RES/15/19 Draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights

GE.A/HRC/15/41. 0-16691

Human Rights Council Fifteenth session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council*

15/19 Draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling that, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can be achieved only if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his or her economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his or her civil and political rights,

Recalling also all previous resolutions on the issue of human rights and extreme poverty adopted by the General Assembly and the importance they attach to giving persons living in extreme poverty the wherewithal to organize and participate in all aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life,

Recalling further all previous resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, as well as relevant Council resolutions, including resolutions 2/2 of 27 November 2006, 7/27 of 28 March 2008 and 8/11 of 18 June 2008, in which it extended the mandate of the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, as well as its resolution 12/19 of 2 October 2009, in which it invited the independent expert to submit a progress report presenting her recommendations on how to improve the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights to the Council at its fifteenth session,

Reaffirming, in this regard, the commitments made at relevant United Nations conferences and summits, including those made at the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in 1995, at the Millennium Summit, at which Heads of State and Government committed themselves to eradicate extreme poverty and to halve, by

* The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of

the Council on its fifteenth session (A/HRC/15/60), chap. I.

2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day and of those who suffer from hunger, and at the 2005 World Summit, and welcoming the conclusions of the summit on the Millennium Development Goals held in New York from 20 to 22 September 2010,

Deeply concerned that extreme poverty persists in all countries of the world, regardless of their economic, social and cultural situation, and that its extent and manifestations are particularly severe in developing countries,

Reaffirming the primary role of States in the fight against extreme poverty and in the promotion and protection of human rights, emphasizing the role of international cooperation in support of such efforts, and emphasizing also the need to enhance international cooperation to raise the capacities of States to eradicate extreme poverty and to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals,

Stressing that respect for all human rights, which are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, is of crucial importance for all policies and programmes to fight extreme poverty at the local, national and regional levels,

Recalling the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights, annexed to resolution 2006/9 adopted by the Subcommission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights on 24 August 2006,

1. Takes note with satisfaction of the progress report of the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty on the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights;1

2. Affirms that the fight against extreme poverty must remain a high priority for the international community;

3. Invites the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

(a) To seek the views, comments and suggestions on the progress report on the draft guiding principles submitted by the independent expert of States, relevant United Nations agencies, intergovernmental organizations, United Nations treaty bodies, relevant special procedures, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, especially those working with people living in extreme poverty, and other relevant stakeholders;

(b) To organize, within existing resources, in Geneva before June 2011, a two- day consultation on the progress report on the draft guiding principles with the independent expert and relevant stakeholders, including representatives of States, development and human rights practitioners and organizations at the local, national, regional and international levels;

(c) To prepare and to submit to the Council, no later than its nineteenth session, an analytical compilation on the basis of the submissions received in writing and made at the above-mentioned consultation;

4. Invites the independent expert, on the basis of the report of the Office of the High Commissioner, to pursue further work on the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights with a view to submitting a final draft of the revised guiding principles to the Council at its twenty-first session, in order to allow the Council to take a

decision on the way forward with a view to the adoption by 2012 of guiding principles on the rights of persons living in extreme poverty.

32nd meeting 30 September 2010

[Adopted without a vote.]