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The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights

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Author: Irene Khan
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Category: Book

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Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7 x 0.8

ISBN: 0393337006
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
EAN: 9780393337006
ASIN: 0393337006

Publication Date: October 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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•	ISBN13: 9780393337006
•	Condition: NEW
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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
A powerful argument by the secretary general of Amnesty International that poverty is not just an economic problem but a global human-rights violation. In our rapidly globalizing age with economic growth occurring in almost every corner of the world, it is easy to forget that more than one billion people still live on less than one dollar a day. Poverty is the worst human-rights crisis in the world today, denying billions of people their most basic rights. In a bracing argument enriched by compelling photographs from across the world, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan makes the case that poverty remains a global epidemic because we continue to define it as an economic problem whose only solution is foreign aid and investment. Khan calls for a reevaluation of this longstanding assumption and turns us toward confronting poverty as a human-rights violation. Empowering the poor with basic rights of security is our only chance for eradicating poverty and giving freedom and dignity to those who have never experienced it.

35 photos.

Customer Reviews:
5 out of 5 stars

963 million people go to sleep with empty stomachs November 16, 2009
M. Himed (Oakland)
The statistics on poverty are staggering. People know that others are starving somewhere on this planet but have power to do nothing except shake their heads. People starve on one side of the world while the majority of people on the other side are full with some being obese and requiring surgery to remove the excess fat. The author of this book, Irene Khan, together with Amnesty International believes that poverty is a denial of human rights. How are the two connected? Every man, woman, and child on Earth has the right to shelter and food and if they are not getting those two and a few other things, then they are being denied their human rights.

The author gives many examples of countries denying their people human rights. We go from South America to the Sub Saharan Africa and we read terrible stories of people suffering. On page 178, we read about the story of the country Chad where 80% of the people live below the poverty line. They were given millions of dollars to build an oil pipeline and the money was supposed to go the poor people of Chad. Instead, 30 million dollars was used to buy weapons and the rest was embezzled by the President Idriss Deby-whom Forbes magazine called a pig- and his government. This led to the people- who are called rebels and terrorists by the government- rising up in anger and it has led to fighting and destruction that has left tens of thousands of people homeless, refugees, or dead.

Earlier in the book, we read about another nation- this one a liberal democracy- Israel, which has placed 500 military checkpoints on using roads in the occupied territory. The previous sentence sounds strange and it should because their should not be a democracy that is unjust to those whom it considers minorities. Yet the facts are true and the book states on page 77 that 80 % of the people of Gaza depend on humanitarian aid for their survival. The people there are like prisoners in their own country, unable to trade or make contact with the outside world; their means of survival as well as the Palestinians in the West Bank are limited. Khan goes on to say that "attacks on civilians and infrastructure are not collateral damage but a deliberate strategy to terrorize and uproot populations and occupy lands." And when the population gets frustrated and does anything to resist the brutal system they are in, guess what the government of Israel will call those people.

Poverty is just the end of a long line of corruption and injustice. There is enough food in the world to feed every human on it with 3 decent meals a day. The problem is that we have unequal distribution of resources. A few people enjoy the best food while the majority of the people are in the dark and are powerless to do anything about their corrupt leaders. Civil societies will never be strong enough to ensure that the voices of the people are heard and respected. The only solution is a system or way of life that ensures everyone must contribute to the poor and there is only one system in the world that can carry out this plan.

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