Poverty has been found closely related to human rights violations. In Canada, Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) is tasked with advancement of human rights through accentuation of the ways in which systematic discrimination causes and sustains poverty, as well as addresses poverty within a human rights framework. ¹ Poverty further becomes seen as failures of affected individuals to meet the expectations to educate, develop and showcase themselves, take advantage of opportunities, apply for jobs, as well as keep away from welfare and crime. Individuals affected by poverty could therefore be perceived as lazy, insufficient and inadequate in some way, whereby such stereotypes are worsening the condition of those people and their ability to succeed. Adopted on 16 December 1966, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is ratified across most member states comprising the United Nations (UN), regardless of its wide acceptance many concerns remain addressed only in theory and are further to be advanced to meet the needs of the people. Article 11 (1) recognizes the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their family that is upheld through adequate food, clothing, housing and continuous improvement of living conditions. Furthermore, Article 12 (1) recognizes that everyone has the right to enjoyment of highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Poverty often coincides with reduced knowledge about the existent rights and their assertion, as well as basic ability to afford legal or other action of their enforcement. Notably, while conditions of living have been increasingly improving across the world, the gap between the poor and the rich has proven itself to be quite substantial and further worsening the problem of poverty. Moreover, welfare stigma is accompanied by welfare trap that explains how entry into labor force and taxation does not necessitate increase in income or livelihood.

OHRC Chief Commissioner Renu Mandhane, in her speech at Vibrant Communities Canada’s 2017 summit where business leaders discussed poverty reduction initiatives – Cities Reducing Poverty: When Business is Engaged stated, “There is an inherent harm to human dignity when what you have is so precarious that you’re not willing to risk it to get something better. Even if that “better thing” is actually something you are legally entitled to.” ²

Conditions sustaining poverty are commonly not sufficiently addressed and become accompanied by a group dynamic that does not commonly meet the parameters for litigation hence litigation tends to represent individuals and not a group in its entirety. Nonetheless, human rights law affords the language which allows to see and interpret the experienced in poverty, as well as it is complimented by range of normative politics that can be of interest.

1 Ontario Human Rights Commission. (2017, June 30). A bold voice: Annual report 2016-2017. https://www3.ohrc.on.ca/en/bold-voice-annual-report-2016-2017/recognizing-poverty-human-rights-issue

2 Ontario Human Rights Commission. (2017, June 30). Recognizing that poverty is a human rights issue. A bold voice: Annual report 2016-2017, 39. Retrieved from https://www3.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/A%20bold%20voice_Annual%20report%202016-2017_accessible.pdf