Justice and development: challenges to the legal empowerment of the poor.

• Author: Martinez-Soliman, Magdy
• Position: Report

We have made great strides in reducing poverty and enabling human development. Ever since poverty trends began to be monitored, the number of people living in extreme poverty and poverty rates declined in every developing region, including in sub-Saharan Africa. The global poverty rate at $1.25 a day declined in 2010 by less than half the 1990 rate. The first target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)--halving the extreme poverty rate to its 1990 level--will have been achieved at the global level well before 2015. (1)

Yet, while overall poverty has been reduced, we face considerable challenges in human development today, largely shaped by growing inequalities within countries. (2) Bad governance, poor health, low quality in education, the impact of climate change and environmental degradation continue to be the catalysts for universal poverty. As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated: "Poverty is not simply the lack of material goods and opportunities such as employment, ownership of productive assets and savings. It is also the lack of intangible assets and social goods, such as legal identity, good health, physical integrity, freedom from fear and violence, organizational capacity, the ability to exert political influence, and the ability to claim rights and live in respect and dignity. (3)

With its emphasis on social justice and equity, the legal empowerment of the poor addresses structural causes of poverty and exclusion, and could thus be central in tackling these interlinked challenges. As the process to formulate the post-MDG development agenda is now in full swing, it is a good time to reflect on the challenges to the legal empowerment of the poor as critical to the rule of law in development. Indeed, in the recent Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels, Member States recognized "that the rule of law and development are strongly interrelated and mutually reinforcing" and "that this interrelationship should be considered in the post-2015 international development agenda". (4)

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT TRENDS

Despite gains related to the MDGs, the poor and the marginalized continue to be plagued by severe obstacles to their empowerment and human development. For example, vulnerable employment has decreased only marginally over 20 years, hunger remains a global challenge, and the number of people living in slums continues to grow. (5)...