Poverty, Next Frontier in the Human Rights Struggle?

Poverty, Next Frontier in the H u m a n Rights Struggle?

Proceedings of the international seminar and public lectures

18-19 October 2004, Paris

Organized by UNESCO for the observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 2004

The opinions expressed in this bonk m e not rwcessdrily those of UNESCO

TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword: Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences,

“Why a Day?” Chifa Tekaya, Coordinator of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2004 ............................................................................................................................................... 7

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Seminar 1: Research Centers and academicians’ point of view ....................... 1 1 “Poverty is a Human Rights issue: Dilemmas and Actions for an operational content of the concept”

Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Norway ............................................................ 12 Camilo Castellanos, Institut0 Latino American0 de Servicios Legales Alternativos (ILSA), Colombia ................................................................................... 28 Christoph Eberhard, Universiry Saint Louis, Brussels, Legal Aiithro- poJogy Laboratory of Paris, France ......................................................................... 38 Yash Tandon, Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), Zimbabwe ............................................. 63 Else 0yen, Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), Norway ....................................................................................................................................... 106

Seminar 2: Bilateral Cooperating Agencies’ point of view ........ “Right-Based Approach to poverty Eradication: A new commitment or a pilot experiment?”

Susan Mathews, Tilburg University, The Netherlands (Introductory Paper) ............................................................................................................................................ 128

Pat Holden, Department for In ternational Development (DFID), United- Kingdom ................................................................................................................ 145 Christine Lundberg, Swedish In ternational Development Coopera- tion (SIDA), Sweden ....................................................................................................... 148

Rauno Merisaari, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland ....................... 140

Seminar 3: United Nations Agencies’ point of view ............................................. 157 “Requirements of Human Rights and the challenge of Poverty Eradication: a new response or a conditionality”

Robert Archer, International Council on Human Rghts Policy, Switzerland (Introductory Paper) .......................................................................... 158 Graerne Buckley, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Switzerland .................. .................................................................................................... 170

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Agnès Picod, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHlI), Switzerland ......................................................... 18 1 Patrick Van Weerelt, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York ........................................................................................................ 1 89

Seminar 4: “UNESCO in the fight against poverty: future orientations” .............. 195 Adama Dieng, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, Registrar of the United Nations Criininal Tribunal for Rwanda, Tanzania (Inrroductory Paper) ....................................................................................................... i 96 Francis Childe, Senior Programme Specialist, Europe, Asia, Pacific, Tangible Heritage Sectio, Division of Cultural Heritage, Culture

.................................................................................................. 210 irector of [he Division of Educational Policies

and Strategies, Education Sector ............................................................................ 2 16 Tony Marjoram, Programme Specialist, Engineering Sciences and Technology Section, Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences, Natural Sciences Sector .................................................. ..................................... 225 Venus Jennings, Assistant Programme Specialist, Media and Society Section, Communication Development Division, Communication and Information Sector ................................................................................................ 234 Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General for [he Social and Human Sciences Sector ...................................................................................................................... 249

Public Lecture 1: Thomas Pogge, philosopher .......................................................................................... 259

Public Lecture 2: Arjun Sengupta, Independent Expert on Human hghts and Extreme Poverty ............................................................................................................................................ 28 5

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PREFACE

After a long career in development and equally long experience in the defence of human rights, my view of poverty, deriving from a combination of the two sides of my experience, is that our efforts should focus on one, single issue: the respect for human rights. The question of poverty and pauperization is for me only a new item to be placed on the human rights agenda.

M y experience in development has actually led me, after much thinking about the persistence of poverty and its increase, to wonder whether there is not, in fact, an urgent need to change our whole approach. H o w else are w e to explain the persistence of the injustice and silent catastrophe that so methodically carries away every day thousands of innocent lives, involving the death of children who have never asked to be born? H o w else are w e to explain the fact that nowadays in rich countries homeless people throw themselves under underground trains, having the courage to kill themselves because they no longer possess the courage to go on living? H o w are we to explain the fact that the suffering of the hungry, untreated illness, the death of women in childbirth, contamination from dirty water are the daily lot of one person out of two at a time when the world has never been so rich, and that the dazz- ling technological advances that are so close to discovering the secrets of life cannot ensure the survival of the living?

If we only devote one minute to thinking of the half of humanity afflic- ted by poverty we are overcome by a feeling of unease: how would it be to spend every day in a state of poverty as if that were part of normal daily existence? Such a situation is clearly intolerable when w e know that the total eradication of extreme poverty is possible. W e should all be motivated by a sense of solidarity which would make us refuse to continue to put up with what can so easily be overcome. In fact, the international community has undertaken commitments which it reaffirms on every occasion, and that shows the degree of awareness of the suffering of others and of the responsibility of each and every one of us towards such suffering.

Today, the advance and affirmation of civil and political rights are a reality. The world is going in the right direction towards winning rights and freedom of expression and establishing democracies. Yet, with

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regard to social rights which call for our spirit of solidarity, we see a rcal regression because these rights have for a long time been relegated to a position of secondary importance. If we genuiriely wish to call poverty into question and make our contribution as an ethical and intellectual Organization, we need to see poverty as 3 question of human rights and ensure the advance of this new approach.

Pierre Sané Assistant Director-General for Social nnd Hzirnan Sciences

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WHY A DAY?

Where human beings are doomed to live in poverty, human rights are violated. It is a sacred duty to unite to secure respect for such rights.

Father Joseph Wresinski, 17 October 1987, Trocadero Esplniinde, Paris

The International Day for die Eradication of Poverty was proclaimed in 1992 by the United Nations General Assembly', in response to the appeal for mobilization by humanists, led by the ATD Fourth World Movement.

The Day, observed on 17 October each year, is not a celebration but a duty for remembering that one in two persons worldwide lives in conditions of destitution and extreme poverty. It is a Day for remembering that, since that appeal on the Trocadero Esplanade on 17 October 1987, which brought 100,000 champions of human rights together to proclaim their determination to overcome extreme poverty and to call on humanity to join forces to secure respect for human rights, nearly two decades have passed and poverty is only becoming worse.

W e are witnessing, unfortunately, even more extreme poverty, more unemployment, more insecurity, more exclusion and the emergence of new forms of exclusion. The people who are affected live that experience in silence. In the well-known words of the famous Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, it is a Day for giving a voice to the voiceless.

This century, which opens on an age of prosperity and abundance, an age of unprecedented technological development, is faced with equally dramatic poverty and extreme poverty: 1.1 billion people live today in extreme poverty.

In a world in which the two extremes of opulent wealth and utter destitution prevail, this immoral and humanly intolerable paradox cannot fail to challenge us: is it the design of humanity progressing in the production of wealth to progress in the production of extreme

1. Resolurioii 47/196 of 22 December 1932.

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poverty? D o our ethics and our humanity not demand that knowledge and science be placed in the service of well-being and life?

Yes. Today w e have the means of directing knowleclge and science, the natural resources and wealth to promote tlie well-being of humanity; it is fully within our power to make this choice dictated by a moral aiid ethical imperative, the choice of solidarity to ensure that every person on earth will no longer be subjected to the humiliation and enslavement of poverty, that mothers will no longer live in fear of losing a child for lack of food or care, that the 200 million young people living in poverty can be equipped to embark on the path of life and, lastly, that the 10 million young people carrying the AIDS virus will again have a glimmer of hope of living well in the future.

This century affords us every opportunity to see this choice of solidarity become reality. Have w e not inherited from the previous century a legacy of great importance, namely recognition of universal values? It is to consolidate this achievement that a day of mobilization for overcoming extreme poverty is necessary. Accordingly, UNESCO, which is engaged in the difficult task of promoting international cooperation and calls for solidarity and global justice, lias associated itself with international calls for the combating of extreme poverty, urging respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Organization has dedicated two days to emphasizing these aspects through an investigative seminar and two public conferences.

Four seminars have been held on the theme of poverty and its link to human rights, with emphasis on the denial of those rights through deliberate acts that contribute to the process of impoverishment and to the definition of the different factors that play a part in this phenomenon in a context of globalization.

Those seminars served to make participants aware of the challenges encountered when work on human rights is undertaken as the basis of all social construction and to inform delegations to UNESCO of efforts made by the Organization and sister agencies of the United Nations system. They also afforded an opportunity to raise awareness of protection from poverty as a human right, as established in the Organization’s Medium-Term Strategy (2002-2007).

The results of those seminars and conferences are provided in this document to ensure that they are disseminated as widely as possible

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and to call to mind a fact that could so easily be forgotten: half of humanity is excluded from the process of social participation, not to mention the right to life.

Chifa Tekaya Coordinator of the Poverty and Human Rigbtx Programme

Executive Ofice of the Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences

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Universities and Research Centres 18 October 2004

T h e m e : “Poverty is a human rights issue: dilemmas and actions for an operational content to the concept”

Speakers: University researchers

The seminar is devoted to the work of academics and researchers on che above-mentioned .theme. The issue of poverty as a human rights issue is addressed by the various speakers from different angles. They were thus invited to develop their arguments concerning the following aspects of the content of the concept in question:

1. Ideological content: philosophical, ethical and conceptual 2. Legal content 3. Socio-anthropological content: universally shared values,

and so on 4. Functional content: fresh appraisal of Poverty Reduction

Strategy Papers (PRSPs), for instance.

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THE POLITICS OF POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: DILEMMAS AND ACTIONS

Dan Banik University of Oslo

Doctor Dan Banik is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment (University of Oslo). His research interests include the study of democracy, public action, poverty, food insecurity, famine, rights of indigenous populations, the role of foreign aid, and the implementation of public policy in the developing world. Dr. Dan Banik teaches several postgraduate courses on poverty and development ethics at the University of Oslo and is currently undertaking a comparative study of poverty and child malnutrition in India and Brazil.

INTRODUCTION

Despite the appearance of substantial progress in development efforts, real attempts at poverty reduction in the developing world has been less than impressive. In Wodd Pouer-t.y and H u m a n Rights (2002), Thomas Pogge convincingly argues that despite major improvements in overall human development in various parts of the world, the number of people living in poverty has not actually declined since 1987. Indeed, hundreds of millions across the world suffer the daily anguish of deprivation in some form or another, be it the pain of persistent Lindernou- rishment and disease, the absence of adequate health care or the blatant disregard of basic human rights. As Pogge (2002) argues, deaths arising from extreme forms of absolute poverty are by far the greatest source of human misery today. H e further refers to The World Health Organisa- tion estimates, according to which in 1998 alone, around 588,000 deaths were due to war, 736,000 deaths due to other homicides and violence, and a staggering 18 million lives were lost due to starvation and preventable diseases. Pogge goes on to forcefully argued that by maintaining poverty in the world, affluent countries are committing the most serious of human rights violations in history. The challenge, argues Pogge, is to unambiguously contextualise the fight against poverty as a matter of global justice since the poor are powerless within a system of injustice.

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HUMAN RIGHTS AND POVERTYREDUCTION

Despite considerable academic research within the fields of human rights and in poverty studies, an analytical operational link between the two has seldom been convincingly established. However, a very good start has been provided by Professors Hunt, Osmani and Now& in formulating the OHCHR (2004) draft guidelines on “Human Rights and Poverty Reduction”. They write:

“The essential idea underlying the adoption of a human rights approach to poverty reduction is that policies and institutions for poverty reduction should be based explicitly on the norms and values set out in the international law of human rights. Whether explicit or implicit, norms and values shape policies and institutions everywhere. Poverty reduction strategies too are underpinned by some set of values and norms, even if these are not always explicit . . . This framework is based on universally recognised moral values and reinforced by legal obligations that States have widely and voluntarily incurred by ratifj4ng various treaties” (OHCHR 2004: 33).

The main features of the approach they propose is classified under six broad sets of issues:

1) Identification of the poor

2) Recognition of the relevant normative national and international human rights framework

3) Equality and non-discrimination

4) Participation and empowerment

5) Progressive realization of human rights

6) Monitoring and accountability

Such an approach is particularly influenced by the work of Amartya Sen (1992; 1979; 2OOO), in particular the idea that poverty results from capability deprivation. Sen has repeatedly highlighted both the intrinsic and instrumental importance of human rights. in particular, he has argued that the assessment of the standard of living should not merely concentrate on incomes, wealth or utilities but consider ‘doings and beings’ and the corresponding capabilities. Thus, poverty is the result of

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a failure of basic capabilities to function. Aiid poverty is capability de privation, which includes the capability of being adequately nourished, leading a long and healthy life, being literate, etc.

The issue of operationalising the link between huinan rights and poverty reduction is, however, an issue that should not be put to rest with the formulation of the above-mentioned guidelines. Rather, the link between the two requires further elaboration. Indeed, several central questions need to be critically debated in the near fLture. These include the following: Does the human rights approach provide a useful policy tool for reducing poverty? What types of poverty should w e be concerned with and whar types of rights? D o some forms of poverty and particular rights receive increased prominence than others? How should we go about assigning culpability, identi@, shame and punish human rights violators? Speaking of rights may not be fruitful without mentioning corresponding obligations. In this context, it is necessary to take a closer look at approaches that argue for global justice and obligations (e.g. Thomas Pogge’s work) and approaches that argue for domestic/state obligations as exemplified in the works of Arjun Sengupta. With this as a starting point, I will, in this talk, highlight the urgent need to combat extreme poverty deprivation in the form of undernutrition and starvation deaths by using a human rights approach. All human beings have a right not to be malnourished and consequently to be prevented from dying from starvation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, among other documents, establish the human right to food and nutrition with corresponding obligations to others to assure that the right is realised. However, the reality is far from encouraging.

FOOD AND NUTRITION RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

Article 25 (1) of 7 h e Universal Declaration of Hzrman Rights asserts that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food ...” However, the right to food is explicitly expressed in two binding international human rights instruments.

It was first reaffirmed in article 1 1 of the Inte~rzntional Covenant or1 Economic, Social and Ccdtuî.al Rights wliich states that “The States Parties

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to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing, and housing . . .” The article further emphasises “the fiinda- mental right of everyone to be free form hunger . . .”

Subsequently, article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “States Parties recognise the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health” and goes on to further establish the duty of States to take appropriate measures “to combat disease and malnutrition . . . through the provision of adequate nutri- tioLts foods, clean drinking water, and health care. In addition, article 27 of the same Convention states that States Parties “shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly’ with regard to nutrition, clothing, and housing.”

In addition to such direct references in international law, the right to food and nutrition has also been explicitly mentioned in the proceedings of scores of international conferences and non-binding international declarations and resolutions. These include the 1974 WorLd Food Conference, the 1984 Woïld Food Assembly, the 1990 Innoceîzti Declartl- tion OIZ the Pïotection, Psomotion find Siqport of Breastfeeding, the 1990 Woïld Summit foï Children, the 1992 International Confeïence on Nutri- tion organised by FAO, and the 1996 Rome Declaration o n Woïld Food Secuïity and World Snmmit Plan ofAction.

Despite the above mentioned references to the right to food in international law and human rights instruments, it is national governments who are the primary agents for ensuring the realisation of human rights for their own people. However, it is important to question the types of obligations that actually govern state responsibility in terms of the right to food. The treaty body in charge of monitoring the right to food is the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which adopted in May 1999 the General Comment No. 12 based on the study on the right to food by Asbjorn Eide (1989; 1999). The obligation for the State with respond to the right to food is specified at three levels. First, the obligation to ‘respect’ means that the State should respect the resources owned by individuals, their freedom to find employment of their preference, to make the best use of available resources according to their own preferences, and to undertake any necessary action in the quest to meet their needs. Second, the obligation to ‘protect’ is important as third parties may negatively interfere with a person’s actions in

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the pursuit of gaining access to food. The state has therefore the obligation to protect individuals from such interference by third parties. Finally, the obligation to ‘fulfil’ the human right to food entails elements of “facilitation” and “provision”.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND STARVATION DEATHS IN INDIA KALAHANDI, EASTERN INDIA

Professor Amartya Sen (1994; 2000) has famously argued that India has prevented famine since independence in 1947 due to a free press and its democratic political structure. He has claimed that no famine has taken place in independent India since the Great Bengal Famine (1 942- 44). In contrast to the recurrent famines in the 1970s and the 1980s in the Sahel region of Africa, India was able to prevent a major loss of lives, in spite of producing less food per capita.

1 wish to focus on the ‘silent emergency’ of high levels of inalnutri- tion and severe undernutrition in democratic India which ironically persists in spite of a large surplus of more than 50 million tonnes of foodgrains produced in the country. The ‘political trigger’ that works successfully in combating famines in India is notably absent with regard to chronic undernutrition and starvation.

In recent years, the most glaring example of drought-induced distress in India has been the Kalahandi district, located in western Orissa. Historically, the region has faced numerous famines, mostly caused by drought. Even after Indian independence, Kalahandi continued to face recurrent drought-induced food crises, the 1966 drought in Orissa being particularly severe on Kalahandi when several thousand people repor- tedly perished from starvation and disease.

Much of Kalahandi’s initial notoriety, however, developed in the mid-1980s when a string of press reports on child sale and starvation deaths forced Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to visit the district in 1985. The human right to be saved from starvation suddenly acquired national importance. This was also when che rest of India began hearing of Kala- handi on a daily basis as media interest, especially in the national press, increased manifold. The district was back in the national limelight throughout the 1990s when newspaper reports indicated hundreds of

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thousands of people in the district who were severely affected by a severe drought and several hundred people were reported to have starved to death. Similar stories on Kalahandi continue to appear on a regular basis in the press even today. Indeed, vulnerability to starvation and famine in the district continues to be one of the highest in India and this was reaffirmed when the Central government in December 1996 formally identified Kalahandi as one of 41 districts in India “prone to starvation.” Thus, there is currently a national consensus that Kalahandi symbolises poverty and suffering like no other district in India. Indeed, it is the country’s “starvation capital.”

PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION AND JUDICIAL INTER VENTIONS

When severe droughts in 1986-87 began to cause serious human distress and destitution, a few concerned individuals (academics from a local University) and organisations filed two Public Interest Litigation (l’IL) petitions in the Supreme Court of India and the Orissa High Court alleging starvation deaths and the general neglect of the district by the Government of Orissa.

PETITIONS TO THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA, 1985 G. 1987

In October 1985, two social workers from Kalahandi filed a PIL in the Supreme Court of India arguing that the people of the district were facing abject poverty, destitution and starvation and that the State government had failed to implement the provisions of the Orissa Relief Code in providing relief to large groups of people suffering from recurrent drought-induced food crises. The petition highlighted:

... These people are beyond the pale of juristic justice and what we are trying to present as a case is only one aspect of the unlawful and oppressive system that has replaced the legitimate functioning of the state.2

In particular, the petition pointed to the poor fhctioning of safety- net programmes and the inability of the district administration to

2. PIL Wrir I’ctirioii (Civil) No. 12847 of 1985, Kishan Paccnayak aiid Aiioclier vs. I’lie Scare of Orissa, Paragraph I (qui)red iii Ctirrie 1998: 423).

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control exploitation of tribal groups by traders, illegal confiscation of tribal land by moneylenders and the distress sale of assets by people close to total destitution. The petitioners sought the intervention of the Supreme Court and requested it to instruct the Government of Orissa to carry out its legal duty of protecting its citizens fimin acute distress and starvation.

In a second PIL filed in the Supreme Court, the Indian People’s Front3, a Marxist-Leninist breakaway faction of the Communist Party of India, highlighted the recurrence of drought in Kalahandi and Koraput districts of Orissa and alleged that destitution and starvation deaths had become a regular feature of these areas due to the callous attitude and negligence of the Government of Orissa$. It requested the Court to investigate government inaction in these districts.

Based on investigations carried out by Court-appointed officers, the Supreme Court delivered a judgement in 1990, where it accepted the fact that starvation deaths had indeed taken place and without placing the blame on any person or institution, further directed the Government of Orissa to be inore active and responsive to the needs of the people of Kalahandi. While the Court’s acknowledgement of starvation deaths boosted the confidence of the petitioners and led to further media interest in Kalahandi, the petitioners were at the same time disappointed that the Court did not order a further investigation into the matter.

PETITIONS TO THE ORISSA HIGH COURT, 1588 & 1585

While the Supreme Court petitions were under investigation, two writ petitions were filed in the Orissa High Court (state level) against the Government of Orissa. These highlighted the continued exploitation of tribal groups, the practice of bonded labour and the exploitative practices of local moneylenders5. They went on to argue that destitution, starvation and migration had become routine in Kalahandi and that the district administration had failed to take remedial action to protect basic

3. 111 1982 a CI’I (M-I ,) faccion eiirered clic padiamcnrary areiia by foriniiig [lie Indiaii I’eoplc’s Fronc and in the 1989 liidian general electioiis, clir Fronï woii a parliarrierirary seat iii the Srate of Bihar. ;iiid iii die 1990 Srarc Asciiihly êIcc[ioiis i L won scvcii scats iii the Uiliar Lcgis1;icivc Aswinbly. 4. Write i’eticioii (Civil) Nu, 1081 of 1987, die Indiari People’s Froiir rhi-oiigh irs Cli~iii-rii~iii, Nagbh~isliaii I’aciiaili vs. Stace of Orissa. 5. < h e No. 3517188 filcd oii 17rli Ocrobei-, 1788, Oliawaiii Murid vs. Srai-e ofOrissa.

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human rights of the poor. The petitions further highlighted successive droughts and huge crop loss and the resulting increase in the incidence of starvation deaths in Kalahandi and the fact that large groups were resorting to migration, distress sale of assets and even the sale of children6. These petitions requested the Court to intervene to stop a further worsening of the situation in the district.

In February 1992, the Orissa High Court ruled that several instances of death by starvation had indeed taken place and instructed the Government of Orissa to pay compensation to the family members of the ‘deceased7. The High Court further expressed its shock at the inability of State government to prevent the sale of children. In general, the Court was critical of government efforts towards poverty reduction and observed that the amount of money the government claimed to have spent in Kalahandi was highly exaggerated. The High Court went on to indict two successive Collectors of Kalahandi for failing to investigate reports of, and prevent, starvation deaths during their tenures. One of the indicted officers, when I interviewed him in 1999, was still upset at this indictment and indicated that the Orissa High Court ruling had “played to the galleries.”

IIMltlEDIA TE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPRE/IE COURT AND HIGH COURT RULINGS

The immediate impact of the petitions and the Supreme Court and Orissa High Court rulings was a drastic increase in media attention on Kalahandi and pressure on the Government of Orissa to react. The High Court ruling, together with the earlier Supreme Court ruling, was of enormous significance as there was, for the first time, official recognition and admission of the occurrence of starvation deaths. In the period

6. Case No. j2j/89 filed iii 1989, A. C. l’radian vs. State of Orissa.. 7. ’The suni awarded was Rs. 25,000 to 4 families and Rs. 40,000 CO one family. Iiicerviews wirli villagers of Udeyptir village where nvo srarvation dearhs had taken place revealed that rhe corn- peiisatiori provided was of litrle help ro the households of the victim as tlic money was put into n fixed deposit nccount for 7 years. According CO Sudarshaii Biswd, a local farmer, “rliis money was of lictlc use ro die starving Iiouscliolds.” Aiiorlicr villager, Aswaiii Kuinar Joslii, q u e d rhac clicre were inaiiy more de;iclis in Kalaliaiidi bur rliar die official invesrigarioii oiily covered ;in area wirliiil ;I i 0 inilc radius. Thus, rlie invesrigatioii inisîcd riiic oii inariy starvacion tlenrhs in villages outside chis radius.

