MO*lecture: Poverty is the worst human rights crisis

‘Respect for human rights also requires that we also recognize that everybody has the right to the things which are essential for a dignified existence – food, water, basic health care, education and housing. Those rights – which are based on universal values – give people who live in poverty an instrument to restore the disturbed balance of power that keeps them poor.’
With this basic thesis out of the book An unheard truth. Poverty and human rights, Irene Khan – until recently Secretary General of Amnesty International – widely broadens the debate on human rights. She calls development a fundamental human right, and describes poverty as the worst violation of the human rights. At the MO*lecture, Irene Khan will sharply delineate the consequences of the thesis on an ethical foreign policy.
 
During this MO*lecture, minister of Foreign Affairs Steven Vanackere gives his vision on the connection between human rights, development and foreign policy. During a visit to the UN Human Rights Council – of which Belgium currently is the president – Vanackere stressed the importance of all human rights for everybody. So also of social and economical rights. ‘Poverty has to do with more than only a lack of income, in that sense it is also a question of rights. But you can not just equate human rights and the fight against poverty, that does not benefit the clarity’, thus the minister in a short interview with MO*.

About Irene Khan

Irene Khan was born in Dhaka, de present capital of Bangladesh. From 2001 to 2009 she was Secretary General of Amnesty international. She was the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim who held this function. Irene Khan studied law in Manchester and Harvard and worked during the eighties and nineties for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR. In 2007 she received an honorary doctorate at the university of Ghent.

About Steven Vanackere

Steven Vanackere (CD&V) became minister of Foreign Affairs on 25 November 2009. Before he was federal minister of Civil Services, Public Enterprises and Institutional Reforms; Flemish minister of Welfare, Health and Family; Alderman of Economy, Trade, Harbor, Purchase Central and Flemish affairs for the city of Brussels.

Practical information

- When: Tuesday 20 April at 19h30 – doors at 19h
- Where: Beursschouwburg, A. Ortsstraat 20 – 28, 1000 Brussels
- Directions: www.beursschouwburg.be
- Entrance: € 5 – please register on 02.536 19 77 or by e-mail: jan.buelinckx@mo.be - tickets have to be paid at the box office
- Language: English
- Organisation: MO* in association with Vlaams-Nederlands Huis deBuren.
- Partners: Beursschouwburg, Kaaitheater, Zuiderpershuis, Vooruit and Canvas.
- With the support of: Amnesty International