“Wherever human beings arecondemned to live in extremepoverty, human rights areviolated. To come together toensure these rights be respectedis our solemn duty.” JosephWresinski, founder of ATDFourth World, on 17 October1987 at the inauguration ofthe Commemorative Stone toVictims of Extreme Povertyin Paris, France.

On October 17, 1987, defendersof human rights from across theworld, marked and outraged byextreme poverty, gathered inParis in response to the call fromJoseph Wresinski, to:

➜ Pay homage to the victims ofhunger, ignorance and violence

➜ Affirm their conviction thatextreme poverty is not inevitable

➜ Proclaim their solidarity withthose around the world whostruggle to overcome it.

ATD Fourth World was foundedupon, and continues to promote,a coming together of society’smembers to unite around thecause of eradicating extremepoverty, starting with those whohave first-hand experience of itsreality and impact.

Poverty is a scourge in allsocieties and undermines peacewithin and between nations. In2000, the Member States of theUnited Nations expressed theirdetermination toeliminate extremepoverty, andmade it the firstMillenniumDevelopmentGoal. The worldfinancial crisissurfaced,however, addingto the food crisisand climatechange, which

have a disproportionate impact onpeople living in poverty. If thedignity of every person is to berecognized, people of all origins,convictions and beliefs will needto take action, refuse to acceptthis injustice and insist the fightagainst extreme poverty isincluded in the reform of theinternational financial andeconomic systems and nationalreform packages. The crisis mustbe overcome without leavinganyone behind.

Sheet 3 Promoting global citizenship

Coming together to eradicate extreme poverty and exclusion

Review of the 17th October

In December 2005, a UNResolution concerning theimplementation of the FirstDecade of the UN for theEradication of Poverty requestedthe Secretary-General toundertake a review of theobservance of the InternationalDay for the Eradication ofPoverty “in order to identify lessonslearned and ways to promote themobilization of all stakeholder inthe fight against poverty.”

ATD Fourth World co-chairedwith the UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs(DESA) a steering committee tooversee the review. Three reportswere published presenting thefindings of this review, which wasundertaken with NGOs, tradeunions, UN Member States andspecialized agencies. The reports– one of which was published bythe UN Secretary-General(A/61/308) in September 2006 –reiterate the intrinsic linkbetween the eradication ofextreme poverty and the respectfor human rights and stress thatpersons living in extreme poverty

are not just beneficiaries ofprogrammes, but rather essentialactors for change and defendersof human rights.Twelve countries (Burkina Faso,Canada, France, Haiti, Ireland,Mauritius, Peru, Philippines,Poland, Switzerland, Tanzaniaand the USA) carried out a morecomprehensive consultation withthe various partners taking partin the process. In May 2006,delegations from the countriesabove, including people living inextreme poverty, took part in aninternational seminar inMontreal along with variousrepresentatives from UNagencies and civil societypartners, to identify the lessonslearned and put forwardrecommendations to strengthenthe impact of the InternationalDay:

➜How to work meaningfullywith people with directexperience of poverty

➜ Recognising the important rolechildren can play and providingopportunities for theirinvolvement in efforts toeradicate poverty

➜The role of statutoryauthorities and the media instrengthening the InternationalDay and long-term anti-povertyinitiatives.

“Rare is the day when youcan speak of poverty withoutshame. When I saw all thosepeople coming together, whenI sat down with people that Ihad never dared to approach,when I spoke up in front ofeveryone, it gave me a senseof courage, of strength. Thatday, I realized that all thesepeople wanted us to count forsomething.” Grassroots participant at a17 October commemoration.

Strengthening the Impact of 17th October,

World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty

International Campaign:

“Ending Extreme Poverty,

A Road to Peace”

The international campaign,launched in 2006 andculminating on 17 October 2007had 5 main aims:

➜ Support and help link togetherpeople taking action with peoplein extreme poverty across theworld

➜ Promote the development of asocial movement across the worldof people taking action

➜ Encourage people to getinvolved to better understand thereality of extreme poverty and theways of taking action

➜Question commonphilosophical, cultural andreligious thinking, and theacademic and artistic worlds, sothat they take into account thiscollective effort to fight poverty.

➜Question public authorities atall levels - local, national andinternational - to ask them torecognize this social movementand to contribute to it.

The principle campaign tool wasa Call to Action, inviting allcitizens committed to justice andpeace to increase the impact of17 October, and join a movement

of people calling on the fightagainst poverty to be made apriority. Over 160 000 signaturesfrom 150 countries were received.These were presented by aninternational delegation of ATDFourth World members, includingpeople living in extreme poverty,to Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General, on 17 October 2007.

