relevance of the right to ghetnet metiku - development (rtd) in linking and reconciling human rights...

Ghetnet Metiku Woldegiorgis [email protected]

Essay on the Relevance of the Right to Development in Linking and

Reconciling Human Rights and Development: Potentials and Pitfalls

Ghetnet Metiku

Friday, May 30, 2014

1 Introduction

This is a brief essay on the right to development and its contributions towards linking and

reconciling human rights and development. It is designed to provide an overview of the right to

development and raise the most crucial issues raised in relation to the nature, content and

contributions of the right to development.

2 Background

2.1 Separate Development of Human Rights and Development

Until the end of WWII, human rights and development evolved separately in concept and

practice. The reasons for this separate development are multifarious. However, many authors

blame two significant factors. The first is the vision of development economists who considered

human rights to be political, abstract, unrealistic and not coping with time has contributed to

apathy towards incorporating elements of the human rights discourse in development thinking

and practice. Another challenge to the recognition and operationalization of the linkage between

the two concepts and practices has been what is named the politics of location – the divergent

interests of the global south and global north as still reflected in voting patterns in the UN. This

factor is also blamed for the lack of a binding document on the right to development to date.

2.2 Post WWII Coming Together

This does not however mean that the link between human rights and development is a new idea.

The emergence of the link is associated with the anti-colonialism movement and the demand for

a new international economic order by post-colonial and developing countries. These factors


have become strong in the post WWII era fueled by various factors including liberation of

previously colonized people, the Cold War and developments in the international human rights

framework.

However, challenges have persisted in various forms restricting the understanding and practice

of the linkages between human rights and development. These include political resistance

relating to the challenges for sovereignty from confrontational human rights language, value

based objections relating to the double standards in application of international development

cooperation, legal mandate constraints on development organizations (e.g. IMF and World

Bank), separation of the two professions (economics and law), and separate institutional

arrangements for human rights and development at the UN.

2.3 Current State of the Human Rights and Development Discourse

There has been a significant shift in attitudes in the human rights field in the past few decades.

This shift took the form of a re-evaluation of the conceptions of poverty and human rights. over

the years poverty has come to be seen as a serious human rights violation culminating in the

identification of the theme for the 2006 International Human Rights Day. On the other hand, a

holistic view of human rights as indivisible has also emerged through the years linking the

achievement of ESC rights with the realization of CP rights after the 1993 World Conference on

Human Rights.

The link between human rights and development has been articulated in at least seven

approaches (Human Rights Framework for Development: Seven Approaches by Stephen P

Marks). These are: the holistic approach; the human rights based approach; the social justice

approach; the capabilities approach; the right to development approach; the responsibilities

approach; and, the human rights education approach. The right to development has been

identified as one of these approaches.


3 The Right to Development

3.1 Evolution and Meaning

The emergence of the right to development is a result of the coming together of many factors in

the post WWII era including the liberation of previously colonized people, the Cold War and

developments in the international human rights framework. However, the most important factor

for the emergence of the right to development was the demand of newly liberated states for a

new international economic order. Unable to exercise their right to economic self-determination

under the existing financial, trade and development cooperation framework, the newly

independent states used their numerical superiority at the UN to call for an international enabling

environment for their economic development using human rights as a forum.

The meaning and content of the right to development has been given formal expression in the

UN Declaration on the Right to Development. Subsequent works by the UN Human Rights

Commission, the UN General Assembly and other forums have given depth and breadth to the

understanding of the right. The UN Declaration on the Right to Development defined the right to

development as “an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all

peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and

political development in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully

realized.” (Article 1/1)

3.2 Elements and Characteristics of the Right to Development

The right to development as defined in the UN Declaration is an inalienable right to both the

process and outcome of development. Here, the goal of development is full and progressive

realization of human rights while the process of development has to adhere to the principles of

participation, fair and equitable distribution and non-discrimination.

The rights holders are both individuals and peoples (both in the collective and corporate sense)

while the duty bearers are national governments and the international community. National

governments are expected to design and implement a set of policies relevant to the right to

development (and all its components), prevent the violation of any right and promote the


realization of all rights. They are thus expected to implement development programmes in an

equitable, non-discriminatory, participatory, accountable and transparent manner taking into

account the inter-linkages between the realization of all the rights constituting the right to

development. On the part of the international community, international cooperation is required in

terms of transfer of technology, market access, intellectual property protection, adjustments to

the rule of international trade and financial institutions and overhauling of the international

mechanism to meet the specific requirement of developing countries.

The right to development is a composite right in the sense that the constituent rights are

interdependent. Thus, the rights cannot be aggregated with regression of one compensated by

advances in another. This characteristic, also referred to as the integrity of the right to

development, requires that the realization of any one right be achieved without regression in the

realization of any other right.

The right to development also incorporates economic growth that is consistent with the

principles of equity, non-discrimination, participation, accountability, transparency. In other

words, it entails a rights based economic development: both instrumental and inherent value vis-

à-vis wellbeing.

