Poverty has multiple dimensions, some visible and others hidden, but all interlinked. This year's theme will highlight one of the Hidden Dimension of Poverty the social and institutional maltreatment experienced by people living in poverty, and consider ways to act together on Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16) 16 to promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

​

People living in poverty face negative attitudes. They are stigmatized, discriminated against, judged for example by their appearance, accent, address - or lack of it, blamed for their situation, and treated with disrespect.

​

Social maltreatment creates a setting for institutional maltreatment, with a combination of negative attitudes, like mistrust and disrespect, as well as controlling discriminatory policies and practices, denying people of their fundamental human rights, for example, access to healthcare, education, housing, and the right to legal identity.

​

Social and institutional maltreatment interact and amplify each other, fueling this double-edged violence and deepening the injustice, and this is more pronounced for people who face other forms of prejudice as well, including gender, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity.

​

A meaningful understanding of poverty and how the different forms of violence and domination interact with each other and impact people in poverty is critical.

​

Daily experiences of injustice and dehumanization undermines self-esteem, destroys personal agency, denies people of their dignity and the chance of getting out of poverty. Social and institutional maltreatment is a catastrophic loss of human potential to society.