“Today�we�are�here�with�you,�not

only�to�speak�about�the�poverty

we�experience�or�to�evoke�only

the�hardship�we�live.��We�are

here�to�pledge�our�solidarity�to

all�people�who,�throughout�the

world,�strive�to�eradicate

extreme�poverty.”�

Mr. Adonis Salas, ATD FourthWorld grassroots member fromthe Philippines addressing Mr.Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General

Paris Seminar: Living

Commitments, Engraved in

Stone

120 delegates from 31 villagesand cities around the world thathost a replica of theCommemorative Stone inHonour of the Victims ofExtreme Poverty were invited bythe Mayor of Paris, BertrandDelanoë and the DirectorGeneral of ATD Fourth World,

Eugen Brand to a seminar on thetheme “Living Commitments,Engraved in Stone”. Publicofficials, people living in extremepoverty and members of civilsociety organisations explored anumber of questions includinghow the Commemorative Stone,and the numerous replicasworldwide, play a mobilising rolein the fight against extremepoverty.

“The existence of theCommemorative Stone isproof of the existence ofextreme poverty and the needto fight it. It invites all socialclasses to realise that life willnot be perfect for some whilstother live in total poverty.”Christophe Ziwaga, Mayor ofOurgou, Manega, Burkina Faso.

17 October International

Committee

In June 2008, the inaugralmeeting of the InternationalCommittee for 17 October washeld at the International Centrein France, chaired by CassamUteem, former President ofMauritius. The goals of theInternational Committee are:

➜To promote the World Day toOvercome Extreme Poverty,which publicly unites all those

who are striving together to endpoverty and those who want tojoin them, whether at global,national or local levels.

➜To promote the observance ofthis international day in ways thatrespect the original spirit andmeaning of the day

➜To promote and safeguardspaces where people from verydifferent backgrounds can meetto fight extreme poverty andviolations of human rights, and tostrive towards peace for all.

The composition of thiscommittee is unique, withmembers coming from differentbackgrounds, including formerheads of State and UnitedNations Secretary-Generals,renowned artists and academics,as well as people with first-handexperience of extreme poverty, allcommitted together againstpoverty and exclusion.

Permanent Forum on Extreme

Poverty in the World

The Permanent Forum onExtreme Poverty in the World is anetwork of organisations andindividuals who work very closelyalongside people living inextreme poverty. Participants inthe Forum have their ownidentity, objectives andphilosophy. The aim is not forparticipants to represent orbecome part of ATD FourthWorld. The objective of theForum is to enable participantsto share their questions,successes and failures, and tothink with others about their ownprojects and commitment to thefight against poverty in a spirit offreedom and reciprocity.

The network communicatesthrough the “Letter to Friendsaround the World” publishedthree times a year in English,French, Portuguese and Spanish

and sent to 3000 correspondentsin over 100 countries. In 2007,an ‘Asian Newsletter’ wasproduced and sent three time ayear to correspondents in theregion. In 2006, a report entitled‘The Proceedings from theMediterranean Seminar’ wasproduced in Arabic, English andFrench, presenting a record ofthe seminar held in 2005 thatbrought together over 60Permanent Forum participantsfrom the Mediterranean basin.The links established before andafter the Seminar withparticipants were reinforcedthrough a bi-monthly newsletterin English and French, as well asindividualised correspondence.

Permanent Forum members wereactively invited to participate inthe civil society consultationundertaken by the UnitedNations to evaluate the impact ofOctober 17, International Dayfor the Eradication of Poverty. Anumber of members alsocontributed to ATD FourthWorld’s submission to the UNHuman Rights Council’sconsultation on the DraftGuiding Principles on ExtremePoverty and Human Rights.

“We are a group of about 50mothers, who have renouncedthe aid programmes in orderto rise above our povertythrough our own means. Wemanaged to obtain a loanfrom some NGOs so that wecould buy some chicks toraise. After three months thehens started to lay Wesacrificed some of the hensfor food and sold severalothers to pay back the loan.In this way we have shownthat, given the opportunity,we women can work too.”Permanent Forum member fromPeru.

Partnerships with Civil Society

Organisations

ATD Fourth World continued towork with organisations andnetworks working in the field ofhuman rights and extremepoverty and forge and strengthenrelationships with new partners.Among those include ties withAmnesty International’sInternational Secretariat whosupported the celebration of aseminar at the UN in New Yorkfor the 17 October 2008 on thetheme of participation.Partnership with Civicus wasstrengthened by participating andspeaking at the General Assemblyin 2006 and 2008 in Glasgow,UK. A new relationship wasforged with the Global Call toAction Against Poverty (GCAP)including collaborating in theholding of poverty hearings inthe run up to the UN High-LevelEvent on the MillenniumDevelopment Goals in New Yorkon 25 September 2008.

World Social Forum

ATD Fourth World delegationsfrom Africa and Europeparticipated in the PolycentricWorld Social Forum in Bamako,Mali, in 2006, and at the WorldSocial Forum in Nairobi, Kenya,in 2007. At both events,delegates ran workshops onmobilising civil society in thefight against poverty.