From a philosophical point of view, the UNESCO project “Poverty and Human Rights” may be seen as an attempt to explain the idea of morally unacceptable poverty in a way that makes acquiescence to dire poverty a violation of human rights. Though many agree that severe poverty is a serious moral evil, it is as yet unclear whether severe global poverty can be generally perceived as constituting a human rights violation. Witness the ambiguous language used by the United Nations and their representatives when addressing the issue of poverty and human rights. 1 In 1992, the UN General Assembly recognized in Resolution 134 that “extreme poverty” is a “violation of human dignity” which, depending on circumstances, may “constitute a threat to the right to life”(General Assembly Resolution 134, December 18, 1992). However, a possible threat to a human right does not yet amount to a violation of it, and it is worth noting that the term “violation of human dignity” has been chosen instead of the rhetorically stronger phrase “violation of human rights.” That “extreme poverty” violates human dignity is reaffirmed in numerous statements of the UN Commission on Human Rights (see, for instance, the resolutions 1993/13 and 2001/31). In the 1993 resolution, the Commission also maintained that the elimination of