Yulia Shirokova
Omsk
A particular understanding of the relationship
between States, Human Rights advocacy, and the International community has shaped the
International Politics of Human Rights in recent decades. Globalization and
interdependence of societies made Human Rights and Human Development an important concern
for countries as well as one of the reasons for international cooperation between them. In
this article the question of potential integration of Human Rights and Development as well
as ways of how these processes can contribute to each other will be analyzed. My argument
is that Human Rights and Human Development are interdependent processes and there are
potentials for integration of these two important processes from which both of them can
benefit.
During the last years several reasons based on which we can consider
potentials for integration of Development and Human Rights appeared in International
practice. First, human development is considered in from modern perspective as one of the
rights of individual and it is placed at the same row as civil and political rights.
Second, each group of rights, civil and political rights from one hand
and economic and social from the other, have components of development level in each group
of those rights. For example, right for education has a component of an intellectual
development; political rights indicate level of political development of society.
Third, the social and institutional development as well as good
governance is considered now from perspective of democracy, implementation of human rights
policy, and from the perspective of participation of community in decision-making process.
In this case, one group of rights is a condition to achieving the fulfillment of others:
only with implementation of political rights - rights for people to participate in society
- people can take an advantage of economic rights.
Before considering the ways where these two categories, human rights
and development, can be dependent from each other I would like to consider what these
categories mean, what aims and target groups they have, what mechanisms these processes
use, and what institutions are responsible for both of these processes.
"Development is most often though as growth in the capacity of
community to generate a rising standard of living for all of its citizens" [1]. The evolution of development process had several stages. It began only
from economic growth, then individual who have rights for social, cultural and political
development became a center of development process. After that to development process were
added ideas sustainability, development as enlarging people’s choices. UNDP’s
current definition of Human Development includes the following dimensions: empowerment,
cooperation, equity, sustainability and security.
Human Rights category is seen from two points: the rights of
individuals against States, and rights of groups. In both approaches one of the functions
of protecting international human rights as well as developing democracy is seen as
condition for peaceful development of countries and condition for participation of people
in government.
The idea of human rights includes the protection of individuals against
the power of states and at the same time the duty of states to implement those standards
and create high standard of living for citizens. Human Rights are considered as norms and
rules concerning these relations.
From these definitions of Development and Human Rights we can see that
both categories represent process rather than a result, and they share a common vision and
purpose "to secure the freedom, well-being, and dignity of people everywhere" [2].
In most cases human rights and human development have the same target
groups. A good example of this integration could be refugees as a shared target group for
human rights as well as for human development process. Following example related to
refugees policy will help us to show the interdependence and integration of these two
processes at this level.
Refugees are legally defined as people who are outside of their
countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution there based on race, religion,
nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group, and who cannot
or don’t want to return home.
From this definition we can make a conclusion that violation of basic
rights of people placed them in the situation where their economical and social
development at that stage cannot be secured. And people lost their level of development
that they had because of impossibility to defend their rights.
The mostly useful decision to this problem in current practice is an
international protection to ensure respect of refugees’ human rights and to place
people where their development will be possible. One of the most helpful solutions to
refugees’ problems became development projects that aimed to help refugees in their
new places of living or once they return to their home countries. This development
projects aimed to help refugees either to integrate themselves into the country where they
first sought asylum or to resettle them in a third country where they will have chances to
find work and resume their lives or to help them to resettle when they come back to their
home countries. Ensuring basic human rights, such as education, food, place to live from
one hand, and developing the community to contribute to refugees’ development from
the other is an example that confirms our argument about integration of human rights and
development as a two-way process that share common goals, common target groups, and common
solutions to the problem.
Though there are different institutions for developing these processes
there are visible ways of interdependence where they contribute to each other.
Institutions for development process are institutions like UNDP or World Bank.
Institutions for implementing Human Rights protection are UNCHR or UNCR. But these two
processes meet together in the work of non-governmental actors of society. As we can
observe in practice, there is a collaboration of UN Commission for Refugees and
development organizations such as UNDP, WHO, WFP, ICRC, and other governmental and
non-governmental organizations. And at this level we can talk about integration of human
rights and development processes in practice. This integration, I think, based on above
considered theoretical basis and special role that plays non-governmental organizations to
implement effectively Human Rights norms and standards through development process on the
one hand and on the other hand to stimulate development through human rights.
The other level where development and human rights meet and influence
on each other because human development is a condition for implementing Human Rights
standards because people cannot think about democracy and human rights without democratic
environment in political situation and without good economical conditions of their lives.
From the other hand without fulfillment of Human Rights standards human development
can’t be fully implemented. This is an example of how human rights and human
development can enhance each other.
At the same time the interactions at this level between development and
human rights are not one-way interactions. International Development of Human Rights
policy and standards make it very influential part of foreign policy and it makes
government consider and count on International Policy in the development process. These
trends influence on developing local Human Right policies in countries. In this case
International cooperation and interdependence become conditions of development of human
rights and human development all around the world.
From this analysis we can make several conclusions about effectiveness
of the integration of human rights and development.
First of all, the analysis of interdependence of Human Rights and Human
Development in each particular case can contribute to each of these processes because it
can help to design and implement more effective development policy as well as more
effective implementation of human rights policy.
Second, human rights and development creates empowerment of people and
development can base on this in its process. Human rights in this case can contribute to
development an equal opportunity for people to participate in development process and
secure their protection and dignity. The two-way process of integration and collaboration
of Human Rights and Human Development ensures more effective development of each of these
processes. International cooperation becomes a monitoring, functional, and implementing
mechanism to ensure the development and effective integration of Human Rights and Human
Development processes.
Acknowledgment:
Research for this article was supported in part by a grant from the Russian-US Young Leadership Fellows for Public Service Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the United States Department of State, administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). Neither ECA nor IREX are responsible for the views expressed.
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