Human rights recognised as rights belonging to humans, as a matter of necessity stretched out its arm to embrace every facet of human lives or simply that which is crucial to human existence. This has propelled the strategy of including human rights principles and ideas in certain areas and fields that touch on the human wellbeing and existence. Therefore human rights have been used in some avenues as an instrument for attaining the goal of peace in human societies. This forms one of the earliest known strategies of integrating human rights into other systems to enhance them, recognising that where human rights are been violated there is no peace as exemplified in Apartheid South Africa. Regarding the attainment of peace, the human rights charter itself was spearheaded with the vision for creating peace in the world, after World War II to prevent a reoccurrence of another war. Human rights have also been essential as an instrument for conflict prevention and for good governance and democracy.
It is an open truth that human rights and development have been brought together to synergize, reinforce and influence each other. The reason for this integration is properly traced to the conceptual or theoretical level of union before the practical union can be analysed perfectly. Hence in tracing how human rights entered development, our first port of call is the point where the concepts of human rights and development were brought to interface with each other.
A personal intellectual archaeology will lead us to see that, at the inception of both the concept of human rights and development, in the global social-economic world order in 1949 and 1948 respectively, the goal of the concept of human rights clearly stated can be summarised as; to attain the dignity, value and worth of the human being and also a decent standard of living and wellbeing for the fulfilment of the human person by reason of his being human. While the goal of development was summarised as, attaining the good life or the better life. Therefore conceptually these two concepts do have a common goal. Initially these conceptual union was overlooked and was previously not recognised in official terms, but gradually in the progress of the concepts certain factors has led to its interaction and reinforcement in the social-economic landscape.
The grand entrance of human rights into development can be traced to the 1993 world conference on human rights in Vienna which witnessed the declaration of the right to development. The right of development is the conjugal ring with which the concepts of human rights and development were brought to marry each other. But prior to the declaration of 1993, certain factors can well be pointed out as precursors which facilitated the declaration of the right to development. The economic and social cultural right which forms the second arm of the universal declaration of human rights, emphasized on the right to social security, adequate standard of living and wellbeing, laying emphasis on the individual’s economic status. Although the economic and social rights did not clearly state development as its goal, the aims of the economic and social rights are paramount to achieving the goals of development which are also inherent in the concept of human rights and propelled by the drive for the attainment of human dignity.
Development as a concept first entered the human rights edifice through the debate on the right to development. “The right to development can be traced as far back to the 1944 declaration of Philadelphia which stated that all human beings irrespective of race, creed or sex have the right to pursue both their material wellbeing and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity of economic security and equal opportunity” Kusumalayam(2008:114). In the 1960s developing and newly independent states began to argue that equitable distribution of the world’s economic resources is essential for complete independence and at the 1968 international conference on human rights in Tehran it was declared that, “the achievement of lasting progress in the achievement of human rights is dependent upon sound and effective national and international policies of social and economic development” Kusumalayam (2008:115).
The then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Senegal KebaM’Baye who later became an active member of the International Court of Justice in 1972, argued that everyone had the right to development while delivering a public lecture. “He argued that the right to development is to be recognised as a human right because it is essential for the exercise of other human rights” Kusumalayam (2008:115). M’Baye also spearheaded the adoption in 1977 of a resolution which required that the UN undertake a study of the right to development as a human right, and in 1986 the declaration on the right to development was officially adopted describing development as, “a comprehensive, economic, social, cultural and political process which aims at the constant improvement of the wellbeing of the entire population of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting therefrom” Kusumalayam(2008:116). The declaration further defined the right to development as an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realised.
At the world conference in Vienna 1993 the right to development was firmly re-established as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of the fundamental human rights’. Since then human rights have come to play a very influential role in development process both at the theoretical and practical levels, as such the 1990s onwards witnessed a surge and proliferation of the right to development in various rights conventions.
A right to development puts development in the hands of the people. it sees development as non-negotiable i.e. it doesn’t see development as something which we can choose to reject or accept rather, development in this conception forms the very substance of our lives as human beings of which we are to obtain by necessity in other to live our lives as human beings. The right to development beckons on state and international bodies to see development as part of the fundamental right to be guaranteed to citizens. Although the right to development has been viewed in some quarters as exclusively a collective right or group right especially those who belong to the third generation rights school, the right to development can be conceived as both an individual right and group right. ArjunSengupta clarifies this by stating that, “the right to development is then an individual right exercised collectively by all the peoples in a given country”. Kusumalayam(2008:124).
The Millennium Development Goals(M.D.G.S)/Special Development Goals(S.D.G.S) and the Millennium Perspective on Development.
The unique and significant feature of the millennium development goals is that they are time bound and embrace an all-encompassing view of development. With a focus on poverty alleviation and human development, the millennium development goals/special development goals commonly called the MDGs/S.D.G.S, is the first document by the UN that amplifies the human development strategy. In September 2000, 189 world leaders came together at the United Nations, New York for the millennium summit. At this summit they signed the millennium declaration in which they firmly pledged to rescue their fellow human beings from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty to freeing the entire human race from want and to making the right to development a reality for everyone. “The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)/S.D.G.S emanate from the political commitments made by leaders to tackle poverty, illiteracy and disease at the dawn of the new millennium” OHCHR (2015:1).
At the dawn of the new millennium world leaders gathered together to take a bold stand on the fight against poverty, illiteracy and disease using the instrument of the millennium declaration at the historic millennium summit, upon which the millennium development goals were drafted in September 2000. Another significant feature of this declaration is that world leaders re-affirmed their commitment to ensure the full realisation of human rights. The MDGs is one of the UN frameworks which have incorporated human rights goals in order to attain development goals. Hence the millennium declaration is a milestone in the merging of human rights and development .The 8 millennium development/Special development goals are:
§ To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
§ Achieve universal primary
§ Promote gender equality and empower women.
§ Reduce child mortality.
§ Improve maternal health.
§ Combat HIV and aids, malaria and other diseases.
§ Ensure environmental sustainability.
§ Develop a global partnership for development.
These goals were targeted to be achieved by the year 2015 but with the realities on ground, it is obvious that these goals are yet to be achieved. The MDGs/SDGS are development goals or programmes which can be achieved or are to be achieved through the enhancement of human rights and application of human rights standards. The MDGs/S.D.G.S heralds a new perspective, an approach to development for the 21st century. It also forms a global consensus on the fight against poverty which became the central objective of international development.
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