Conflict, Poverty and Human Rights Violations

Much has been written on the roles of poverty and human rights violations in causing conflicts. This chapter looks at the other side of the coin. It explores how conflict affects poverty and the infringements on human rights. It delves into current initiatives which aim at incorporating human rights norms and poverty reduction in transcending conflict. The findings indicate the positive trend in prioritizing early warning and conflict prevention in fragile settings. This is facilitated by the advances in remote data collection but more research is necessary to shed light on household-level poverty. In building peace, resilience-based strategies in fragile and conflict-affected countries are promising. Nevertheless, more effort is required to empower the individuals by guaranteeing their fundamental human rights independent from their communal identities. The chapter concludes by stressing the need to develop conflict resolution policies that are informed about conflict’s reciprocal relationship with poverty and human rights norms.