Ban discusses development and human rights with head of Amnesty International

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed global development and human rights in a meeting today at United Nations Headquarters with the head of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Amnesty International.

One of the themes of the meeting with Irene Khan was Amnesty’s ‘Demand Dignity’ campaign, which highlights the importance of fighting poverty using human rights perspectives.

Ms. Khan has called poverty “the world’s worst human rights crisis,” and in the run-up to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October, Amnesty is urging world leaders and policy-makers to shift the debate on poverty from economics to addressing the human rights problems that impoverish and keep people poor.

Mr. Ban stressed that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the eight global targets to reduce hunger, poverty and a host of others social ills by 2015 – represent not only a significant political commitment for development, but also stand as important milestones for often neglected human rights.

Human rights values and principles permeate, underpin and are supported by all eight Goals, he said.