Poverty and Human Rights in the United States
We are often made aware of high rates of violence in extremely under resourced communities. We can recognize that in our developed country all people should have a right to safe and healthy housing conditions. But, it’s not often we hear poverty in the United States described as a Human Rights issue or a situation of violence that the people in poverty are living through. The Human Rights perspective sees poverty for those who experience it in the US as an infringement on the fundamental human right to participate in our democracy, in the cultural life of our society, or to live peacefully within our families. Addressing these Human Rights aspects of extreme poverty that deny individual’s dignity and dehumanize an entire population is the direct concern of ATD Fourth World Movement.
Last December the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip Alston, came to evaluate the United States as he does other countries. His findings were not at all positive or reassuring for our country - one of the wealthiest in the world. We live the contradiction of being steeped in the “American Dream” while facing a history of inequality that our current leaders seem bent on continuing. Alston’s final report will be given to the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2018.
The “violence of looking away.” In her interview with Alston, this is how Tiny Gray-Garcie, a woman living on the streets in San Francisco described the reality that homeless people grapple with daily. Her take on how the most vulnerable react to the treatment of passersby reminds us how dehumanizing extreme poverty is, to all of us. Residents in Lowndes County, Alabama showing the makeshift sewerage pipes running through their yards because the local government doesn’t provide all parts of the community sanitation services let us know that the disparities are systemic and affect entire communities.
"Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the “health gap” between the U.S. and its peer countries continues to grow."Statement on Visit to the USA, by Professor Philip Alston,Washington, DC, December 15, 2017
Some people will not be surprised or shocked by Alston’s findings. For others his report will bring awareness to a new and unexpected view of how many people live. To all of us they should stir discontent, maybe anger, maybe empathy, and most importantly a motivation to counter and overcome the divisiveness in our society and politics that allows this to continue. How do we overcome this divisiveness that makes so many suffer? ATD Fourth World’s founder Joseph Wresinski's approach, embodied in the movement he created is to bring people together around the most vulnerable and excluded ones in our society. They can lead us in developing an accurate knowledge and understanding of what extreme poverty is and how we can address it. With them, we can meet, know one another, learn together, and work past the political and social rhetoric that otherwise divides us.The invitation is open, please join us.
Maria Sandvik, National Director