Human Rights and Development

Speech by Professor
Alice Tay, President, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, World
Vision Seminar, Melbourne, 3 December 1998

Introduction

In just one week
the nations of the world will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. It is an historic occasion. The last 50 years
has seen significant progress in the recognition and protection of human
rights, both at an international level and within the borders of sovereign
states.

The Universal Declaration
is significant for a number of reasons. Despite a history of discussion
of rights which goes back thousands of years, the Universal Declaration
was the first statement of universal, indivisible human rights held by
each individual, regardless of race, sex, religion or ethnic background.
It is also significant in that it is a marriage of both civil and political
rights and economic, social and cultural rights. It does not separate
the two.

A divorce took place
later, driven by Cold War ideological divisions. However, the Universal
Declaration highlights the fact that access to the fundamentals of life
- food, clothing, shelter - is a basic human right, as is the right to
freedom of speech.

Article 25 states
that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for
the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food,
clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services".

Fifty years on, how
close are we to achieving these goals? How close are we to ensuring that
all individuals have access to receive basic levels of food, clothing,
health and sanitation. Let us consider the following facts.

• The joint wealth
  of the world’s three richest individuals is greater than the combined
  Gross Domestic Product of the 48 poorest countries - a quarter of all
  the world’s states.

• In 1960 the income
  of the 20% of the world’s population living in the richest countries
  was 30 times greater than that of the 20% in the poorest countries.
  Today it is more than 80 times greater.

• Almost three billion
  people - half of the world’s population - live on less than two
  dollars a day.

• Of the 4.5 billion
  people living in developing countries, almost a third have no drinking
  water. One fifth of all children receive an insufficient intake of calories
  and protein.

• Thirty million
  people die of hunger each year. 800 million suffer from chronic malnutrition.

To put these shocking
figures into context, it would cost only $13 billion to satisfy all the
world’s sanitation and food requirements - the same amount that is
spent in the US and Europe on perfume each year.

At this time, self-reflection,
self-criticism and a re-committment to the goals espoused in the Universal
Declaration are of critical importance. Says Mary Robinson, the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights:

I do not see this
as an occasion for celebration. Count up the results of fifty years
of human rights mechanisms, thirty years of multi-billion dollar development
programs and endless high-level rhetoric and the global impact is quite
underwhelming. This is a failure of implementation on a scale that shames
us all

A Human Rights Framework
for Development

It is, of course,
stating the obvious to highlight the interconnectedness of development
and human rights. There is a necessary relationship between the two. The
precise nature of this relationship is dynamic and contentious. There
are ongoing practical and philosophical debates regarding the role of
human rights in development and the role of development in realising human
rights. Most of you here will be familiar with, or engaged in, these debates
on a daily basis. However, for today, I will leave these debates aside
today.

Any aid or programs
provided to assist in economic or social development cannot avoid impacting
on human rights concerns. The right to development, as well as a multitude
of economic and social rights - to health care, education, sanitation,
water and so on - are all integral components of human rights.

More than this, the
UN Working Group on the Right to Development states that "the right
to development involves more than development itself: it implies a human
rights approach to development". Such a relationship has been articulated
for many years.

The UN General Assembly
in 1957 said that "a balanced and integrated economic and social
development would contribute towards the promotion and maintenance of
peace and security, social progress and better standards of living, and
the observance of and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The International
Conference on Human Rights, held in Teheran in 1968, said "that the
enjoyment of economic and social rights is inherently linked with any
meaningful enjoyment of civil and political rights and that there is a
profound interconnection between the realisation of human rights and economic
development". This point was also reiterated at the World Conference
on Human Rights held in Vienna in June 1993.

The Right to Development

The adoption by the
UN General Assembly in 1986 of the Declaration on the Right to Development
was, therefore, very significant. As well as explicitly affirming the
existence of a human right to development, it attempted to heal the artificial
distinction between the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights.

