To deny people their rights is, by definition, a way to keep them poor.
- Human Rights (HR) are not just obligations to be complied with; they are an intrinsic dimension of development. That is why when they are denied –even if not deliberately violated– the full potential of development cannot be realized. Therefore, an absence of respect of human (people’s) rights means social exclusion and marginalization invariably persist. This, in turn, often means little or no access by the excluded and marginalized to productive assets.
- As obvious as this is, suggesting rights-based solutions to this problem always meets a high degree of resistance. This, mainly because sustainable development is inseparable from a rights-based empowering development.
- Sustainable development is the distributional dimension of the benefits accruing from the process of physical, financial, human, natural, institutional and cultural capital accumulation… and the economic growth paradigm pushed by the Establishment is basically a process of capital accumulation. Only the empowerment of the right-less can break the economic growth paradigm.
- This is why, Human Rights values and principles must be regarded as, precisely, another form of capital!
- In order to escape poverty, HR are the form of capital endowment that the poor need to accumulate (within the context of all the forms of capital listed above). This key principle offers a common framework to assess how violations of HR become major determinants of entrenched poverty, because they directly limit the ability of the poor to accumulate HR capital, as well as indirectly limit their access to other forms of capital.
- Any process to achieve collective welfare is thus permeated by issues of HR. This means that any policy prescription in welfare economics rests on the application of HR principles. This is why HR are more than just laws, rules and regulations to be enforced and complied with. HR must be understood as an integral part of any initial endowment that the poor can draw upon to allocate, use, manage and control all other forms of capital.
- In that way, HR contribute crucially to the efficient and fair ‘allocation of HR and all other forms of capital’. The state-of-HR-capital of the people is the most powerful explanation of how resources are allocated. This makes the mainstreaming of HR a must, so much so that this is to become the key element of development work.
- HR are thus to be seen as a significant modifier-of-the-enabling-factors-needed-for-development. Exclusion from any form of HR capital explains underdevelopment and poverty. Precisely because they are uncoupled from issues of human capital and rights, infrastructure development projects have not attained effectiveness and have actually been of marginal benefit to the poor.
- HR, as an initial capital endowment, imply a number of things in regards to equity, social justice and poverty alleviation, e.g., wage levels depend on whether HR are effectively realized or not.
- For people-who-are-rich-in-all-forms-of-capital, HR (as another form of capital) may not be important. For the poor it is essential. This is why HR capital is so important in addressing the challenges of poverty and inclusion.
In addition, HR as capital is important in relation to the ways in which governments and societies define anti-poverty policies. The proactive acquisition of HR capital is an essential component of any serious empowerment strategy. This, because empowerment leads to a societal re-distribution of rights and obligations; empowerment ultimately affects how all forms of capital are allocated and used in society. This is why HR must be seen as a key dimension of development rather than as a residual factor in economic and financial decisions. To disregard the importance of HR is tantamount to keeping people in poverty.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City