How do human rights impact on development? Are rights-based agendas useful for addressing issues of social and economic exclusion experienced by the poor? This article from Global Social Policy suggests that while the promotion of rights has become intertwined with development, the evidence of their effect on development policy is mixed. Many rights are difficult to put onto the agenda of states. Other arguments for development and justice are therefore also required, alongside sustained theoretical reflection on and engagement with the state.
The recent rise of rights-based development agendas comes out of the liberal ‘turn’ in global politics under the leadership of western nations. Rights first entered the development debate as a corollary to liberal state building and, more specifically, democratisation. They were later incorporated into mainstream development thought because they fit easily into western concepts of ‘civilised’ society.
Rights have provided advocacy movements with a way of discussing social injustice and demanding policy reform. As a result, many advocacy movements have been able to transnationalise and lobby international bodies, such as the UN. Additionally, many donor organisations have adopted rights-based strategies that allow them to press for legal implementation, monitor standards and expose violations of rights legislation.
However, should development strategies be inherently rights-based? When rights claims resonate with the dominant liberal ideals of global political economy, they have a greater chance of being heard. Less popular rights issues, such as the rights of young men, tend to be overlooked. Furthermore, the structure of development policy changes when combined with a rights-based approach. Given that the state is the protector of citizens’ rights, rights-based development shifts to advocacy and monitoring. In essence, development becomes a means of demanding state compliance with international agreements, conventions and global norms on rights.
Rights-based development is constrained by political economy concerns and is therefore successful in some domains but not in others. For example:
- Irrespective of whether rights should be pursued, where they cost money governments are less likely to prove receptive in policy terms.
- Political and legal rights can be more effectively claimed than social and economic rights. Economic rights in particular face opposition where attempts at advocacy focus on changing or maintaining the law.
- The success of rights advocacy depends on the ability of movements to persuade governments and international organisations of the correctness of the claim.
Policymakers must understand the complexity of tying development to rights when creating strategies. Whatever the moral appeal to the west, rights should never be the principal driver in aid and development policy. Moreover:
- There should be greater support for a more measured, academic assessment of rights in development policy.
- Policymakers must recognise the barriers for certain social groups to realising rights that do not coincide with the liberal political agenda.
- Achieving rights depends more on political context than on recourse to the law.
- There is an urgent need for greater state engagement in rights-based development, particularly in terms of monitoring compliance with national and international standards.
