Poverty, Human Rights and Citizenship: A Brief Summary

The central theme of the chapter “Poverty, Human Rights and Citizenship” on Ruth Lister’s book
“Poverty” (Sage Publications, 2004) deals with the notion that “our understanding of poverty can
be enlarged when it is conceptualised in terms of diminished human rights and citizenship, lack
of voice and powerlessness”. In essence, it tries to analyse and understand poverty from the
perspective of human and citizenship rights. This paradigm thus primarily views poverty from the
non-material/symbolic aspect focused on “the wider society and political structure” beyond just
the narrow material aspect of poverty.

The first part of the chapter deals with human rights and how they are essential for the agency
of individuals in poverty. It is argued here that human rights should be an integral part of anti-
poverty policies. Poverty is compared with the denial and absence of human rights. Of particular
interest in this regard is the work of Amartya Sen in providing the conceptual framework for 2000
UNDP Human Development Report with the title Human Rights and Human Development where
it is iterated that human rights as the freedom to lead a meaningful positive live and not just a
life free of “coercion and interreference”. The Vienna Declaration further calls to attention
poverty not just as a lack of means and resources but also at “capabilities, choices, security and
power needed for the full enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other fundamental
civil, cultural, political and social rights” (OHCHR, 2001). It also brings to the discourse the notion
of “indivisibility and interdependence” of human rights- “the fact that the enjoyment of some
rights may be dependent on or contribute to the enjoyment of others”. Human rights are
therefore seen as universal and all-encompassing for human development.

The second half of the chapter brings our focus and attention to citizenship in the context of
individual nation states, which is understood as the “specific interpretation and concretization of
the more abstract and unverbalizable human rights”. Citizenship is then further bifurcated into
citizenship rights and citizenship participation. Citizenship rights in this context is therefore seen
as the pragmatic application of the human rights concepts into real word programs and policies.
Citizenship rights are derived from being the member of a particular society e.g. Citizens of Saudi
Arabia and France enjoy very different set of citizenship rights by virtue of their membership in
different societies and values and so on. Citizenship participation on the other hand is best
summed up by The Amsterdam Declaration on the Social Quality of Europe “to be able to
participate, citizens must have access to an acceptable level of economic security and of social
inclusion, live in cohesive communities, and be empowered to develop their full potential. In
other words, social quality depends on the extent to which economic, social and political
citizenship is enjoyed by all residents of Europe.” More about the participation of those in poverty
is articulated in the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. Thus, the latter part of the
chapter is concerned with the notions of participation, voice, “insider expertise”, empowerment,
and “power not pity” in relation to poverty.
In conclusion, this chapter focuses on the symbolic and structural aspects of poverty underpinned
by a myriad of diverse concepts and notions of rights, participation, power, voice, empowerment,
security and choice among others. Firstly, from a broad, abstract and universal human rights
perspective and then narrowing the focus down to the interpretation and application of those
human rights in the form of citizenship rights in the context of individual nation states. This also
helps to direct anti-poverty policies and programs to a more human-centric participatory and
rights-based approach.