A/HRC/5/3 page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Commission on Human Rights established the mandate of the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty at its fifty-fourth session, in resolution 1998/25. At its sixtieth session, in resolution 2004/23, the Commission extended the mandate for two years and appointed Mr. Arjun Sengupta (India) as the new mandate holder. In resolution 2005/16 the Commission reconfirmed the mandate of the independent expert and further invited him to “pay special attention to the concrete experiences of involvement of people living in extreme poverty in the political decision-making and social processes” and “to continue to focus on the various aspects of the link between human rights and extreme poverty”. The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council decision 1/102. 2. The third report on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights by the independent expert, builds upon his two earlier reports on the subject submitted to the Human Rights Commission in 2005 and 2006, as well as on his mission report on extreme poverty conditions in the United States, considered by the Commission last year. This third report also takes into account the observations of the group of experts, which met in Geneva at a workshop on 23 and 24 February 2007 to consider the different aspects of the approach of the Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty.1 3. Three considerations motivated the independent expert’s approach to the problem of extreme poverty and human rights. First, he wished to analyse the different characteristics of the conditions of extreme poverty, so that they can be linked to the conditions of deprivation of human rights. This approach was meant to facilitate the acceptance by the international community of States that the eradication of extreme poverty could be viewed as a human rights entitlement by the national and international authorities, as well as multilateral institutions. To that end, a consensus has to be developed not only on the core characteristics of extreme poverty, but also, on how to describe them in an operational manner, as well as on the feasibility of the policies that can eradicate those conditions. 1 The contributions of these experts namely, Professor Baard Andreassen, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights; Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo; Dr. Jose Bengoa, Member of the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and the Protection of Human Rights; Ms. Marily Gutierrez, International ATD Fourth World Movement; Professor Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University; Mr. Tom McCarthy, World Organization against Torture; Mr. Rajeev Malhotra, OHCHR; Mrs. Ellen Mouravieff-Apostal, International Federation of Social Workers; Mr. Michael Mutzner, Franciscans International; Dr. Ides Nicaise, University of Leuven; Dr. Siddiq Osmani, University of Ulster, UK; Professor Thomas Pogge, Columbia University; Professor Sanjay Reddy, Barnard College, Columbia University; Mr. Ibrahim Salama, Chairperson of the Working Group on the Right to Development, OHCHR; Professor Peter Townsend, London School of Economics; Mr. Xavier Verzat, International ATD Fourth World Movement; Dr. Arjun Sengupta, Independent Expert, OHCHR; and Mr. Jens Schutz, Secretariat OHCHR, are available on the website: www.ohchr.org.