In October 2009, the Human Rights Council requested the Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, Magdalena Sepulveda, "to submit a progress report presenting her recommendation on how to improve the draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights to the Council no later than its fifteenth session (September 2010), to allow the Council to take a decision on the way forward with a view to a possible adoption of guiding principles on the rights of persons living in extreme poverty by 2012."
According to ATD Quart Monde, these guiding principles are necessary to identify human rights violations as a root cause of extreme poverty and an obstacle to its eradication; to reinforce human rights conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and help ensure their implementation in the context of extreme poverty; to set out guidelines for designing and implementing policies and programs to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights, especially by people living in extreme poverty; to emphasize that priority should be given to people in extreme poverty, as extreme poverty constitutes a threat to life and is a violation of human rights. These draft guiding principles approach the issue based on the most basic human rights issues: the indivisibility of human rights, participation and non-discrimination.
For more information on the background of the DGPs and how you and/or your organization can influence and participate in the current drafting, see ATD Quart Monde's brochure in English and en français.