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1985-192, successive governments in Orissa had consisteiitly denied starvation deaths in Kalahandi and had in defence filed counter-affida- vits in the Courts. In addition, only rarely did the ruling party ever admit large-scale deaths and when it did it blamed them on meningitis, natural causes, reluctance of villagers to use modern medicines and their excessive reliance on quacks and witch doctor@.

Following the adverse publicity generated by the Supreme Court ruling in 1989, the ruling Congress government was voted out of office in the 1990 Orissa Legislative Assembly elections. W h e n the Orissa High Court confirmed starvation deaths in Kalahandi in 1992 the new government mainly attempted to blame the previous government for its failures instead of initiating radical change. Despite the fact that reports of starvation deaths in Kalahandi and other districts in Orissa continued to appear in local and national dailies righr: throughout the period this government was in office, it largely ignored the Supreme Court and Orissa High Court’s recommendations to radically reformulate guidelines for improving administrative response to starvation. The starvation issue and the Court rulings were, however, used often as a tool to discredit its political opponents - the previous government - in public‘.

INQUIRY INTO STARVATION DEATHS BY THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (NHRC)

Reports of starvation deaths from various districts in Orissa appeared almost on a daily basis in local and national media during the drought of 1996’”. A group of opposition MLAs of the Orissa Legisla- tive Assembly and Members of Parliament in Delhi took up the matter with the Union Minister of Agriculture and requested him to visit

8. Several jotiriialisrs aiid poliriciaiis claiined iiunieroLis sramarion dearhs in Kalaliaridi in 1986-1987. FTowever, rhe Collecror of Kalahandi during this period, Chiiiinay R a w , denied sramarion dearhs aiid srared in March I987 rhar a total of 136 people had died in Kahhandi during this period - 72 from n-ieniiigiris and rlic rcsr frnin nacural caiiscs. 9. This govcrnrnenr roo was siibsec~uenrly voced out of office in 1995 amitlsr public coiicerii of coi-ruprion and adrninisrrnrivc buiigliiig. T h e Corigresr parry with J. H. 1’:iriiaik :is Chicf Miiiister once agaiii forineci a govemineiir in Orissa wliicli was to lasr iinril 7000 when ir lost die elecrioiis following its fniliire CO provide relief to clic vicriii-is of‘ a scvere cycloiic that hit Orissa iri 1999. l’lie prcsmc governmuit is formed by rlic Hiju J:III;ICA Lhl (;I I>reakaway fàcrioii of the J:tnarri Ilal crcared afrcr rhe d c d 1 of foriner (:hicf Miiiisrer Dijii 1’;itnaik) in coalition wirli the B]P.

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districts, including Kalahandi, where alleged starvation deaths had taken place. In December 1996, the Minister, after an inspection tour of scarcity hit districts of Orissa, sent the National Human Rights Commission a list of twenty-six cases of alleged starvation deaths and requested it to investigate the matter on an urgent basis so that “the real picture might emerge” (NHRC 1996, Paragraph 1).

An NHRC team visited the districts of Kalahandi, Nuapada and Bolangir in Orissa in December 1996 and noted that the existing distress conditions provided ample reason to suspect deaths from malnutrition and disease.

The Team has come to the conclusion that because of the veiy high level of deprivation that is prevailing in the area, extensive crop damages, malnourishment and the inadequate income levels, and an insufficient out reach of relief measures, the possibility of some of the deaths having taken place due to prolonged malnutrition and hunger compounded by disease cannot be ruled out. (NHRC 1996, Paragraph 8)

The team identified the aged and the infirm as those most vulnerable to destitution and starvation. As a result of migration of able- bodied members of a household, it noted that there was little or no contact after migration such that those left behind had little support to survive. The NHRC report further warned that if urgent action was not forthcoming from the State government and the district administration in these areas of Orissa, starvation deaths would continue to occur and further escalate.

In coiiclusion, the NHRC report advocated urgent steps to ameliorate the sufferings of the people affected by drought and destitution and noted that unless immediate action was taken the situation would further worsen.

10. Tlic drought in 1996 was parcicu1;irly severe on rhc wesrcrn districrs of Orissa. Iii Kaia- Iiandi, 600 people were reporred to have been taken severely ill from diarrhoea, gistro-enre- riris and tiibcrculosis, which according to official statistics clairncd a reported 94 lives. Uiiof- ficial reporrs pur rhe figure at over rwo hundrcd. While ,111 blocks of ICalahandi were affected, the wnrsr affccrcd blocks were Thiiarnul Rarnpur, Karlainunda, Madanpur-Rampur aiid Bhawnniparna.

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OTHER CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVES

In March-April 2001, major national dailies reported on starvation deaths in several Indian States. The Rajasthan branch of an NGO, People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), submitted a writ petition to the Supreme Court of India on the 16 April 2001 highlighting large number of starvation deaths in India despite surplus food stocks in possession with the government.

The petition was explicitly formulated in human rights terminology and noted that while food stocks were rotting in government storage houses, people were dying, and it questioned whether the right to life gua- ranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution also iiicluded the right to food. The petition went fiirtl-ier and questioned, “Does not the right to food which has been upheld by the apex Court imply that the State has a duty to provide food especially in situations of drought to people who are drought-affected and . . . not in a position to purchase food”?”

In several rulings between September and November 2001, the Court ordered 16 Indian States and Union territories to identiSr families Below the Poverty Line (BPL) in distress and to provide them with immediate food assistance’?. Thus, the Supreme Court firmly established that the right to food was a constituent aspect of the right to life and further established the obligation of the government to protect the right to food of its citizens.

While the Supreme Court was ruling on the PUCL petition, in late August 200 1 several newspapers began reporting on starvation deaths in five villages of Orissa’s Rayagada district where allegedly more than 20 individuals, after a prolonged period without edible food items, had died after having consumed porridge made from dried mango kernels and wild roots - the only types of ‘food’ available. In early September 200 I, the NHRC ordered the Orissa government to submit a report on the matter’”. The Orissa government immediately denied this and the Chief

Secretary of the Government of Orissa, much to everyone’s clismay, observed that the consumption of mango kernels was not only a common practice among tribals of the areas but was in fact also nutritious! This caused a furore among opposition parties and the issue was discussed at length in Parliament. However, despite such activity, the Govern- ment of Orissa was not officially indicted by any agency. in fact, while the intervention of the Courts and agencies like the NHRC on the issue of starvation deaths have been laudable little concrete progress has been achieved preventing future occurrences of the phenomenon.

THE IMPACT OF CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVES AND JUDICIAL INTER VENTIONS

The case of Kalahandi and other districts facing drought and starvation strengthen the initial impression that judicial interventions generally attract media attention but the ensuing recommendations from the Courts lack teeth. In order for judicial interventions to have a major impact, the findings and recommendations of the Courts need to be taken seriously by the political leadership. The trend in states like Orissa has simply been to dismiss legal interventions and recornmendations on starvation deaths. The Courts, in turn, have not had the ability to enforce their recommendations and consistently excract accountability from government officials found to err in the line of duty. It is also important to note that judicial interventions are largely dependent on the activity of institutions of civil society who need to first petition the judiciary on a problem before the Courts can react. Since the mid-1 W O s , such action has not been forthcoming from organisations or individuals in Kalahandi, which also point to the relarive inactivity and lack of influence of Kalahandi NGOs in the area of food and nutritional security.

A much preferred strategy whenever confronred with adversariai reports in the media or in legislative forums is for authority holders to deny the existence of a problem even before even a proper verification can be conducted and/or blame other actors (Currie 2000; Banik 2003). Terms used in this context are, “there is nothing extraordinary about the situation”, “everything is under control”, “the media is exaggerating the problem”, “the opposition is politicising the issue” or “it is the fault of the previous government”. Politicians and bureaucrats also often resort to blaming the victims of a crisis, or the vulnerable in general, for not malring proper use of government facilities. In several parts of India, for example, I often heard bureaucrats and politicians blaming tribal groups,

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accusing them of being “lazy”, “irresponsible”, stupid alcoholics”, etc. There was also resentment that such groups preferred using quacks instead of government doctors. In other instances, authority holders simply blamed lazy doctors and inefficient bureaucrats, etc., as long as they could deflect the blame onto others.

Administrative officials at all levels in Orissa readily admit widespread malnutrition in Kalahandi although they are reluctant to openly admit to cases of starvation death. This is partly due to their understanding of a ‘starvation death’ in very strict terms but also because they fear the wrath of their political masters if they openly made such politically explosive admittances. Therefore, from the bureaucratic point of view, all deaths in Kalahandi occur from natural causes and disease. Therefore the entire administrative response is geared towards denying press reports instead of actively investigating long-term vulnerabilities that can cause starvation.

CONCLUSION The purpose of this talk was to strengthen an analytical understan-

ding of poverty as a human rights violation. Extreme poverty is a particularly virulent form of human rights violation. Thomas Pogge, in his recent work, has shown how the persistence of extreme poverty can be understood as a violation of liberty rights and hence be given a sense of urgency. A key point relates to the relationship between different forms of governance and the occurrence of extreme poverty. W e cannot merely focus on features of formalistic democracy but rather encourage practices where minority rights and positive welfare rights are well-protected. In this sense, it is important to focus on Sen’s ideas of development as freedom and poverty as capability deprivation.

In India there appears to be a consensus that despite widespread malnutrition, starvation deaths must never be allowed to take place. The presence of political party worlters and institutions of decentralised governance at the village level and their active role in providing information to administrative and political authorities appear to explain why many districts are able to prevent starvation deaths. Hence, the role of local politics and presence of effective structures of decentralised government is crucial. in contrast, public action to prevent people from falling below the ‘starvation line’ is not forthcoming in Kalahandi. Instead of complementing each other, institutional interactions are here often

characterised by mutual suspicion and lack of co-operation among bureaucrats, politicians, voluntary organisations and the press. Political opposition is thus not in itself a guarantee for preventing starvation deaths, especially when politicians are preoccupied with politicising the issue - hurling accusations, which the ruling party conveniently denies - rather than being concerned with deteriorating health and nutritional status which cause death. Indeed, there appears to be a general consensus among successive ruling parties in India that the term ‘starvation’ must be avoided at all cost. In comparison, ‘malnutrition’ is a relatively safe term to use, given that it is widespread not just in India but throughout the’world. Ruling parties in India are confident they will not held politically accountable for failing to tackle malnutrition.

Developmental efforts in India during the past five decades have not managed to provide improved opportunities for a productive and healthy life to millions of Indians. Increased food availability in India has not improved the health and nutritional status of large sections of the population. Over 200 million men, women and children suffer from a combination of chronic malnutrition and severe undernutrition, and more than 2.5 million children in India die every year before reaching the age of five. This is clearly a major problem that needs to be seen in parallel with Sen’s claim that independent India has successfiilly avoided famine. But India’s record so far has been most impressive whenever ‘crisis’ has been clearly defined and when there is an unambiguous linderstanding and consensus on the seriousness of the situation. India has in the past witnessed, and will continue to experience in the future, numerous situations that can best be described as ‘famine threats’. Thus far, the country has managed to prevent such famine threats from escala- ting into famine and there is reason to believe that India will continue to enjoy success on this issue. In this respect, Sen is right that democracy and public action work well towards preventing famine in India. A more mixed picture emerges on India’s ability to prevent cases of starvation death. The phenomenon is difficult to define and starvation deaths take place in rural, and often remote, areas - far removed from the seats of power. Given this relative invisibility, chronic malnutrition and severe undernutrition causing starvation deaths is not recognised as a major crisis warranting the same kind of response that is reserved for famine.

Finally, it is important not merely to focus on rights but also corresponding duties or obligations. In this talk I have argued that the state is an important guarantor, protector and promoter of positive welfare

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rights aiid therefore has important corresponding obligations. While the international community has important obligations towards preventing aiid reducing poverty in the developing world, such obligacions are yet to be clearly established, operationalised aiid fulfilled in the short-run. In contrast, and as Arjun Senguptal4 lias argued recently, the urgency of doing something to reduce poverty is better established if one is clearly able to establish obligations that each countqdstate has towards its citizens - obligations that secure the protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights. International obligations can then usefully supplement such national efforts. In this context, I have tried to argue that simply arguing the case for democracy may not be enough. W e need to be aware of the mechanisms through which authority holders simply bypass or ignore the democratic process and thereby refuse/ignore/fail to carry out their obligations to protect human rights.

14. Keynote speech, IJNEXX), Paris, Occoher 2004.

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REFERENCES Banil:, D. (2003): Democracy, Dwight and Starvation in India: Testiq Sen in Theory nncls Pmctice. Oslo: Dept. of Political Scierice, University of Oslo. Currie, B. (1998): “Laws for the Rich and Flaws for the Poor? Legal Action and Food Insecurity in the Kalahandi Case”, in H. O’Neill ek J. Toye (eds.), A Workl withmt Famine? New Appro aches to Aid and Developmcxt. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Currie, B. (2000): The Politics of Hunger in India: A Stiidy of Dertiocracy, Gover- iinnce and Kalahandi? Poverty. Basingstoltc: Macmillan.

NHRC (1996): “Report of the Visit of the Official T e a m (1 1-12-96 to 17-12-96) of the National H u m a n Rights Commission to the Scarcity Affected Areas of Orissa”, New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission. Pogge, T. (2002): IVorld Poverty and Hirman Rights: Cosrnopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms. Cambridgc: Polity Press. Sen, A. (1992): Ineqr/nlity Reexamined. New York: Oxford University Press. Sen, A. ( 1 994): “Freedom and Needs: ,411 Argument Cor the Primacy of Political ’

Rigli~s”, Th Neru Repblic> Vol. 210, No. 2-3: 31-38. Sen, A. (1 999): Commodities and Capabilities. Delhi: Oxford Universicy Press. Sen, A. (2000): Development as Freedom. N e w York: Anchor Books.

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COMBATING POVERTY: A RIGHTS-BASED PERSPECTIVE

Camilo Castellanos Insfitiito Lrrtiiioaiilericmio de

Servicios Legales Alternativos (ILSA)

Mr Camilo Castellanos is a lawyer (Universidad Nacional, Colombia) and has been the Executive Director of the Latin American Institute of Alternative Legal Services (Instituto Latinoamericano de Servicios Legales Alternativos - ILSA) since 1998. He is a former coordinator (1 998-2002) of the Colombian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development (Plataforrna Colombiana de Derechos Humanos, Dernocracia y Desarrollo). He has also worked as coordinator (for 6 years) of the Programme for Human Rights and the Surmounting of Violence (Programa de Derechos Humanos y Superacion de la Violencia) run by the Popular Education and Research Centre (Centro de Investigacion y Education Popular - CINEP), and as a magazine and journal editor (1 988-1 992).

The purpose of these notes is to offer some thoughts on the problem of how a human rights-based perspective on poverty reduction can be translated into practice. It draws on lessons learned from the experience of the Colombian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Deve- lopment (Plataforma Colornbiana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo) and of a non-governmental organization, the Latin Ameri- can Institute of Alternative Legal Services (Instituto Latinoamericano de Servicios Legales Alternativos - ILSA), which have been working for the full implementation of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, by providing a link between social movements, academia and human rights activists. This initiative rests on theoretical under- pinnings and a wealth of practical experience.

W e offer our opinions as a contribution to the development of an evolving perspective which we regard as wholly valid, one that effectively links the struggle against poverty to the full enforcement of human rights.

POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the ,support of all countries and culcures for the ideal of a humanity freed from fear and wanc. Both fear and want limit people’s prospects of leading a life compatible with human dignity. Accordingly, the 1948 Declaration,

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which is now the basis for the community of nations (and which might well be called the 1948 Consensus, by contrast with the so-called Washington Consensus), proclaims an ideal of hurnan community that conjoins resistance to arbitrary power with freedom from want. This seems to be the ideal best matching the dignity of the human being.

The cold war-era controversy over which of the two orders of rights (civil and political rights on the one hand and, on the other, economic, social and cultural rights) ranked higher has now, thankfully, been superseded. Those not enjoying freedom of conscience do not live like hunian beings, even if they have met their basic needs. Nor can those who have full civil and political rights, but are deprived of the minimuin. conditions they need to live in dignity, be said to enjoy the freedom that befits human beings. Differentiation between generations or categories of rights is the sign of a disjointed age, as Gregory Bateson lias argued, an age which was incapable of combining body and spirit into a single reality and a single concept. An age which, in fact, did just the opposite, unaccountably opposing one to the other.

It is symptomatic that the wording of the covenants which build upon the 1948 Consensus keep the same Preamble, as though to emphasize that they are outgrowths from the same stem, the product of a crucial bifurcation. The Conference of Vienna (1 993) sought to reconcile what ought never to have been separated. From this effort at reunification has come the notion of the interdependence of democracy, developmeiit and human rights. And more, the affirmation that extreme poverty and social exclusion are a violation of human dignity and that the former inhibits the “full and effective enjoyment of human rights”. Nonetheless, the inheritance of the disjointed age remains, even in the minds of some noted jurists, since the existence of a merely declaratory, programmatic and thus not fully enforceable class of rights continues to be predicated. This amounts to a resigned legitimation of a situation in which most of humanity is deprived of the full enjoyment of all rights and thus of a decent life. In the effort to malte human rights a reality, therefore, the enforceability of economic, social and cultural rights is the cenrral issue.

For most human beings, freedom from want is still an unrealized aspiration. The predominance of the market and the voracious greed driving a limitless accumulation of wealth are packing the cities and countryside of the earth with human beings whose only status is that

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of supernumeraries, leftovers, an “unwanted excrescence that slioiild be disposed of’, in the view of some.

This radically new circumstance means that poverty is not just a state of deprivation, which it is; or a state that makes it impossible for people to realize all their capabilities, which it will continue to be; but, more radically, the most comprehensive and permanent human rights violation, or denial of all rights.

So the first step in fighting poverty must be to give the impoverished back their status as active possessors of rights, which means getting away from an approach that treats them as recipients of aid and indeed questioning the idea of guaranteeing them a basic income if this does not restore them to their status as members of a society, citizens of a State and possessors of inalienable rights, a status which in practice has been denied them.

Ail this implies a need to move away from an outlook centred on meeting needs to one whose objective is the realization of human rights in their entirety. This is what is termed a rights perspective.

Until very recently, collective action was dominated by a quest for the satisfaction of needs, so that those participating in traditional social movements identified themselves by what they lacked, as beings deprived of goods it was considered legitimate to aspire to. This approach may err on the side of unilateralism, as it overlooks the fact that the poor not only possess culture and knowledge, history and experience, but are part of a political community and merit a different treatment by reason of this belonging.

Thus, the rights perspective primarily entails the poor affirming themselves in their status as human beings and citizens and holding the State and society to account on this basis, to ensure that they can live lives consistent with this status. In the case of the narrow needs-based approach, if pursued successfully, the end result is that need is met by attending to physical wants which can perfectly well be satisfied without affecting social relations. From a rights perspective, the diminution of being, the loss of human dignity suffered in the being of the poor, can only be remedied by the growth of that same being, and the means to this is Che realizacion of rights. In the first case, the result is the rise or fall of certain indices; in the second, the aim is to change people and relationships by creating a more satisfactory and harmonious social situation.

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Because of this, the rights perspective means that the realization of human rights, understood as a whole, must be the precondition of legitimacy for any political order and the fundamental objective of all State institutions. it likewise means that the realization of all rights for everyone is nothing less than the substance of development itself.

STATE COMMITMENTS

By forming part of the 1948 Consensus, States undertook, in their capacity as such, to realize the ideal of a humanity freed from terror and want. In other words, to make human rights an effective reality for all individuals in every sphere of social life. This primordial inspiration is the ethical and political background that gives meaning to the existence of public institutions and nourishes their existence. It is an inspiration without which the State would be merely a piece of dead apparatus created to maintain the operation of a machine, a tidier order of things, rather than an instrument with which society equips itself to become more human. Hence no State body or action can be indifferent, either in its technical function or in its institutional design, to the realization of this primordial goal.

Accordingly, the commitment in article 2, paragraph 1, of the Inter- national Covenant on Economic, Social and cultural Rights (ICESCR) to “take steps ... with a view to achieving ... the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant”,’s while valid, is inadequate, even in the event that the catalogue of possible types of measure is as generous as that set forth in General Comment 3 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

In our humble opinion, it is not just a matter of the State malting available the legal resources needed for citizens to enforce their rights. It is a matter of judges placing human rights at the centre of their rulings, irrespective of jurisdiction, as a parameter determining what is just and lawful.

15. The fiill tesr of rhe paragi.aph reads: “Each Stare Parry rri the present Coveiiaiic uiidertakes ro tdte steps, iiidividually and rlirough internariorial assisrance and co-operation, especially economic aiid tecliiiical, to rlie iiiaximuin of its available resources, with n view ro achieving progressively tlic full renlizatioii of die riglits recognized iii die present Covciiaiir by all appropriate means, including particularly che adnprion of legislarive measurcs”.

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Similarly, it is not enough for the legislature to pass laws implementing rights. All laws, without exception, need to contribute harmoniously to bringing about the ideal of human dignity as a reality for all. Similarly, it is essential that when the fiinction of political oversight of public administration is discharged, one of the evaluation criteria used by legislatures should be the extent to which the realization of rights is advanced or set back.

This approach has two significant implications.

One concerns the quality of the institutional legal order. Once the utopia of a social and political order devoted to fully applying human rights has been constitutionally enshrined, there is a need to forge a broad social and political consensus on the necessary use of all the resources available to society to achieve this objective. Realizing the dignity of human beings and the rights that flow from this, so that these then become social realities, cannot be a legally mandated objective whose validity is imposed a priori by the weight of legal bureaucracy. These ideals can only be fully realized if they command a genuine consensus.

The expression “all resources” means not just money but political, cultural and media resources as well. For example, consensus around the idea that all individuals possess rights may be historically more significant than a redistribution of goods, given that a general accord of this kind opens up hitherto unknown opportunities for State action and social demands. This consensus needs to be forged by schools, the media, public debate and, in general, anything that serves to shape people’s opinions and mindset.

,

The expression “the maximum of available resources” includes not just the resources of the State itself, but those created by society through its collective endeavour. From a negative perspective, the freedom of individuals to dispose of their own goods cannot lead to the possession of property that is used to deny human dignity. To take an obvious example, the trafficking of persons is no longer a legitimate trade. From a complementary, positive point of view, however, this also entails the State recovering the capacity to regulate the use of goods that are of strategic importance for the realization of rights. This is che case with the land and financing needed to ensure effective application of the right to a decent dwelling. In short, society and the State, in deciding to guarantee full application of human rights, need to equip themselvcs with the

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instimtions necessary for this purpose, since the dignity of persons cannot be a chance by-product of economic relations.

