International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, "The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights”

Amnesty International Head Irene Khan on “The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights”

Saturday marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The poverty rate here in the United States has now risen to 13.2 percent, the highest level in eleven years. And around the world, two billion people, or a full third of humanity, are poor, living on less than $2 a day. One billion live in extreme poverty, earning less than $1 a day. The latest numbers from the United Nations indicate that over a billion people are also going hungry. Irene Khan argues that these harsh numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Poverty, the book argues, must be recognized as the world’s worst human rights crisis.


Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. Born in Bangladesh, she is the first Asian woman to head Amnesty International. She won the Sydney Peace Prize in 2006, and her book, out in the US today, is called The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Saturday marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The poverty rate here in the United States has now risen to 13.2 percent, the highest level in eleven years. And around the world, two billion people, or a full third of humanity, are poor, living on less than two dollars a day. One billion live in extreme poverty, earning less than a dollar a day. The latest numbers from the United Nations indicate that over a billion people are going hungry each day.

A new book from Amnesty International’s secretary general argues that these harsh numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Economic solutions alone cannot fully address the deprivation, indignity, discrimination, insecurity, repression and violence of poverty. Poverty, the book argues, must be recognized as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

AMY GOODMAN: Bangladesh-born Irene Khan has been the secretary general of Amnesty International for the past eight years—her book is called The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights—joining us here in our firehouse studio.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about the connection between poverty and human rights,

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http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/16/amnesty_international_head_irene_khan_on

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