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Resolution 1800 (2011)
Combating poverty
1. The Parliamentary Assembly stresses
the importance of safeguarding the human rights and fundamental
freedoms of all people, regardless of their economic situation.
2. The Assembly deplores the alarming increase in poverty in
Europe in recent years, due, inter alia,
to the economic crisis brought on by the financial crisis, new redistribution
policies that disadvantage the poor in many countries, and massive
cuts in social services.
3. Poverty is a barrier to exercising human rights, whether they
be political, civil, social, economic or cultural. The Assembly
therefore fully endorses the principle according to which everyone
has the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion.
4. Poverty, which creates and leads to a lack of access to human
rights, can only be eliminated if poverty reduction strategies are
based on these rights. The Council of Europe is thus a major actor
in combating poverty, as it provides the most effective human rights
protection mechanisms in Europe.
5. Referring to its Resolution
1558 (2007) on the feminisation of poverty, the Assembly
recalls that women are more affected by poverty than men and that
their poverty is more extreme than that of men. Tackling the root
causes of women’s poverty, namely de facto gender inequality and
discrimination, is not only a human rights obligation, but also
a way to make full use of women’s economic potential and their contribution
to economic growth.
6. The Assembly calls upon member states to:
6.1. commit to ending poverty: after
having committed to ending poverty by 2015 through the Millennium
Development Goals, the moment has come to commit to ending child
poverty and extreme poverty by 2025;
6.2. take action to combat the poverty of women and adopt a
gender-specific perspective as a key component of all policies and
national programmes to eradicate poverty and combat social exclusion;
6.3. make the voice of people living in poverty heard: consider
developing new forms of governance and participation to bring together
and empower people and communities affected by poverty, and promote
social inclusion for all;
6.4. ensure that poverty reduction strategies are based on
principles of human rights, securing, in particular, access to and
full enjoyment of individual and community social rights by people
and communities affected by poverty;
6.5. adopt a plan of action that sets, in particular, specific,
quantified goals;
6.6. strengthen international assistance and co-operation aimed
at reducing poverty, in particular through the Council of Europe
standard-setting mechanisms in the field of social security;
6.7. promote investment in human capital, business capital,
infrastructure, in particular of poor areas, natural capital, public
institutional capital, and knowledge capital, as there is no security
and development without investment;
6.8. increase investment in early childhood development, education
and schooling, with a view to raising the level of qualification
of young people leaving the education system and reducing the school drop-out
rate;
6.9. take measures to enable, in particular, full access to
employment opportunities, adequate medical assistance and housing,
without discrimination;
6.10. secure the right to fair remuneration through the provision
of an adequate minimum wage, recognising the right of workers to
a remuneration that gives them and their families a decent standard of
living;
6.11. provide minimum-income guarantees to ensure the social
inclusion of people for whom employment is not an option or who
do not have the capacity to work;
6.12. ensure that strategies and actions meet the needs of those
affected by poverty, prevent people from falling into poverty by
providing them with support in critical situations, and assist those
who are in poverty to recover;
6.13. adopt a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling poverty-related
issues, taking due account of the responsibilities of those involved:
trade unions, businesses, financial institutions, public governing bodies,
and in particular central, regional and local governments, civil
society, etc.;
6.14. contribute to the development of science in order to find
new solutions, to disseminate good practices and to address the
unmet needs of people living in poverty;
6.15. contribute to strengthening social cohesion through volunteering
as an additional means to combat poverty;
6.16. prevent the intergenerational transmission of poverty,
in particular through the promotion of intergenerational solidarity
and family cohesion. The dissolution of the family is one of the
main causes of poverty and the strengthening of family ties is a
significant part of integrated policies to combat poverty. Particular
attention needs to be paid to large families because children from
these families are very often poor;
6.17. adopt a positive attitude, with the aim of promoting prosperity
and improving well-being for all.
7. The European Social Charter (revised) (ETS No. 163) is the
most advanced human rights protection instrument that includes protection
against poverty among its provisions. Article 30 on the right to
protection against poverty and social exclusion should therefore
become one of the core provisions of the European Social Charter
(revised), under Article A, paragraph 1.b,
and all Council of Europe member states should agree to be bound
by this provision. Countries should aim for the ratification and
implementation of the European Social Charter (revised) in its entirety.
8. The Assembly strongly supports the Principles and Guidelines
for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies proposed
by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNHCHR) and invites member states to duly take into account
the guidelines in their public policy making and relevant budgetary
decisions.
9. The Assembly welcomes the establishment by the European Union
of the “European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion:
A European framework for social and territorial cohesion”, and stresses
the importance of strengthening co-operation with the European Union
in this field.
10. The Assembly invites national parliaments to further promote
the signature, ratification and implementation of the Council of
Europe social rights protection instruments, namely the European
Social Charter (revised) and protocols thereto, the European Convention
on Social Security (ETS No. 78), the Supplementary Agreement for
the Application thereof (ETS No. 78A), and its Protocol (ETS No.
154), and the European Code of Social Security (revised) (ETS No.
139).
11. The Assembly invites its members to raise public awareness
of the benefits of social inclusion and the need to combat poverty
by promoting a more positive attitude towards people in poverty
and avoiding their stigmatisation.
12. The Assembly stresses the need to regularly monitor the effectiveness
of measures taken, including through topical Parliamentary Assembly
debates and the effective use of monitoring mechanisms provided
in the Council of Europe conventions and other legal instruments,
to combat poverty and promote prosperity and social cohesion.
13. In the framework of the biennial Assembly debates on human
and social rights, the Assembly decides to return to the question
of combating poverty in 2013, monitoring the progress made in this
field.