A/HRC/2/2 A/HRC/Sub.1/58/36 page 33 implement poverty reduction and eradication policies and programmes should encourage the establishment of forums for evaluation and monitoring in which persons living in extreme poverty participate. B. Discrimination and stigmatization 11. Discrimination affecting persons living in extreme poverty must be punished as a violation of human rights. The stigmatization of the poor and their associations, groups, neighbourhoods or places of residence, and their representation as persons without rights who are dangerous, violent and display other negative characteristics, must be regarded as forms of discrimination. Discrimination against the poor based on their image, their dress, their physical appearance or any other grounds related to their situation of extreme poverty constitutes a human rights violation. The State, international agencies and other parties concerned have an obligation to criticize and combat stigmatization of the poor and to promote a balanced and fair image of persons who are in a situation of extreme poverty. 12. The media and education systems play a key role in the processes of discrimination and stigmatization, and hence in efforts to combat those phenomena. 13. Public officials, those of international organizations, personnel in humanitarian organizations and all those working for the elimination of poverty are expected to maintain relations of respect for the dignity and the fundamental rights of persons living in extreme poverty, particularly in human relations, in humanitarian services and in project formulation and implementation. The personnel of social welfare schemes have these obligations, and the right to freedom from discrimination based on the circumstance of poverty is a right which must be guaranteed to the poor. Section 2 C. Indivisibility and interdependence of rights 14. All persons living in extreme poverty have the right to the enjoyment of all human rights, which are indivisible, interdependent and universal. The exercise of human rights is crucial to the elimination of extreme poverty, because the denial of one right has an adverse impact on the totality of the rights of the individual. However, the restoration of a right in isolation is not enough to ensure that individuals, their families and their communities will emerge from the situation of extreme poverty.4 D. Civil and political rights 15. All persons living in extreme poverty have the right to be recognized everywhere as persons before the law. They have the right to participate fully in the life of the community in which they live, to have a domicile, to possess an identity document or any other document 4 See E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993, para. 178.