This past weekend, I had the great honor of meeting Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Irene Khan. As the keynote speaker at Amnesty International USA’s Southern Regional Conference in Decatur, GA, Khan spoke directly and passionately on the intersection of poverty and human rights. Unlike many in the elite circles of humanitarian-aid or international development agencies, Khan not only highlights that human rights violations are often the underlying causes of poverty, she also argues that the cycle of poverty cannot be solved by charity or ‘economic growth’ models- rather, efforts to end poverty must be grounded in human rights and the empowerment of communities, so that they themselves can demand access, security, and the means to self-determination. Her book, “The Unheard Truth” is available worldwide and a must-read for anyone interested in the solutions to global poverty and inequality.

By lesoltis
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 9:29 am and is filed under Development, Economic and Labor Rights, Globalization, Poverty, lesoltis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.