A/HRC/22/61 urban poor who face difficulty navigating the processes. Furthermore, the spatial and social marginalization of the urban poor affects their health-seeking behaviour such that many health-care providers have come to expect urban poor users to seek treatment only when conditions become severe, to fail to follow prescriptions in order to save costs on medicines, and to sometimes display limited will to engage in robust health-seeking behaviour.61 29. Beyond these physical health indicators, there is also growing evidence that mental illness, particularly depression and anxiety, is more prevalent among the urban poor than their higher income counterparts. Current hypotheses draw connections between mental illness and the stress of survival in resource-constrained, often violent, and marginalized contexts.62 30. Health is a human right63 defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. It is “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition”. The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living and inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as well as the right to life and human dignity. 64 These rights of the urban poor are challenged by environmental hazards and inadequate access to water, sanitation and health services. F. Right to security, inclusion, non-discrimination and political participation 31. The urban poor suffer from economic, social and political exclusion. The resulting stigma and discrimination is a feature of daily life for many slum dwellers. 65 Children are especially aware of their harsh, often dilapidated surroundings and experience them as shameful reflections of their own self-worth.66 Research shows that this stigma manifests itself in job interviews and employment opportunities that discriminate against the poor because of where they live. A study conducted in France, for example, found that job applicants from low-income addresses were less likely to be selected for interviews than candidates from higher-income areas.67 Similarly, a study in Rio de Janeiro revealed that living in a slum was a greater barrier to employment than gender or ethnicity. 68 Such conditions can also lead to social unrest. 32. The urban poor have been generally excluded from the processes by which decisions affecting them are made. Since the urban poor are particularly disadvantaged with regard to health and opportunities for education, work and political participation, their exclusion 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 See Montgomery, “Urban Poverty”. See Naomar Almeida-Filho and others, “Social inequality and depressive disorders in Bahia, Brazil: interactions of gender, ethnicity, and social class” in Social Science and Medicine, 59, No. 7 (2004). See International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. See Council resolution 15/9. See Janice Perlman, “The Metamorphosis of Marginality: Four Generations in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro”, and Douglas S. Massey and others, “Chronicle of a Myth Foretold: The Washington Consensus in Latin America”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , vol. 606 (July 2006). See Louise Chawla, Growing up in an Urbanising World (Earthscan Publications and UNESCO, 2002). López Moreno and others, State of the World’s Cities 2006/7, p. 5. Ibid. 11