Stand Up Against Poverty!
Commemorations for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

UNESCAP will commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty by joining an international effort to set an official Guinness World Record for the most number of people to Stand Up Against Poverty for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This will take place on Monday, 16 October, 10.00-11.00 am, United Nations Conference Centre Meeting Room 3, organized by the UNESCAP Poverty and Development Division and the UN Millenium Campaign.

Poverty Eradication Day seeks to promote increased awareness of the need to eradicate poverty. It serves to remind all people that a sustained and concerted effort is vital to achieve the goal of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015.

Click here to join the event!
Registration Deadline: 12 October 2006

Background: The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

On October 17, 1987, about 100,000 defenders of human rights gathered together on the Trocadero Plaza in Paris to honor victims of hunger, violence, and ignorance, to express their rejection of extreme poverty, and to call on mankind to unite to ensure the respect of human rights. On this day, the Commemorative Stone was also inaugurated to bear witness to the suffering and struggles of the poorest and to affirm that extreme poverty is a violation of Human Rights. The stone, which has remained at the center of all subsequent commemorations of this day, was the idea of Father Joseph Wresinski, founder of the International Movement ATD Fourth World. Since then, on the 17th of October each year, the poorest and all those who reject extreme poverty and exclusion gather throughout the world to express their solidarity and their commitment to ensure that everyone's dignity and freedom are respected. This is the origin of what used to be called “World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty”.

The General Assembly declared 17 October as International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to be observed beginning in 1993. It invited all States to devote the Day to presenting and promoting, as appropriate in the national context, concrete activities on the eradication of poverty and destitution.

Stand Up Against Poverty, Stand Up for the Millennium Development Goals

Stand Up is an exciting and innovative challenge which attempts to set an official Guinness World Record for the most number of people ever to STAND UP against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals on October 15th-16th. It is a mobilisation initiative designed to coincide with global mobilisations around the International Day of Poverty Eradication and the White Band Day of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. Stand Up will raise awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and publicly demonstrate the growing global support for the achievement of these Goals.

For further information:

Nobuko Kajiura & Sarika Seki Hussey

Poverty and Development Division
UNESCAP, UN Building,
Rajdamnern Nok Ave.
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Tel: 66-2-288-1600
Fax: 66-2-288-1097
E-mail: escap-prs@un.org

Related Links:

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty

Poverty Day & Stand Up Event in Thailand

UN Millenium Campaign