The other implication concerns the complex nature of rights enforceability. As the Quito Declaration states: “Economic, social and cul turd rights are enforceable by means of different channels: judicial, administrative, political, and legislative. The presentation of legal cases involving these rights makes greater sense in the framework of comprehensive political and social action, both national and international”.’G This means that the judicial authority cannot be the only one able to be called upon to enforce human rights. Given that it is the whole State which has undertaken to make human dignity a reality and that all the resources of society must be available for this end, the enforcement of rights must involve all State authorities, each according to its fmction and nature, and can occur at every level of life in society.

To put it another way, the enforceability of human rights entails ’

highly complex, delayed-action strategies combining different ambits and a great variety of resources. Anyone proposing to take steps to make human rights fdly applicable nceds to decide, in each situation, what action is appropriate in view of the matter being dealt with and, if different courses of action have been decided upon, what kind of connections there needs to be between them.

WHAT ABOUT SOCIETY?

The last section showed how a full understanding of the commitments made by States implies the involvement of actors, relationships and resources from society at large. In the present section we shall make some remarks about the role of society in the realization of human rights as a route towards poverty eradication.

It is clear that, first and foremost, human rights concern those who have been deprived of them, wholly or partially, and consequently the victims of the violation must themselves seek to enforce them. Oiily when this is completely impossible should the victims be represented and acted for, by reason of this inability to enforce their rights for themselves. This is the case with

16. Quito Dechrntiox On the enfirceiizeiit niid redimtioil of ecowoinic, sorid mzd ciiltiird rights (ESCR) iiz J.ntin Aniericn mid the Gribbeaii, 24 July 1998, paragraph 23,

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people subjected to torture. This particular circumstance cannot be turned into a general rule without the risk that victims will be prevented froin taking control of their own rights, which must be the main goal of this effort.

The nature of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), though, means that those working to secure them in practice are not just the individuals and communities affected, but society at large. Experiences such as the struggle to abolish slavery provide a telling illustration of what is meant. It is true that the enslaved themselves resisted in a thousand ways: uprisings, the quilom bos and palengzies where runaway slaves formed communities, resistance, disobedience, defiance. Nonetheless, it was not slaves alone who put an end to this affront to humanity. An international movement of opinion grew up in opposition to the practice. Religious groups showed particular solidarity with slaves fleeing their masters. There were governments that outlawed the slave trade and even forced other authorities to put a stop to it.

The fact is that once an idea is firmly lodged in society’s awareness, it is stronger than any weapon of war. This is why it is important for society to adopt the cause of human rights as its own and become an active participant in the effort to achieve full implementation. It is importam, therefore, for this cause to find favour with public opinion. Efforts to assert a social right will be more likely to succeed if it comes to be generally regarded as unacceptable for anyone to live a life without dignity, and more unacceptable still when this lack of dignity is the condition of the majority of the population. After all, it is not the first time that humanity has set itself the challenge of transforming mindsets, and there are plenty of examples to show it is possible.

A widespread commitment to the struggle for human rights will create a spiritual climate in which there is no tolerance for the heedless- ness of those who take decisions which undermine them. It will also bring forth reasons and arguments that legitimize demands for their enforcement and, thanks to this climate, good causes will find the necessary people, know-how and resources to achieve their aims.

Accordingly, a comprehensive human rights strategy needs to include measures to influence public opinion and thus raise awareness of these rights among ever larger sections of the population. This was what the Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Devclopmeiit in Colombia was seeking to achieve when, in 2W0, it turned the production of its Alternative Report to the Committee on Economic, Social

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and Cultural Rights into an effort that included not only NGOs but also academics from different disciplines and social actors. The goal was to establish the state of ESCR through public debate and identify the steps needed to change the situation.

The role of social movements in the realization of human rights is of particular interest. W e have already shown the kind of change these movements need to accept when they adopt a rights perspective. In addition, however, they need to move away from a narrow corporative outlook when they act. The rights perspective treats human rights as universal, and this is at odds with the idea of asserting the claims of a single category or class.

There is thus an urgent need to overcome the limitations of the trade unionist outlook. The relationship with the State, whether antagonistic or not, must aim to formulate public norms and policies that advance the implementation of rights, a political relationship that seeks political results. It also requires a highly developed knowledge of the social, economic, legal, political and cultural variables that contribute to the non-enforcement of rights, and an ability to make constructive proposals that transcend ideology, if credible and achievable initiatives are to be undertaken. This approach entails the establishment of solid, stable alliances with academia, professionals, NGOs and other actors concerned with the realization of rights and able to provide know-how and technical expertise.

In view of the above, the dyiianiic of social movements for human rights needs to be understood as a tenacious effort to construct the widest range of alliances in the most varied sections of society (including academics aiid technical specialists, journalists and lawyers), with a view to making an impact not only on the legal situation, but on politics and society as well.

In practice, this involvement in politics is a contribution to the reconstruction of the social fabric, broken down to a large extent by the influence of a ruling ideology which submerges men and women in the extremes of individualism and isolation. This reconstriiction is all the richer and more complex for conjoining the millennial, multiform tradition of human rights, one of whose aspects is the best of humanist thought, with the widest range of movements and practices aimed at enhancing the dignity of human existence.

A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE

In 2000 the Colombian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development, then coordinated by the Latin American institute of Alterna-

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tive Legal Services (ILSA), joined with other organizations in launching the National Campaign for the Right to Health (Campaiia Nacional por el Derecho a la Salud). The purpose of the campaign was to start a public debate on the health situation in the country and the impact upon it of war, to construct a public policy based on the perspective of the right to health and to decide on a strategy to deal with the problem.

A grouping of health sector unions, students, teachers and authorities from health sciences faculties, health service user organizations and even public officials from the sector took it upon itself to carry this campaign forward by encouraging debate, strengthening organized support for this right and designing the activities needed to hold a National Congress for Health (Congres0 Nacional por la Salud).

A group of experts (university researchers and lecturers, social activists and health-care professionals) was convened for this purpose and produced discussion documents and publicity material, while inviting debate about the right to health and other campaign issues.

Preparations for the Congress included conferences and talks, university aiid civic forums and local and regional meetings where papers were drafted and collective points of view developed. Five papers provided a focus for debate throughout the country: (1) Towards a public health policy; (2) Health in Colombia in the twenty-first centuiy: between inequality and violence; (3) Health, war and peace; (4) Health and equity, and (5) The right to health: engine of social mobilization.

The Congress was held at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota in October 2001, under the slogan “The right to health: a path- way to peace”. It was attended by 2,120 people from all regions of the country, representing large sections of society: family farmers, indigenous people, women’s movements, health workers, pensioners, the young, students, academics, health and other professionals and public officials, who worked at nine major conference events on the four subject-areas identified when the Congress was convened: the right to health; social security and health; health and peace; and action and organization strategies.

The Coiigress produced a diagnosis of the hcalth situation in Colombia and set a political agenda for this field, laying down guiding principles, key strategies and short-, medium- and long-term priority measures. The Congress participants decided to form themsclves into

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the National Movement for Health and Social Security (Movimiento Nacional por la Salud y la Seguridad Social), which is now concentrating on producing a Mandate for the Right to Health (Manclato por el Derecho a la Saludj, as a kind of emergency platform to provide a focal point for all efforts.

In the view of the National Movement for Health and Social Security, health as a human right and a public good is one of the key elements in a common social agenda for a nation aspiring to welfare, health and social justice.

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POVERTY AS A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: A LIBERATING FORCE. WHAT IS AT STAKE? WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS?*

Christoph Eberhard Uiiiversity Saint Louis, Briissels

Legal Aiithropology Laboratory of Paris

Christoph Eberhard is a researcher in Anthropology of Law and Legal Theory at the University Saint Louis (Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis) and at the Laboratory of Legal Anthropology of Paris (LAJP / University Paris 1 Pan- théon-Sorbonne). He is visiting professor at the Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis and at the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels. His focus topics are human rights and intercultural dialogue as well as intercultural approaches to Law. He co-ordinates a course and an international research network on Law, Governance and Sustainable Development.

Taking human rights seriously implies, at a basic level, guaranteeing every human being the means to live a life worthy of a human being. In the face of today’s phenomena of mass pauperization, it seems essential to recognize the urgent need to combat poverty, all the more so when we realize that “mass poverty” is not just a feature of many countries: it is a feature of our whole world, the world to which our discussions of human rights as “universal” are supposed to apply. The gap, in absolute as well as relative terms, between the “haves” and the “have nots” keeps on growing wider ; as w e watch, more and more people are being shut out from our “global village”.

It is already more than ten years since Upendra Bai (1991: 152- 1 53), writing from an indian perspective, noted that “ Theproblematic of needs is acutely disturbing for the meived models of human rights thought and action. it ojien gets tmnslated into a conflict between ‘bread’ and pee- dom : fieedom ustialLy wins with the Liberal conceptions of rigbtx, despite the awareness that without ‘bread: fieedom of speech and assembLy, of association, of conscience and religion, of political participation - even though symbolic adult sufrage - may be existentially meaningless for its ‘victims:

* Fullcr dctails may bc foiind in Eberhard 2ü02;i, 2002h, 2004 and 2005.

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Rut the issues are not really ‘brend’and/or ;fTeedonz’in the nbstrnct, but rnther w h o hns h o w nzuch of each, for b o w long, at what cost to others, and why. Some people have both ‘ b r e d nnd Feedom I others have Feedom’ but lit& ‘bread’ or n o n at al& yet others hnve hnlfn loaf (. . .) with or without fieedom; nnd still others have a precarious mix where ‘brend’ is nsszired tf certain (kot all) jî-eedoms are bnrtered. The problem of human rights, in situations $mnss poverq, is thils one of redistribution, access and needs. In other words, it is n problem of ‘development’ (. . .)” (Bnxi 1931: 152-153)

In this quotation, Upendra Baxi summarizes a number of issues at stalie in human rights-inspired efforts to eradicate poverty. H e emphasizes the inevitable link between the legal, political and economic approaches to human rights in social contexts featuring mass poverty; and lie also warns of the gulf that opens up between the theory and practice of human rights when we fail to give the issue of poverty its due weight. Thus, taking human rights seriously urges us to consider their connection with the way markets work and the way development happens (Kothari 1990b; Latouche 1991; 1998; Sachs 1997a; Terre des Hommes, France 1998). H e also points out that there is a twofold link between the fight against poverty and human rights: though our present meeting is concerned more with recognizing poverty as a violation of human rights so as to look more thoroughly into the ways in which vin- dication of those rights can become liberating, w e should not forget the other side of the “human rights and poverty” coin: human rights protection mechanisms call for considerable resources, which are simply not available in many situations. So, if protective activity through courts or other institutions is found to be essential, we have really only covered half the ground if we merely promulgate rights without wondering whether they can be applied, or what the preconditions are for their implementation. W e should never shirk considering how our legal policies are likely to be accommodated in the great variety of social and cultural contexts; and to do this it is important to broaden the scope of our thinking to take into account not only political and economic circumstances but cultural ones as well.

What 1 should like to emphasize in my contribution is the intercultural issue hidden behind the complex web of problems surrounding human rights and poverty: this must, it seems to me, be taken into account if any efforts to eradicate poverty by means of a liberating vindi- cation of human rights are to be effective. This intercultural refocusing will give us a new angle on the issues that were so clearly identified in

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United Nations General Assembly Resolution 57/21 1 entitled ‘‘Human Rights and Extreme Poverty” (4 December 2002). W e may restate them here as the starting point for our argument.

The resolution first observes that “since the existence of widespread extreme poverty inhibits the jill and effectiue enjoyment of human rigbts and might, in some situations, constitute a threat to the right to lz$, its immediate alleuiution and eventual eradication must remain a high priority fir the international community”, and that ‘‘ (. . .) democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental fieedoms are interdependent und mutually reinforcing, (. . .)”; it then reaffirms (Paragraph 2, which we think brings together all the issues found in the other points), that “it is essential for States to foster participation by the poorest people in the decision-making process in the societies in which they live, in the pi.omotion of human rights and in efforts to combat extreme pouerty, and that it is essential for people living in poverty and vulnerable group to be empowered to organize themselves and to participate in all aspects of political, economic and social Lye, in particular the planning and implementation of policies that afect them, thus enubling them to become genuine partners in development’’. Paragraph 4 stresses the importance of surmounting extreme poverty as an essential means to the fdl enjoyment of political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, and reaffirms the interrelationship among those goals, while Paragraph 5 reasserts that the existence of widespread absolute poverty inhibits the full and effective enjoyment of human rights, and weakens democracy and popular participation; Para- graph 6 recognizes the need to promote respect for human rights and fhdamental freedoms in order to address the most pressing social needs of people living in poverty, not least through the design and development of appropriate mechanisms to strengthen and consolidate democratic institutions and governance.

This diagnosis reveals that an essential precondition for tacking the Herculean task of eradicating poverty is that all citizens, including those most completely excluded at present, must be given their place in the life of the civitas. The eradication of poverty will depend on participation by the “poor” in “development”, “democracy” and “governance”.

There are many non-Western situations in which, for most people, all modern mechanisms such as the institution of Justice, the Welfare State with its system of social security, and a system of access to modern

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health care are still remote or even non-existent.17 The fragility of the living conditions of the most underprivileged is paralleled by the exclusion of large swathes of the population from public life: that life is still often monopolized by modern institutions and modern language, which know little and care less about other world views, ways of thinking, languages and customs. W e sometimes find that the intrusion of modern processes such as the market or development aggravates the destabilization of “non-modern’’ modes of life and makes the situation of certain groups even more precarious. It seems essential, if we are to take die need for participation seriously, to take some interest in the practices, the logics and the world views of these vulnerable groups which are being left on the sidelines of the modern system without any real hope of one day making their way in.18

If we want to combat poverty and exclusion, we must make an effort to understand traditional arrangements for solidarity, mutual aid, and social living, and to allow ourselves to learn from them. At the very least we need to learn to regard them as assets rather than merely as obstacles to Western-style development. Likewise we need to show some sensitivity to the various guises in which Law can appear, meaning by “Law” that phenomenon which establishes forms and puts into forms or “patterns” our living together according to our respective worldviews. Our modern institutions and “human rights” thinking stress an institutional approach in which “the law” appears above all as a set of general, impersonal rules and standards; but we ought to be aware that other societies have other ways of intertwining “the biological, the social and [he unconscious for the reproduction of humanity” - to borrow Pierre Legendre’s splendid formula. If we are prepared to concern ourselves with these other forms of Law, which in some countries represent the submerged part of the legal iceberg, w e may be able to link them in with approaches that are more institutional, more “classical”, as a jurist would say.

17. The reasons why I have based chis arricle mainly on corisideratioiis drawii from iiori-Western coiirexrs are, firsrly, [liar those are my parricular areas of refiectioii aiid, secondly, rliat it seems to rnc of primary iriiportaiice to iiiterculturalize [lie ways w e approach living rogcrlicr, which ar preseiir coiiriiitie to rely csscnrially on Wesrern chinking. However, I am very well aware of the cliallciiges wliicli arise in tlie West as well, especially iii coiiiiection wicli the forces driving paupcrizarioii iii [lie former Eastern bloc countries. 18. W e inay iiidced wonder why rlic “modern” viewpoint should iiecessarily be rakeii as die uiii- versa1 one iri every inscarice of living together? The basis of all real intercultural dialogue for the purpose oldeveloping a shared Iiorizoii cif actiori requires first of all :I recogiiition of and rcspecc for tlie perspectives involved in other views of the world.

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I shall start by sctting out thc issues involved in an intercultural approach to human rights that aims to attain the human rights ideal in non-Western contexts and in those lacking the material resources of richer countries. Then I shall taclde the issues of development and governance, which depend on real participation by everyone in our shared life on this earth. This will eventually lead m e to reflect on what might be gained from adopting a liberating approach powered by the notion of “poverty as a violation of human rights”, i.e. an approach really designed to ensure everybody’s participation in framing visioiis of society that are attuned to the need to eradicate poverty and exclusion and in which States, open to the intercultural challenge, will have an essential role to play.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN A CONTEXT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND POVERTY

In this presentation I shall be emphasizing the importance of taking into account the human and cultural resources that make possible the cultural presei-vacion and transmission of respect for human rights in many non-Western contexts. I should like, however, to draw the reader’s attention to a deeper level, which I shall not be developing here, a level at which “human rights” and the issue of poverty are opened up to intercultural dialogue.19

The anthropology of Law teaches us that it is not only values (and therefore legal and ethical content) which can vary between one culture and the next; the very way in which Law is conceived and thought about, the forms by which societies reproduce themselves and resolve their conflicts, and the underlying views of society and of the world - these can be different as well. Therefore, w e have to appreciate that if we are to tale local resources seriously we need the wider horizon of a real intercultural dialogue which offers a mutual enrichment of our several human traditions - and that includes our Western tradition of human rights - and acceptance that even if the destinations are similar our vehicles and routes must be allowed to differ from one context to another.

,

Let m e illustrate what I mean with an Indian example. W e may indeed observe quite generally that in India nowadays efforts to achieve

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“social justice” have become a mainstream activity; this is due in no small part to militant campaigning for human rights as much by the Indian State as by pressure groups. However, the human rights movement remains for the moment the preserve of those who already belong to what sociologists call the “modern world” of government and judicial power structures. Other groups, like the majority of the Dalits (previously known as Untouchables),’O remain on the periphery. This state of affairs “is unlikely to change soon unless human rights advocates translate theis concerns into popular terms nndfor lived social conditions, and unless they are ready to jïrst educate themselves nbozit the people? relevant experiences, expressions, and expectations.” (Khare 1998: 195-196).

In the case of struggles for recognition of the rights of Dalit women, R. S. Khare notes that although it is evident to LIS that their concerns are human rights issues and can be dealt with as such since discussion of human rights is a feature of the Indian situation also, it nevertheless remains the case that at bottom they theinselves do not mould matters in these terms but rather in terms of dharmdkarma21; part of a world view more centred on divinity and the cosmos than on human Iünd. But these notions of kanmddbarma, far from being fixed, are actually being reinterpreted in the light of egalitarian ideas conveyed by “human rights” and the whole of Indian secular politics - or perhaps it would be truer to say that what w e are witnessing a reciprocal reinterpretation of these notions and symbols, while the centre of gravity remains anchored, in popular Indian thinking, in the craditional Indian concepts. Accor- ding to R. S. Khare (1998: 179-180), “Popztlar cziltzn-ejïnds the issues of justice and injustice deeply idated to karma and dharma. Yet the

20. Perhaps I should give a (simplified) explaiiarion of Uiirouchable srarus (so-called “uiitoticha- biliry”). The Indian social srrucrurc of c a m is organized on the principle of piiricyliinpurity. Tlie relative positions of the various casres (;hi) depend on their relative - degrees of puriry. Casre m e m - bership is heredirary, and marriage within one’s caste is the rule. This sysrcm is accoinpaiiied by an iiitellecriial division of Indian society into four conditions or unnza (literally “colours”): at rlie rop, die Rrahmiiis or priests, followed by the hhatrya or warriors, clicii die Vaislia: rliese make up the “twice-born” who have access to rhe Veda. Next come die Sliudra, die semanrs or humble people. And then rhere is yer aiiorlier caregory, quite oursidc die variia, lower scill arid mnre “impure”: the Unrouchables (see Dumont 1979: 93) Their official classification is “sclieduled casres”, and they nialce up soine 16. 5% of the popularion of India, over 160 million people. In addiciori to being at the borrom “ideologically” rhey are also the most explnired and rhe oncs who are in the most precarious situations socially and economically. 21. For definitions of rhese, see Lingat Robert, 1998: Eberhard 2002: 135-198.

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relationship is far Jrom simple or uriconditional wben examiized against the people; everyday practical needs and quests. In the traditional Hindu ideology, karma and dharma form the zindisprrted and complete basis for all tbe justice or injustice encountered in I$. Karma and dharma are thus considered to be the bedrock ofjustice. In l$, however, a quest for justice, or at least an escape Jrom intolerable injustice, takes a far more pressing and practical turn. Unless it is totally hopeless, people either revolt against or run away fiom the unbearable situation. They do something to remedy the situation. This they do as part of their dharma, for to jght injustice is also part of one > dharma. An injustice that causes torture and extreme hardship is not end- lessly sufered simply as a fdte, a jkit of one S (or a communigi >) past bad karmas. In such a practical view, justice (nyaya) becomes the core of dharma, modzfiing one S passive acceptance of the karma-assigned condition. (. . .) By dejnition, injustice could never triumph over dharma, because dharma was self-evident justice, and it was the very source of all creation and the cosmos. (But) Dharma decidedly triumphed over injustice ‘only when injustice overfowed’ (...) In such a system, as Dalit reformers complain, injustice is tolerated until it accumulates enough to trigger the balance of dharma to set itself right. Such dharma is, however, considered today a necessa y but insuficient compass of social justice fo. the oppressed, until it also becomes sensitive to people? livedpain and suffering, here and now”.

The older Dalits, especially, continue to see moral obligations and prescribed duties in terms of the principles of karma and dharma, and give much importance to the role of the divine (bhagvarz), which remains the supreme power that determines action in all calculations of karma and dharma, but whose will is always a mystery for humans (Khare 1998: 180). Whatever may happen at the human level, cosmic and divine justice will always have the last word. R. S. Khare also notes that D a h tend to argue not so much in terms of a division between justice and injustice but rather, against a background of the concepts we have just been explaining, in terms of gradations of their life experience between these two extremes: some of these degrees are accepted as a matter of course, others are tolerable or can be negotiated, while others again are intolerable and unacceptable (Khare 1998: 186).

W e are accordingly invited to dive into a “pluriverse”” in order to understand tlie complexity of the dynamics of emancipation, tlie role

22. See Eberhard, “Josrice. tiiiman righrs ...” op. cir.: 79 ff.

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that human rights can play in them, and the originality of the various human situations, each of which enriches us in our effort to understand what humanity is. “Though exasperating to a modern social reformer and a human rights advocate, this deeply-ingrained c z d t w d lexicon of karma- dharma and divine justice complex is shared widely by ordinary Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs in India. It is the people? jurisprudence, shaping the prevalent notions of social$irness and justice. It goes through periodic cycles of rigidiy, refom, flexibiLiy, as various saints, reformers, and Leaders tty to explicate it from time to time. It encounters petitions, protests, and upheavals, as zuelL as a rising devotionalfdith in the [intervening power’ of the divine wiLP. (JShare 1998: 1.80-181)

If we are ignorant of these different universes of meaning and action or ignore them, we shall not be able to understand the concerns of those whom Iiumaii rights are intended to benefit, and so shall exclude them from the ‘‘human rights game”. The question of dialogue among differing world views therefore arises not only in dealing with the global framework of thiii- king about human rights, where the need for iiitercultural dialogue among humanity’s traditions is becoming more and more acutely felt. It also has considerable importance for anyone undertaking practical action on human rights and seeking the effectiveness that comes from taking into account the views, customs, resources and strategies of the people actually involved.

