Two Faces of Poverty
| "The rule of law starts at home. But in too many places it remains elusive. Hatred, corruption, violence and exclusion go without redress. The vulnerable lack effective recourse and the powerful manipulate laws to retain power and accumulate wealth" -Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations |
Resources
Speakers' Presentations, conference audio recordings, and photographs can all be accessed from the "Proceedings" section of this site.
The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor
- Read the full report of the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, entitled "Making the Law Work for Everyone"
- read Volume II of the Report, a collection of the technical reports presented by five working groups (.pdf file)
- For a complete listing of commission documents, consultation reports, and concept papers, visit the CLEP Reports and Publications page
- For general information on the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, visit the CLEP website at http://www.undp.org/legalempowerment/
Background of the Commission
The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor argues that four billion people around the world are robbed of the chance to better their lives and climb out of poverty because they are excluded from the rule of law. Whether living below or slightly above the poverty line, these men, women, and children lack the protection and rights afforded by law.
The High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (the “Commission”, or “CLEP”) was appointed in 2005 on the conviction that poverty can only be eradicated if governments give all citizens, especially the poor, a legitimate stake in the economy, thus making it the right of all citizens, and not the privilege of a few, to have access to user and property rights and other legal protections. The idea was not to replace other initiatives, but rather to identify some of the impediments to poverty reduction, and explore potential ways of overcoming the impediments encountered by the poor due to governance systems and find ways to utilize the legal framework to enhance the capacity of the poor. The mandate for the CLEP ended in the summer of 2008, with follow up assumed by the UN Development Program.
On June 3, 2008 at the UN headquarters in New York, CLEP co-chairs Madeline K. Albright and Hernando de Soto launched the Commission’s final report, “Making the Law Work for Everyone”, in two volumes, noting:
"The lesson is clear. When democratic rules are ignored and there is no law capable of providing shelter, the people who suffer most are those who can least afford to lose. Creating an infrastructure of laws, rights, enforcement, and adjudication is not an academic project, of interest to political scientists and social engineers. The establishment of such institutions can spell the difference between vulnerability and security, desperation and dignity for hundreds of millions of our fellow human beings."
The Commission committed to learn from the experiences of the poor and to that end, consultations were held in a number of countries and the findings are incorporated in the final report available on the Commission web site: http://legalempowerment.undp.org/reports/concept2action.html