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.

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 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.

With international human rights under challenge, this book represents a comprehensive critique that adds a social policy perspective to recent political and legalistic analysis. Expert contributors draw on local and global examples to review constructs of universal rights and their impact on social policy and human welfare. With thorough analysis of their strengths, weaknesses and enforcement, it sets out their role in domestic and geopolitical affairs. Including a forward by Albie Sachs, this book presents an honest appraisal of both the concepts of international human rights and their realities. It will engage those with an interest in social policy, ethics, politics, international relations, civil society organisations and human rights-based approaches to campaigning and policy development.

In recent years human rights have assumed a central position in the discourse surrounding international development, while human rights agencies have begun to more systematically address economic and social rights. This edited volume brings together distinguished scholars to explore the merging of human rights and development agendas at local, national and international levels. They examine how this merging affects organisational change, operational change and the role of relevant actors in bringing about change. With a focus on practice and policy rather than pure theory, the volume also addresses broader questions such as what human rights and development can learn from one another, and whether the connections between the two fields are increasing or declining. The book is structured in three sections: Part I looks at approaches that combine human rights and development, including chapters on drivers of change; indicators; donor; and legal empowerment of the poor. Part II focuses on organisational contexts and includes chapters on the UN at the country level; EU development cooperation; PLAN's children's rights-based approach; and ActionAid's human rights-based approach. Part III examines country contexts, including chapters on the ILO in various settings; the Congo; Ethiopia; and South Africa. Human Rights and Development in the new Millennium: Towards a Theory of Change will be of strong interest to students and scholars of human rights, development studies, political science and economics.

This book explores the role played by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in articulating concerns at the TRIPS Council, the WIPO, the WHO, the CBD-COP and the FAO that intellectual property rights can have negative consequences for developing countries.

The acceptance of human rights and minority rights, the increasing role of international financial institutions, and globalization have led many observers to question the continued viability of the sovereign state. Here a leading expert challenges this conclusion. Stephen Krasner contends that states have never been as sovereign as some have supposed. Throughout history, rulers have been motivated by a desire to stay in power, not by some abstract adherence to international principles. Organized hypocrisy--the presence of longstanding norms that are frequently violated--has been an enduring attribute of international relations. Political leaders have usually but not always honored international legal sovereignty, the principle that international recognition should be accorded only to juridically independent sovereign states, while treating Westphalian sovereignty, the principle that states have the right to exclude external authority from their own territory, in a much more provisional way. In some instances violations of the principles of sovereignty have been coercive, as in the imposition of minority rights on newly created states after the First World War or the successor states of Yugoslavia after 1990; at other times cooperative, as in the European Human Rights regime or conditionality agreements with the International Monetary Fund. The author looks at various issues areas to make his argument: minority rights, human rights, sovereign lending, and state creation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Differences in national power and interests, he concludes, not international norms, continue to be the most powerful explanation for the behavior of states.

* Links development and human rights theory with practice * Written by an award-winning author and expert in the human rights and development fields * Highly readable, passionate, and powerfully argued In Human Rights and Development, award-winning author Peter Uvin extends the examination of development aid and human rights violations that he presented in his book on the Rwandan genocide, Aiding Violence. Whereas that book is diagnostic, Human Rights and Development is prescriptive—a response to requests from development and human rights organizations to help them effect strategies for reducing conflict and improving human rights outcomes. By advocating a rights-based approach to development, Uvin shows how practitioners can surmount the tough ethical and human rights obstacles encountered in their endeavors. But Human Rights and Development is much more than a "how to" book for practitioners. It is also a major scholar’s profound, passionate, and clearly written analysis of the need to effect principled social change throughout the global arena that solidifies rather than fragments our common humanity.

Global Development and Human Rights analyses global efforts to implement long-term goals that seek to promote the health, happiness, and freedoms of individuals.

The papers by international and Ethiopian scholars included in Human Rights and Development: Legal Perspectives from and for Ethiopia focus on the interconnectedness between the protection of human rights and the achievement of development. The book adds to the international debate by providing a unique insight into the Ethiopian perspective on the nexus between rights and development and by discussing how this nexus manifests itself in the Ethiopian context. The comparative and international frameworks and examples constitute a valuable resource for the debate on human rights and development in Ethiopia, which is currently taking place in the context of the developmental state approach pursued by the Ethiopian government.