The Unheard Truth (Hardcover)

"Irene makes a convincing case for putting rights at the center of the effort to end poverty."Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, from the Foreword"Poverty is the world’s worst human rights crisis and this book makes a powerful statement about not only why but how we can turn the tide." Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "Essential reading for anyone serious about ending poverty Khan makes the case that no solution will work unless it empowers the world’s poor to shape their own future." Hernando de Soto, chair, Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor "A well-argued critique of mainstream thinking on development/poverty. The language avoids jargon while remaining conceptually rigorous and accurate". Sakiko Fukuda Parr, Professor of International Affairs at the New School Despite economic growth in almost every corner of the world over the last decade, billions of people still live in poverty. Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan claims that economic analyses do not provide a full picture and economic solutions alone cannot end the problems of poverty. In a bracing argument enriched with her personal experiences and case studies from around the world, Khan sees poverty as the world’s worst human rights crisis because it traps people in a vicious cycle of deprivation, insecurity, exclusion, and voicelessness. She argues that the foremost challenge is the empowerment of poor people, and makes a passionate and urgent plea for action to uphold human rights in the fight to end poverty.About Author: Irene Khan is the first women and first Asian Secretary General of Amnesty International. She has received several prestigious awards for her leadership in human rights and her work to end violence against women, including the Sydney Peace Prize in 2006. She lives in London, UK, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.