Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Are Americans Human? Reflections on the Future of Progressive Politics in the United States
- 1 Paradoxes and Possibilities: Domestic Human Rights Policy in Context
- SECTION I STRUCTURING DEBATES, INSTITUTIONALIZING RIGHTS
- SECTION II CHALLENGING PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVIDES
- SECTION III FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: MAKING HARMS VISIBLE THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMING
- 10 The Law and Politics of U.S. Participation in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- 11 The Anomaly of Citizenship for Indigenous Rights
- 12 Human Rights Violations as Obstacles to Escaping Poverty: The Case of Lone-Mother-Headed Families
- 13 The Human Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law: Lessons for the U.S. Human Rights Movement
- 14 LGBT Rights as Human Rights in the United States: Opportunities Lost
- 15 No Shelter: Disaster Politics in Louisiana and the Struggle for Human Rights
- APPENDIX 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- APPENDIX 2 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- APPENDIX 3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Index
- References
12 - Human Rights Violations as Obstacles to Escaping Poverty: The Case of Lone-Mother-Headed Families
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Are Americans Human? Reflections on the Future of Progressive Politics in the United States
- 1 Paradoxes and Possibilities: Domestic Human Rights Policy in Context
- SECTION I STRUCTURING DEBATES, INSTITUTIONALIZING RIGHTS
- SECTION II CHALLENGING PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVIDES
- SECTION III FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: MAKING HARMS VISIBLE THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMING
- 10 The Law and Politics of U.S. Participation in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- 11 The Anomaly of Citizenship for Indigenous Rights
- 12 Human Rights Violations as Obstacles to Escaping Poverty: The Case of Lone-Mother-Headed Families
- 13 The Human Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law: Lessons for the U.S. Human Rights Movement
- 14 LGBT Rights as Human Rights in the United States: Opportunities Lost
- 15 No Shelter: Disaster Politics in Louisiana and the Struggle for Human Rights
- APPENDIX 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- APPENDIX 2 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- APPENDIX 3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The United States is best characterized as an “outlier” in comparison with other affluent nations when it comes to examining and addressing domestic social and economic conditions through the lens of a human rights framework (Schulz 2009). Over the last decade, however, an energetic albeit somewhat eclectic domestic political movement has emerged within the United States whose goal is to bring this nation's domestic policies and practices into conformity with international human rights principles and standards. This movement, in effect, seeks to “bring human rights home” (Thomas 2008).
The U.S. human rights movement is spearheaded by an informal and growing coalition of more than 200 national, regional, and local social justice organizations that identify as members of the U.S. Human Rights Network (http://www.ushrnetwork.org). The network coalition is diverse, both geographically and in its composition. Member organizations address a wide range of human rights issues, including the protection of civil liberties, abolition of capital punishment, immigration reform, homelessness and affordable housing needs, health care, environmental deterioration, as well as the rights of indigenous peoples, the LGBTQ population, workers, prisoners, people with disabilities, impoverished families, women, children, and people of color (Soohoo, Albisa, and Davis 2008).
Within the U.S. human rights movement, poverty in the United States and the U.S. government's response to it are central human rights issues. Domestic poverty has not typically been framed as a human rights matter by U.S. political elites, the mass media, or most scholars.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Human Rights in the United StatesBeyond Exceptionalism, pp. 234 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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