4.3 The Ascent of Human Rights in Development
Development has to do with people, but the precise role of
people in development has been debated in philosophy and social and political
science for several hundred years. After World War II, with the establishment of
the United Nations and the adoption of the UN Human Rights Declaration, the idea
that the main objective of development should be human well being became more
acceptable.
According to both capitalist and socialist perspectives, the key
to such development was thought to be essentially faster economic growth, with
the assumption that the economic growth would automatically result in human
development in the short run. There is now a consensus that, although economic
growth is crucial for sustainable improvements in human welfare, it is not a
sufficient condition. Moreover, there is agreement that development is not
solely economic growth or human development - it is both.37 One
objective is not a simple function of the other. The two are related in a
complex manner.
Human development expresses itself in human capabilities. In the
1996 Human Development Report, UNDP defines the three most important
human capabilities as (1) the capability to be well nourished and healthy, (2)
the capability for healthy reproduction, and (3) the capability to be educated
and knowledgeable.46 In a broader sense human development can be seen
as enlarging people’s choices (see Box 4.3).
BOX 4.3
|
New Approaches to Measuring Poverty and Development
There are a number of approaches to defining and measuring
poverty. The traditional model is based on assessing household income or total
consumption in relation to a poverty line, which in turn is related to the
ability to purchase a basket of foods that meets a given energy consumption
level. More recent approaches assess poverty in asocial deprivation context - a
formulation closely related to the concept of human rights. The social
deprivation approach takes at least three forms: (1) a human poverty approach,
(2) a social exclusion approach, and (3) a participatory approach. UNDP’s
human poverty approach argues that “because income is not the sum total of
human lives, a lack of it cannot be the sum total of human deprivation” (p.
25).37 The human poverty approach focuses on a lack of access to
education, income, and longevity. It is closely related to the social exclusion
and participatory approaches. The social exclusion approach focuses on the lack
of resources required to participate in activities and enjoy living standards
that are customary or widely accepted in a society. The participatory approach
looks for local definitions and perceptions of poverty and often serves to
broaden the social exclusion approach by identifying exclusion concepts that
have evolved in the community in question.47
Broader definitions and measures of poverty have also become
common currency in the World Bank over the past decade. Nevertheless, indicators
of income poverty remain dominant in poverty assessments, and until recently the
focus of country assistance strategies was still squarely on improving economic
growth rates and per capita incomes. A recent assessment of World Bank
performance in support of poverty reduction commits the bank to the set of
targets embodied in the International Development Goals, developed in
partnership with developing countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development, and UN agencies.35 One indicator for the goal of
reducing extreme poverty by half is preschool underweight. Improving nutritional
status is of course also an important factor in achieving some of the other
goals, such as reducing infant and child mortality. Although there are issues
regarding the interpretation and application of the IDGs, the broad consensus
around these goals and indicators is significant and creates an opportunity to
ensure greater attention to nutrition in poverty assessments and strategies.
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The failure of economic growth approaches on their own to build
human capabilities has opened the door for more normative arguments in
development. The number of global conferences, including the International
Conference on Nutrition (1992), reflects such a normative basis. In all of these
conferences goals were agreed upon. These goals were not primarily based on
traditional economic arguments, but rather on normative arguments. They thus
represented “global moral minima” that entailed commitments or
promises but not obligations.
The United Nations has a normative foundation, explicitly
expressed in both the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This fact, however, was not appreciated by many development scholars and
practitioners, not even within the UN itself. With the end of the Cold War and
the criticism of economic growth theories, a human rights approach to
development could be revived as a part of UN reform, which started in 1997.
The subject of nutrition as a human right has been debated for
years. At least in the case of children, adequate nutrition is enshrined as a
human right in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a convention ratified
by all countries in the world except Somalia and the United States. The
principle of the “best interest of the child” ensures that adequate
nutrition is one of the rights of the child.
Human rights express relationships between subjects with claims
or rights and objects with duties or obligations. Essentially, human rights are
the relationships between claim-holders and duty-bearers.48 Bearers
have a duty to respect, protect, facilitate, and fulfill the rights of the
claim-holders. Claimants have valid claims. Bearers and claimants can be the
international community, national and local governments, NGOs, communities,
families, households, and parents.
For countries that have ratified human rights covenants and
conventions, the issue is no longer one of promises, but of legal obligations.
UN programmes and projects should therefore aim at building and strengthening
the capacity of governments and other duty-bearers to meet their obligations.
Seen from this perspective, there is no conflict between human rights and
“development.” A human rights approach represents a normative approach
to development.
One of the most significant paradigm shifts embodied in a human
rights approach is that people who are poor are no longer seen as passive
recipients of transfers, but rather as subjects of their own actions. An
important purpose of development cooperation is then to improve the
capabilities, including responsibility, motivation, authority, and resources, of
the duty-bearer to meet nutrition-related obligations. The next major challenge
for the nutrition community is to operationalize the use of rights-based
principles as a guide to nutrition programming. The 1999 ACC/SCN symposium on
human rights and nutrition made progress in this regard.48 Several
examples of the value of rights-based approaches to nutrition programming were
presented at that meeting, one of which - related to breast-feeding - is
reproduced in Table 4.2.
TABLE 4.2: Breastfeeding rights: Duties and obligations at
different levels of society
|
Duty or obligation |
Household |
Community |
Government |
|
Respect |
To understand that breastfeeding is best for both boys and girls
|
To assist in the promotion of breastfeeding |
To constantly promote breastfeeding |
|
Protect |
To avoid buying breast-milk substitutes |
To inform people about the importance of breastfeeding |
To protect people against misinformation |
|
Facilitate |
To assist in household work during lactation |
To assist in reducing the workload of lactating mothers |
To provide basic mother and child health care |
|
Fulfill |
To ensure that the lactating mother eats well and gets
sufficient rest |
To provide food to poor households with lactating mothers |
To ensure household food security |
Source:
49.
