Are legal rights the answer to tackling world poverty? Leading thinkers from around the world say a new approach is needed and that the rule of law is key.

Two thirds of the world’s population have limited or no access to legal rights. That's a staggering four billion people, according to the first global initiative to focus on the link between exclusion, poverty and the law.

Many of these people do not even officially exist, never having been registered in the countries where they live.

These 'nobodies' are at the bottom of the economic pile, surviving on less than a couple of euros a day.

But is access to legal rights the magic bullet to solve the world poverty problem?  A group of leading experts in foreign policy and development argue this is new territory in the fight against poverty and they feel it will have a huge impact.   

This week saw the European launch of the report from the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor in The Hague. The commission's work is based on that of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto. He argues that a crucial step in fighting world poverty is to increase poor people's legal rights  - especially when it comes to property rights.

By doing this the disenfranchised poor will be able to stand up for themselves, the argument goes, take out loans against their newly owned property and lift themselves out of poverty.

Citizenship

Being registered and having personal legal documentation is also crucial in this  - as once people legally exist they can take part in society, have redress to law, vote and engage in commercial activity. They then have citizenship, and the informal systems under which many of the world’s poor live can slowly be merged with the formal legal world.

This is the crux of the argument underlying the work of the commission whose report, “Making the Law Work for Everyone,” had its European launch this week.

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright is co-chair of the commission and she was in The Hague for the launch.

“The law can be an extremely powerful asset in fighting poverty but it has been chronically underused and that must change,”

she said. Her sentiments were echoed by former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy at the launch.

“I’m struck by the fact that how, in some ways, very simple it is to register people and give them citizenship, except it is very low on the priorities of most governments and most aid agencies. It simply does not register as one of those items that should stand out as a key element, I don’t think anyone can articulate yet how crucial that sense of involvement can be.”

Security

Madeleine Albright went on to say:

 “The pervasiveness of extreme poverty is not an inevitable part of the human condition, we have the knowledge and the resources to make rapid progress if the political will is there. “Reducing poverty is not only a moral imperative, it is also an economic and security necessity. A more inclusive and broadly prosperous world will also be a more peaceful and secure world and that is a goal well worth pursuing.”

The idea behind the commission’s report is make the idea of legal empowerment a central theme in the debate in tackling poverty in the future.

“I don’t think anyone on the commission thinks this is easy, this is a new concept,” said Madeleine Albright.

“We now have to translate this into a series of actions,” added Lloyd Axworthy.

The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor was launched by a group of developed and developing countries including Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Guatemala, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Tanzania and the United Kingdom – it was hosted by the United Nations Development Programme, the UNDP, in New York.

The European launch of the commission’s report “Making the Law Work for Everyone” was held at the Peace Palace in the Hague this week. It was organised by The Hague Academic Coalition and the City of The Hague.