Human rights, development and the millennium development goals

Abstract

The relationship between human rights and development has attracted increasing attention over the past two decades. The UN General Assembly's Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986 proved to be a spur to academics and civil society practitioners to explore the interface between human rights and development. The debate around this issue intensified following the Millennium Declaration which some human rights advocates have criticized as a process used by governments to distract attention from the real human rights issue. Others have emphasized the complementarities that exist between the MDGs and human rights. The discussion has also extended to the issue of extreme poverty as a gross violation of human rights and therefore the notion of freedom from poverty as a human right. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to examine some of the ways in which the two impact on each other. Furthermore the extent to which the MDGs have incorporated human rights principles and frameworks will also be given some attention. The efforts to create an international consensus on the need to protect and promote certain human rights and fundamental freedoms are directly attributable to the Second World War. The war's contribution to the crystallization of human rights in international law can be traced in several layers. The holocaust was clearly a leading contributor to the realization that the way in which a slate behaves towards its own citizens is a matter for the international community if that behaviour falls short of the standards required by human dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human rights speaks of "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind" in an explicit reference to the various crimes against humanity and genocide that occurred prior to and during the war. However the Declaration also makes reference to certain basic rights and freedoms such "freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want". Apart from massive denials of civil and political rights, the end of the war also witnessed populations suffering from lack of food and shelter, healthcare and sanitation. Thus the reference to freedom from want which echoed the thoughts previously expressed by US President Roosevelt. One may therefore note that the struggle against poverty was a founding principle of the international human rights framework.