E/CN.4/1999/48 page 3 INTRODUCTION 1. One fifth of humanity lives in absolute poverty. The General Assembly estimated in 1996 (resolution 51/178) that more than 1.3 billion people in the world, a majority of whom are women, live in absolute poverty, especially in developing countries, and the number of such people continues to increase. 2. In its resolution 1998/25, the Commission on Human Rights, recalling that the eradication of widespread poverty, including its most persistent forms, and the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights remained interrelated goals and deeply concerned that extreme poverty continued to spread throughout the world, regardless of economic, social or cultural situations, and that its extent and manifestations were particularly severe in developing countries, decided to appoint, for a period of two years, an independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty with the following mandate: (a) To evaluate the relationship between the promotion and protection of human rights and extreme poverty, including through the evaluation of measures taken at the national and international levels to promote the full enjoyment of human rights by persons living in extreme poverty; (b) To take into account in particular the obstacles encountered and progress made by women living in extreme poverty as regards the enjoyment of their fundamental rights; (c) To make recommendations and, as appropriate, proposals in the sphere of technical assistance; (d) To report on these activities to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth sessions and to make those reports available to the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on the Status of Women, as appropriate, for their sessions during the same years; (e) To contribute to the General Assembly’s evaluation in the year 2000 of the World Summit for Social Development by making his or her final report and conclusions available to the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly devoted to that evaluation; and (f) To make suggestions to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-fifth session on the main points of a possible draft declaration on human rights and extreme poverty so that the Commission can consider the possibility of initiating at the fifty-first session of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities the drafting by that body of a text for examination by the Commission and possible adoption by the General Assembly, and to take into account in that regard, inter alia, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, the Agenda for Development and the final report of Mr. Leandro Despouy (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/13).