The advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.
Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensible for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 22

Everyone has the right to work.
Article 23.1

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 25.1

The Universal Declaration, which established the basis for today's understanding of human rights, describes "freedom from want" as a standard of living sufficient for a person's well-being. Adequate food, clothing, housing, medical care, social services, and social security are among the necessities of human life.

International human rights law presents an adequate living standard as a practical goal, not a theoretical ideal. Governments are obliged to work progressively toward the full achievement of this goal. If they fail to make progress, they can--and should--be held accountable by the public they serve and by the international community of nations.

More than one billion of the world's people today live in grinding poverty, with one in four individuals lacking life's basic requirements. Discrimination and armed conflict are contributing factors, along with misguided national and international economic policies and governmental inaction. If world leaders demonstrated the will to eliminate extreme poverty, according to a United Nations study published in June 1997, they could accomplish or nearly accomplish the goal within the next two decades.

In the United States, one child in every five lives below the poverty line. The total of men, women, and children living in poverty here exceeds 38 million. About one in five Russians now lives below the poverty line.

Amid armed conflict in at least ten African countries, millions have been left destitute. Some 40 percent of Africans living south of the Sahara Desert struggle to survive without the necessities of life.

Where there is poverty, there is hunger and malnutrition and inadequate health services. The number of people who lack adequate food today is staggering: more than 840 million in developing countries alone. About 34,000 children under the age of five die each day as a result of malnutrition or preventable diseases. The nongovernmental organization Bread for the World explains, "That's 24 children a minute; equal to three 74s crashing every hour, every day, all year."

Despite this appalling situation, there is some good news. The proportion of the world's people suffering from hunger has been declining in recent decades, in part because of economic advances in Asia and other regions. Hunger is increasing proportionally in only two areas of the world: Africa and the United States. Economic declines and armed conflict have contributed to widespread hunger in Africa. Contributing factors in the United States are the declines in anti-poverty programs and in wages for lower-income workers.

The gap between the richest and poorest sectors of the United States is also increasing. While the income of the wealthiest fifth of Americans rose 2.2 percent in 1996, the income of the poorest fifth fell by 1.8 percent. Effects of the disparities in wages and incomes are especially striking where children's health care is concerned. While some U.S. children receive the world's best health care, 10 million others remain without health insurance and receive few, if any, health services.

The right to adequate health care throughout a person's life cycle includes many aspects, among them: sufficient nutrition, accessible and affordable health services, availability of information necessary to make personal decisions about health care options, and a healthful environment. The right to adequate health care precludes any type of discrimination.

The right to housing, like the right to adequate health care, has many facets. Habitable and affordable housing is essential to sustaining life in peace, security, and dignity. The right to housing includes freedom from discrimination based on race, composition of a family, disabilities, and other differences among individuals. It also includes security from arbitrary eviction.

Worldwide, according to United Nations data, more than 100 million individuals live in conditions classified as "homeless." Lack of effective government policies is one reason. Another is state actions such as the forced evictions of urban squatters in Burma and Kenya and the displacement of communities in Bangladesh and East Timor by government-organized influxes of "more acceptable" residents.

The web of inadequate living conditions meshes with the web of unequal access to government decision-making. Together, they create and envelop marginalized communities. A nation's genuine economic and social development depends on protection of the political and civil freedoms necessary to participate in this development.

Act Now:

Request and Read
Consider reflections by activists working for economic, social and cultural rights, or read the story of a child growing up in the slums of Limerick, Ireland.

Act Locally
Make sure hospitals honor their obligation not to deny emergency medical screening or treatment to poor or uninsured patients or to women in labor.

Act Nationally or Internationally
Help people most in need get information on health and nutrition through a national health education program that promotes an adequate standard of living.

Grab a Partner
Join Bread for the World in pressing for legislative changes that increase food supplies to more than 800 million people who go hungry every day.

Raise Your Voice
Demand an investigation into the killings of Elsa Constanza Alvarado and Mario Calderon, murdered because of their work for economic and social rights.

National Coordinating Committee for UDHR50.
Copyright © February 1998 by the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. All rights reserved. This web page is adapted from "IN YOUR HANDS" - a Community Action Guide. This page may be reproduced, with citation of the source, for educational and outreach purposes only. No part of the content on this website may be sold for profit.evised: September 03, 1998.