Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right: Who Owes What to the Very Poor? Co-published with UNESCO

Collected here in one volume are fifteen cutting-edge essays by leading academics which together clarify and defend the claim that freedom from poverty is a human right with corresponding binding obligations on the more affluent to practice effective poverty avoidance. The nature of human rights and their corresponding duties is examined, as is the theoretical standing of the social, economic and cultural rights. The authors largely agree in concluding that there is a human right to be free from poverty and that this right is massively violated by the present world economy which creates huge unfair imbalances in income and wealth among and within countries. This searing indictment of the status quo is all the more powerful as the authors endorsing it exemplify diverse philosophical methods and moral traditions and also highlight different aspects of poverty and global institutional arrangements. This volume will be of great interest and value to academics working in the fields of philosophy, political science and international relations, as well as to undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines. It will also be a crucial aid and challenge to practitioners in international governmental organizations (such as the UN and its agencies) and NGOs who think of their work in human-rights terms. Indeed, in view of the magnitude of the human rights deficit at issue, any moral citizen has reason to engage with the arguments of this book. And the book makes this possible for most in that, throughout, even the most complex aspects of rights theory is discussed in clear, direct language, making the text accessible to specialists and lay readers alike Co-published with UNESCO

Table of Contents:
Foreword Introduction 1: Thomas Pogge: Severe Poverty as a Human Rights Violation 2: Tom Campbell: Poverty as a Violation of Human Rights: Inhumanity or Injustice? 3: John Tasioulas: The Moral Reality of Human Rights 4: Álvaro de Vita: Inequality and Poverty in Global Perspective 5: Marc Fleurbaey: Poverty as a Form of Oppression 6: Regina Kreide: Neglected Injustice: Poverty as a Violation of Social Autonomy 7: Elizabeth Ashford: The Duties Imposed by the Human Right to Basic Necessities 8: Alan Gewirth: Duties to Fulfill the Human Rights of the Poor 9: Marcelo Alegre: Extreme Poverty in a Wealthy World: What Justice Demands Today 10: Leif Wenar: Responsibility and Severe Poverty 11: Simon Caney: Global Poverty and Human Rights: the Case for Positive Duties 12: Stéphane Chauvier: The Right to Basic Resources 13: Arjun Sengupta: Poverty Eradication and Human Rights 14: Osvaldo Guariglia: Enforcing Economic and Social Human Rights 15: Roberto Gargarella: The Right of Resistance in Situations of Severe Deprivation Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Having received his PhD in philosophy from Harvard, Pogge has published widely on Kant and in moral and political philosophy, including various books on Rawls and global justice. He is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, Professorial Fellow at the ANU Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, and Professor II of Philosophy at the University of Oslo.

Review :
"This UNESCO-sponsored volume tackles philosophical issues that long have dogged human rights advocates. How are moral human rights expressed, given the primarily legal interpretation common in the US? Pogge, a distinguished Columbia University scholar, helped convene 15 international specialists, mostly philosophers, to produce this volume...Highly recommended."--CHOICE