The Poverty of Rights Human Rights and the Eradication of Poverty

This is an innovative collection that brings together two issues that are not always related: measures to reduce poverty, and respect in practice for human rights. Most of the contributors are from Latin America--a region characterized by terrible human rights violations, and the co-existence of relative wealth alongside immense absolute inequality. Law, they argue, is no panacea for the intractable problem of poverty. Instead it can be an indispensable basis for social mobilization, which, in turn can be strengthened by socially engaged and critical social science. Paying particular attention to indigenous peoples, the contributors explore their struggles against poverty, and the relatively new notion of the right to development.