The Declaration expressly
recognises development as an "inalienable right", vested in
individuals and peoples, although the individual is identified as "the
central subject of development". The Declaration recognises the right
to self-determination, including peoples' "inalienable right to full
sovereignty over all their natural wealth and resources". It also
places the right to development in both a national and international context
and in so doing sets out a number of obligations for states at both a
domestic and an international level.

The Declaration defines
development as "a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political
process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the
entire population and of all individuals". It affirms, perhaps more
strongly than other international human rights instruments, the principle
of the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights. It also
stresses the right to non-discrimination in development "without
distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth
or other status".

The Role of NGOs

In the area of development,
non-government organisations and national human rights institutions have
very different, yet complementary, roles to play. NGOs often have a vital
front-line approach: such as mobilising humanitarian aid and resources
in times of crisis. World Vision’s recent work in Honduras in the
aftermath of Hurricane Mitch is just one of many examples when your organisation
has been able to respond effectively and quickly to acute suffering and
need.

Of course, humanitarian
work is just one arm of the broader development program of NGOs. There
is the work with communities to provide basic water, sanitation and other
infrastructure needs; agricultural assistance; health services; education;
advocacy; the list goes on. NGOs are focussed on the needs of individuals
and communities and working cooperatively to achieve objectives that empower
those communities and the individuals that make up those communities.

Whether explicitly
or implicitly, these programs have a strong human rights dimension. Consider
the work of World Vision, both in Australia and overseas, in addressing
disadvantage and building capacities and leadership.

• Health programs
  for remote Indigenous communities;

• Economic development
  work of the Walkabout Galleries;

• The fundraising
  and awareness-raising work of the annual 40-Hour Famine;

• Advocacy on behalf
  of child labourers trapped in the most hazardous conditions;

• Micro-credit programs
  to raise the economic and social status of women;

• and the Jubilee
  2000 Campaign aimed at eliminating the crippling foreign debt faced
  by developing nations.

In all these examples,
the nexus between development and human rights is fundamental, if not
always explicit.

The Role of National
Human Rights Institutions

National human rights
institutions such as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
have a very different role to play to that of NGOs. The nature of our
work is focussed much more at the level of social institutions - government
and the law - rather than communities.

However, our guiding
concern, like that of NGOs, is to ensure opportunities for all people
to contribute to the development of the community and to ensure access
to education, health care, housing and other services for all.

On an international
level, the Commission acts as the Secretariat of the Asia Pacific Forum
of National Human Rights Institutions. The Forum is comprised of six Commissions
- Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Forum also works with the governments and agencies of a number of
other countries in the region, including South Africa, Bangladesh, China,
Fiji, PNG, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam.

The exchange between
institutions and agencies generally takes the form of technical support,
assistance and information-sharing in areas such as investigation procedures,
complaint handling, media and education programs. Such exchanges aim to
assist the development and functioning of independent national human rights
institutions.

This work might seem
far-removed from the community-focussed activities of non-government organisations,
such as your own. However, the fact is that they are complementary approaches.
Both work towards similar goals from different perspectives. Having effective
national human rights institutions - institutions that are able to respond
to and advocate on behalf of the excluded, the marginalised and the dispossessed
- is just as important as equipping individuals and communities with the
tools of economic and social development. Both help to foster and sustain
a culture and practice of human rights. As we approach the end of the
twentieth century, such a coordinated approach to advancing human rights
is needed more than ever.

The Challenges Ahead

Despite fifty years
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the advances that we
have achieved in that time, the new millennium will be ushered in by hunger
and poverty. We are faced with challenges as great as at any time since
the end of the Second World War. Some of the greatest challenges to securing
basic economic and social rights will be right on our own doorstep in
the Asia Pacific region.

Indeed, formulating
a response to the consequences of the financial crisis in the region was
the central topic of the annual Asia Pacific Forum meeting, held only
a few months ago in Jakarta.

