280 HUMAN RIGHTS-PROOFING DEVELOPMENT PLANS.
1. We have a tremendous underutilized accumulated knowledge on the past and ongoing ‘development processes’ that, for the most part, have been human rights-blind. Allow me just a few examples.…
278 JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE STATE: TO HAVE A RIGHT IS TO HAVE SOMETHING THAT SOCIETY OUGHT TO DEFEND ME FOR. (John Stuart Mill)
1. Mind you, we have duties towards people we never know… and they have similar duties towards us. The human rights framework thus basically looks at people in societies with…
277 AS WE ALL WELL KNOW, ETHICS IS ONE OF THE ROOTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS. WHAT DO PHILOSOPHERS HAVE HAD TO SAY?
Good moral rules help us act in the most rational way possible 1. Human rights (HR) tell us we should take into account others and not only our own interests…
276 DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION* CLAIMS ALTRUISM AND MORALITY, BUT IS DRIVEN BY AN IMAGE OF MORAL SUPERIORITY.
To be effective in reducing poverty, foreign aid must first and foremost be disbursed in good faith for that purpose –without political naiveté or double talk Unfortunately, aid is still…
275 THE HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IS NOT A CONTINUOUS STRAIGHT LINE OF PROGRESS. IT IS MARKED BY PERIODS OF ADVANCE, OF MORE OR LESS INTELLIGENT REFLECTION AND OF DEAD STAGNATION.
Understanding history for what it is 1. As individuals, we do not really create the historical times in which we live-in. But what we have to do is to understand…
274 DO WE DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS OR DO WE DEFEND OURSELVES FROM THEM? (P. T. Delgado Palacios)
1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 assumes humankind agrees with the institutions of a bourgeois society. According to the Declaration we are entitled to protection under the…
273 THE CHALLENGE IS TO GO FROM RATIFIED TREATY TO LAW OF THE LAND. AT THE END OF THE DAY, NATIONAL LAWS PLAY THE FINAL CRITICAL ROLE WHEN ASSESSING A GOVERNMENT’S REAL COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS.
Background 1. On December 10, 1948, 48 countries signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The rest is history –history not to be taken lightly since human rights (HR) are…
272 THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS GAP IN THE CAUSAL CHAIN OF PREVENTABLE ILL- HEALTH AND MORTALITY MUST BE RECAST AS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
1. While health and human rights advocates have, from the start, taken a global perspective on the causes of ill-health, social medicine and particularly social epidemiology have been slower to…
271 HUMAN RIGHTS ARE CENTRAL OBJECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT; IT IS UTTERLY INSUFFICIENT TO REFER TO THEM AS ONE OF THE ‘CROSS-CUTTING’ ISSUES. (part 3 of 3)
Accountability in foreign aid The international legal regime established through the various human rights treaties is the existing global accountability framework which we should be drawing upon much, much more.…
270 HUMAN RIGHTS ARE CENTRAL OBJECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT; IT IS UTTERLY INSUFFICIENT TO REFER TO THEM AS ONE OF THE ‘CROSS-CUTTING’ ISSUES. (part 2 of 3)
The role of claim holders and duty bearers* 1. With an emphasis on development results that actually ought to be seen as fulfilled human rights, duty-bearers become accountable in a…