Trial lecture - time and place
February 2nd 2017 10:15-11:00 am in Gamle festsal, 1st floor, Urbyningen
Adjudication committee
- Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo (leader)
- Professor David Bilchitz, University of Johannesburg
- Professor Sigrun Skogly, Lancaster University
Chair of defence
- Director Inga Bostad
Supervisor
Summary
The subject of this study is the legalities of poverty in relation to international human rights law,focusing particularly on the international right to life. It is a Positivist legal analysis of whether states are in violation of their respective international human rights obligations if poverty exists or continues to exist within that state. The ultimate conclusion is that poverty alone does not give rise to a violation of the right to life, although that right is implicated by the existence of elements of poverty such as insufficient food, shelter, and health. Where there is poverty, the right to life requires that states have a substantive obligation of conduct to address poverty in a way that can reasonably be expected to eradicate it.