The economic crisis
which has affected East and South-East Asia was stunning in its suddenness
and severity. Almost overnight, countries that had experienced decades
of rapid economic growth were facing falls in GDP of up to 15% and even
20%. According to World Bank officials some 400 million people were plunged
into the crisis and World Bank reports have described the most serious
social consequences as:

• acute food shortages
• exploding unemployment
• sharp price rises
  for essentials such as cooking oil
• severe shortages
  of medical supplies
• intense pressures
  on government spending on key infrastructure in areas such as health
  and housing

These are only the
immediate consequences that have been identified. The flow-on effects
will lead to much broader consequences that will affect the lives of many
millions of individual men, women and children. Women's and children's
rights will be particularly hard hit: previous experiences of structural
adjustment programs have shown that as social services provided by government
disappear, the burden for providing alternative services falls on women.
There are strong fears that the present crisis will force millions of
children out of the school system.

Despite the widespread
expressions of concern about the broad socio-political implications of
the economic crisis, there has been almost no discussion of what it means
in specifically human rights terms. It is important for NGOs, national
human rights institutions and other human rights practitioners to be clear
about the human rights impacts.

It is clear that
the crisis has severely compromised the enjoyment of the right to work
and, as a direct consequence, the enjoyment of the right to an adequate
standard of living. It is also clear that the rights to health, education
and social security have been curtailed. Civil and political rights have
also been affected, in particular the rights of certain ethnic minority
groups.

For NGOs and National
Human Rights Institutions this situation presents a valuable opportunity
to ensure that constructive and robust input from a human rights perspective
is given to key policy making bodies. The challenge now is to generate
the necessary political will to get the right legislation and policies
in place to translate the promises in the International Bill of Human
Rights into practical outcomes.

Some possible courses
of action include:

• promoting the
  early ratification of key human rights treaties

• promoting a debate
  on human rights in the context of economic and political reforms

• using their public
  profile to draw attention to the human rights consequences of the economic
  crisis

• working with governments
  on developing policy/administrative structures that will help implement
  treaty obligations and monitor progress in their implementation

• working with UN
  and other international organisations to access technical assistance

• working with the
  business sector to encourage recognition of human rights and the development
  of cooperative approaches to promoting and protecting them

• National human
  rights institutions and NGOs to working cooperatively to identify the
  needs of vulnerable groups and to develop successful strategies/programs
  to respond to those needs

• addressing discrimination
  issues, in particular ensuring the needs of minorities and other vulnerable
  groups are adequately protected.

Conclusion

Over the last few
decades, and shockingly, in the span of just a few months, millions of
people, particularly in developing countries, have seen their economic
and social conditions deteriorate markedly. Naturally this has a major
impact on their ability to assert their other, civil and political rights.
If nothing else, the recent economic crisis has highlighted as folly the
view that securing economic and social progress will naturally provide
strong and effective protection of civil and political rights.

However, during this
period, on the international stage, greater concern has been expressed
about the economies of these nations, rather than the circumstances facing
the individuals of those nations.

As we approach the
50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time
for us to take stock once more of both the rights and the needs of individuals
and the manner in which development programs are designed and implemented.

As Mick Dodson, former
Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner with HREOC has said:

Policies and programs
which rest primarily on a perception of need and powerlessness subtly
reinforce the powerlessness of the recipients who are seen as being
given justice rather than as receiving their rights. The recognition
of entitlement is in itself an act of empowerment.

NGOs and national
human rights institutions also need to continue to be engaged individually
and collectively, in discussion and debate around the broader programs
of economic, social and legal reform.

The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights highlights the universality and indivisibility of civil
and political rights, alongside economic and social rights. They can and
must be attained together "for all peoples and all nations".
They cannot be dissected or approached in a piecemeal fashion.

In the same way,
our approach to promoting and advancing human rights for the next fifty
years into the twenty-first century must also be holistic, cooperative
and centred on the rights of individuals if we are to hold true and give
substance to the aspirations of the Universal Declaration.

Last
updated 1 December 2001