A human rights approach to poverty and Social Service as a public policy of rights

Abstract

Athough the Organization of United Nations has already declared that civil and political rights are not hierarchically superior when compared to economic, social and cultural rights, the truth is that the last ones are of difficult adjudication. As an example, it can be mentioned the debate around poverty as a violation of human rights, which has neither been completely accepted by the doctrine nor by the governments or society. Taking a human rights approach to development, following readings on Amartya Sen and Peter Uvin, this article will demonstrate how actions to empowering individuals are paramount to overcome poverty, defined as a state of multiple deprivations, following a UN concept. This study was based on literature and documents taking the evolution of Social Service as a public policy in Brazil as an example to present strategies for fighting poverty that despite not being directly related to the question of income are structural to development. This essay will demonstrate that public policies aimed to invest on individual´s social emancipation might be even more fundamental to eradicating social inequality than politics of increasing income.