are subjected. The IACHR has highlighted this problem, observing that “the torture of a single individual causes public outrage (...) yet the deaths of more than 30,000 children every day from mainly preventable causes go unnoticed."4 Consequently, a fundamental first step is to give due consideration and visibility to the serious problem of poverty. 6. The IACHR has received a wealth of information indicating that natural and climatic disasters can exacerbate the vulnerability of people living in poverty in the Americas. A study published by the World Bank has shown that the possible effects of climate change severely and disproportionately affect persons living in poverty, given that they are more exposed to climate- related hazards such as droughts, flooding, and heat waves, among others. That disadvantage is clearer when resulting in a considerable decrease in food production.5 7. As to how to conceptualize the problem, since the 1990s, the IACHR has been insisting that a focus on a human rights approach is indispensable in all State public policies and actions by multilateral organizations to tackle the issue.6 Intergovernmental organizations, such as the World Bank and the Inter- American Development Bank, as well as specialized agencies have published numerous reports addressing the issue of poverty from an economic and social perspective, based mainly on indicators of changes in the level of development. 8. For its part, within the United Nations, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has pointed out in one of its more recent publications that "Poverty represents a critical level of deprivation that threatens survival, dignity and the effective enjoyment of rights —notions 4 Ibid, p. 8. 5 United Nations, World Bank: Climate Change could add 100 Million Poor. 6 IACHR, Fourth Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Guatemala, OAS/SER.L./V/II.83 Doc. 16 rev, 1. June 1993. Organization of American States | OAS Chapter 1: Introduction | 11 which exceed the concept of sufficient monetary income to meet basic needs"7, and it has adopted a rights approach in its work. 9. Poverty analysis based on a human rights perspective begins with the recognition of the individuals, groups, and communities living in poverty as human rights holders and as agents of change.8 That is to say that persons living in poverty cease to be regarded as "passive recipients of aid" or "charity" and instead are treated as holders of rights who can play an active part in taking decisions that affect them and demand protection and accountability from State authorities. 10. A gender perspective also needs to be included when addressing poverty with a human rights approach in order to take into consideration the historical discrimination and gender stereotypes that women, girls, and adolescents have been subjected to and that have severely limited the exercise of their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights in every sphere.