Human Rights and Development. Reflections about
Human Rights and Developmental States
• The Characteristics of Failed and Developmental
States
• What has Human Rights to offer to
Development?
• Concluding Perspectives on HR and State
Transformation
The Characteristics of Failed States
• Weak governance institutions (weak capacity or political will
to govern, or both);
• Low levels of service delivery (poor health, education and
sanitation systems);
• Minimal legitimacy
• Large accountability gap (lack of democratic mechanisms for
checks and balances);
• Policy tensions (e.g., between trade, aid, humanitarian,
development, security and drug policies; and,
• High volatility (continuously moving through cycles of decline
and progress)
The Characteristics of Developmental States?
• Definition tautological? – states are developmental
because they show signs of developing
• Is Malawi a developmental state? What lies between
Failed and Developmental States?
• The Risk: The concepts of failed and developmental
states relate to aid effectiveness, capacity, and conflict
patterns – poverty yes – but is ”the development
state discourse” sufficiently addressing freedom
and the security of individuals and groups?
Four Dimension in Analyzing State
Characteristics
Democratization
Human rights/political lib.
Good governance
Economic Performance
Income growth
Distribution
Social Performance
Human Development
MDGs
Security of person
Crime
Violations against women
Integrity rights
What Has Human Rights to Offer to
Development?
Three levels:
• Contributing to global governance
• Within states: Improving systems of justice and
legal protection
• From below and from above: rights-based
development
Global Governance and Values
International institutions and organisations
• Trade: WTO
• Development: UNDP
• Finance: WB, IMF
• Security: Security Council
• HR:OHCHR
•Legal Conflict: E.g. ICJ, ICC
International
Governance
State
Civil Society
• Advocacy
• Monitoring
• Gap-filling
Bilateral
cooperation and
conflict
Value and
cooperation
International
Governance
State
Civil Society
• Advocacy
• Monitoring
• Gap-filling
The Impact of Global Governance Agendas
• Institutional proliferation at the international
level
• Global order under ”negotiation”: values, rules
and positive duties
• The accountability of international organisations
• Accessessing institutions from below
Within Democratizing States
Human Rights and Rule of Law:
• Improving systems of justice and indvidual
protection
Human Rights and Social Development
• States with high values on civil and political
rights score high on social development
Kaufmann: Potential Causal Links between Human
Rights and Social Development
Two relations:
• Better governance  Improved development
- Good governance not a luxury
• Strong Civil and pol rights  higher
incomes/capita and reduction in child mortality
rates
Development from below: rights-based strategies
Empowerment = Enabling capability
(transformative)
• HR has three major qualities in terms of
empowerment:
provides a platform based on a conception of justice
provides legal and not only moral legitimacy
provides several avenues of advocay and networking
Rights-based strategies from above
Accountability = Control plus Commitment
The impact of HR thinking: the state as a dutybearer conscious of obligations
• Collaborative activism
• How accountability is being sought, where it is
sought  enlarging the space of accountability
jurisdictions (Goetz and Jenkins)
Sen’s Assessment of Freedom
• The Constitutive Role (foundational value of
participation
• The Instrumental Role (security and incentives)
• The Constructive Role (generation of values and
priorities)
Will HR and Rights-Based Development Create
Stronger States?
Yes – but not as a sole strategy. Three strategies
relevant in improving state performance:
• Reinforcement of human rights
Individual protection
Enhanced Int.+nat.
Accountability
Int. Order (legal+pol)
Institutional capacity and standards of
power exertion
• Good governance
• The poverty agenda (MDGs):
Capability of individuals
and groups
Service delivery