DEMANDING DIGNITY: - Amnesty International

DEMANDING DIGNITY:
UNLOCKING PRISONERS OF POVERTY THROUGH JUSTICE
Every minute a woman dies in childbirth because she can’t access adequate medical care. More than a billion
people around the world live in insubstantial housing. Everyday, thousands of people die because they lack
access to medicines, health workers, shelter, food and water, and a decent livelihood.
These shocking statistics reflect how millions of people worldwide are locked into poverty. But poverty is more
than just deprivation – for millions of people it is the daily denial of justice.
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s new global campaign, Demand Dignity, looks at the way that
poverty and human rights violations often go hand in hand and drive each other in a continual negative cycle.
Poverty is neither accidental nor inevitable. Poverty results from the decisions made by governments and other
decision makers who hold the power to change people’s lives for the better. Amnesty believes that in working
towards a solution to poverty, we must hold to account those that make the political decisions which violate
human rights.
Human rights belong to everyone, everywhere – and all human rights are equally important. Traditionally,
Amnesty International has worked primarily in the areas of civil and political rights such as torture, the death
penalty, and the right to fair trial. But there is also another and less discussed layer to human rights.
Economic, social and cultural rights include the right to an adequate standard of living (including food,
clothing, housing and healthcare), the right to education, and the right to work and to just and favourable
conditions of work.
These rights, along with civil and political rights, are all laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) – the founding document for human rights that was adopted by all United Nation member states in
1948. New Zealand was a key player in ensuring that economic, social and cultural rights were included in
this important document.
“What is the point of having the right to vote when you don’t have access to clean water, food or medication?
Similarly, what’s the point of having access to health care when you don’t have freedom of expression or a fair
trial,” explains Amnesty’s Pacific Researcher, Apolosi Bose.
“Human rights allow us to develop our full potential as human beings. It’s about ensuring that our inherent
dignity is respected,” he adds.
By applying a rights-based approach to poverty, Amnesty International will work to ensure governments to
commit to their legal and moral obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil ALL human rights for everyone.
Amnesty’s history of campaigning for individuals will continue throughout the Demand Dignity Campaign,
giving a human face to the consequences of governments failing to live up to the promises made in the
adoption of the UDHR. In particular, Amnesty New Zealand will focus on securing the right to health
(specifically maternal mortality) and the right to adequate housing.
One example is the story of Rula Ashtiya, an Israeli woman who was forced to give birth on the road by a
checkpoint, after Israeli soldiers refused her passage through the checkpoint to reach medical facilities.
“At the checkpoint there were several soldiers, they were drinking coffee and ignored us. I was in pain and
felt I was going to give birth there and then; I told my husband Daoud, who translated what I said to the
soldiers but they did not let us pass. I was lying on the ground and I crawled behind a concrete block by the
checkpoint to have some privacy and gave birth there in the dust, like an animal’.”
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand , Te Piringa, 68 Grafton Road, Grafton, P O Box 5300, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1010
+64-9-303 4520 +64-9-303 4528 info@amnesty.org.nz www.amnesty.org.nz
Amnesty International is an independent movement of more 2.2 million people in over 150 countries who contribute their time, money and
expertise to campaigning to end some of the worst violations of human rights worldwide

Minutes later her newborn baby died in her arms.
Pregnancy is not a disease, yet it kills one woman every minute. Almost all of these deaths are preventable
and 95% of them occur in developing countries. Amnesty’s Maternal Mortality Project exposes the role that
human rights violations play in maternal death and injury.
As advocates and campaigners for human rights, Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Campaign seeks to
change the debate and perceptions around poverty, so that it is recognised as a grave human rights abuse
caused by negligence and discrimination by governments and others in power.
We aim to use the human rights framework as a key tool in ending poverty by ensuring that the provision of
basic services such as healthcare and housing are seen as rights rather than privileges.
To find out more about Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Campaign, and how you can get involved,
please visit www.amnesty.org.nz
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand , Te Piringa, 68 Grafton Road, Grafton, P O Box 5300, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1010
+64-9-303 4520 +64-9-303 4528 info@amnesty.org.nz www.amnesty.org.nz
Amnesty International is an independent movement of more 2.2 million people in over 150 countries who contribute their time, money and
expertise to campaigning to end some of the worst violations of human rights worldwide