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Women and Poverty – A Human Rights Approach

Women and Poverty – A Human Rights Approach SANDRA FREDMAN Despite the global commitment to gender equality in the Millennium Development Goals, women still form the majority of the world's poorest people. This suggests that it is not sufficient to approach the problem of gendered poverty merely as one of development. Instead, attention is increasingly turning to the role of human rights law in addressing this issue. Yet, what can human rights contribute to the complex problem of women in poverty? Equality is universally recognised as a human right. However, poverty has not traditionally been regarded as a human rights issue, but instead as a misfortune, analogous to illness, or even as the fault of those living in poverty, whether due to their idleness, misjudgement or lack of talent. Nevertheless, it is argued in this article that the principle of human rights has much to offer in approaching the question of gendered poverty. At the very least, it signifies that addressing women in poverty is not simply an act of magnanimity on the part of the world's nations. Addressing the specific issue of gendered poverty should be central to states' human rights commitments made both internationally and domestically. And in a world in which power and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png African Journal of International and Comparative Law Edinburgh University Press

Women and Poverty – A Human Rights Approach

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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press 2016
Subject
Articles; African Studies
ISSN
0954-8890
eISSN
1755-1609
DOI
10.3366/ajicl.2016.0170
Publisher site
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Abstract

SANDRA FREDMAN Despite the global commitment to gender equality in the Millennium Development Goals, women still form the majority of the world's poorest people. This suggests that it is not sufficient to approach the problem of gendered poverty merely as one of development. Instead, attention is increasingly turning to the role of human rights law in addressing this issue. Yet, what can human rights contribute to the complex problem of women in poverty? Equality is universally recognised as a human right. However, poverty has not traditionally been regarded as a human rights issue, but instead as a misfortune, analogous to illness, or even as the fault of those living in poverty, whether due to their idleness, misjudgement or lack of talent. Nevertheless, it is argued in this article that the principle of human rights has much to offer in approaching the question of gendered poverty. At the very least, it signifies that addressing women in poverty is not simply an act of magnanimity on the part of the world's nations. Addressing the specific issue of gendered poverty should be central to states' human rights commitments made both internationally and domestically. And in a world in which power and

Journal

African Journal of International and Comparative Law – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Nov 1, 2016

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