Globalization and trade have inextricably linked the fates of developed and developing countries. Growth in the world economy has been halved to two per cent and by year s end, hundreds of millions more people may join the ranks of the very poor. As economists and financial experts debate bailout strategies and the need to regulate the capital flows that have wrought havoc on world markets, the United Nations must give even greater urgency to its every day job of promoting peace and security as well as economic, social, and cultural development. For without adequate investments in the well-being and future prospects of poor communities, political and financial stability will continue to elude us. In this 50th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have a special responsibility to hold the spotlight on poverty as a denial of the most basic human rights.
Poverty is a cruel abuse of human rights.
Perhaps the most basic human right challenged by poverty is the right to life. Nearly a third of the people in the least developed countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, have a life expectancy of less than 40 years. Women are hardest hit both by poverty and by a battery of legal, cultural, and social restrictions. The world has the resources to right these wrongs. What it needs most desperately is a reordered sense of priorities, for without effective action, we can expect to pay a much higher price in continued social disaffection reflected most graphically in conflicts and social disruption, disease transmission, drug trafficking, and terrorism.