On the Fifth Day: The United Nations Discusses "Combating Poverty" and Reports of the Human Rights Commission

During the Human Rights Council meetings in the 46th session, Ms. Peggy Hikes from the Office of the High Commissioner confirmed that the number of people living below the extreme poverty line has increased for the first time since 1998. She also drew attention to the fact that indigenous people, minorities, women, and the elderly are the people most vulnerable to the health and economic scourges of the pandemic.

Some member states talked about the various challenges brought forth by the Covid-19 pandemic, including its effects on human rights, the right to decent work, the fight against poverty, among other economic and social rights.

A number of countries called for writing off debts for poor countries in light of the growing repercussions of the pandemic, and others called on countries to alleviate the burden of taxes on citizens, who are losing their jobs.

Maat for Peace has participated in the session with an oral intervention, explaining that 1 out of 5 citizens in the Arab world suffer from extreme poverty and that as a result of the continuous wars in the region, the poverty rate continues to grow in the Arab region.

 Maat urged the countries to remove all restrictions on humanitarian and relief organizations and called for international solidarity to tackle multidimensional poverty.

Finally, Maat suggested that the council establish a committee to monitor the steps taken by Arab countries to face poverty, similar to the committees in China and Latin America.

During the second and third meetings of today's session, there will be a live discussion of the reports made by the High Commissioner on human rights in several regions and on different topics. These reports include the Report of the High Commissioner on the situation of human rights in the world, a report on human rights in Honduras, Guatemala, and Colombia, a report on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on human rights, a report on human rights in Cyprus, an oral report on cooperation between Eritrea and the Office of the High Commissioner, and a final oral report on Human Rights in Venezuela.