- ATD Fourth World

In September 2005, the report Kofi Annan presented to the United Nations General Assembly, In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all, marked a significant change in the content of the goals proposed to the United Nations, sixty years on from the organization’s foundation.
To justify the project to reform the UN, the main goal proposed to member states moved away from the historical goal of international peace and security, focusing instead on “research and development, security and human rights for all.” The report proposed founding the international social pact on the three elements of development, security and human rights, thus ensuring the international community’s capacity to implement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [1]

The women and men who live in conditions of extreme poverty are the first to be confronted, often from one generation to the next, with a permanent absence of security, lack of development and violation of their fundamental rights.
These same people, the poorest members of society, with their extraordinary history of fighting to defend their dignity whilst some or even all their rights are violated, have a great deal of experience and knowledge to contribute to the struggle for a more harmonious, united and peaceful world.

The proposals outlined in this Paper have twin aims. On the one hand, to place the eradication of extreme poverty at the heart of the political goals pursued by a renewed world governance. On the other hand, to recognize the participation of the poorest members of humanity in elaborating new principles for shaping future world governance as an essential condition in the success of the enterprise.