Background

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, intends to dedicate his thematic report to the 80th session of the General Assembly, to be presented in October 2025, to a human rights assessment of the various forms of monitoring and control that people in poverty are subjected to.

This report will explore how surveillance and oversight mechanisms affect individuals, particularly those relying on social protection programs. While these systems are designed to support vulnerable populations, the report will examine the impacts of such monitoring on the privacy and autonomy of beneficiaries and will explore the balance between providing effective support and safeguarding human rights. The systems in place to protect child welfare in households experiencing poverty, for instance, may inadvertently exacerbate challenges faced by families. The report will explore whether the structures meant to safeguard the welfare of children sometimes may lead to stigmatization or result in trauma or in unnecessary removal of children from their families.

The report will offer a comparative analysis across different regions in the world, providing insights from diverse socio-political and economic contexts. It will seek to identify good practices, offering recommendations for reforming existing systems to better protect the rights of vulnerable individuals.

The Special Rapporteur invites all interested governments, civil society organisations, academics, international organisations, activists, corporations and others, to provide written input for his thematic report.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights would be particularly grateful for comments, observations and examples of good practices in the following areas:

While all submissions are welcome, and the questions below are by no means exhaustive, the Special Rapporteur would be grateful for comments that address in particular the following topics:

Child protection services

Which safeguards are in place in the country concerned, to ensure that poverty, resulting in the inability of the household to meet the needs of the child, will not be treated as a form of child neglect and result in the child being removed from the household and taken into foster care?

1. How are the privacy rights of the family (protected under the right to respect of private and family life) guaranteed in the interactions between child protection services?
2. Which safeguards are in place in the country concerned, to ensure that parents will not refrain from seeking the support of social services, out of fear that the child may be removed from the household if considered at risk of neglect?

Duty to accept "suitable" work

Where the provision of unemployment benefits or social assistance is made conditional upon searching work and/or accepting work that is "suitable",

1. how are duties to search for work enforced?
2. how is the notion of a "suitable" job defined in domestic legislation and interpreted in practice?

Conditionalities associated with cash transfers

Where social benefits, including minimum income / cash transfer schemes and social housing, are combined with conditionalities other than the duty to search for work or to accept "suitable" work offers,

1. how are such conditionalities defined, and how is compliance with such conditionalities monitored?
2. what consequences result from a failure to comply with the said conditionalities?
3. are duties imposed on social services to support effective access to healthcare, education or training?

How inputs will be used?

By default, all submissions will be treated as confidential and the issues raised will not be attributed to specific individuals or organisations. However, if you would like your submission to be published on the website of the Special Rapporteur, please explicitly indicate your consent to publication in your submission.

The Special Rapporteur greatly appreciates the effort that goes into making such contributions and looks forward to reading all submissions.

Media inquiries

The Special Rapporteur's report will be presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2025 and will be made public around the same time.

Media inquiries, including requests to attend the presentation of the thematic report at the General Assembly in New York, may be directed to Halida Nasic ([email protected]) and Patricia Varela Benzo ([email protected]).

Twitter:@DeSchutterO and@srpoverty