This book is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. It contains a collection of analytical studies of various aspects of the right to development, which include the rule of law and good governance, aid, trade, debt, technology transfer, intellectual property, access to medicines and climate change in the context of an enabling environment at the local, regional and international levels. It also explores the issues of poverty, women and indigenous peoples within the theme of social justice and equity. The book considers the strides that have been made over the years in measuring progress in implementing the right to development and possible ways forward to make the right to development a reality for all in an increasingly fragile, interdependent and ever-changing world.
The chapters in this volume are based on the papers that were presented at the Calcutta seminar organized in March 1992 by the ILA Committee on Lehal Aspects of a New International Economic Order (NIEO). The conference focused on the right to development, in particular its ideas and ideology, human rights aspects and implementation in specific areas of international law. The volume is accordingly organized in three parts. The chapters cover a vast area of subjects, derived from the UN Declaration of the Right to Development. From the developed and underdeveloped world 33 authors discuss topics including: contents, scope and implementation of the right to development; human rights of individuals and peoples; co-operation between the European Community and the Lomé IV states; current developments in investments treaties; refugee protection; development and democracy; concept of sustainable development; environmental issues; protection of intellectual property; transfer of technology; human rights in international financial institutions; and the legal conceptualization of the debt crisis. Professor Oscar Schachter observes in the first chapter that the Declaration continues to be a `challenging subject for legal commentary' for its `detable legal status, its combination of collective and individual rights, its expansive conception of development and its equivocal obligation'. Apart from support, doubts about the concept to the right to development may also be found in this volume.
This book addresses the legal issues raised by the interaction between human rights and development in contemporary international law. In particular, it charts the parameters of international law that states have to take into account in order to protect human rights in the process of development. In doing so, it departs from traditional analyses, where human rights are mainly considered as a political dimension of development. Rather, the book suggests focusing on human rights as a system of international norms establishing minimum standards of protection of individuals and minimum standards applicable in all circumstances on what is essential for a dignified existence. The various dimensions covered in the book include: the discourse on human rights and development interrelationship, particularly opinio juris and the practice of states on the question; the notion of international assistance and cooperation in human rights law, under legal regimes such as international humanitarian law, and emerging rules in the area of protection of persons in the event of disasters; the extraterritorial scope of economic, social and cultural rights treaties; and legal principles on the respect for human rights in externally designed and planned development activities. Analysis of these topics sheds light on the question of whether international law as it stands today addresses most of the issues concerning the protection of human rights in the development process.
Bsrd A. Andreassen is Professor at the Norwegian Center for Human Rights and Director of Research (human rights and development) at the Law Faculty, University of Oslo. --
This theoretical and practical overview of the international legal architecture between developing countries and advanced nations is divided into two parts, the first providing a theoretical overview of the philosophical implications of international development law principles; the second deals with international financial architecture.
This text considers the issues of world poverty and global justice, addressing the ability of people in poor or developing countries to have enough food, or clean water, or access to basic healthcare. It draws on international law aimed at the protection and promotion of human rights.
The human rights enunciated in Articles 23 and 24 of the UDHR concern aspects of rights related to work. This part of international human rights law is often neglected in human rights textbooks and teaching, and indeed is often omitted from the work done by national human rights institutes and by NGOs concerned with human rights, as though it were a separate discipline that did not fall properly into the human rights field. This volume addresses this commonly held, but erroneous, misconception. There are aspects of labor-related rights in all the major human rights instruments and systems. While the International Labor Organization (ILO) is the primary body in this field, labor-related rights are also dealt with by the United Nations, the major regional organizations (such as the OAS and the EU), and the development banks (the World Bank and its regional counterparts). There are also provisions on labor rights in all the major international instruments, or they have been read to cover labor-related questions. This volume, which reviews the development and implementation of Articles 23 and 24 of the UDHR, will spend most attention on the ILO, which is the premiere organization in this field, both chronologically and substantively. However, since a thorough and complete picture of human rights cannot be drawn without considering labor-related rights as an aspect of the broader human rights canon, the rest of the international system will also be brought in. This book is the fifth volume in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Series. The Series will consist of approximately 20 volumes, each dealing with a substantive right (or group of rights) set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Each volume is authored by an expert in human rights generally and in the particular subject addressed. Without losing sight of the political context in which the implementation of human rights must occur, each book provides a comprehensive, legally-oriented analysis of the rights concerned, including an examination of the legislative history of the text of each right as adopted in 1948, the right's subsequent articulation and interpretation by international bodies and in subsequent international instruments, and a survey of state practice in defining and enforcing the right.
