UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty & HR, Olivier De Schutter

The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate and report on the relationship between human rights and poverty. In his capacity as Special Rapporteur the mandate holder conducts official country visits, submits thematic reports, issues communications to State Governments in response to relevant information received from civil society on urgent or particularly important issues that might exacerbate conditions of poverty or threaten the human rights of the poor, and submits further reports on any other relevant issues that he deems necessary. FES Geneva is supporting Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter to assure his important messages reach a wide and diverse audience.
 
Thematic Report “The ‘just transition’ in the economic recovery: eradicating poverty within planetary boundaries“ presented in July 2020 examines how the fight against poverty can be combined with the search for a development model that mitigates climate change and halts the erosion of biodiversity. The “just transition” requires that the workers and communities affected by the ecological transformation be protected from its impacts. But the transformation required also needs to open up new opportunities and strengthen the rights of people living in poverty. “Building back better” does not mean returning to the status quo, but instead taking public action towards the eradication of poverty within planetary boundaries.