“Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right: What the World Owes the Very Poor”
Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Relations, Yale University
February 8, CUNY Graduate Center, Fifth Floor, Political Science Lounge, 4:00 p.m.
Author of World Poverty and Human Rights (Polity 2007); John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice (Oxford 2007); andPolitics as Usual: What Lies Behind the Pro-Poor Rhetoric? (Polity 2010)
What are our moral and political obligations to the very poor? Does the contemporary structure of international relations help to alleviate or, in fact, aggravate world poverty? What role might the current world human rights regime play in ameliorating world poverty? After all, Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights mandates that, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of . . . circumstances beyond his control.”Finally, what alternative institutional arrangements would be necessary to redress the lot of the extremely poor, who, today, live on an average of $2.50/day, account for 48% of the world’s population, but possess a tiny fraction of the world’s wealth?