But quite apart from the fact that if the protection of human rights is to be effective it must be open to intercultural dialogue (in order to address the need of its intended beneficiaries and not completely exclude them from a “social game” that has been redesigned for modern players only), modern human rights protection calls for massive material resources. The Western “rule of law”, which makes it possible for institutions to translate human rights into grassroots realities, requires a very heavy investment in bureaucratic and administrative infrastructure, which the great majority of countries in our world simply cannot afford. This is not a moral judgement but a recognition of facts. if we remember that in many countries officials (including those of the machinery of justice) are under-paid or not even paid at all, that the number of judges is nocoriously inadequate, that they lack training, that the basic infrastructure (e.g. official gazettes) is minimal or non-existent, w e begin to see that to argue only in terms of an institutional approach to human rights is really not enough. Jacques Vanderlinden (I 996: 87) does not mince his words in the following observation about Africa: “Whatever angle you Look at it from - the scientist’s, or the practitioner? - the

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bankruptcy ofAfiican coiintries ‘state-based lazu has become n truism (. . .) It is closely related to the disintegration of its sponsoring authority, the Afiican State”. And he goes on: “Where there is no State, there can be no state- based law amounting to anything more than a pious wish or a clozrd of dust thrown in the eyes of half-attentive observers or sanctimonious hypocrites only too happy to swallow whatever appearances they $na! convenieni’.

In such situations, therefore, it would seem self-evident that we have to have recourse to other, non-modern resources if we are to make progress towards attaining the human rights ideal of guaranteeing everyone a life worthy of a human being. These may be material resources, human resources or resources in the form of ideas. The transformation of various material, intellectual and spiritual endowments into resources that can help us on our way towards an intercultural praxis of human rights is in my view fundamentally connected with the attitude of dialogue. For as long as we regard other views of the world and other cultural practices as “backward or opposed to civilization and progress, they cannot be positive resources in che search for a proper life for all; on the contrary, they will appear as so many hindrances. The essential resource therefore seems to m e to be our own basic attitude, which must be one of dialogue.

In African situations it does seem helpful to turn to resources such as custom which continues to organize social life or the emerging common laws of practice, and to make them work together with the provisions of the national and international legal order which are no less real and unavoidable and which can also be a resource, so as to move towards achieving the rule of law, and thus enabling the human rights ideal to become a reality.2’ Étienne Le Roy speaks of this process as a “radical reform” which is a LL( . .) taking into accozuzt, beyond the play of institutions, of the basis fil- a society 5 functioning, which can both provide a framework for the lives of Afiicans and anchor them in the values and practices that are shared by all. It hinges on a rediscoveiy of these endogenous practices and at the same time on new consideration of the values which could gziide these societies’ Jiitzires towards constmction (or even reconstritction)”, (Le Roy 2004: 25 8)

23. See Le Roy (199Ob : 1 1 8-120) for ari illuscracion of how an irirercultural approach to liuinaii rights could work, giveii aii agreeinerit to build on the vai-i(it~s resources availablc; the :LutIlor describes rhe crncrgciicc in Sciiegal of a riegotiaccd way cif scrcling confliccs and a iicw “ci,iiiiii~itiity culture”.

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PARTICIPATION AS A PRECONDITION FOR THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY: THE ISSUES AT STAKE

In my introduction I mentioned Upendra Bai’s thoughts on the need to consider the issues of development and politics when reflecting on human rights and poverty, and their concurrence with the diagnosis outlined in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, which emphasized the need actively to involve the excluded in economic and social life. What I intend to do here is to introduce the intercultural dimension into the argument yet again: what kind of development, what kind of participation would really enable everyone to talie part in a jointly-designed project, and hence to support a dynamic process of poverty eradication?

in order to answer this question, w e have to reconsider the way w e approach the concepts of “development” and “governance” which mark out the area within which today’s thinking about citizens’ participation in shared living takes place. W e shall then be in a position to consider the responsibilities of national governments and the international community in the eradication of poverty in connection with human rights.

DEVELOPMENT

Development, if thought of as the organic growth that enables a living creature or a society to develop to its mature state, can be regarded as a desirable ideal for everyone. However the term is not a neutral one : it has a history. At the end of the Second World War, the invention of the concept of “development” created in its wake the emergence of an “under-developed world - one which therefore had to “develop”. The matrix of thought is deeply Western, and “development” was able to take over the role which the idea of “civilization” had played under colonialism. It was by comparison with the Western model of development that, around the time of the end of the Second World W a r , a lack of running water or eleccricity could be declared a feature of poverty that needed eradicating. For the sake of “civilizing” perhaps; but also, let us not deceive ourselves, for the pragmatic purpose of opening up new markets.

While the Marshall plan indubitably produced success stories in Europe, both at macroeconomic level and in terms of the fallout in social benefits for Europeans, the advantages of developineiit for the rest

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of the world have not been so easy to detect.” It has led in many situations to a gradual replacement of poverty by misery (peur: être que “des- titute” est effectivement mieux en anglais, mais si “misery” passé je le préférerais car ca reste plus prêt de la racine française du mot “misère” qu’utilise Majid Rahnema), to use the terminology of Majid Rahnema (2003). Many of those living in developing countries are no longer poor25 only by our standards, while still living a life which makes sense to them and enables them to satisfy their needs in accordance with their own vision of the world and of society. They have become miserable (idem que pour ma remarque ci-dessus) : that is, their situation is such that they can no longer ensure their own survival in terms of their own values, aspirations and resources,26 and on top of that they have seen themselves marginalized in terms of the new, modern mode of life which has been set up before them as a model. Their “under-development” marks their exclusion from the modern, developed model of social living. In India, for example (but the situation there illustrates a more universal tendency), ‘‘ The logic of classz$cation and loss of class implicit in modernization excludes (. . .) three quarters orfDztrJZJbs of the population” (Heuzé 1993: 43). “In the Indian context, the reference to ‘modernity’ means ( . .) the introduction of polnrities never known before. One is or is not ‘modern That which is not modem is tizditional (bnckwnrd) and this implies that it is fossilized that it ‘belongs to histo y The pTogressive outlook imagines and imposes n linear time, and eveiyone is labelled nccording to n place along that Line. (. . .)just recentb, whether or not one makes the gmùe in town has become important.27 Nobody wants the people at the bottom of the heap’ to be around any more, the fiinge people who have long been the mniiz feature of the urban landscape; at any rate, nobody wants to see them nny more. The lesson many people draw fiom this is that modernization, in the concrete form, for example, ilf the introduction ofproperg deeds, has o@en accentuated nll swts of dispossession. Though yesterday ’s Brahmins rind

24. Oii the maiiy faces of “dcvelopnieii[ aid arid its issues’’ sec Soggc 2003. 25. For a disciissinn of the norioiis of poverty, needs and srandard of living in the age of globalization, sce Kaliiieina 1997, Illich 1997 and Larouclie 1997. 26. O n e of rlic cffecrs of developiiieiit lias been ro create under-development. Eveii die Wnrltl Bank aiid die Iiirerriational Moiierary Fuiid (IMF) have been lorced 1x1 ;idmir dia[, sraristically, [lie number of poor people in the world lias nor stopped growing in absoltire aiid relacive term, and tlic gal’ benveeii rich aiid poor is scill widening. Developiiieiit s e e m thcrcfiire to benefir the developed :ihovc ;III, rlinse wlio are at the cenrre c i f rhe power scrticcLiIes - ;it die espeiisc of tliosc regarded as “iiiidcr-dcvelo~>ed”. 27. Ir should he kept in iiiiiid thai three qiiarrers nF clic poptil;itioii of India live in die coiirirryside.

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despots did not lack nrrogance or authoritarian rejexes, at least they hard4 had any ambition ns iegnuds economic development. Nor did they inte@Fe with local Living arrangements”. (Heuzé 1993: 44).

Although there is now an attempt to move towards sustainable development which takes account not only of economic measures but also of social and environmental development issues, this still does not always mean that attention is paid to the exclusion from the new model of everyone who does not speak its language or share its world view. Even now, the cultural dimension and its social consequences for human beings are not generally covered in our reflections, which are still rooted in the (Western) myth of development. Indeed, we are only beginning to wonder whether it might not be the modern conception of “development” itself, and all it implies, that is the problem - or at least part of the problem; we still cannot see “alternatives to deve1opment”’R that other world views have to offer. Let m e be clear: these alternatives are not Utopias, they are real situations; but we have to allow ourselves to see them if we are ever to be capable of engaging in dialogue with them. And that dialogue should at the very least involve recognizing them, encouraging them and thinliing about how they fit together with - could be made to interact with - contemporary development processes, whose value would thereby have to be regarded as relative. The object of the exercise would be to repair the crockery smashed when purely economic considerations were allowed to impose a neoliberal development that aggravated poverty and intensified exclusion for the benefit of a minority. If we are to take these real-life alternatives seriously we have to remember that people have a right to participate in the design and implementation of their social model. At present this approach is seen primarily in terms of “governance” and “civil society”.

PARTICIPA TION REQUIRED FOR THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY: BRINGING “GOVERNANCE” AND “CIVIL SOCIETY” BACK INTO PERSPECTIVE?

In the contemporary processes of globalization, the State no longer has a monopoly of legal regulation: national freedom of action is circumscribed by the emergence of supranational rights at regional or world level, and also by the emergence of local rights connected with

28. See for example Vaclion 1990 arid La ligne d’horizon 2003.

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ongoing decentralization (Arnaud 1997). State action would appear to be becoming more oriented towards “governance”, meaning the efficient running of society, aiid increasingly disregarding “government” which is more hierarchical, more top-down . . . but also more political. In the words of the Commission on Global Governance, governance is “the m m of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs. . . .a continuing process through which conjic- ting or diverse interests may be accommodated and co-operative action may be taken. It inchdes formal institutions m d regimes empowered to enforce compliance, as well as informal ar’rangements that people or’ institutions either have agreed to or perceive to be in their interest”.29 Governance is to some extent presented as preferable to government, and this is because it loolis like a more participatory and therefore a more democratic process, in the sense of a direct form of democracy rather a representative one where the electors’ role is merely to vote periodically in elections for those who are to govern them. But who, exactly, is going to participate? And in what?

In his historical analysis of the way in which the concept of “participation” has been used in the sphere of development, Majid Rahnema notes that w e should be carefd to distinguish between spontaneous participation and participation that is manipulated - or even remote- controlled - in cases where the participants, without being forced to do anything, are encouraged to take a particular decision by centres operating beyond their control (Rahnema 1997: 116). Although the concept of participation was slightly subversive to start with, and in the 1950s produced campaigners who pointed out the need to take the realities of‘ local situations into account when drawing up development programmes, it was gradually co-opted by governments and development institutions which as early as the 1970s were being faced with explicit evidence of the failure of their programmes and beginning to feel the need for some transmission mechanism for their activities. This, according to Majid Rahnema (1997: 117-120) was for six main reasons: the concept was no longer regarded as a threat; it had become a politically attractive slogan; it had become an economically attractive proposal; it was now perceived as an instrument for greater effectiveness, as well as a new source of investment; it had become a good means of fundraising;

29. Qiiorcci (iii iireiich rrdacinii) iii Froger 2003: 12. Ilcfiiiirioiis :ILK available a r hrtp://www.g<lrc.org/ti-gov/governance-[ie~n~.lirml

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hrtp://www.g

and lastly, a broadened conception of “participation” was enabling the private sector to become a direct player in the development business..’O Clearly, then, w e must know what exacdy we mean when w e speak of “participation” in the context of governance.

Bonnie Campbell (1997b) emphasizes this point in her critical analysis of structural adj iistment plans (SAPs) and their implementation in African countries. In view of the SAPs’ failure and their “political non-feasibility’’ at the start of che 1980s, a major effort went into devising a political legitimacy for such programmes. By the end of the 1980s this effort was being based on the concepts of “empowerment” and “consensus-bdding”, and then most of all (from the 1990s onwards) on the idea of “participation”. However, as Bonnie Campbell makes clear (1997b: 219-220), “ . . . this is an émpowement’ designed to ensure and ficiLitate development, which as we have seen appears as a pre-defned end result, not any real participation in the exercise of power with a view to taking part informing and putting into practice a vision of society. (. . .) In this sense, yarticipntion ” means (I) a means of getting local support and local cooperation, mid (2) /t means of establishing popular legitimacy - but legitimacy for those who introduce an SAP, not those who resist or oppose it. It is in this same technical andfitnctionalsense that we are to understand the Limited scope of tbe notion of kccountability which appears at frst sight to be reasonably broad: Xccountability at its simplest means holding public ojîcials responsible for tbeir actions But this notion was never subsequently pelled out in detail, and therefore lacked political effectiveness as regards a broader interpretation. in order to bave an operational effect in political terms, it wodd have to have been made clear who was to be held accountable, f.r what, by what mechanisms, to what extent and according to what standards. This lack ofprecision becomes easier to understand when we realize that what is involved is essentially budgetmy and economic accorrntabi- Lity (. . .): ‘Similarly, the Bank is rightly concerned with financial and economic accountability, but political accoiintability is outside its mandate. ’ (. . .) It is this kind of consideration wbich leads us to conclude that the notions of émpowerment’ used by the Bank in the 1980s and )artic$ation’ in the 1990s do not arise fiom n concern f.r real participation bzit are connected rather witb a concept of fpopulist managerialism”.

30. Ir is inreresririg [O coIitrast aiid supplcineii[ rliis approach with the “plnniiiiig” approach by Arruro Escobar (I 997).

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So the underlying idea of this semantic area surrounding “governance” seems to be not so much greater political participation as more effective management of society - a shift from the political myth of living together to an economic myth crystallized in the ideology of development. “Good” policy arrangements, or “good governance” as understood by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank, is what works effectively in terms of macroeconomic profitability, what does most to reduce the role of the State ... and of politics. The question of choice among different “visions of society”, which is perhaps the fundamental political question, is emptied of all content - the only concern is to “manage” a situation as effectively as possible with a view to introducing a form of development in keeping with the “natural laws” of the market31 . . . The idea underlying the “best practice” which the World Bank wants to inculcate is one that “closely links international aid to a m u c h greater opening up ofpoor counrries’economies not only to international trade but also to directforeign investment (. . .) in the form of local subsidiaries set zq (or localfirms taken over) by the big multinationals (. . .)” (Gaudin 2002: 78). Paradoxically, “good governance’’ tends to empty governance of all its liberating potential and all its promise of greater participation by civil society in the common weal. By its prescriptive nature it actually sets LIP road blocks in the way of participation, and ensures countries’ de ficto supervision by the international financial institutions. The opportunity of participation offered to civil society by the process of governance is once again thrown into doubt. I must point out, though, that the World Bank and the IMF have no monopoly in defining “good governance”. There is no good reason why more explicitly political requirements should not be included; and w e are free to wonder, if w e prefer, what specific contributions the idea of “governance” might make to a modern rethinking of the issues involved in living together in dignity and peace, rather than taking the ideological path of some “good governance” that has been defined for us before- hand. In its more liberating interpretation, which sees governance not merely as neoliberalism’s transmission belt and a way of reducing the role of the State and politics in order to strengthen that of market economics even further, but as a more participatory way of organizing our communal life, the role of civil society becomes clearly crucial; for it

31. See Gervais 1937, Osinuiit 1097, Canipbell 1907a

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is by mobilizing civil society that we may change course and move towards a more participatory way of dealing with the problems of the polis, and so head for a more alive, “hands-on” type of democracy.

Here again, though, things are by no means as clear as they may seem at first sight. The concept of “civil society”, defined as an autonomous sphere in contradistinction to “the Srate”, takes us back to societas, a gathering of individuals connected by a social contract (Dumont 1991: 98-99), and to civitas, the political society or polis. W e find ourselves in a particular (Western) construction of the relationship with what is political, legal or social. Our first thoughts when “civil society” is mentioned are of associations, non-governmental organizations, grass-roots inove- ments, etc.: but what about more traditional political, social, economic and legal structures such as the mutual aid networks organized in terms of family, religion, or caste, which are not necessarily moulded in modern forms?Q Either these are disregarded, 01 just the tip of the iceberg is glimpsed when (or rather io they take part along with others in “modern games” - for instance an NGO activity. Basically they are ignored, just as they themselves ignore modern ways of doing things, as Babacar Sal1 (1997: 252-245) observes in the case ofAfrica, where “(. . .) the political and economic circumstances are such that notie of the words deriving jom the dominant modern sector (‘development: ‘democracy: ‘State y have any meaning in social lfe any longer, precisely because they have &led to improve its vexed relationship to fundamental needs. What matters, consequentb, is not the long teim, the programme or tbe sense ofhis- toiy, but the daily imperatives offood and health. What we have is a situation of controversy and zipset, where social l$e bas been depoliticized and political ltf. desocialized but where their divorce, or the swallowing up of one by the other, has not completely incapacitated the overall system. There is manifertly a structural dissociation between these two nzain centres of gm- vity, which leads to a situation in which sociev gets on witb what it thinks, says and does without refèrence to politics, and vice-versa. (. . .) this desocia- lization signals not just a divide between government and society, but a renewed, selective takeover of State structures by dominant groups which appropriate them and use them as weapons to get the upper hand in long-

32. On the difficulty of raking rradiriond structures or dynamics into accouiir wlicii argiiiiig in terms of “civil socicty”, see for example Manrlani & Wamba-Dia-Wainba 1397, Sal1 1997.

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running disputes between themselves a n d other competing socinlgroups. Seen in this light, the ideological registers of the modern State in AfTica, its partisan system, its bureaucracy, its ritiinls and its methods of legitimation may all be seen as the result of a virtual enactment of the dominant universalism imposed by the “democratic”powers. Yet only in rare cases have they actually got an efective grip on the body social, because the essential workings of social, cidtural and economic lye go on outside the institutional framework establisheù by the State”.

This last thought of Babacar Sal1 leads naturally to the question underlying the issue of “participation”. In situations such as those described above, where the essential workings of social life take place outside the modern mould, is it reasonable to expect real popular participation to be dependent on a mass conversion of the population to modern ideology? Or should we perhaps be wondering whether it is not at least partly up to imported modern institutions to adapt themselves to the expectations, needs and viewpoints of their supposed “ beneficiaries”?33

If w e are aware of the diversity of views of what society should be34 - to say no thing of the diversity of ways of implementing these views - and if w e really take “civil society” and its idea of “participation” seriously in order to identi@ the responsibilities of each in our community, then w e have to concern ourselves with the submerged part of the iceberg of society’s legal and political regulation, in a broad sense; and we cannot do this without introducing an anthropological strand into our thinking about rights and law, and exploring the great range of juridical behaviour by couching our questions, not in terms of modern institutions, but on the basis of specific issues affecting the whole of society (see for example Le Roy 1990b, Vanderlinden 1996).

33. Iii this coniiccrinii thc reader rnighc bc inrcrcstcd iii Ihieiiiic 1.c Roy’s Inrcscwork Les AAfiiwitis et 1Ttzstitutio/i de / f / . J i i h , [Africaiis aiid rlie Iiiscirurioii of Juscice] (2004). 34. Also sec Elicrliaicl (1 <)!I<)) for iiiy cloulits ~ X J U L spcaliiiig iii tcriiis ofa “project for society” iii certain coiirc‘xrs, siiicc rliis coiicept nlsn is prr>hahly roo mrihii to Ibc irirei.ciilriirnlly iiscfiil.

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TOWARDS A LIBERATING APPROACH TO “POVERTY AS A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS”

In Section I (Values and principles) of the United Nations Millen- nium Declaration (A/55/L. 2) we read: “ W e believe that the central challenge we$ce today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all tbe world? people. Foi. while globalization offers great opportunities, at piwent its benejts are very unevenly shared, while its costs are unevenly distributed. W e recognize that developing countries and countries with economies in transition &ce special dzficulties in responding to this central challenge. Thus, only through broad and sustained efforts to create a shared jiture, based upon our common himanip in all its diversigi, can globalization be made$illy inclusive and equitable. These effoi.ts must include policies and measures, at the global level, which corwspond to the needs of developing countries and economies in transition and are formulated and implemented with their effective participation”.

While the international institutions appear, from this viewpoint, to have an important role to play in regulating globalization so that it does not amount merely to an expansion of the neoliberal market, it also seems essential to rehabilitate or even entirely recast the role of the State. National governmenrs have a primary responsibility for, and can play a determining role in, combating poverty by means of a liberating approach to human rights, i.e. an approach which really encourages everybody to help choose from among the differenr views of society and ways of implementing them. This means raking into account the intercultural aspects of the process.

Though the State is obliged by globalization to deal with other powers whose activities compete with or at least supplement its own, so that the exercise of its sovereign authority is re-shaped thereby, it nevertheless remains a key player. Reasserting the role of national governments would seem an elementary part of any reflection aimed at reducing poverty; and w e can by no means subscribe to neoliberal demands that the State’s powers be curbed: if the State has been (and is) incapable of fulfilling its basic functions in many non-Western situations, this is not the moment to undermine its foundations even further. In some cases we may legitimately wonder whether it might not be “more government’’ rather than “less government” that is needed -

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though keeping in mind that it is above all dzferent government, government that succeeds in embodying a certain legitimacy, that w e want. It is not accordingly that the State should be stronger in the sense of “more totalitarian”, but rather in the sense that it should be able to ensure a minimum level of service in practice, while functioning so as to complement other social resources.

Moreover, this talk of weakened States taking less and less responsibility hides yet another real feature of the situation. While on the one hand many governments, in both North and South, seek to escape the unpopularity of their policies by blaming “globalization”, it is still the State which acts as transmission belt between the global and the local (see Ost & van de Kerchove 2002: 168 ff). It is the State which actually implements the structural adjustment plans, by enacting legislation and using its monopoly of legitimate violence. To use Shalini Randeria’s analysis (2002), we may distinguish at least three forms of State: those which are strong enough, where we are simply watching the emergence of a more pluralist, complex and fluid political and legal arena in which the State will still be a central player, though in relative terms only; those where the State has practically lost all its autonomy and amounts in fact to a mere transmission belt for “global forces”; and lastly those in between, such as India, Brazil and other big countries of the South, which have a not inconsiderable measure of independence in practice, but evade their responsibilities at times by involving globalization as they open up their countries to the world market and in doing so weaken the position of their own people, sacrificed on the altar of “macroeconomic development” which is often the opposite of self-development or self- sufficiency.35 The strong and intermediate States need to be confronted with their responsibility for choosing a vision of society which takes all their citizens’ aspirations into account; while the weakest States are the ones which the international community will have to watch so as to make sure that instead of becoming even weaker they are allowed to build themselves up, on the basis of actions which their own peoples regard as legitimate.

