“ In conclusion, the fight to eradicate poverty requires not only detailed knowledge of the causes and factors which give rise to, aggravate and perpetuate it, but also of its impact on human rights and fundamental freedoms as a whole. ”

“ We have also seen how, once the coloured people of South Africa won recognition of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, joined forces with those who had excluded them to set in motion one of the most original and exemplary political processes this century, rapidly leaving all trace of apartheid, that modern form of slavery, far, far behind them. ”

“ For example, if we describe the terrible consequences of slavery and the degradation to which it could lead, someone may conclude - as the slavers did - that a human being so degraded was in fact an object, and therefore did not merit the same treatment as a human being. ”

“ A population group frittering away its energies in coping with its many hardships is offered piecemeal, ad hoc responses which take no account of its efforts and make it impossible to instil some order into its existence.
(e) A population group which is driven by the inconsistency of life in extreme poverty to act illogically, even hostilely, will be given an illogical response if that suits us. ”

“ UNICEF, which is intensely active in this area, confirms this: "Those at the sharpest end of the problem of absolute poverty - the poorest quarter of the world’s people - are occupied almost every waking hour of every working day in the struggle to meet the basic needs of their families." ”

“ A population group in which abject poverty all too often breaks family and social links, whose members can have only a fragmented view of their situation, will be dealt with in parts, case by case, problem by problem, individual by individual, thus accentuating the separations and divisions.
(g) A population group trapped in poverty and dependency will be subjected to repeated interference, public supervision and projects designed, implemented and evaluated without it. ”

“ A creature that the slavers had previously regarded as an object could then be seen - in so far as he was able to exercise his rights on an equal footing - to become human in all respects, even by those who denied it. ”

“ A population group absorbed in the nitty gritty of survival, whose memory and history are fogged by suffering and exhaustion, is offered the same old emergency responses time after time with no regard for consistency, and with no effort to fit them into a time span and a history that might help them get their bearings and illuminate the future. ”

“ Yet it was the struggles of the slaves themselves and the ideals of humanitarian thought that won recognition of the fact that all human beings were of equal worth, and revealed the human being within the slave. ”

“ But because extreme poverty and social exclusion are growing worse and traditional social policies, mostly benefits based, have been a chronic flop, rarely reaching the poorest sectors and offering them nothing of lasting value in escaping from their situation, other ways of coming at the problem have begun to gain acceptance. ”

“ You must realize that their experience is not like other people’s; the means they use to survive from day to day seem inconsistent to those who can plan for the longer term. But these are all they have to hang on to, and beyond them there is nothing, so they cannot be abandoned in favour of plans they have made no lasting human investment in. ”

“ If we rise above the barriers of ignorance and the prejudices that cloud our understanding and cross the threshold into this highly complex milieu we shall discover a world with which we are unfamiliar, and where most of our answers are wrong - in some cases they may be extremely harmful. ”

“ It is surprising and moving to observe that, even within this world of uncertainty, adversity and misfortune, people make touching gestures of generosity to help conserve family links or assist others in the same situation. ”

“ It begins by stressing the need to measure poverty and offers methodological advice on how to do so. Measuring poverty involves two separate stages; first of all, people living in poverty must be identified and located. However poverty is measured, the identification exercise should suggest why certain groups and not others suffer from a particular hardship. UNDP believes that drawing up strategies to eradicate poverty requires careful identification of the target population and the inclusion in this "mapping" exercise of people’s own perception of their situation. ”

“ Only as they rediscover their full range of rights and freedoms shall we see emerging in all their splendour the human beings behind the poverty scarred faces.
↑ The subtitle used here comes from President Nelson Mandela's statement to the Copenhagen Conference when he said that poverty was the new face of apartheid, and the new face of slavery.↑ This shows to what extent individuals are not recognized as human beings until they are identified by their rights. Put another way, they are not identified as human beings until their rights are recognized. ”

“ Its importance lies in the fact that, besides discussing seven specific instances, it emphasises the steps that need to be taken and the kind of relationship that needs to be established in order to arrive at a qualitative understanding and the kind of mutual trust that will enable people to join a community project or become involved in some other activity which provides them with a means of escaping from poverty. ”

“ This participatory approach vis à vis people living in poverty received considerable encouragement at the Copenhagen Summit: "People living in poverty and their organizations should be empowered by: ... encouraging and assisting people living in poverty to organize so that their representatives can participate in economic and social policy making and work more effectively with governmental ... ”

“ It may be observed that such persons are particularly sensitive about joining projects which directly concern the family and forge links with the surrounding community.
200. There are two important clarifications to be made here. First of all, in the method presented by UNICEF, the expression "the poorest" is not used to demote the category of population on the extreme outer edge of poverty, even if it often means just that. The expression "the poorest" denotes the hardest people to reach within a poor community. ”

“ As we have seen, it is essential to set in motion machinery for participation which involves the poorest at every stage of the policies devised to help them. Only thus can concrete and lasting results be achieved. ”