In our rapidly globalising age with economic growth occurring in almost every corner of the world, it is easy to forget that more than one billion people still live on less than one dollar a day. Poverty is the worst human rights crisis in the world today, denying millions of people their most basic rights. Enriched by compelling photographs from across the world, "The Unheard Truth" argues that poverty remains a global epidemic because we continue to define it as an economic problem whose only solution is foreign aid and investment. Irene Khan calls for a re-evaluation of this long-standing assumption to turn us towards confronting poverty as a human rights violation. Empowering the poor with basic rights of security is our only chance for eradicating poverty and giving freedom and dignity to those who have never experienced it.

The world's worst human rights crisis -- Freedom and its critics : why 'voice' matters -- Freedom from discrimination : ending exclusion -- Living in fear : securing rights -- Poverty trapped -- Needless deaths : the right to safe motherhood -- The global slum : winning the right to the city -- Commodities boom, rights bust -- Claiming rights : legal empowerment to end poverty -- From acknowledgement to action : a campaign for the rights of poor people.