’

35. These analyses gain froin heiiig pur into perspecrivc by Benraiid Dadie’s refiexioiis un States ‘bccwccii ruse aiid respc~iisiibility iii a ~[~rld wirlioiir sovcrcignry’: Uri moiide smzr souuenzi/zek Lc,s Etnts nitir rllv et ~csl~fi/i.~~bi~~t~iioii~~c s m s soziucrtliizeti (I ?‘)Y), See :ho de Seiiarcleiis (2002), d i n aiialyses tlic çliaiigcs to aiid recoiifigiirariciris cif die Scrite’s role uiitlcr die iicw power rclatioiisliips rliat eirirrge with globalizatioii.

Any move to tackle poverty as a violation of human rights therefore depends on reasserting the role and responsibility of States with regard to the choice of a vision of society, in collaboration if necessary with international institutions such as the World Bank or the IMF. These, for their part, must aim at real participation by all citizens in social life and are therefore asking that those citizens’ practices, thoughts and world views be taken into account

W e should remember that the rule of law (or %tat de droit”) rests on three pillars: first, general impersonal rules and standards built into the hierarchical structure of the legal system and presumed to be known to all and to exist prior to any particular dispute; second, the obligation on the part of the source of authority (the State) to respect its own rules; and third, “the insistence that the law shall conform to society’s values, in keeping with the ethical judgements that are shared by the greatest number” (Le Roy 1999: 266). This third pillar is the one we have to rely ,

on as we shift from thinking only in terms of a “transplanting of the modern model of the rule of law” throughout the world towards thinking in terms of setting up more than one “rule of law”, in the sense of a situation in which the law that prevails (Le Roy 1999: 264) is one built on the world views and practices of the people involved. This require- menr is not only “ethical” in that it alone meets the conditions for crue dialogue and interculturalism; it is also highly practical, as w e were explaining earlier: quite apart from any other consideration, it is a fact that the modern rule of law requires an extremely heavy and costly infrastructure which few States can afford (officials, publication of gazettes, registers, surveys etc.). The State cannot therefore monopolize the running of the whole society - it is important to delegate some powers and find means of connecting “modern law” with “living laws” so that progress is made towards the ideal of making all the players in the social game more secure by ensuring that all play a real part.36 And just as the State must accept its limitations if it is to be able to work in a manner that complements other sociai forces, so we must also rethink the

36. We may indeed wondcr, on a morc fundamencal level, whether it is desirable [hac one authority alone (wlietlier [lie modern State o r some orhcr construcc) should liave a monopoly of Law arid so remove the accouncahility of oclier playcrs in socicty. h i my view the answer is dcîiiii- rely “No”. Oii tliese questions see, for example, Huyghebaert & Martin 2002; ILSA 2003. This issue connects, of course, wirli all the more general coiiremporary worries over “technocracy” aiid [lie “democratic defici[” iii our insricurions.

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concept of “development” and break its monopoly on all deliberation about how to guarantee everyone a life worthy of a human being.

To conclude, I consider the principal issue in non-Western situations to be the need to place participation at the centre of moves to treat poverty as a violation of human rights and thus include the intercultural dimension. If w e take this requirement seriously then we begin to see approaches emerging that are not limited to modern, Western answers, but would take account of the experiences of humanity’s other cultures in all ‘their variety - and not merely in the abstract, but in a concrete way, in all the various arenas where legal policies are conceived and implemented. The anthropology of Law could prove an extremely useful resource in such a context.

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http://www.gemdev.org/publicatio1is/cahiers/~df/24/cah~24~Bal~apcd~f~

THE CHALLENGE OF THE GLOBAL TRADING SYSTEM FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE

Dr. Yash Tandon Solitheriz niid Easfeni Afiicnii

Trade Iilfovirzafioii and Negotiations Iristifilte

(SEATINI)

Professor Yash Tandon is from Uganda, and has been resident in Zimbabwe since 1982. He has taught at several universities in Africa including Makerere in Uganda and the University of Dar es Salaam. His expertise field is political economy. He is a founder member and the first Director of the International South Group Network (ISGN). ISGN is a networking organization with centres in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, the Philippines, and Nica- ragua. It seeks to raise issues of common concern to the countries under the former colonial rule, such as development, trade, aid, debt, human rights, gender relations, conflict resolution, the environment, etc. Professor Tandon is also Director of the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Initiative (SEATINI). SEATINI seeks to build the capacity of Afri- can trade negotiators to better negotiate in the World Trade Organization for a fair, equitable and balanced system of international trade. Professor Tandon has written extensively on matters related to African economy and international relations.

In the entire discourse on human rights it is often forgotten that for the greater part of the annals of North/South relations going back to over 600 years, it is the adjective ‘human’ that has been the more contentious issue than the noun ‘rights’. Rights is a sequential issue, the prior issue is rights for whom? W h o qualifies for those rights? Who defines the ‘‘humans” ? W h o are included and excluded from the definition of the “human”, and why? This paper seeks to argue that the study huinan society fïoin the perspective of inclusion and exclusion of sections of humanity from its definition - humnnalogy for short - and the advocacy for the oneness of all humanity, is as important a challenge as the advocacy for human rights.

The paper starts out with this broad narrative. Though of course connected, Humanity and Human Rights are two distinct issues. The human rights discourse is based on its claim to universality. But that universality is not automatically conferred on the people who are

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supposed to enjoy those rights. A switch of discussion from human rights to why there is a hierarchy of human beings shifts the debate away from principles and standards to the realm of material and social reality. This does not diminish the significance of the universality of human rights. BLIC the struggle for humanity - for recognition as human beings - at the level of politics and power is a much more and difficult battle than the battle to establish the universality of human rights.

The essay offers three explanations to this insider-outsider phenomenon in human history - casteism and racism; economic explanation; and civilizational encounters. It argues that the present divide between the North and the South has historical antecedent going back to the 16~11 century. The North-South divide, though it appears Manichean, is real. All three explanations of the insider-outsider phenomenon are reflected in this North-South division. It is also reflected in many aspects of contemporary international relations, including trade, which then is the subject of the second part of the essay.

Against the background of the above broad narrative, the objective of the second part is to draw upon contemporary trade theory and practice in order to show how the North/South dimension, once again, forms a fundamental aspect of international relations. This is not to say that there are no contradictions within the North or the South. These are not monolithic geographic configurations. But the civilizational (arising out of past colonial encounter), the racial/casteist, and the economic considerations continue to fissure the world. In this kind of world, then, “fairness” as a concept organising world trade is often not fully understood. Critical to this discussion is the distinction between humanitarian laws and trade laws - the first is a response to challenge to authoritarian or arbitrary rules of governance, while the second is essentially a codification of mercantile law in which the powerfd extract what they can and the weak yield what they must.

’

The example of the manner in which the US has handled the cotton issue in recent trade negotiations is a case in point. Africans lose something like $250 million a year because of the depressant price effect of US subsidies on cotton. All talk of human rights by the North is hypocritical. This discussion is preceded by a normative discourse on issues related to the concept of fairness, dumping and countervailing measures, subsidies, and the question of standards.

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In the last part the essay focuses on three issues: regulating norms in the domain of international trade; regulating power in the domain of international trade; and drawing out the challenge co global civil society and citizen action. Since trade law contravenes humanitarian law, it must be subjected to the principles of humanity. The paper modifies Rawlsian concept of “fairness as justice” as providing some conceptual tools, and draws upon the study by the U.N. Commissioner on Human Rights on the impact of trade liberalisation on the poor as examples of how to move forward. Finally, it offers five specific suggestions to civil society for citizen action in the realm of trade and development.

HUMANOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

HUiMANITYAND HUiMAN RIGHTS ARE TWO DISTINCT ISSUES

This is not as abstract an issue as the above words might appear to imply. The question of identity is a real, concrete, everyday issue of immediate relevance to millions of people on earth. In our own day, the war in Iraq has epitomised the very core of the issue of identity and the definition of who is “human”. W h o defines humanity in Iraq? It sounds like a rhetorical question, but the answer is not as obvious as it might appear. It might appear that it is the occupation forces of the United States and the United Kingdom that have “the authority” to define humanity in Iraq. Not so. The American and British soldiers might have thought (or made to believe by their superiors) that they have the authority as occupation forces to define who is human and who not. And indeed in their routine beat amongst Iraqi prisoners, the soldiers might believe - truly believe, with heart and soul - that the Iraqis are somehow sub-human (not Christian and not nearly white enough) and (so) they do not deserve the normal rights of human beings. They carry out daily humiliatioii of Iraqi prisoners, it would appear with a nodding official connivance, and with impunity. But sooner or later they are exposed, ironically by the photographs taken by the soldiers themselves - such is their sense of impunity. The humanity of the prisoners was reaffirmed by a horrified global opinion that strongly disapproved of this behaviour, especially, the graphic display of a naked Iraqi prisoner dragged like a dog by a chiding female American soldier pointing mockingly at the exposed genitals of her sub-human victim. The world public opinion re-established the definition of the Iraqis as “human”. In the denial of

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their humanity by the American soldiers their humanity is restored, affirmed, by the world at large.

r 7 1 he above narrative is not an expression of “anti-Americanism”. That is a separate issue. The above is only one of the worst cases of what in fact is a general, regular, pattern of human behaviour. It is the worst case that often demonstrates the validity of a common observation - which is, that in our daily relationships w e routinely behave and relate to other people as if there was a hierarchy of humanity, some more equal than others. Throughout the colonial period, for example, the colonised were treated as people of inferior status, a behaviour pattern that got so ingrained in the culture of the colonised that in daily life too - even today - it is not uncommon to find, for example, a waiter in a restaurant in an African city first seiving a white customer in preference to people of other colours.

It is not just a question of war. Of course, wars have a tendency towards dehumanising people. Wars within nations (civil wars) can be as dehumanising as those between nations. Wars also discriminate; they victimise women and children more than adult men. But what happens in a situation like Iraq or Afghanistan is more than war’s degenerative effects. What happens there is partly related to war, but the war itself and the dehumanisation that is going on there is more structured than conjunctural. It is embedded in culture and history, and not simply an aspect of war aberration.

Human rights discourse is based on its claim to universality. But that universality is not automatically conferred on the people who are supposed to enjoy those rights. And it is not simply a question of the colonisers and the colonised, the black and the white, the North and the South, the Christians and the Muslims, the men and the women. Within each of these communities - as extant identifiable human groups - people behave in their daily lives as if there are hierarchies of humanities, some more human than others. If at the international level, the Iraqi situation symbolises one of the worst case scenario of denial of humanity to a section of the human race, then at the national level, its analogue is the case of India where to this day there are millions of people denied basic human rights because they are “untouchables”, dalits, subalterns, and for all practical purposes, outside the pale of humanity.

The argument (at this stage) is not about the universality of human rights in principle, but about why the practice is at such variance from the

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principle. The question is why there is, in real life situations, a hierarchy of human beings, some more equal than others. The iinportance of this pestion is that it takes the debate away porn princ+les and standards on to the realm of material r d i t y , of social reality. From a subject of ethics and law, human rights become a subject of sociology and political economy. If the dalits in India are treated as if they belong to a sub-species of humanity outside the concourse of human rights, then the question is as much sociological and political as one of ethics and law. If [he Iraqi prisoners are treated as if they are somehow sub-human, then it is necessary to look into the dynamics of international relations - in other words, the global material social and political conditions - which create a situation in which they find themselves as people getting less than human treatment.

No amount of advocacy on behalf of human rights can obliterate this reality. N o one can brush aside the liard fact that human beings perceive themselves - and others - as falling into different categories, some deserving of more rights than others.

This is not an argument against the universality of human rights - although this universality too is not an uncontested terrain. But wliate- ver the argument for or against the universality of human rights, there is no denying that without certain principles that enshrine and establish the universal character of human rights there would simply be no argument about it in global discourse. If human rights were relative to each community, then the Africans would have their own code of rights, Asians their own, the Europeans their own, the Christians their own, the Muslims their own, and so on. Within these communities there would be debate about its principles and practice, but as between them - in their interactions - there would be no argument. “He is an Iraqi or a Muslim, not one of LIS, and SO not entitled to our code of human values.” And the debate ends there. But, although the above line of thinking, and reasoning, is the general tendency in the minds of most people, this is not condoned in principle. Since the universality of human rights is one of the organising principles of humanity, it becomes possible to put to question instances of its derogation (as in the case of the Iraqi prisoners, or of dalits in India).

The principle is important. But the struggle for human rights cannot be fought primarily at the level of the principle, or at the level of ideas. T h e struggle primarily is at the political and social levels. At the

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start of this essay it w a s argued that for tlie greater part of the history of‘ NortMSouth relations, it is the adjective ‘human’ that has been more contentious than the noun ‘rights’. T%e universality of hiiman rights is riii easier (or Less dzflczdt) battle tojgbt than the universaliy of humanity. The first is a matter of principle, the second a matter of power. The first battle, the one of principle, has strong doctrinal allies (among thein the documents of the French Revolution, the English Dill of Rights, and the American Constitution - documents from within the heart of the prc- sent-day Empire). But the second battle, that in the realm of power, has few allies - except, of course, the very people who are deemed by the powerful to be “outside” the realm of humanity, those who are defined as sub-human by those in power, those whose entire cosmology is envisioned through the darkened lenses of the world after 9/ 1 1.

THREE EXPLANATIONS TO THE INSIDER-OUTSIDER PHENOMENON

Why is this so? Why are some humans less human than others? Any number of explanations - from sociological to psychological to religious - have been advanced as explanation. But they fit into three broad categories.

a) Casteism and racism

b) Economic explanation

c) Civilizational explanation

The first two are widely discussed and need not detain us for long. The tendency to hierarchies human beings as deserving differential rights, depending on real or perceived location within the hierarchy, cuts across north/south, racial, religious, national, gender and cultural divides. There are people within the same race, gender, or even the same religion, that treat “their own kind” (as it were) as if some are lower or higher than others. Casteism (division of people into castes) is not just an Indian phenomenon; it has its specific variants in all climes, cultures and locations. The most bigoted expression of this lrind of differentiation in recent times was the system of apartheid in South Africa. There the ruling group/caste used religion to rationalise the division of‘ human beings into higher and lower categories. As we know, the absurdity of the whole project became so manifest that even tlie churclies in Europe, eventually, distanced themselvcs from it.

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The second explanation lies in the economy. Indeed, this is the most persistent cause of division amongst human beings into lower and higher categories. Take the example of farm workers in Zimbabwe. During the colonial period they were not recognised as “human”. They had no rights, and were subjected to arbitrary treatment by the farm owners with almost complete impunity. This is well documented. The question is: how has the situation changed since independence? There is no gainsaying the fact that the condition of the farm workers, at the economic level, has not changed very much. Whilst their formal human rights are recognised, their economic and social existence, for all practical purposes, remains precarious and “sub-human”. For example, most farm workers are left to find their own means to basic necessities of life such as food, health, housing and cleanliness. Farm workers grow food, but they are among the most food-deficient sections of the nation. O n the education front, whilst the post-impendence government achieved a remarkable success in the communal areas, the Farm workers were mostly neglected. When the land issue came to the fore, and the government devised resettlement schemes for communal farmers, the farm workers were once again ignored. III a study this author conducted in Zimbabwe, we found that up to 60 percent of the farin workers have no permanent home, or land to return to. Thus, some of the most deprived and impoverished sections of the citizenry in Zimbabwe are the farm workers. They have “rights” only in name.37

it is the third explanation, civilizational, that needs to be exposed a bit more energetically because it is always placed under the carpet for a whole lot of reasons into which we need not go here, except to say that it is among the most sensitive and explosive explanations.

When the American theorist Samuel Huntington talked about the clash of civilizations, he was almost universally reviled.38 People fear self- fulfilling possibilities of acknowledging something like this as part of contemporary reality. Similarly, in the days following the 9/11 incident when President Bush talked about the crusades, he was persuaded by wiser counsels to tone down the religious rhetoric, and his language (and

37. Zimbabwe’s example is given only because I livc there. The condition of farm workcrs and rural pexarits all over the rliird world is pretty inucli [lie s a m c 1s iii Zimhabwc. 38. Huntington, Sainucl, The Clnsh of Civilizations,

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official US position) subscquently changed to distinguishing between as “good” and “bad” Muslims.

To be sure, a careless use of civilizational categories, especially in public discourse, can arouse strong feelings that could be divisive of humanity. If intellectual honesty and political integrity demands recognition of this factor as part of present reality, then this must be done in order to fight against it rather than to endorse it - a point to which we shall return when we discuss the North/South divide as a real, not ima- ginary, fact of contemporary world.

Intellectual honesty demands that w e do not sweep under the carpet unpleasant facts of life. One exemplary model of this kind of scholarship is the British historian Arnold Toynbee, in his monumental work, A Study of Histmy. Unlike Huntington he talked about not clash but “encounters” between civilizations, but he did not flinch, shy away, from drawing attention to some of its worst aspects.>”

HISTORICAL ANTECEDENT TO THE PRESENT NORTHISOUTH DIVIDE

In the same fashion as discourses that project civilizational clashes are quickly put under the carpet, those that project NorthISouth divide in contemporary world are also instinctively and almost universally denied. There is, for example, a quick retort made that says something like, “yes, but there is a ‘north’ in the South, and a ‘south’ in the North.” And, indeed, there is truth in this qualification of an otherwise too black and white imagery of the present world.

And yet, underlying all qualifications one can make to this binary divide, the reality of the North/South division cannot be denied. Like in the cold war era where the “East/West” category had become a significant reference point, the North/South has become the most significant reference point of the time w e are living through. One scholar who has extensively written on the subject is the Ugandan Dani W. Nabudere. H e argues that the modern phase of globalisation had begun in the 16~11 century (to be precise 1492 to 1650s ) with the Christian crusade to universalise its faith.”) The objective of the 16~11 century Papal Bdls, for

33. Toynbee, hiold, il Study ofEiistoy

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example, was to give religious blessings to Portuguese and Spanish merchant companies to spread Christianity and stop Islam in its tracks. With religious conquest also went the conquest of long distance trade.

In order to set the record right it must be added that even in those days there were heroic people who protested aiid shouted against the inhumanity of the Crusades, especially the description of people of another race as “çub- human” and therefore candidates for physical extermination. Among them, for example, was Bartolome de las Casas, the Spanish Bishop of Chiapas in Guatemala. Don Bartolome spent a large portion of his life fighting for the rights of native peoples of the New World. His father was a merchant who sailed with Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas. He served in a Spanish militia against Moorish rebels in Grenada, and as chaplain in the’ conquest of Cuba. When he saw atrocities against the Indians, he renounced his mcomienda (land and other titles) in I5 14, and devoted the rest of his life defending the human rights of the Indians. His appeals to the Kings of Spain were, however, largely ignored or defeated.41

Arguments made on behalf of human rights are usually either ignored or twisted in order to serve “the spirit of the times”, which from 1492 to 1650s was that of Christian Universalism and the conquest of long-distance trade. Today’s “spirit of the times” is the universalism of Western culture (including norms of democracy and human rights), alid the conquest of global resources in the name of globalisation. But, and this is important, like in the 15th to 17“’ centuries, there is today opposition to this not only in the “South” but also among brave people (including politicians and civil society) in [he South - a point to which we shall come later.

NORTHlSOUTH DIVIDE AS AN EMBEDDED PHENOME- NON OF CONTEMPORARY TIMES

The distinctive reference point of our times is the global North/South divide. This is not simply a whim of imagination, but part of even official discourse. Sometimes the North/South divide is sometimes referred to as “the poor countries and the rich countries”, or by yet

40. Nahudere, i h i i W., GiobnlzLrtiow, the Afiicaii Post-coloiiial state. Post-trnditionnlism und t h New World Order. 4 1. Sec Tuck, Jim, Ihrtoloine De Las Casas: Fadier Of Liberation T‘licology (1474 - 1566); aiid Keeii, Briijainiii, l’he Legacy of Barcolorné de Las Casas

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another euphemism, “the industrialised countries and the developing CoLiiitries.” Ail these refer to the saine phenomenon.

For example, the UNDP in its Human Development Report, 1996 makes the following observation:

T h e wor.Ld has become mow polarized, and the gulf between the poor and the rich of the world bas widened even firrther.

Of the $23 trillion global GDP in 1993, $18 trillion is in the industrial countries - only $5 trillion in the developing countries, even though they have nearly 80Y0 of the world’s people. The poorest 20Yo of the world’s people saw their share of global income decline from 2.3% to 1.40/0 in the pas[ 30 years. Meanwhile, the share of the richest 20% rose from 70% to 85%. That doubled the ratio of the shares of the richest and the poorest - from 30:l to 61:l. The gap in per capita income between the industrial and developing worlds tripled, from $5,700 in 1960 to $15,400 in 1993. Africa, says the Report, is the hardest hit. Twenty countries in Africa have a per capita income lower today than 20 years ago.42

The universality of human rights is endorsed and celebrated even as the material and social conditions of their observance and implement-a- tion worsen. The world coday is indeed more unequal than before. The North/South chasm has widened, not narrowed, over the last 50 years. The insider/outsider phenomenon of contemporary North/Soutli divide has all the three elements discussed earlier, namely:

the caste/racial divide

the economic divide, and

the civilizational divide

Of course, most people will deny the first and the last aspects of the present North/South divide, and focus only on the economic dimension, even as they would probably also deny the North/South divide itself. But, as earlier stated, the world is a complex web of histoiy, culture and ideo-

42. UNDP, Huirixi Develupirieiii Report, 1096, New York: Oxford Ilnivcrsiry Precs, I996

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logy, but despite its coniplexity it is textured dominantly with “the spirit of the times” wliicli can last for two, three or four hundred years.

