Human rights and development : 'a right, not an act of charity'

Abstract

Having sketched the evolution of the concept of human rights and its emergence to the foreground of international politics post 1945, this chapter focuses primarily on the intrinsic relationship between development and human rights. Inter-alia, it reviews the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its associated Covenants; regional human rights institutions in Europe and Africa (and the debates surrounding each); the International Criminal Court and the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development. The chapter also explores what human rights conversations and actions have brought to the human development process and vice-versa.