A/HRC/7/15 page 23 poverty, and bringing them into the mainstream of policy debate. The adoption of the draft guidelines would also help develop a suitable programme for implementation. 88. However, several points should be highlighted for the successful eradication of extreme poverty. In order to ensure that all duty-bearers perform their obligations to the best of their ability and are held accountable for non-performance, it would be necessary to make these obligations binding. The simplest way to do this would be to establish removal of extreme poverty as a human right, recognized by an international consensus on moving towards the drafting of a new instrument. 89. Establishing eradication of extreme poverty as a human right, particularly by confining it to a smaller fraction of the population, enhances the possibility of reaching a social consensus and will ensure its social acceptance, enabling a higher prioritization in domestic affairs and the international community of policies to achieve that right. The importance of implementing existing human rights norms and standards in the context of the fight against extreme poverty has already been noted by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in its resolution 2006/9. However, the link that makes these obligations binding is missing. It would thus be useful, especially in dealing with State obligations and international cooperation, to incorporate the concept of binding obligation. Since the rights involved (such as the rights to housing, health and education) have already been recognized as human rights in international covenants and other international treaties, these rights are binding in the sense that the States and the international community have an obligation to take measures or adopt policies resulting in actions that ensure the attainment of those rights. An effective poverty alleviation programme can therefore be built upon a policy for the realization of human rights as they have been recognized by the relevant international covenants. 90. A binding obligation does not mean that all the rights have to be realized immediately, nor only through judicial enforcement. States and the international community should work towards their fulfilment, even if the rights are progressively realized, with the constraint that no right should be violated in the process. The enforcement of these obligations may be possible through several processes carried out simultaneously and separately, including administrative procedures, social auditing, public scrutiny, judicial determination and monitoring by international human rights mechanisms. 91. Another issue regarding the feasibility of implementing guidelines to eradicate extreme poverty is the need to have a working definition of extreme poverty, in order that indicators can be established and the improvement or realization of extreme poverty as a human right can be monitored. As the independent expert has already indicated, such a definition of extreme poverty could refer to a combination of those suffering from income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion. Alternatively, if a smaller subset of people is preferred because of resource and institutional constraints, an overlap approach targeting those people who are suffering from all three forms of poverty could be applied. It must be reiterated that such a definition would facilitate a social consensus to be developed, with limited sacrifice on the part of other agents. It would also allow the development of both targeted and integrated policies in the light of minimum standards and core principles of the various rights associated with extreme poverty. -----