The person most easily identified as projecting the North/South divide as (more or less) determining all other relationships is, of course, tlie late Edward Said. A giant of a thinker and a prolific writer, Said cut through the miasma of art, literature, philology, history and philosophy of earlier centuries to expose a single thread that ran through the entire period of colonial relations. H e coined the term Orientalism as a systematic (though often unconsciously organised) body of Western thoughts, perspectives, and ideological biases towards the orient imaged as inferior and alien - the “Other”. The Orient is seen as “separate, eccentric, bacltward, silently different, sensual, and passive”. Said argued that the single most powerful accomplishment of the Orientalist scholars was to provide an ideological rationalisation for the conquest and subju- gation of the south - a vast geographic area, but one which could be imaged as a prototypical single unit - a biological inferior that is culturally baclward, peculiar, and unchanging. Out of a vast literature emanating from the West Said knits a powerful and sophisticated discourse showing how the imagery of the Orient is laced with notions of power and superiority, [he feminine and weak Orient, a defenceless and unintelligent whole awaiting the dominance of the West.43

These stereotypical notions of the Orient are deliberately cultivated and projected to provide the foundations for ideologies and policies of tlie West towards the South. Writes Said:

The hold these instrirments have on the mind is increased by the institzi- tions built aroz~nd them. For eveiy Orientalist, p i t e Literdy, there is a szp- port system of staygering power, considering the ephemeralip of the myths that Orientalism propagates. The system now culminates into t h very institutions of the state: To write nbozit the Arab Oriental world thergore, is to write with the authority of a nation, and not with the nfirmation of a strident ideology but with the unpestioning certainty of absolute truth backed by absoluteforce.44

He continues:

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One would jnd this kind of procedilrre less objectionable its political propagnnda - which is what it is, of course - zuere it nut nccompnnied b y semons on the objectiviiy, the fiiiness, the impartialiiy of a veal historian, the implication nlwnys being thnt Mdims andArabs cannot be ubjective.. . This is the ctilminntion of Orientnlism as a dogma thnt not only degrades its subject mntter but nlso blinds itspractitioners.45

This is powerful stuff. Whether one agrees with Said or not, it is impossible to deny that it has a certain amount of contemporary resonance about it. To lace the imagination of the Western readers, the “South” is imaged in the mainstream Western media as “corrupt, authoritarian, and an undisciplined lot” whose only rational fate is to be conquered and disciplined along lines compatible with Western notions of democracy, the rule of law, and standard of behaviour and cultural- ethical norms. Read, for example, what the London Financial Times’ Martin Wolf (a mainstream and respected economist, one not known for hyperboles) writes. Under the caption “Fniled States are a dnnger we cannut afford tu ignore”, Wolf quotes the Washington-based Centre for Global Development which puts the matter succinctly:

The fundnmentalfireign poliq challenges of our time - terrurism, transnational crime, global poverty and humnnitaiian crises - are d@se and complex, with widely varying calms. Yet n common thrend runs thvozgh all of them. They originate in, and spread to nnd dirproportionately affect developing countries where governments lack the capnciiy, nrzd sometimes the will, to respond.”]

Failed states, Wolf continues (now expressing his own views), display three “capability gaps” - failures to ensure security, to meet the basic needs of citizens, and to maintain political legitimacy. Wolf goes on to commend the Bush administration’s “imaginative” Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) that provides additional assistance to the best, not the worst, performers. The idea is to reward not the weak and the needy, but those that conform to the will of the United States. “The World Bank’s strategy of giving most help to countries with good policies and institutions has much the same effect”. The challenge, Wolf writes, is called “nation-bziilding”. And he adds:

45. Ibid, p. 46. Finanrid 7 h c s Juiie ‘9, 2004

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What is being d e m a n d e d here is revolutionay: a reconsideration of the basis of the world? poLiticaL order. Acceptance of the sovereignty of governments rests on the asstimption that they possess a reasonable degree of benevo- lence and competence. The US has decided that it cnnnot, in the m o d e r n q e , tohate the swvival of malevolent governments.47

This is Orientalisin in our own time. All diversity in the South is wiped out with the stroke of a pen. Wolfs three “capability gaps” of “failed states” - failures to ensure security, to meet the basic needs of citizens, and to maintain political legitimacy - have the flexibility of application in virtually every country in the South, including those (like India or China) that might delude into thinking that, somehow, they are safe because they fdfil Western standards of “successful” states. If the security or strategic interests of the West are threatened, India or China, just as Iran today, could fit into the flexible definition of a “failed state” that is unable to “meet the basic needs of citizens”. Only yesterday the suave, sophisticated, foreign minister of the liquidated state of Iraq was ’ addressing the United Nations in New York‘s pristine environment, only to find himself in jail today because America decided that he was leader of a “failed” state. Urbanity and sophistication of culture are no insurance against imagined or perceived infidelity to the strategic interests of the Empire.

Is this being alarmist? Is this argument going too far? Possibly. But the import of the argument is not to raise shackles among the unwaiy in the South. This is not, as it were, a warning to the leaders of the South to watch what they say and do, in case they get labelled as leaders of a “terrorist” or “failed state. It is rather to argue that behind all the urbane niceties of international diplomacy and economic liberalism lies the heavy hand of the Empire that can decide, at the stroke of a pen, that any part of the Orient is fair game when the strategic and economic interests of the Empire are Linder threat.

It is in the context of historical and contemporary reality of our times that the dichotomy North/Soutli - despite its reductionist, Mani- chean, simplicity - has ideological validity, one that can easily yield to a policy decision by the West to interfere anytime in the affairs of the South. Listen to Martin Wolf again:

47. lbid

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7 ’he post-co lo nia I nssunzption tbnt nn ti o m I sovereignty WOU U p ro ve compatible with international stiibility and widely shared prosperity hns proved wrong. Where national sovereign9 is it Libel for anarchy or preda- tion, it does not deserve to be sncrosanct.q8

REAFFIRMATION OF THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMA- NITYAND OF HUMAN RIGHTS

No amount of advocacy on behalf of human rights can obliterate the reality that there are insiders and outsiders in the realm of humanity. No one can brush aside the hard fact that human beings perceive themselves - and others - as falling into different categories, some deserving of more rights than others.

This, and here w e want to make an important point, the above is not an argument against the universality of human rights -although this universality too is not an uncontested terrain. Whatever the argument for or against the universality of huinan rights, there is no denying that without certain principles that enshrine and establish universal character of human rights there would simply be no argument about it in global discourse. From Las Casas, the 161’1 century priest who fought (and lost) the battle to protect the human rights of the Indians in the Americas to those who fought against apartheid in our own times, the universality of human rights is the essential underlying principle of humanity itself.

All the same, the universality of human rights must be reaffirmed even as the world today is indeed more unequal than before, more deeply divided between and within nations. The display of adherence to human rights, especially its ostentatious display by the powerful (both at the national and global levels) becomes more vacuous, phoney and hypocritical. But for those who have no power, those who are “the outsiders”, the universality of human rights is one of the thin reeds they must clutch on to in order to save them from drowning completely.

48. ibid.

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DRA WING ATTENTION TO A WRONG IN ORDER TO RIGHT IT

The recognition of an extant phenomenon, however, is not the same thing as its acceptance. Edward Said’s analysis of Orientalism was not aimed at validating it. O n the contrary, his explicit purpose was to draw attention to this phenomenon in order to fight against it. In the saine vein, to draw attention to the North/South dimension of our times is not to endorse the division of our world into the north and tlie south. The purpose of drawing attention to it is so that the leaders of our time (from both the North and the South) are cautioned against making it the basis for diving humanity along lines of the “insiders” and the “outsiders” for whom different norms of human rights apply because they are hierarchically in two separate compartments.

It is in the context of this wider concern that those who draw attention to the cold war or colonial origins of contemporary malfeasance in the global community must be commended for their work. For example, much of what is going wrong in the former Soviet Union countries (in Russia under the rule of the newly emerged Ideptocrats, or in Cheche- nya) can be traced back to the years of the cold war and the manner in which Eastern and Central European countries finally surrendered to the power and ideology of the West.

In the same vein, many of the present “wrongs” in the South are tra- ceable to tlie colonial or the cold war period. Prominent among writers of this genre of analysis is Mahinood Manidani. One common thread that runs through his writings is the mapping out - in characteristic scholarship - the origins of some of contemporary problems (African or global) to past decades and past centuries. Thus, in his Citizen nnd Szrb- ject: Conteeinporniy Afiicn and the Legacy of Late CoLoniaLism, Mamdani traces the obstacles to democratization in post-independence Africa to the legacy of colonialism - “a bifurcated power that mediated racial domination through tribally organized local authorities, reproducing racial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in subjects.”*9 In his Good Mzislim, Bad Muslinz: America, The Cold War, And The Roots Of Terror,

49. Mamtlarii, Mahinood. Citizen nird Siibject: Coizteiizporniy Afiicn ntrd the L~ar/lcv of Lirte Culu- iri,r/iwi, See also his “Wlieri does a settler become a Nativc! Coloiiial mors of cirizcnsliip in Eqmtorial aiid Sotirh Africa.”

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he traces the rise of contemporary political Islam to the Amcricaii government’s indirect, post-Vietnam-era sponsorship of terrorist leaders in South Asia, Indochina and Africa as a way of dealing with the perceived threat of spreading Soviet influence in these regions. Hence, he argues, the West categorisation of Muslims as “good” (secular, westerni- sed) and “bad” (primitive, fanatical) is both distorted and dangeroLis.50 Though he does not use the term Orientalism, the analytical underpinning draws down from the same phenomenon as analysed by Edward Said.

Said‘s and Mamdani’s contributions to scholarship goes beyond the academic, for their writings have strong humanist as well as policy implications. The North/Soztth or coLonised/coLoniser dichotomies are put in black and white Manichean terms not because there areri? shades of grey, but because the worLds of thepowe@l and the powerless create hierarchies of the insiders who enjoy human rights and outsiders whose rights are recognised only to the extent that those who have the power will it. In graphically and clinically dissecting Orientalism, Said is fighting against its resurgence in contemporary times. In showing the cold war and colonial roots of the problems of contemporary Africa and the world, Mamdani is cautioning against repeating the errors of the past. The tragedy is that history does not teach lessons to those in power - power not only corrupts; it also blinds.

THE BOUNDARIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS DOMIN: ILLUS- TRATIVE CASE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Precisely because much of the discussion on human rights is conducted in the realm of principles, and how practice fits with or departs from principles, that it has become predominantly a discourse between lawyers and constitutionalists. To be sure, this is an important dimension.

But there are all manner of issues and problems outside these legalistic confines that cry out to be within the domain of the subject. Why, for instance, should the question of the possession of nuclear weapons be

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limited only to the dimension of the peace and security? Why should not the matter be brought within the purview of human rights? What gives the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel the right to possess nuclear weapons but not Korea or Iran? Is it because the British, the Americans and the Israelites are civilized people who would presumably use nuclear weapons with “wisdom and discretion”, but the North Koreans and the Iranians might use them for “terrorist” purposes?

Nuclear weapons are not a subject of this paper, but consider the above proposition seriously for a moment. If a poll were to be taken on this question in the West, the answer would likely to confirm the image of the people of the USA, UK and Israel as “civilised and those of Korea and Iran as inclined towards “terrorism”. H o w much would this be a result of the constant propaganda that is hammered into the heads of the people of the West, and how much on account of their own fears that feed their prejudices is difficult to say. But there is no gainsaying that a poll of this kind, especially in the post 9/11 context, would in all likelihood bear out the above prediction.

Once again it is an insider-outsider issue - the USA, the UK and Israel are “the insiders”, and the Iranians and the Koreans are “the outsiders”. The binary divide is not mythical; it is real. This is how most people in the West do think, and that thinking (whether manipulated by the state and media, or out of personal conviction) has practical and profoundly political consequences. This Maiiichean world-view is an echo of Edward Said’s Orientalism with a modern face.

One interesting qualification to this binary divide, however, is that some countries from the South can (temporarily) qualify to be an “associate member” of the “insiders”. For example, on the Iraq issue, Uganda is an (associate) member of the “coalition of the willing” and so within the “insider” circle. But this is only temporary, and the membership comes with qualifications and conditions. In any case, it is doubtful, in this instance, that Uganda would get the green light (from the West) to develop nuclear capacity of its own. Its participation on the side of the United States on the Iraq W a r does not bring Uganda within the “civilised” ambit of humanity. The US-UK Empire can’t be sure that with a change in regime, Uganda would not become a “failed state”, and exhibit terroristic inclinations.

The nuclear issue is only a passing, illustrative, example as far as this paper goes. The matter of central concern in this paper is the issue of

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international trade. Part One of this paper was a necessary contextual and theoretical exercise because the debate on international trade is almost always couched in so much technical and econoinistic jargon that the larger dimension is lost, a context without which it is impossible to understand the technicalities and practices in the realin of international trade.

THE INTERNATIONAL TRADING SYSTEM A NORMATIVE DISCOURSE

Trade is not an end in itself. At the normative level trade is usually presented as a means to some higher values or goals. In modern discourse these values or goals are captured in one word - development.

TRADE AS MEANS TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Of course, development as a goal defies definition. In our own times, development is conjugated with the adjective “sustainable”, expressing generally the interest and concerns of those who seek to challenge mindless growth that destroys the environment and human habitat thus depriving future generations of their fair sliare of “global com- mons”. This opens up a whole range of issues that have engaged theore- ticians and environmental activists for now more than a decade (since and before the Rio Conference in 1992).

Another much quoted definition is that given by the Nobel Laureate, A.K.Sen. He defines it as follows:

Development can be seen . . . as a process of expanding tJ2e realfieedoms people enjoy. Focusing on hzrman fieedoms contrasts with the narsower views of development, such as identzfiing development with the growth of gross national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industriali- zation, or with technological advance or with social modernization.5‘

Sen goes on to elaborate:

Freedoms nre not only the primaty ends of development; they are also among its principal nzeans. In addition to nckno wledging, fizmdatiomlb, the evaluative importance of fieedom, w e also J J ~ V C to understand t h

remarkable empirical connection that links seedooms of dtferent kinds with one another. Politicalfieedoms (in the form offiee speech and elections), help promote economic security. Social opportunities (in the form of education nnd healtb facilities) facilitate economic participation. Economic fadities (in the form of opportiinities for pnrtic~ation in trade and production) can be& to generate personal abundance as well as public resozirces for social ficilities. Freedoms of dzferent kinds can strengthen one another. ” 52

Definitions are useful, but they have their limitations and traps. Sen’s definition begs the question: what is freedom? Sen’s own understanding of it falls within the dominant Western liberal-humanitarian paradigm that goes back, genealogically speaking, to the English philosophers such as John Locke, J.S. Mill and Jeremy Bentham, and political economists like Adam Smith and Thomas Ricardo. Of course much has happened since the days of Locke and Ricardo, and, having seen the inequalities and poverty of our times, Sen does not place as much emphasis on market forces as his English precursors did. And so he writes:

It is characteristic offieedom tbat it has diverse aspects that relate to a varie9 of activities and institutions. It cannot yield n view of development that tiznslates readily into some sinzple ;forinzrla’ of accztrnulation of capital, or opening up of markets, of having eficient economic planning (though ench of these pai.ticularfeaturesfits into the brander picture). The organising principle that places all the dtfferent bits andpieces into an integrated whole is the overarching concern with the process of enhancing individual fieedams and social commitment to help bring that about. ’53

THE PROBLEM WITH THE NORMATIVE APPROACH ABSTRACTED FROM REALITY

The problem with this approach - the essentialist approach (i.e. defining the essence of a phenomenon) - is that it is abstract, and it is alienated from both history and the extant economic and power reality on the ground. Of course, one would have no problem agreeing with Sen that development cannot be translated into a simple formula of “accumulation of capital, or opening up of markets, of having efficient economic planning’. But the fact of the matter is that those are exactly

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the liiiids of things (accumulation of capital, etc.) that are taking place in reality on the ground. Adding “individual freedoms and social comniit- ment” does not take us far. It is a kind of addition - to take a serious, not frivolous, view of the matter - that President Bush makes in the case of Iraq and Iran and North Korea. . Definitions are one thing, power politics and the demands of the accumulation of capital another. One cannot wish the lattcr realitics away simply because they do not fit into ideational definitions. O n the contrary, definitions enable linguistic tricks that make it appear as if actions conform to them.

In some ways the debate with philosophers like A. K. Sen is like the debate with human rights activists. Human rights are a fine thing in principle, but the differentiation of humanity into lower and higher species, some enjoying more rights than others, is another matter. Discus- sion on the normative plane of principles is important, but when the practice is at variance with the principles it is necessary to look at reality in the face, and to ask the question: why is it that humanity is configu- red into hierarchies of people where some enjoy more human rights than others? From the normative or ethical plane we need to shift our comprehension to the level of society and political economy. W h y do things happen the way they do?

What is and what should be is an old debate. As with human rights theorists, so with development theorists. It is fine to define development as you wish, but when “development” over the last fifty years has produced increasing polarity between the rich and the poor, between the North and the South, and has increased the numbers of the poor from millions to billions (as the world’s population has expanded), then it is necessary to look at the reality a little more closely rather than get distracted by ideational definitions of development.

PARALLEL TRqJECTORIES OF THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITARIAN LA WAND TRADE LAW

Humanitarian law aiid trade law have been moving in almost parallel terrains, indeed, to be even more correct, in almost opposite trajectories. The gap between them is widening, not narrowing. And this is so because the humanitarian law has developed largely in response to the challenges of power, and the need to control the exercise of authoritarian or arbitrary power at the national level, whereas trade law has developed largely in res-

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ponse to the demands of accumulation of capital at the global scale. Thus, the humanitarian law has gradually evolved into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a score of other legal instruments enshrining the basic principles of huinanity. Trade law, by contrast, has gradually evolved into an iniquitous and highly discriminatory trade regime that is now being forced upon the countries of the South by the World Trade Organisation (WO).

Earlier it was argued that arguments made on behalf of human rights are either ignored or twisted to serve “the spirit of the times.” Thus, in the time of Don Bartolome Las Casas, pleas made on behalf of human rights were ignored, and the spirit of the times upheld that Indians were pagan sub-humans who had no right to rights. In our own time, human rights are used (abused) by the global imperium to impose its will, for example, on the people of Iraq to service its own ends of accumulation of power and control over global resources. Nonetheless, we also observed that despite obvious discrepancy between the principles of human rights and the practice on the ground, it is necessary to endorse, to affirm, the universality of human rights. It is the only measure we have for questioning derogation of state and imperial behaviour from principles of humanity. And it is the only reed the poor and the vulnerable have from being otherwise totally drowned. W e chus saw, as one piece of evidence of this, that while the imperial power robbed the Iraqi prisoners of their humanity, a vigilant caring world not only restored their humanity but also rebuked the Empire.

In the domain of international trade, on the other hand, power rules almost unhindered, almost unchallenged, embellished by the ideology of the so-called freedom of the “market forces”. Thus (as w e shall see later) when there is a challenge to trade practices, it comes not from within the trade law but froin the domain of human rights and humanitarian law. In other words, the humanitarian and trade laws are two different species of “laws”. The humanitarian law, despite weaknesses, draws inspiration from certain human principles; trade law on the other hand is inherently iniquitous and draws from mercantilist practice, as the following examples will illustrate.

THE QUESTION OF FAIRNESS IN IN TERNA TIONAL TRADE DISCO URSE

The concept of fairness has strong normative resonance. These days, a number of civil society organisations use the concept to draw attention to the manner in which free market forces have produced unacceptable, unfair, consequences for the people of the South. For example a 2002

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study by the British charity, Oxfam54 (with a foreword by A.K. Sen, honoraiy President of Oxfam) concretely showed how double standards employed by the West in its trading relations with the South has increased poverty in the South. Following thar: report Oxfam started its so-called “Fair Trade Campaign.”

But this use of the concept of fairness by NGOs is a relatively recent development, and it has nothing to do with trade law as it lias evolved and enforced. Historically, “fairness” in trade law owes itself almost entirely to the practice of the United States, and it has to do principally with the concepts of “fair competition” and “levelling the playing field’. The theory that informs fairness in international trade is the free market theory, which argues that under conditions of free competition the most efficient producer prevails, and the national and world’s resources are most optiinally allocated. Unfair trade then is that which hinders the free flow of goods, services and capital. The logic of this argument, of course, is that trade (and movement of capital) must be fully liberalised in the interest of “fairness.”

In its trade practice, the US distinguishes between offensive and defensive kinds of unfairness claims. Defensive unfairness claims arise when foreigners have “unfair” trade barriers against US exports, and offensive unfairness claims arise when foreigners “dump” their products into the US market, which are then subject to anti-dumping and other countervailing measures.

Of course, like all such concepts, “fairness” under US law and practice is defined so broadly, and opportunistically, that it has no real meaning, or possibility of application, outside of US trade theory and practice. In [he early years after its indus trialisation, but especially after the Second World War, the US (like England in the 19~11 century) used fair trade concept to pry open foreign markets to US manufactures. In late 1960s and 70s, however, when Japan became globally competitive, and Japanese imports into US began to hurr: local industry, the US government charged Japan of practising ‘‘unfair” trade. The Tokyo Round of trade negotiations resulted in rewriting, under pressure from US industry, of the AD/CVD laws.

’

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The classic case of the abuse of fairness/unfairness concept in US trade practice relates to the steel industry. For nearly three decades following the Second World War, the US steel dominated the market, and the US refused to accept the argument that the size of its companies gave it an undue advantage over other competitors. Then, in tlie 1970s and 80s, when the Japanese companies grew in size, the US claimed that the Japanese Kei- retsu were too large, and thus size gave the Japanese companies an “unfair” advantage in steel trade. Later tlie argument on “unfair trade” became more sophisticated. First it was that the Japanese steel had advantage because of higher fixed costs; later it was argued that Japanese state “unfairly” intervened in the financial markets and provided cheap credits to its large corporations; and so on. As Robert Hudec says, fairness concept under US law is so broad that “being foreign itself seems unfair.”jj

In more recent times, the Bush administration slapped considerably tlie tariff on steel imports for three years on the grounds that they caused “injury” (a technical term) to local steel industry. The EU whereupon imposed its own tariffs, and Russia countered by imposing an import ban on chicken legs from the US. The EU further argued that the US had failed to show that imports were the primary cause of damage to its steel industry. The US steel manufacturing had simply become inefficient and uncompetitive in the global market. Backed by Brazil, Japan and Korea the EU sought remedy from the disputes settlement body of the WTO, but the judicial machinery of the W O grinds slowly, and a final ruling could take as long as two years. The WTO says that when a country takes a safeguard action (as the US did on steel), it must normally offset that measure by lowering tariffs on other products or allowing other countries to raise their tariffs. The EU asked for more than $2bn in compensation, saying that if the US refused, it would be entitled to retaliate within three months after the US applied the tariffs. The US claimed that only a WTO dispute panel could resolve these competing interpretations, and that the EU therefore had no right to retaliate immediately. And so on and so forth.56

The steel case (and there are hundreds of such cases) illustrates the absurdity of the application of the concept of “fairness” in international

55. Hutlec, Roberr E., “Mirror, Mirror on the wall: The concept of hirness iii US Foreign Tracte Policy”, in his h q s otz the Nirtiire of Intertintional Trade Law, Cnineroii, 2000. 56. Fiiiaiicial Times, London, March 14, 2002

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trade. Trade theory and practice have nothing to do with the concept of fairness as ordinary people understand the term. It has to do wit-h che defending one’s territory and market against competition from foreign countries, domestic job protection, and now, under the W O , legalistic argumentation, procrastination and retaliation - in short trade wars.

DUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING MEASURES IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW

Dumping is another concept in international trade law that raises hackles among those who believe in “fair” trade. Dumping, by definition, by its very sound, sounds “unfair”. It is such a nasty sounding word. And, indeed, at one time or another most nations have complai- ned against the injury to their local industry as a result of dumping of foreign goods in their markets. Jagdish Bhagwati says that trade law accommodates two ideas on “fair trade” - one is countervailing duties (CVDs) and the other is anti-dumping.57

And yet it is not as simple a matter as it appears on first sight. Tech- nically, dumping takes place when you export into my market goods at prices lower than your cost of production. But even this latter concept is contested. The very concept of “cost of production” in international trade is a minefield of definitions; there is interminable debate on what costs are included or excluded from the definition. For example, how does one build support given by the state in the form of infrastructural facilities - such as roads, telecommunicarions, electricity and other “externalities” - into the cost?

