In 1986 the UN General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Right to Development which recognises each person's right to control and benefit from the natural resources and wealth of their country.
All well and good. Yet it is a shocking paradox that, in a world economy of $26 trillion, 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. One in five people in the developing world still do not have enough food.
At the same time the estimated cost of providing universal access to basic social services and of transfers to alleviate income poverty is about $80 billion - pocket change out of $26 trillion. This amounts to less than the wealth of the world's seven richest men.
However, a lack of political commitment - not financial resources - is the real obstacle to poverty eradication. To give an example, the value of military expenditure worldwide is $780 billion yet spending an extra $13 billion would provide for the basic health and nutrition needs of everyone.
So what is globalisation and is it the culprit in all this?
The term has many definitions but perhaps the most useful way of defining what is going on is to look at it as the trend among states to depend on each other more and more in economic and political terms. Six TNCs (transnational companies) account for 75 per cent of all world trade in grain - a basic staple in many of the poorest parts of the world.
Yet there is no binding code of conduct to govern their behaviour.
Given such power imbalances, the market is a good servant but a bad master.
Sadly to date globalisation has mostly helped growth in the highest income countries while it has bypassed the poorest countries. Although they make up 20 per cent of the world's population their share of world trade fell from 4 per cent in 1960 to less than 1 per cent in 1990.
At the same time, poverty is not confined to developing countries. The world's richest nations are home to more than 100 million people whose incomes are below the poverty line and to 37 million unemployed people. They account for 100 million homeless people and almost 200 million of their population die before the age of 60.
Passing resolutions at the General Assembly is fine but if these are not implemented they become an affront rather than an antidote to poverty.
A number of policy actions have been suggested towards tackling poverty. Among these are:
cancelling the unpayable debt of the poorest countries and investing the resources freed up in education, health and other basic services
improving access by developing countries to global markets, reducing defence expenditures
taxing international speculative capital with the proceeds used for development expenditure.
Now as the economies responsible for at least two-thirds of world output are in recession, or close to it, and as the world's financial crises hit the real economy the biggest challenge for policymakers will be to ensure that those already living in poverty are not the victims of the downturn in global markets.
Maura Leen is a policy analyst with Trocaire