Working together out of poverty

From 10 October to 8 November, at the Documents of International Organizations Reading Room (room 207g) runs a book exhibition “Working together out of poverty” devoted to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

This Day was declared by the UN General Assembly on 22 December, 1992 (resolution 47/196), and it is annually celebrated on 17 October.

The history of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty celebrations is indissolubly linked with the date 17 October, 1987. On this day over one hundred thousand people gathered on Trocadero square in Paris, where in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed to do homage to victims of extreme poverty, violence and famine. Gathered people declared poverty to be infringement of human rights, and confirmed the necessity to work together to achieve the observance of these rights. These statements are written on a memorable stone which has been opened on this day. Since then people of different classes, beliefs and a social origin annually gather on 17 October to confirm the invariance of their position and show solidarity with needy people.

Annually about 500 thousand people suffer from constant famine and malnutrition on our planet. Every day from the reasons, which are directly connected with poverty, dies 30 thousand children. Almost 3 billion inhabitants of the planet live for 2 dollars a day, and almost as much inhabitants live in insanitary conditions. Poverty destroys families, communities and peoples. It causes instability, political disorders. It is a favorable environment for conflicts. Poverty can be shown in different things including the lack of income and manufacturing resources sufficient to be a reliable source of means of subsistence. Famine and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and isolation, and also the lack of opportunities for participation in taking a decision are typical for poverty.

The 17th of October is a day when people living in poverty have a chance to publicly declare about their problems and attract attention of the world community to severities and miseries to which they are undergone. The International Day also reflects the aspiration of indigent population to bring in struggle against poverty their own experience.

At the Millennium Summit, the world leaders committed themselves to cutting by half by the year 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty – people whose income is less than one dollar a day. This aim was approved as the developmental goal 1 stated by the Millennium Declaration. The documents of the World Summit 2005 identify the eradication of poverty as an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of mankind. The Summit appealed to the governments for consolidating their efforts and strategies to eradicate the major causes of poverty by providing basic needs for all, as well as giving access to manufacturing resources, credits, education and professional training to low-income population.

The offered exhibition comprises more than 60 sources most of which are documents of international organizations (UNO, the European Union, the council of Europe etc) in Russian and English: books, periodicals, the United Nations mimeographed materials, brochures and booklets.

• The eradication of extreme poverty and famine;
• Human rights and poverty;
• Labor as a tool of the fight against poverty;
• Poverty and sustainable development: the aid to underdeveloped countries and transitional economy countries;
• The national strategy of the Republic of Belarus for prevention of poverty.

The exhibition is designed for students, postgraduates, university professors teaching social and economic disciplines, politicians and public figures, specialists in world economics, international law, world policy, international relations and human rights, and social workers.

Useful links

• Poverty and sustainable development
• The first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997–2006)
• The second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008–2017)
• The 24th special session “World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world” (New York, 26–30 June, 2000)
• The World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 6–12 March, 1995)
• UNO and the reduction of poverty
• UNO and the fight against global hunger
• The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October)

Documents

• The General Assembly resolutions:
  • on the declaration of the 2nd United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty [A/RES/62/205]
  • on the declaration of the 1st United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty [A/RES/50/107]
  • The 2nd United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008–2017) [A/RES/63/230]
  • Implementation of the 1st United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997–2006)
  • Role of microcredit and microfinance in the eradication of poverty
• Secretary General’s reports
• Documents of the Council for Human Rights (since 2006)
• Documents of the Commission for Human Rights (up to 2006)
• The Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition (1974)
• The Food Aid Convention (1999)