Furthermore, there are really no objective criteria or rules by which anti-dumping measures might be instituted in trade practice. These measures are used in all kinds of circumstances. As the above cited case on US practice on steel shows, if imports from outside hurts local indus- tLy, even if the local industry has ceased to be competitive by all rules of international competition, then a charge of dumping is levelled against the foreign exporter. Anti-dumping or countervailing measures are demanded by industry to protect against foreign competition. The odd thing in US practice is that “unfair advantage” due to dumping never has to be defined or demonstrated; legal remedy under anti-dumping is

57. Illiagwari, Jagclisli, 1 % ~ ifiiild liziditig Systciii at Risk, Princeron, 199 I

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granted once “injury” is proved by local industry. There is no objective way of measuring the cost of dumping.

In more recent times, furthermore, anti-dumping measures have simply become a means used by the industrialised countries against imports from the developing countries. For example, cheap labour gives the developing countries a cost advantage over the industrialised countries (just as technology gives the industrialised countries advantage over the developing countries). However, although there are no rules against “cheap labour” in trade law, this becomes ail argument in the hands of the rich countries (used, more often by the trade unionists in the North than by their bosses) charging the developing countries of “unfair” advantage. Their exports thus become cases of “social dumping.”

It is for this reason that the ICFTU, acting largely on behalf of the trade unions in the rich countries, would want “labour standards’’ to be put on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation. One attractive (or rather seductive) feature of the WTO is that its sanctions machineiy can be invoked in cases of injury. And so if the issue of “cheap labour” can be put on the agenda of the W O , the workers in the North can take their brothers and sisters in the South (through their respective governments) to the WTO panel of dispute settlement on grounds of “social dumping”, and thus protect their jobs against competition from their proletarian fraternity of the South.

SUBSIDIES AS A CASE OF UNFAIR TRADE ADVANTAGE

Then there is the whole vexed question of subsidies in international trade - yet another minefield of definitions and unfair trade practices. Although subsidy in trade discourse has acquired a pejorative connota- tion, actually there is nothing wrong in governments using subsidies as a social policy (for example, to enable the poor access health facilities), or to buy time for local industry to acquire strength to withstand competition from imports (the infant industry argument).

Subsidy, however, has acquired such a bad name mainly because it has been used (abused) as a weapon by the rich countries to protect their industries and jobs against competition from the “cheap” products of the South. Of course, the best lrnown example is that of the massive subsidies (running into billions of dollars every year) that rich countries (especially the EU, the USA and Japan) give to their agriculture. It is an issue that

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has marred trade negotiations under the WTO (agriculture was not part of the GATT regime previously) ever since the WTO was created.

Under GATT, however, pressure to define subsidy started when the US decided in the 1970s to apply CVDs - Countervailing Duties. The question was: how do you treat infrastructure support (roads, rails, energy, etc.) provided by the governments to their industry? D o they constitute a subsidy to industry? The balance of opinion of trade theorists was that infrastructure should be excluded from the definition of subsidy. The first definition of subsidy in international trade law came with the Uruguay Round Agreements - the Subsidies code. The full text is full of technicalities, but, essentially, the code limits the concept of subsidy to “financial contribution by a Government.”

But, as usually happens in such cases, definitions open up a Pandora’s box of worms. For what constitutes “financial contribution”? Definitions get elastic as lawyers try to squeeze as much benefit out of them as their trade negotiators demand in situations where vested (so-called special) interest groups lobby their governments for action and protection.

Once again, as is usually the case in international trade practice, it is the poor countries of the South that are the most hurt. First, they usually do not have the financial (budgetary) strength to provide what are called allowable subsidies. Thus, for example, under the Agreement on Agri- culture in the W O , countries are allowed subsidies under the so-called “blue and green boxes’’ to agriculture (there is no need to go into technicalities here). However, these are subsidies that only the rich countries have the capacity to provide. The countries of the South (especially, the Least Developed Countries) face serious impediments to provide subsidies to their agriculture, including not only budgetary constraints but also prohibitions against subsidies imposed on them under the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programmes. Secondly, when issues of subsidies become matters of dispute under the W O , there is hardly any country in the South (barring big ones like India and Brazil) that can afford the cost of litigation and lawyers’ fees - in spite of the creation (recently) of a mechanism within the WTO to help them with free or subsidised legal counselling.

The net effect of all this is that WO-legalised subsidies constitute a major case of unfair trade advantage that the North lias over the South, except that it is not understood to be “unfair” because it is allowed under the W O trade regime. The interesting thing is that in return for the

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removal or reduction of these subsidies, the rich countries have been able to extract fiirther concessions from the poor countries. Under trade negotiations nothing is given for nothing - everything has a cost. The agricultural sector (as observed earlier) was excluded under the GATT, and was under the WTO regime principally under pressure fi-om the so- called Cairns group of agriculture exporting countries (led by Australia). In return for this “concession”, not only the Cairns countries but the entire South had to pay the price of including the TRIPS (Trade-Rela- ted Intellectual Property rights) as part of the WTO regime. TRIPS was brought in by the US under pressure from its own transnational corporations - especially those in the pharmaceutical industry. The South had hoped that in return for accepting (under pressure) TRIPS within the WTO, they would get concessions in the textile and agricultiire sectors, but they have waited for now ten years in vain.

Every time the South asks for the removal of unfair trade advantages , that the rich countries of the North enjoy under the URAs (ail agreement that was negotiated almost entirely by the North), the South has to make fiirther concessions. Thus, for example, during the Doha Round of negotiations of the WTO in 2001, the EU agreed to begin to consider reducing subsidies to its agriculture over a non-specified period; in return it was able to secure a concession from the poor countries to include the so-called Singapore four issues of Competition Policy, Investment Policy, Government Procurement and Trade Facilitation (once again there is no need to get into the technicalities) on the agenda of the W O . This is the issue that (with agriculture) became the stum- bling block to the successful conclusion of the fifth WTO conference in Cancun in September 2003.

THE DEBATE O VER STANDARDS

The standards debate has many dimensions. If one is not careful to know the differences between these, one could easily fall into a trap.

Standards, like fairness (but unlike dumping and subsidies), have a positive resonance. People instinctively favour high to low standards, excellence to mediocrity. There are standards in health, in education, in the environment movement, in the labour movement, in social practice, in governance, and so on. But once again, like the concept of fairness, standards denote one thing in ordinary parlance and quite another in trade theory and practice.

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The issue of labour standards has been partially discussed above. It has been one of the major planks of the ICFTU to introduce labour standards in the W O . Its arguments are well-known. Basic human rights, the ICFTU argues, includes the “core labour standards” and these must be respected by all international organisations including the W O . Tristailces of violations of core labour standards, including forced labour and slavery continue to survive, discrimination at work places is rampant, and child labour is on the increase. The WTO already has responsibility to enforce intellectual property rights. Why should it be denied responsibility for the protection of physical labour if it is already involved in protecting intellectual labour? The adherence to the core labour standards would not eliminate trade advantage; on the contrary, the growth of trade and consumer markets would stimulate domestic and foreign investment, and thus employment. Improvement in observance of workers’ rights acts as incentive to raise productivity through investment. And finally, the ILO, which is responsible for labour standards, is an inadequace organisation; it sets standards, but it has no mechanism for enforcement, or if such exist, it does not work efficiently. The WTO has teeth, and it can enforce labour standards through its dispute settlement system.

O n the face of it the argument loolis persuasive, especially when it is couched in the language of human rights. But there are many traps in the argument that one should be aware about. Leave aside the argument about TRIPS - how it (unfairly) got into the WTO as a result of pressure from the US multinationals, and its effect now of rnonopolisiiig technology in the hands of the TNCs, and acting as a barrier against the transfer of technology to the South. Leave aside also the argumenc that the observance of labour standards would bring foreign investment to the South - there is no such evidence; on the contrary the evidence shows the opposite, namely, that foreign investment comes to take advantage of cheap labour in the South.

The principal argument against bringing labour standards into the W O is that rhe linking of practically any issue with trade within the WTO framework (whether it is labour, or the environment, or social standards, or issues of governance) necessarily subordinates these issues to the demands of trade. Why? Because that is the nature of the beast - the WTO. Once issues of this kind are subjected to the priorities of trade, then those that have economic and financial muscle and market power (the big players in the WTO) use their power to turn all these “standards packages” to their advantage and at the cost of the countries of the Soli th. The logic of the market is sudi that putting labour standards into W1‘0

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would necessarily make these a means of protectionism that industrialised countries would use against the developing countries. This has been the experience with linking environment with trade, for example.

Linking labour standards to trade would also make labour conditions subservient to considerations of trade and not serve the interest of labour (certainly not labour in the South), as the ICFTU imagines or argues. Furthermore, there is also a misunderstanding about the nature of the disputes settlement mechanism of the WTO. Experience shows that it is mostly used by the developed counrries, partly because they have many more cases to bring to the W O panels. Also, the rich countries can afford the exorbitant fees of the lawyers to keep them for years fighting legal battles, when the poor countries of the South cannot do so:

Therefore, what appears from a human rights perspective to be a fair demand that trade must be subjected to the core labour standards turns out, in the W O or broadly in the internatioiial trade context, to be a misplaced judgement, based on a misunderstanding of what trade and the WTO are all about.

It is important to introduce a note here to the effect that this is not a purely North/South issue. Within the South, COO, there are countries [hat would want to bring labour standards within the purview of the WTO for their own reasons. For example, South Africa, though a relatively small economy compared to the countries of the West, is a giant in southern Africa. It has high-labour cost industry and agriculture, and faces the same kind of “cheap labour” disadvantage in relation to countries in its north (such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique) that, in the global context, the North faces in relations generally to the South. One way to keep out “cheap labour” products of its neighbours out- competing its own products in its domestic market is to insist that the countries in its north observe certain labour standards that, South Africa hopes, would raise the cost of labour in those countries. This way it can not only protect its domestic market form outside competition, but also protect its employment.

The irony of the concrete case of South Africa, one might add however, is that it is not countries in the SADC region that creates problems for it, but rather its premature trade liberalisation at the global level that is creating a threat to its industries and employment (for example, from beef and cereals and sugar-based imports from Europe). Within the regional framework, South Africa then uses regional trade

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agreements (including SACU and SADC) to export its goods arid services into the neighbouring countries in order to coinpensate for some of the losses it suffers from premature liberalisation at the global level.

One more rider needs to be added before this section is closed. It is to say that the above is not an argument against standards - environmental, labour, social, governance, corruption, or whatever. Standards are important. For example, within the environmental sphere the inove- ment of civil society and NGOs concerned with the protection of the environment have effectively used environmental standards and human rights issues to fight against logging, mining, oil exploration, construction of big dams, and so on. These are important battles. All that is argued here is that if standards arguments are introduced within the trade context, especially in the WTO framework, they will, for sure, be used by the North against the South in ways in which the South will have neither the laws nor the disputes settlement mechanism of the WTO to protect their interests.

Standards is first weapon of the strong against the weak in the battle to capture markets, and it is the last refuge again also of the strong against the weak for protection of their market from “cheap” labour and low-environment products of the South. Within the trade context the standards argument is a trap one must be wary about.

THE COTTON ISSUE AND THE ISSUE OF EQUITY

At the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the W O in Cancun in September 2003, four West African cotton producing countries of Benin, Burltina Faso, Mali and Chad sought to get the W O to consider the case of their cotton industry on which depend, directly or indirectly, the livelihood of the bulk of their populations. They argued that the subsidies given by cotton producer countries of the North, especially the US, cut world cotton prices by at least 25 per cent causing serious problems for their small and vulnerable economies. The US gives its farmers huge domestic support for agriculture. It was raised to a record $180 billion over a 10-year period under the 2002 Farm Bill, including $3 billion for cotton farmers.

Although the four countries took the initiative to bring the case of cotton, it ih an issue that affects many other countries in Africa aiid the

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third world. For example, at its peak, the cotton industry w a s Tanzania’s largest employer, with 14 textile and spinning mills, employing nearly 35,000 people. As a direct result of the impact of trade liberalisation, most of the factories have closed down, and today its contribution to the national economy is insignificant.

A study conducted by the International Cotton Advisory Commit- tee (ICAC) in 2002 has shown that one of the major crops adversely affected by agricultural subsidies US aiid Europe was cotton in Africa, where farmers lost about $250 million annually. The study, titled “Production and trade Policies Affecting the Cotton Industry”, says that the losses incurred by Africa’s cotton sector were directly related to the subsidies by the West.

The Cancun conference failed to take off the grouiid for other reasons, but not before the four West African states had made their point. It was widely recognised that in the interest of equity and fairness, the rich countries, especially the US (for whom cotton is a tiny issue compared to its GDP), should eliminate subsidies that were depriving the livelihood of millions of poor peasants in African countries. The matter, however, was unresolved. The US rejected the West African initiative, twisting the debate around the issue of “sectoral support” to the textile industry to Africa under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).

The cotton initiative of the four West African countries has the support of the African Union, the LDC group and the ACP group. These countries met in Mauritius in JUIY 2004 (as G30 countries - an alliance of these small countries was forged at the Cancun conference), and one of the paragraphs in the draft resolution called for strong support for the cotton case. The meeting, however, was attended by Robert Zoellick, the United States Trade Representative. O n the last day, when the resolution finally came for adoption, the chairman of the Africa group, the Minister from Rwanda, backed by the Ambassador of Uganda (two close allies of the US in the Iraq war) argued that the cotton paragraph be removed because “it woii’t fly”. A compromise draft was eventually worked ont, and brought to Geneva as a basis for further negotiations.

In Geneva, at the start of the General Council meeting of the W O in Ju~Y, the Africa Group put forward its proposal that included the following: that all forms of cotton export subsidies are eliminated by date of implementation of the Doha results; more than average reductions in domestic support on cotton, and complete elimination of all

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forms of trade distorting support on cotton by a specific year; a cotton agreement shall be implemented on an early harvest basis starting in 2005, and a date for total elimination of cotton subsidies shall be determined by the next Ministerial irrespective of progress in the rest of agriculture negotiations; technical and financial assistance to meet the needs of cotton developing-country producers; and a working group on cotton to be established.

During the week, Bob Zoellick held a marathon all-night 12-hour meeting with some of the West African countries on the cotton issue. By the end of the negotiations, the cotton issue was more or less dismissed in the so-called July package of the W O . The four West Africa countries had been “persuaded” to give up their original demand that cotton be treated as a stand-alone issue. They “agreed” that it could be considered within the agriculture negotiations, but be treated as of “special status”. It is clear that despite claims made by the W O officials, the US has clearly won out. In a compromise text clouded by technicalities, it was agreed that while product specific AMs support (Aggregate Measure of Support plus permitted de minimis plus the Blue box payments) is to be capped in aggregate and reduced in overall terms, there is no requirement for specific product cuts, including for cotton.

CONCLUSIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NORMATIVE THEORY, PUBLIC POLICY AND CITIZEN ACTION

THE ARGUMENT SUMMRISED

Before w e draw conclusions, it would be useful to summarise the ’ discussion so far. The paper started out as a broad narrative on human rights arguing that a distinction must be made between humanity and human rights. Though of course connected, Humanity and Human Rights are two distinct issues. The human rights discourse is based on its claim to universality. But that universality is not automatically conferred on the people who are supposed to enjoy those rights. A switch of discussion from human rights to why there is a hierarchy of human beings shifts the debate away from principles and standards to the realm of material and social reality. ’This does not diminish the significance of the universality of human rights - human rights allow derogation from them to be questioned; and they are provide a thin reed, however weak,

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for the poor and the vulnerable to clutch on to. But the struggle for humanity - for recognition as human beings - at the level of politics and power is a much more and difficult battle than the battle to establish the universality of human rights.

The essay offers three explanations to this insider-outsider phenomenon in human history - casteism and racism; economic explanation; and civilizational encounters. It argues that the present divide between the North and the South has historical antecedent going back to the 16~11 century. The North-South divide, though it appears Manichean, is real. Ail three explanations of the insider-outsider phenomenon are reflected in this North-South division. It is also reflected in many aspects. of contemporary international relations, including trade, which then is the subject of the second part of the essay.

Against the background of the above broad narrative, the objective of the second part was to draw upon contemporary trade theory and practice in order to show how the North/South dimension, once again, forms a fundamental aspect of international relations. This is not to say that there are no contradictions within che North or the South. These are not monolithic geographic configurarions. But the civilizational (arising out of past colonial encounter), the racial/casteist, and the economic considerations continue to fissure the world. In this kind of world, then, “fairness” as a concept organising world trade is often not fully understood. Critical to this discussion is the distinction between humanitarian laws and trade laws - the first is a response to challenge to authoritarian or arbitrary rules of governance, while the second is essentially a codification of mercantile law in which the powerful extract what they can and the weak yield what they must.

The example of the manner in which the US has handled the cotton issue is a case in point. The livelihoods of millions of African peasants is treated in a cavalier fashion by the US that is bent on continuing with the subsidies for its cotton farmers. In financial terms alone (leaving aside other indirect costs), Africans lose something like $250 million a year because of the depressant price effect of US subsidies on cotton. All talk of human rights by the North is hypocritical. The Africans (just like the Iraqis) are humans of a lesser level than the Americans or the Euro- peans. This is the last example in the second part of the essay, preceded by a normative discourse on issues related to the concept of fairness,

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dumping and coiintervailing measures, subsidies, and the question of standards.

What, then, are the implications of the above analysis for normative theory, public policy, and citizen action?

REGULATING NORMS IN THE DOMAIN OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

The goal of normative intervention is to provide a value system that can subject international trade to certain agreed humanitarian principles. Clearly, trade law itself cannot provide this normative framework. O n the contrary, trade law is destructive of the human principle. It is anti-humanitarian. If the world has become polarised between the rich and the poor, and if this polarisation is continuing apace, then it must be clearly recognised that this is not an accidental outcome of some mys- terious forces. N o amount of diversion from a clear grasp of reality (such as the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, or Presi- dent Bush’s Millennium Development Account, or Prime Minister Blair’s Africa Commission) can set aside the hard reality on the ground. These inspired (and probably well-meantj diversions cannot brush aside the fact that the present mercantile global system is inherently iniquitous and polarising. Amartya Sen (quoted above) puts into a broader context the tendency towards the accumulation of capital, or opening up of inar- kets, or having efficient economic planning. The reality on the ground, however, is that capital accumulation and market access are the two most powerful forces that are at the root of creating a bifurcated world of the rich and the poor.

Therefore, one has to look outside of trade theory to define a normative framework that can subject the polarisiiig and unequalising tendency of global trade. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with all its weaknesses aiid limitations, provides one of the best normative frameworks that could be used to challenge the inherently iniquitous tendencies of free market liberalising world trade. The other is a concept of fairness that resonates with a common person’s understanding of it, as opposed to the trade theorists and practitioners understanding of it. Let us look at this first.

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JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS: MODIFYING RA WLS

The English philosopher, John Rawls, has given us certain concepts that could be a useful starting point. Coming as he does from the Wes- tern liberal tradition, Rawls’ views do carry certain biases and prejudices that stem from this tradition. For example, Rawls gives priority to liberty over equality, and does not adequately address the question of inequalities in wealth and power leading to inequalities in the exercise of liberties. But notwithstanding these limitations, his concepts of the “original position” and the “differential principle” do provide an exciting and fertile ground for further thought on the normative plane.

In Rawls’ imagined “original position”, individuals are subject to a “veil of ignorance” so that in devising principles of justice they have practically no knowledge of the self - their sex, status, class, colour, religion, strength, intelligence or their conception of the go0d.5~ By this process, Rawls arrives at two principles of justice and two priority rules for institutions, leading to the following very important normative principle. All social primary goods, he argues - liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect - are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favoured.”js Though the above principles appear to savour of egalitarianism, Rawls denies this motivated his theory. What he is opposed to is institutionalised inequalities, unless these are “to the advantage of the least favoured”.

Of course, Rawls himself cannot escape from his condition. In his T/!e Law of Peoples he argues that the difference principle does not apply between nations or in what he calls “hierarchical” societies.60 Here is where Rawls is prisoner of his own cultural limitations. However, consistent with his liberalism, he would not brook intervention on the part of liberal states into the affairs of “hierarchical” societies however much these offend liberal sensitivities.

58. Ihwls, Joliii. 1372. A ïbmly nfjrrstice. Oxford: Oxford Uiiiversiry Press. I would coiirciid that [lie device of “original posirion” ro work out principles c i f justice in rhe absrracr is preferable ro orlier alreriiarive ways of doiiig this such as g a m e theories niid rhe prisoners’ dileiiima matrix. G a m e rlieories aiid PD inatrices are devoid of norrnativc conreiir, and can at besc predict “rario- iinl” hcliaviour, rariniialiry heiiig dcliiied iii purely selfish or funccioiid rcrins. 53. /bid, p. 302-303

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If Rawls’ ideas are modified in some ways, they can offer a good basis for the concept of “fairness” in international discourse. W e accept that part of liberal ethics which argues that basic human rights are inlie- rent in individuals. However, to push this to the level that denies that societies are more than the sum of individuals is methodological individualism that cannot stand either empirical or ethical test. N o individual is born outside society, nor can she exist, materially or spiritually, outside of the material or social production and reproduction of life. We would thus argue that like individuals, communities and nations too have inherent rights. implicit in Rawls’ theory of non-intervention in his Law of PeopLes is the notion of national self-determination, but he refrains from formulating it as an explicit principle. One consequence of this is that he is unable to extend, to stretch, the principles of justice obtained in an “original position” to the community of nations.

What Rawls is unable to do because of methodological limitations, w e now do. Following from him, let us imagine an “original position” comprising of nations. In this condition and under a “veil of ignorance” they seek to arrive at fundamental principles of justice. They are ignorant about their character, strength, location, religion, ethical norms, and all such attributes that would, in Rawls’ words, “tempt them to exploit social and natural circumstances to their own advantage.”

Placed thus, nations would then, I argue, agree to principles of justice as fairness along lines similar to those arrived at by individuals in Rawls’ “original position”. In other words, Rawls’ two principles and two priority rules will apply as between nations as they apply as between individuals. Each nation will have “an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all.” Also, to quote directly from Rawls, “Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent wirh the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.” Furthermore, “justice is lexically prior to the principle of efficiency and to that of maximizing the sum of advantages; and fair opportunity is prior to the difference principle.”

60. liawls, John. 1993. “‘flic Law of Peoples” froin Chr Hioiurir /<$$its, Sliute XC Hurlcy (cd~), Basic Books Inc.

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His “General conception” will also apply as between nations, namely, that “All social primary goods - liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect - are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favoured. Is this outlandish, is it “going too far” to extend principles of justice arrived at between individuals to nations? I suggest it is not. Already, even in the real world of today, there is a generally accepted principle that the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) should be treated to an “unequal distribution” of global social goods (tariff reductions, debt remissions, technical assistance, etc.) in their favour. Similarly, at the 1992 Rio Summit on “Environment and Development” the principle of “common and differentiated responsibility” was accepted as an allocative principle. The entire global community accepted a common responsibility towards the environment. Howe- ver, the developing countries were to have a lesser degree of responsibility, and were to be assisted with finance and technology to meet their obligations. Also, under GATT the principle of “Special and Differential Treatment” for the developing countries was an accepted principle until it was undermined by the Uruguay Agreements and the WTO.

