ABSTRACT
The United Nations published in January 2005 an ambitious plan to halve world poverty by the year 2015 and end it altogether in the following years. Many poor countries are too poor to make the investments necessary to escape poverty. Although there has been progress in the elimination of poverty in Asia (especially in China), in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the former Soviet Union the plight of the poor has worsened. In sub-Saharan Africa, 46 percent of the population live in absolute poverty (on less than $1 per day), in Latin America and the former Soviet Union it is 16 percent and 15 percent respectively. As argued by Pogge (2001), severe poverty not only causes lack of social and economic human rights, but also contributes to the underfulfillment of civil and political rights. Poor people can hardly resist or reward their rulers, who have therefore the opportunity to rule them oppressively and serve their own interests.
