Stop poverty

In these last 40 years, there has been positive achievement and progress in the fight against poverty, but the truth is that "while there may be enough resources to combat hunger, the political will to win the war on poverty is still lacking" (the Secretary General of the United Nations).

More than half the world's people must survive on less than two dollars a day. A total of 1.2 billion people live in absolute poverty and 83 per cent of the wealth produced every year goes to one-fifth of humanity. How can this be when our world has supposedly become a global village and we are heading towards a single global market?

Globalisation in its current form, with all its benefits and opportunities, has not produced a broad-based system of inclusion.

Inclusion should be the distinguishing mark of a human rights approach to poverty-reduction. Without a serious commitment by the developed nations to give their share of sacrifice in the process, the least developed countries will continue to be trapped in their current difficult situation. "What is needed is a change of heart!"

A human rights approach to fighting poverty in the era of globalisation must look at the person, as Pope John Paul II recalled, within the context of those "qualitative needs which cannot be satisfied by market mechanism alone" (Centesimus Annus, 40).

The fact that a person lives in poverty does not mean that others should decide on his or her best interests. Many international development programmes have failed because of lack of sensitivity to local knowledge and to local ownership.

The experience and resources offered by faith-based initiatives - as partners in the areas of education, healthcare and relief - should be fully utilised in order to aim at the liberation of the gifts and talents of every man and woman, through better health, education and opportunity.

Allow me to expose to you the position of the Church with regard to the underlying principles that should inspire the human rights approach to poverty.

¤ A human rights approach should always focus on the person living in poverty as a fellow human being endowed with dignity, rights and potential.

¤ A human rights approach cannot be satisfied with policies that treat people living in poverty somewhat as a threat, as just potential illegal immigrants or asylum seekers, much less as potential terrorists. We respond to the person living in poverty not out of fear or out of short-term political or self-interest, but in a true spirit of solidarity, fostering the common good of the entire global community.

¤ A human rights approach does not consider the person living in poverty as an object to be managed but as a participating subject. The focus of international intervention should be to ensure that the genius of the poor can be focused not just on surviving but on flourishing, on becoming active participants in society in a way worthy of human dignity, with hope for themselves and their families.

¤ A human rights approach to poverty-reduction should focus on those forms of discrimination and of stigma which damage the self-esteem of people living in poverty and, thus, weaken their capacity to participate.

¤ A human rights approach would encourage society to embrace HIV/AIDS victims as people who belong and can contribute. The same treatment should be given to immigrants and asylum seekers.

¤ A human rights approach to extreme poverty would bring its particular contribution towards an ethos of equality among people and solidarity.

"The success of these development strategies requires the strengthening of basic human communities that are the tissue of an active civil society based on structure of participation and shared responsibility" (Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 46).

Charity Day on Sunday offers us an opportunity for moments of discernment, of renewal, of united action and, above all, of a preferential option for the poor. May we work together in the vision of a new future for the poor in the world!