DevelopmentWatch
Human Rights and Development
By Anita Inder Singh


Human rights and development are about enhancing individual dignity and increasing choices, chances and capabilities. Peace and security are the ultimate goals of the United Nations. In the long run, they would be best sustained by the implementation of human rights and development policies enhancing the welfare of all individuals.

This concern inspired the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter. The themes of human rights and development resonated in the 1966 International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These international instruments suggest that human rights and development are not just about statistics-they encompass economic, social and political processes and the diversity of individuals and countries. In other words, the international community has put human beings at the heart of all development programmes. Ideally, political and economic rights complement one another. Political and civil rights endow the poorest individuals with dignity and the moral and political freedom to choose their rulers, but economic progress can strengthen the political, administrative and legal institutions through which all human rights will be translated into practice.

On the other side, development without or with very restricted political and civil rights denies fundamental freedoms; indeed, the events that led to the end of the cold war showed that many in the former communist bloc preferred to live "not by bread alone".

The agenda is complex and challenging, and only a few examples will show why.
Some 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day; almost half the world's population is illiterate; and in many countries the lack of educational opportunities deprives the poor of "life chances" and perpetuates human poverty. Development has meaning if it increases individual choices and participation, gives all citizens access to education and health care, and distributes investments so that the poor can become more productive and eventually escape poverty. Life expectancy, increases in income levels, and good health-care facilities are all linked; the question is, how can they be attained more easily by those who need them most? The education of women also contributes to economic progress, for it can empower them and help them to gain access to resources and enjoy human rights. In addition, education for children enhances their ability to contribute to the economic progress of their countries, enter the game of life and play on fair terms.

How is all this to be done? There is no blueprint, even for a single country. States implement human rights and development policies. The United Nations and many Governments regard democratic governance as the most efficacious political arrangement for integrating human rights into development programmes. Democracy, based on the rule of law, embraces intellectual and political choice, participation, accommodation, mediation and reconciliation. The question is how it can better protect the rights of minorities, women and disadvantaged groups. Civil society can only flourish in freedom; civil society organizations can draw the attention of officials to economic problems in local areas and help to carry out development programmes. At present, there is much debate about the ways in which human rights can be assimilated into all aspects of development work, but it does entail the fashioning of laws, legal institutions and tools to forge a culture of accountability, which can create a favourable environment for securing fundamental freedoms and human development. There are also the questions of how the participation of the poor in development programmes can be increased and how the principles of equality and non-discrimination can be applied.

Development strategies are crafted and implemented by States. This is why the training of administrative and legal officials assumes significance. Democratic governance is most likely to proffer the channels through which all citizens can make their choices and express their grievances against abuses of power by authorities, for it is based on the rule of law in which human rights must be anchored and which makes officials accountable for the implementation of policies. The essence of accountability is distilled in Amartya Sen's observation that no democracy has ever experienced a famine.

Democratic governance presents the best chances for the safeguarding of political, civil, social and economic rights, and for giving citizens a stake in the development programmes affecting their lives, participation may contribute both to economic progress and peace. To give just one example: UNDP projects in Macedonia, which include different ethnic groups, can only highlight the benefits of development through communal coexistence, which in turn requires tolerance and respect for human rights, in particular for the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

How well are human rights being incorporated into development programmes? Indicators can provide information about existing projects. They can help to evaluate the extent to which a human rights situation has "improved", or objectives been attained, and they can suggest what needs be done next to improve the integration of human rights in development projects. Indicators can only be created for specific projects because all human rights cannot be assessed at the same time; each project may promote human rights in different ways. Indicators could draw attention to the direct and indirect human rights implications of a project. For example, how would a project make for greater transparency or accountability? Would a reform of municipal administration facilitate the establishment of new schools or the creation of new jobs, and so contribute to the implementation of the right to development?

The agenda for integrating human rights into development programmes is unfinished and it is on uncharted waters. Globalization has presented new chances for economic advancement, but poverty closes the window of opportunity to many. Development programmes, reinforced by concern for human rights and financed generously by donors, can bring hope to those who lack food, education, basic health care and employment, and empower all individuals by improving the quality of their lives.

Groundbreaking UN Television Series "A Matter of Rights", a video project exploring the right to development, comprises 52 five-minute television features and 12 promotional spots. All themes-poverty alleviation, environmental protection, provision of basic infrastructure, employment and other human rights-are of deep concern to countries throughout the Asia and Pacific region. "We feel that this project on promoting the right to development is a good example of how the United Nations regional commissions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donor Governments can work together to promote human rights and development throughout the world", said David Lazarus, Chief of the United Nations Information Services, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The series was completed after two years of collaboration between ESCAP, Worldview International Foundation and YA*TV (Young Asia Television), with the support of the Government of Norway. The spots bring to audiences, through public broadcasters and NGOs, images that make it clear why development is a fundamental right to which all human beings are entitled. It interprets the right to development in day-to-day terms. The fundamental message of the series is that access of ordinary citizens to the basics of life, like nutrition and adequate income, is as much a part of human rights as the right to liberty or freedom of speech. —Matthias Georg Wabl

Anita Inder Singh is a Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, United Kingdom.