3.3 Dichotomy with Human Rights Based Approach to Development

The right to development is often confused with the human rights based approach to

development, which is a conceptual and programming framework for development

programming. However, these two concepts are decidedly different. A human rights based

approach to development is development designed and implemented in line with human rights

standards. The right to development, on the other hand, is to be claimed as a right – an

inalienable right to both process and outcome of development.

From a historical and operational perspective, the most important distinction between the right to

development and human rights based approaches to development relates to the respective

emphasis on the international and national dimensions of development. The right to

development, which emerged in the context of the call for a new international economic order,

emphasizes the international aspect of development while human rights based approaches to


development emphasize a state centric conception of responsibility for the realization of human

rights, including the right to development.

The distinctions between the right to development and human rights based approaches to

development have multiple dimensions/manifestations. At the conceptual level, human rights-

based approaches utilize the international human rights framework to inform development

programming while the right to development is part of the international human rights framework.

The distinction is between development in a rights way vs. development as a human right. This

also leads to a very different understanding of international cooperation as a right/duty vs. as a

matter of charity.

There are, however, similarities between the right to development and human rights based

approaches to development. The most evident of these similarities is the understanding of the

process of development as one defined by similar principles, i.e. equity, non-discrimination,

participation, accountability, transparency. The causal relations between the right to development

and human rights based approaches to development in the sense of the second emerging as a

reaction to the first also reflects the potentially complementary nature of the perspectives in the

context of a comprehensive perspective encompassing both the national and international

dimensions of the right to development.

4 Contributions of the Right to Development

4.1 Role and Potential of the Right to Development

The right to development brings with it significant added value to the development discourse. In

addition to the recognition of development as a right, the right to development has played a

significant role in terms of clarifying the nature (goal and process) of development, the rights

holders who can claim development as a right, the duty bearers responsible for the realization of

the right to development as well as indicators for the implementation and monitoring of progress.

These added values come about simply because the right to development conceives development

as part of the international human rights framework with its normative standards, institutional

framework and mechanisms.


The right to development incorporates a newly conceived component of economic development

that is guided by the principles of human rights. In doing so, it has created a more effective way

of realizing economic development by linking it to the progressive and simultaneous realization

of all rights and giving it a goal of realizing the well-being of everyone.

The contributions of the right to development are also seen in the implementation of

development programs that are linked to the international human rights framework. This has also

enabled the creation of links between social and economic rights, which are more directly related

to the traditional development discourse, with civil and political rights.

4.2 Challenges and Pitfalls

The normative basis of the right to development could be a challenge in the context of the

absence of a binding instrument specifically addressing the right as recognized in the UN

Declaration. While this challenge could be addressed at the conceptual level by taking the

recognition of the right to development as part of an ongoing norm making process among states,

problems relating to the enforcement of specific claims of rights holders and obligations of duty

bearers still persist.

The substance of the right to development as a comprehensive process leading to the realization

of all rights also poses challenges in terms of accommodating the competing nature of rights in

the context of limited resources. Even if the integrity of the right to development could serve as a

guide, non-violation of a right is not tantamount to realization. This is a source of significant

challenges in the implementation and monitoring of the right to development.

The identity of the rights holders for the right to development is another source of challenge. As

stipulated in the UN Declaration, the right to development is the right of individuals and peoples

alike and peoples may exercise the right collectively or through a corporate approach (e.g.

national states making claims against the international community). In practice, these ‘rights

holders’ and their respective claims are not always complementary and even come into conflict

or competition.


The issue of international cooperation or shared responsibility for the realization of the right to

development is another source of challenge. Usually, the state is the primary duty bearer for the

realization of human rights by virtue of ratifying an international treaty. While international

cooperation is an important part of some international human rights regimes (e.g. UNCRC), it

gains much greater importance in the context of the right to development. However, realizing

this idea faces serious barriers in practice. At the outset, aid is conceived by the international

community as part of foreign, trade and security policies of donor countries. This precludes the

practical implementation of international cooperation as a duty. Moreover, the volume of aid that

has been made available is far from adequate in light of the development needs of recipient

countries. These and other practical considerations encourage the perception of aid as charity

rather than duty and raise complicated issues pertaining to conditionality, effectiveness,

ownership and partnership.

Finally, the composite nature of the right to development makes it difficult to monitor

implementation and militate against the feasibility of a specific monitoring framework for the

right to development at the national, regional or international levels.

5 Conclusions

The above discussion shows the undeniable contributions and importance of the right to

development towards linking human rights and development. In fact, the link between the two

areas of concern is no longer questioned though the nature and implications of the link are

widely debated. On the other hand, the absence of a binding instrument on the right to

development poses a critical barrier in terms of providing normative and procedural justifications

for the right to development through appropriate norm creating procedures and the clear and

unequivocal identification of correlating duties.

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