I am thinking of the families uprooted from their villages
\nin the southern Sahara. Extreme poverty has forced
\nthem to take to the paths, byways and highways. They
\nnow camp on the outskirts of towns, with no means of
\nsettling. They can\u2019t fulfil their traditional responsibilities
\nand customary rights, to provide for themselves through
\nwork, and protect their children with a stable
\nhome and traditional education.<\/p>\n
Unable to enjoy a social and community life, these
\nfamilies are not just poor. They are in extreme poverty,
\nwhich pushes them outside the reach of development
\nprogrammes. When urbanisation reaches the outskirts
\nof towns where they have erected their makeshift
\nshelters, they are forced to move on again. Again
\nunable to exercise their rights or responsibilities,
\nthey\u2019re too weakened to take advantage of urban
\ndevelopment. Nor will they share in the changes or the
\nnew benefits that come with it.<\/p>\n
I am thinking too of the men, women and young people
\nfacing long-term unemployment in industrialised
\ncountries. With neither qualifications nor significant
\nphysical or social reserves, they are reduced to relying
\non social assistance. Poorly housed, unequipped to
\nsupport their children’s schooling, the vocational
\ntraining programmes for tomorrow’s jobs never reach
\nthem. In industrialised countries, those in extreme
\npoverty cannot exercise their responsibilities as parents
\nor their rights as workers and citizens. Except as
\nwelfare recipients, they will be also denied any real
\nplace in the information and communication society.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m thinking of the children and young people in
\nextreme poverty on the streets of some Latin American
\ncities. They have no settled home life, whether in its
\ntraditional form or in its process of change. They\u2019re
\ndenied the cultural grounding and sense of future
\nresponsibility that family, neighbourhood and social
\nbelonging can provide.<\/p>\n
Throughout the world, people, families and social
\ngroups living in abject poverty are unable to assume
\nresponsibility for their lives and for the life and socio-
\neconomic, cultural and political changes taking place in
\ntheir countries. Those who don’t contribute to it gain
\nnothing from it. No benefits, no new rights, not now, not
\never. And the socio-economic progress others make
\ndoes nothing to break the vicious cycle that keeps them
\ntrapped.<\/p>\n
This is where the real challenge of Human Rights lies.
\nUnder what conditions will these families and
\ncommunities be able to take responsibility for
\nthemselves and their households, and share
\nresponsibility for the future of both their nation and the
\ninternational community, as they should?<\/p>\n
They will be able to, beyond everything that might
\notherwise divide us, if we are willing to come together,
\nuniting hands, hearts, and minds to serve the children
\nand families who have so far been most the abandoned.<\/p>\n
They will be able to, if we recognise them as people of
\ntheir time, families with lived experience they urgently
\nneed to share with us. They will be able to if we
\nrecognise that they carry within them a vision of
\ntoday\u2019s society and of their fellow human beings. They
\nwill be able to if we take seriously their determination
\nto build a future for their children, and for all the
\nchildren who are about to enter the twenty-first
\ncentury.
\nOnly then, will they teach us an indispensable lesson we
\ncannot afford to ignore: their lived understanding of the
\nuniversality and indivisibility of Human Rights.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am thinking of the families uprooted from their villages in the southern Sahara. Extreme poverty has forced them to (…) Read more