Human Rights Violations in Slums

“Conditions in slums are a violation of human rights,” argues the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.

Ban Ki-moon said on Monday at the fifth World Urban Forum that the living conditions that are found in slums all over the world are a violation of human rights.  For the more than one billion people living in poverty around the world, access to safe drinking water, sanitation and shelter are everyday concerns.  The increasing urbanization of the world’s population is a cause for the increase in the number of people living in slums.  Nearly half of the world’s population lives in towns or cities and there are almost 830 million who live in slums.  Some of the biggest slums in the world are found in Africa and Asia, including the one pictured above in Dharavi.  It is considered to be the largest slum in Asia and is located in Mumbai, India.  Still, it is smaller than slums in Neza-Chalco-Itza, Mexico and Kibera, Nairobi.

The World Urban Forum, which is taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from March 22 to March 26, is a conference that discusses issues of urbanization.  According to UN-HABITAT, a United Nations agency, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in towns and cities within the next 50 years.  Because of this, one of the goals of UN-HABITAT is to find ways to create sustainable development in cities and help reduce poverty.

Ban Ki-moon’s view on living conditions in slums brings a different perspective on why there is an urgent need to create a future that is free of slums.  Besides the desire felt by many people to help out your fellow man, it is also a matter of preserving an idea that everyone, no matter their nationality, race, gender, or religion, deserves basic human rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  For the individuals that live in slums, many of their basic human rights are not available.  The men, women and children without access to clean drinking water or adequate shelter are living in fear of their safety and the safety of their families.  This problem is one that UN-HABITAT and many organizations are trying to address.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December, 1948.  It contains 30 articles that define the human rights that each person has.  According to the General Assembly, the declaration is “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms.”  Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on December 10 in honor of the adoption of the declaration.