"Poverty eradication is indeed a matter of human rights," the Maldives said today at the Third Committee's session with the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. In its response to the Special Rapporteur's report on social protection floors, the Maldives reiterated its commitment to achieving universal social protection and voiced its support for a goal on social protection floors in the post-2015 development agenda. The Maldives joined the Special Rapporteur in supporting the United Nations Social Protection Floor Initiative, noting that it was among the first countries to participate. Since graduating from the UN's list of least developed countries, the Maldives has eradicated extreme poverty, and since then enacted the Social Protection Act of 2013. All Maldivians enjoy universal healthcare, social health insurance, and old-age pensions and in particular, poor and vulnerable Maldivians are entitled to monthly income support, the Committee was told. Given that climate change has posed as the greatest challenge to the country's progress on eradicating poverty, the Maldives underscored the need to effectively integrate social protection into the climate adaptation agenda. Because climate change is an international problem that is disproportionately affecting the people of Small Island Developing States and the factor driving them to poverty, the Maldives further stressed on need for implementing social protection floors more equitably shared between nations.
