UNESCO's ethical and intellectual mandate and its role in standard setting and policy promotion, places it in a key position to contribute to achieving the first of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), that of eradicating poverty, especially extreme poverty and hunger.

"...poverty may be defined as a human condition characterized by sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights"
(United Nations Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, 2001)

The United Nations human rights system's mounting commitment and growing efforts to isolate poverty and to examine its relationship and impact on the protection of the basic human rights represents an awakening to the decisive and devastating impact of poverty on human rights.

The world has never been as rich as it is today, yet over one billion people suffer from extreme poverty. UNESCO is committed to raising awareness to the fact that freedom from poverty is a fundamental human right.

Empowering the poor through human rights litigation: manual
by Maritza Formisano Prada