Book Review: Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty by Marthe F. Davies, Mortem Kjaerum, Amanda Lyons (eds.)

DOI10.1177/13882627211069671
Date01 March 2022
AuthorAne Aranguiz
Published date01 March 2022
Subject MatterBook Reviews
Book Reviews
Davies Marthe F. ; Kjaerum Mortem ; Lyons Amanda (eds) Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty,
2021: Cheltenham/Northhampton, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 585 pages, ISBN 978-788-97-750-0.
Reviewed by: Ane Aranguiz ,Tilburg University, a.aranguiz@tilburguniversity.edu
DOI: 10.1177/13882627211069671
There is a general agreement in international human rights law that no social phenomenon is as
comprehensive in its assault on human rights as poverty. Poverty is seen as an erosion of human
rights and is the result of cumulative violations to economic, social, civil and political rights.
The Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty offers both a critique and praise to this
human rights approach to poverty.
The handbook starts with a foreword by former UN Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human
rights, Philip Alston, who offers a rather critical take on the institutional efforts to address, let alone
eradicate, poverty, and suggests that poverty is a political choice.
Many other authors of the book join this critique to the existing institutional setting to f‌ight
poverty, while simultaneously building on the current structural design to f‌ind innovative solutions
or approaches to poverty from a human rights approach. An impressive number of leading experts
in the f‌ield of human rights contribute to this research handbook by exploring the link between
human rights and poverty and provide a critical look to key challenges in the f‌ield. The volume
both suggests that more research needs to be done on poverty through a human rights lens and
at the same time challenges assumptions of contemporary human rights concepts. It criticizes,
inter alia, the marginal human rights obligations private actors bear considering their involvement
in the global power dynamics and in exacerbating inequalities. Overall, the 35 chapters that
compose the research handbook sketch the state of play of poverty and human rights and raise
probing questions about the very same status quo.
The research handbook is divided in four parts. Accordingly, the f‌irst few chapters put into ques-
tion the very foundations of a human rights approach to poverty by challenging shared def‌initions,
measurements and standards of poverty commonly used in the international community, which are
essential for crafting, implementing and assessing policy responses. The second part analyses the
poverty and inequality dynamics in relation to cross-cutting issues. This second part is divided
into three sub-parts that address issues linked to identity (age, disability, gender or sexual orienta-
tion), circumstantial aspects of poverty (migration or geography) and participation issues where the
link between poverty and political rights is explored. Part three, in turn, turns into a discussion over
the policy approaches to poverty and human rights and includes important contributions regarding
housing, healthcare, privatisation, workersrights and taxation. The fourth and closing part of the
Book Reviews
European Journal of Social Security
2022, Vol. 24(1) 6875
© The Author(s) 2022
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