UDHR AS A CODIFIED SET OF PRINCIPLES TO CHALLENGE TRADE LAW

Earlier it was suggested that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides a body of principles that could be applied to trade law and practice to show how the latter derogate from the principles of humanity, and what corrective measures might be taken to protect human rights.

One recent application of this idea was the 2002 study undertaken by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNH- CHR). The Report by Commissioner Mary Robinson, ‘Globaliza- tion aiid its impact on the full enjoyment of human rights’ (E/CN.4/2002/54) is a landmark study that sets a good precedent for similar studies in the future.61 The Report underscored the ‘COZCUI’ rezt responsibility ” of WTO member states to protect and promote human rights as well as implement trade rules and that norms and standards of human rights provide a legal framework to protect social dimensions of globalization.

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Referring to a recent FAO study 011 the effccts of agricultiiral tradc liberalization on fourteen developing countries the Report noced a.0. that che tendency to consolidation of farms, while contributing to increased productivity, has also led to displacement and marginalisation of farm labourers, created hardship for small farmers and food-insecure populations, in a situation where there are few safety nets. The FAO study, the High Commissio- ner noted, has also brought out the implications of trade liberalization affecting availability, accessibility or sustainability of food supplies, and the effects on local food products in smaller countries.

There are also likely to be long-term and unsustainable balance of payment problems that could negatively affect ability of states to promote the right to development. According to the FAO study, in 11 out of the 15 countries studied, the total value of food imports grew more rapidly than value of exports in 1995-1998, compared to 1990-1994. A more comprehensive W O study too has brought out the growing negative trade balances in agricultural products in 59 of the 107 non- OECD countries. O n the Agreement on Agriculture, the Report says:

In spite of the inclzision of several S&D meamresfor developing coain- tries> the AoA does not yet suficiently take into account, the highly vm y i n g fields of development of the agricziltzrral sectors between countries and of the people whose livelihood depends on agriculture.

The Report advocated the application of the human rights principle of non-discrimination to trade law, especially “affirmative action for the poor.” “Under human rights law,” the Report stressed, “the principle of‘ non-discrimination does not envisage according equal treatment to everyone in all cases.’’ Affirmative action is necessary in some cases to protect vulnerable people and groups. While S&D treatment under trade law is a positive step, “the High Commissioner encourages the introduction of measures that go beyond long transition times and ‘best endeavour’ com- mitnien ts and calls for targeted and enforceable treatment.” The Report welcomed the Doha Ministerial Declaration’s commitment to make S&D an integral part of the rules and disciplines of the AoA, so as to be

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operationally effective and enable developing countries the flexibility to take into account food security and rural development objectives.

O n the question of “National Treatment” the Report noted that international trade law envisages equal treatment for nationals and non- nationals, whether they are poor farmers or large agro-business or industrial firms. Comments the Report: “Treating unequals as equals is problematic for promotion and protection of human rights and could result in institutionalization of discrimination against the poor and marginaiised.”

The UNHCHR made specific recommendations on agriculture and food security under the W O , summarised below:

1. Develop a specific legal framework for social dimensions of agricultural trade liberalisation.

2. States should undertake Human Rights impact studies of agricultural trade liberalization, especially on food security.

3. The AoA makes no distinction between different types of agricultural activity. The vulnerable should be protected. The developing countries should be able to use tariffs and subsidies and the S&D provisions in AoA should protect subsistence farmers from trade-distorting effects of international trade.

4. More targeted food aid programmes, such as food-for-work programmes.

5. The AoA is unfair. There is therefore a need for a just, social aiid international order in the field of trade liberalization and for fair trade.

6. Acceding countries should enjoy fLdl S&D rights.

REGULA TING POWER IN THE DOMAIN OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Human Rights principles enshrined in the concept of justice as fairness (defined above) and the UDHR can provide a normative framework to regulate trade law and trade practice. The problem, however, is not the enactment of principles, or even an agreement on them among reasonable people, but their enforcement. And here the hubris of the imperial nations is the biggest problem. The English historian Arnold Toynbee talked about “the Mirage of Immortality” that “Universal

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States” savour in their dealings with smaller nations. H e also analysed the consequences of “Encouiiters between Civilizations” identifying four specific aspects of these, namely, “Dehumanization, Zealotism, Herodianism and Evangelism”.

These are prophetic remarks. While Noam Chomsky, the untiring critic of US imperial policy, has a profound understanding of the hubris of US power, Toynbee draws a more general picture of what happens to imperial nations in their encounters with other civilisations. The US arrogance of power (no matter who is in the Presidential seat or in the Congress), and the inability (or unwillingness) of lesser nations to chain this Goliath, is a serious indictment of contemporary civilization, not made any the less serious by Toynbee’s reflection that imperial arrogance happens to be the general score of history of all civilizations.

Once again, the United Nations, with all its limitations and shortcomings, is the only institution we presently have that can bring the nations of the world to try and chain the Goliath, to try and modi@ the unilateralist tendencies of the US within some kind of a multilateral framework, and to subject its actions to scrutiny under norms of justice and humanity. As earlier stated, the United Nations was scandalised by stories of dehumanising treatment meted out to Iraqi prisoners. While the US robbed the prisoners of their humanity, the wider community of nations and peoples around the world condemned the US and restored and reaffirmed their humanity.

In the long run, a global adversarial power has to emerge that can challenge the might of the USA, and restore some kind of a balance of power. Whether China would be that power, or a coalition of countries in the South (for example, China, India, Brazil) is anybody’s guess.

What w e do know from recent experience is that when the middle ranking third world countries get together and speak with one voice, they can make a difference. Thus, for example, at the Fifth W O Conference of the WTO a group of 20 middle-ranking countries of the South (led by Brazil, India, China and South Africa) were able, on that occasion at least, to stop the big powers (the US and the EU) in their effort to impose an agreement on agriculture without adequate consultations with the South. Some of these “victories”, however, turn out to he temporary, when in subsequent round of negotiations (as happened in July 2004 in Geneva), there is the usual horse-trading yielding an outcoine that, for all intents and purposes, endorses the position of

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the big powers. Usually sacrificed in such negotiations are the interests of the smaller and wealter nations of the international community, as happened, for example, on the issue of cotton in Geneva.

The only other option for the South is to gradually and systematically disengage itself from the dominant Western global system, and re-engage in it some time at a future date from a position of unity and relative strength. For the truth of the matter is that as long as the South remains a part of the present global system, embedded as it is in a structured and asymmetrical relationship with the North, it is impossible to change the relationship. The present Cotonou negotiations between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union is a good testimony of this observation. The Euro- pean Union not only drives the whole process, but is able to secure the agreement of the ACP countries to an almost predictable outcome that will tie the ACP as dependent satellites of the EU.

However, this is another debate, one that is increasingly drawing the attention of intellectuals and activists in the third world.

THE CHALLENGE TO CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZEN ACTION

W e face a complex situation. The civil society is an amorphous mass of people - trade unions, peasant movements, the so-called non-Govern- mental Organisations (NGOs), and intellectuals - that, in this day and age, are expected to perform miracles by addressing problems that range from protecting forests to getting their governments accountable to democratic principles of governance, and fighting the imperial system, all at the same time. The civil society is not only divided nationally and regionally, but also ideologically and politically.

Having made this caveat, it is necessary nonetheless to define what parts of this amorphous body of citizens can do nationally, regionally and globally, in the area of helping to regulate international trade so that it is more responsive to the concerns of the poor, and to the principles of human rights. Already, of course, there are networks of mostly NGOs that are able to get together and put up programmes of activity that range from addressing specific trade issues (such as agriculture, TRIPS, and so on), to building the capacity of their governments (mostly in the South) to better negotiate in the international trade fora, such as the WTO aiid Cotonou.

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Tliesc civil society bodies are often oi-ganised at the international level, and do have occasional successes, as during the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI) in the late 1990~ and at the third meeting of the W O at Seattle in 1998, and the fifth meeting at Cancun in 2003. But these are rare moments, and these “successes” are quicltly reversed by the big powers. Thus, the “success” of Seattle was reversed at Doha, and that at Cancun was partially reversed in Geneva in July 2004.

For all that, and given that most of them work under serious human and financial constraints, their efforts must not be slighted. Their occasional successes might be, and have been, reversed. Nonetheless, they have played an important role in putting to question the ways of the big powers, and of the W O Secretariat, that cynically manipulate the trading system to the selfish benefit of the powerful, and at the cost of the weaker members of the society of nations.

Power can only be bridled by counter power. The US power (located as it is primarily in the corporate world) can only be checked either by the power of the people in the country itself (by a thorougoing internal democratic revolution), or by a global power (like China, or a coalition of forces of the South and the North) that might come up on the future horizon. This is a long haul. In the meantime, the “global civil society” (as defined above) can do the following five things in the area of international trade:

One, they can continue to draw the attention of the world’s people to the inequities of the present system of globalisation and trade liberalisation, and particularly the fact that contemporary trade law and

. practice violate basic principles of humanitarian law.

Two, they can fight against bigotry, narrow mindedness, racism, sexism and all expressions of injustice and unfairness in the present global system, and affirm the principle of oneness of humanity.

Three, they can support institutions such as the United Nations the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Labour Organisa- tion, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights in advancing the cause of human rights, justice and fairness in the global trading system.

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Four, they can put to question the reigning orthodoxy embodied in the neo-liberal economic theory, and its implementation by the IMF, the World Bank and the governments of the South that are forced to accept them because they are too weak to do otherwise.

Finally, in opposition to the currently dominant neo-liberal development models, they can provide concrete alternative paradigms that are both visionary and yet practical.

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POVERTY PRODUCTION: A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO POVERTY UNDERSTANDING'

Else 0yen Scientific Director

CROP, Conzpnrative Research Progrmirie OIL Poverty Professor University of Bergen, Nonuay

Professor Else Oyen works on social policy since 1975. She teaches at the University of Bergen and is a Scientific Director of CROP (Comparative Research Programme on Poverty). She has been head of Centre for Health and Social Policy Centre (1 982-2002), Her special fields of research are comparative studies of processes in the welfare state and social policy theory, comparative methodology and evaluation studies, poverty analysis in developed and developing countries and theoretical approaches to poverty formation. Professor Oyen has published a large number of significant books on these topics. Among others, she has been President and Vice-president of the International Social Science Council, Chairman of CROP (1 992-2000) and formerly Vice-president of the International Sociological Association and Chair of the ISA Research Council. She is also a past and present member of international and Norwegian research organisations, editorial boards, etc.

Poverty understanding and poverty research can be said to have gone through roughly three phases: Tale-telling, studies with a client focus as well as development research, and knowledge building about poverty reduction. The stage is now set for a new phase, that of understanding the processes that produce poverty and continue to produce poverty at a rate no present poverty reducing measures can possibly win over or even compete with. The challenge ahead is to make poverty production visible and place it firmly on the research agenda.

THE FIRST PHASE: TALE-TELLING Poverty has always been with us. It has taken different forms in dif-

ferent cultures and its extent has varied over time and across cultures. Since all societies are stratified according to some criteria, the consequence is that somebody always has to be at the bottom. Whether this bottom layer is an expression of poverty and the people inhabiting this bottom layer are considered poor, depends on indigenous definitions OF poverty.

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The people at the bottom of a hierarchy are likely to be deprived in the sense that they have less of what is considered desirable resources in that society, whether the resources are tangible assets such as income, water and education or less tangible such as prestige and access to information or a marriage market. While the upper layers have not only better access to desirable resources they are likely also to have more control over those in the layers below them. Such control may not necessarily be physical. It is more likely to be moral, in the sense that the higher layers claim the right to define what is good and bad behaviour, what is right and wrong in terms of social norms, and what is best for society at-large.

Such stratification is part of the social context in which people live, and as such they have to relate to it and incorporate it as part of their cognitive map. Over time pictures of poor people and their lives have been formed along with pictures of other social phenomena. Those pictures have given rise to words that describe poor people, how they behave, how they are believed to behave, and how they ought to behave. These pictures and words do not necessarily depict the truth. The need of upper layers to distance themselves froin the layer(s) below lias colou- red these descriptions. As a result, those layers at the bottom are not likely to be described kindly. This is both part of a self-identification by social groups and an attempt by the individual to present oneself in a positive light. The people at the bottom layer are seldom able to defend themselves and change the stereotypes created for them. That is the very character of their lowly position. Those above have more impact on the public discourse. That is the very character of their position.

As a result, the popular presentations of poor people and the reasons for their poverty are mainly negative. Throughout this process a crude picture is developed where stereotyping takes over for a more detailed and factual description about causes and manifestations of poverty. The picture is fortified with irrelevant details when repeated and build into a taletelling tradition of how poor people behave and think. As a group, they are likely to be portrayed as lazy, dirty, criminal, sinful, producing too many children, greedy for social support. Poor people are said to enjoy living with garbage all around them, to be unwilling to send their children to school, and to move ahead in society. Even the highly respected Brundtland Report (1987) added indirectly to this negative picture when it was argued that the behaviour of poor people increased environmental degradation. The Report took as a starting point a rather simple definition of poverty. Based on a more complex understanding of

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poverty and thc relationship between poverty and the eiivironnient, latcr research points to a different picture, that it is rather the behaviour of non-poor people that adds to environmental degradation (Angelsen, 1997; Ambler, 1999; Norwegian Research Council, 2002).

The tale-telling tradition has continued into modern poverty research. The tales run as an undercurrent in the way much of poverty research is designed, results are interpreted and then reinterpreted before they are put to use. A review I made of poverty studies during the 70es and 80es showed a substantial lack of documentation in the way hypotheses about the poor were formed. Much of the knowledge about the poor was taken for granted. Since empirical knowledge about the poor was scarce, tale-telling substituted facts. In some studies tale-telling knowledge was questioned, but in others it was not.

It is interesting to note that a major part of the objective, subjective, empathic and analytic knowledge about the poor and their lives is found in popular literature, classic as well as modern, and in the media as well as on the stage and on the screen. It is evident that the abstract world of the poor belongs largely to the non-poor. W h y this is so, is also a matter about which w e know very little. Why is it that the non-poor stands back when faced with concrete poverty, but takes so much interest in abstract poverty that a literary market portraying and analysing misery worth millions of dollars can be sustained for generations? Is it only the non-poor’s built-in fear of becoming poor, their past history, their victory over poverty or the pleasant background it provides for their present lives, that keep this market alive? There are plenty of hypotheses here that also play into poverty research.

Theoretical knowledge about poverty processes was and is limited. Although “everybody” has his or her own theory about the cause(s) of poverty, the scientific foundation for understanding poverty is still weak. The fact that popular perceptions of who the poor are, how they behave and why they are poor, actually may be one of the major reasons why a scientific approach to poverty has been slow to develop. it w a s not considered necessary to invest in research and the systematic producrion of knowledge on a topic where the answers seemed to be already in place.

The tale-telling phase in poverty research is not over yet. In spite of recent developments and new accumulated knowledge, understandings of poverty and the use of poverty research are still dominated by tale-telling.

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THE SECOND PHASE: RESEARCH FOCUS ON POOR PEOPLE AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

The second phase of research can be said to move in two different directions, although with a good deal of overlap: one with a direct focus on poor people and one with an indirect goal to reach out to poor people.

The former approach confronts the deficiencies of the first phase and leaps forward with the World Bank pushing for big surveys in the 70es. Studies started to be directed towards obtaining more precise’ information about poor people and their living conditions. At the same time, small-scale intimate studies among poor people in city slums and remote rural areas ran parallel to the large-scale studies based on national and international indicators. An enormous amount of data was gathered. Extensive new knowledge about how the poor live, extent and usefulness of their assets, nutritional and health status among grown-ups and children, access and lack of access to education and social networks, economic shortcomings and opportunities, work and work hazards was collected in poor countries and regions.

Some of this iiiformation shows that the formation of poverty is cul- tiire specific. The extent and characteristics of poverty depends on the cultural context in which poverty is formed and defined, the way people experience their poverty, and the opportunities the culture and organisational set-up allow for moving in and out of poverty. Other parts of the information point to the more universal consequences of poverty. For example, poverty seems to cast the major part of the burden on the women. Poor women and girls are on average even more deprived than poor men and boys (Stolen and Vaa, 1991; Heyzer and Sen, 1994). Poor peoples’ relationship with the non-poor society as visualised through their contact with authorities such as the police, courts, local government and educational facilities, are likely to stress their deprivation. As an overall conclusion, it can be said that those contacts are negative in the sense that poor people do not experience those institutions as solutions to their problems. O n the contrary, some of public institutions are more likely to increase poor peoples’ feelings of marginalisation and are at times even directly criminal in their relation with deprived groups (Chambers, 1997; Narayan, 2000).

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NGO’s and others have taken part in this process of collecting data. While some of these organisations have provided valuable new information, others have muddled the picture with undigested and politicised data. This becomes worrisome when such data is used as a basis for anti- poverty policies (Tvedt, 1998).

The return effect of descriptive studies focussing directly on the living conditions of poor people diminishes rapidly in the 90es. At present, it might be said that we know almost enough about poor people from the empirical richness of inany of these studies. W e know much less about the processes leading to poverty and sustaining poverty. However, a prerequisite for understanding these processes is the information base accumulated during the second phase of poverty research.

Development research took off in another direction. Some of the theoretical foundations were already in place and through processes such as modernisation, industrialisation, economic growth, the use of more efficient tools in industrial and agricultural production, investment in human capital and development of more adequate skills, poor regions were to be put in a position to make improvements. Through such improvements, the situation of the poor was to be obtained through a trickle down effect. The theoretical framework for such trickle down effects was fairly simple. However, looking back it is clear that improvements for the poor did not live up to expectations. Reality was much more complex. Where improvements took place, strong forces among the non-poor tried to reap the gains from the development processes. Institutional structures for reallocation of resources favouring the poor were not in place. Bringing poor, uneducated and unskilled labour into a new economic sphere proved to be more difficult than imagined. O n average, development processes on a small scale and close to the direct needs of the poor were more successful in poverty reduction than ambitious large-scale projects. This said, a major gain from a theoretical point of view was new knowledge acquired about processes leading to poverty and sustaining poverty.

Development research covers a wide variety of approaches and different disciplines and interest groups define it in ways tliai fit into their specific conceptual framework. In an overview of all development research projects with some connection to the Norwegian research arena and carried out in the period 1988-90, development studies was defined as projects “concerned with: developing countries or regions; relations

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between developing countries or between developing countries and industrialised countries; the global situation without reference to a specific geographic area (e.g. North-South relations); cooperation with a developing country institution” (Norwegian Development Research Catalogue, 1990: viii). Of the 490 projects lisced, technical, economic, political and environmental keywords dominated, while only 4 projects used the keyword ‘poverty’ as an identification of the project contents. In 2001, the same source redefines development research as studies that are relevant for the understanding of processes of change and contribute to sustainable development and poverty reduction in the South and in countries in transition, as well as to the promotion of sustainable relations between the North and the South (Helland, 2001: 1). A review of the abstracts of the myriad of articles and books produced through development research institutes world-wide, university departments offering degrees in development studies and organisations of development researchers show such a wide variations of topics and approaches that they can hardly be folded up under one umbrella, except the fact that they somehow relate to the South. Development research has become a nametag, not a distinct research field.

THE THIRD PHASE: THE SEARCH FOR POVERTY REDUCING STRATEGIES

In the 90es, mass poverty in the South reached the political agenda of countries and donors in the North, partly as a result of the UN World Summit for Social Development in 1995, the UN declaration of 1996 as the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty and the following decade as the UN International Decade for the Eradication of Poverty. The yearly UNDP Human Development Repom on national achieve- ments in improving the living conditions for its citizens provided an important input to the agenda. Once mass poverty was defined as an issue of collective concern, the next step was to look for measures to reduce poverty on a larger scale. Research was faced with a new challenge, that of providing knowledge not only about poor people, but of strategies that could lead to ‘alleviation’, ‘reduction’ or even ‘eradication’ of poverty.

The World Bank already had its strategy in place. The answer was economic growth for all underdeveloped countries. Throughout the previous two decades the Bank implemented Structural Adjustment Plans

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(SAP) in Africa, Asia aiid Latin America, whichemphasised neo-liberalisc strategies with economic growth as the centrepiece. One of several goals was to improve the economic situation of poor countries and through a trickle down effect improve also the situation of poor people. Today there is widespread scepticism about the positive effects of the SAPS (Caufield, 1996). However, the SAPS spurred a tremendous amount of economic and semi-economic research and the vocabulary and goals of the SAPS infiltrated other disciplines as well as the political discourse. In 2001, the World Bank published the Wodd Development Report. Attac- king P o u e q where the Bank offered a more nuanced approach than previously to the understanding of poverty and the strategies necessary to reduce poverty. While economic growth is still at the core of the attack against poverty, other strategies such as pro-poor improvement in legal institutions, public administration and service delivery were stressed, as was the need to reduce the vulnerability of the poor towards health-, weather and economy related rislis. Some of these strategies were backed by research, others were based on notions of what works in the North ought to work also in the South. Through the so-called PRSP’s (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) governments in the South were expected to provide national plans for poverty reduction designed within this framework (see www4.worldbank.org/sprojects/).

Donor countries in the North followed up the new agenda with national and collaborative pro-poor and anti-poverty plans for poverty reduction in the South. While they had many visions on how the future of those countries ought to be, there were fewer concrete strategies. The UN Millennium Development Goals (see www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.htm) followed the same pattern, as does the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development (4 September 2002) from the recent UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (see www.iohannesburg;summit.org). Throughout this process donors sought contact with researchers and links with development research institutions were fortified. The evaluation of previous strategies was introduced and new strategies tried out. During this period databases on ‘best practices’ cropped up. All kinds of poverty reducing experiments were initiated and compared across national boundaries. However, the variations in the cultural contexts for the successful outcome of a ‘best practice’ were seldom taken into account. In this enterprise, NGO’s were the preferred partners rather than researchers or governments. New and original approaches were seen as more interesting than those comprehensive strategies proven efficient in the welfare state. T h e term welfare

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http://www.un.org/millennium-goals/index.htm



http://www.iohannesburg

state was not considered and welfare state researchers were sidelined in this process (0yen, 2002).

All pro-poor pians were presented within a framework of harmony, as if everybody were favourable to poverty reducing measures (0yen, 1999). This is hardly a realistic picture. Poverty researchers have found a framework of conflict more adequate for their analysis, but have not been heard so far. Such an approach does not fit in with consensus seeking politics.

All kinds of poverty reduction strategies entail some kind of redistribution. Redistributive measures are seldom welcome among those who have to turn over resources to people for whom they have little affection or trust.

THE FOURTH PHASE: RESEARCH ON POVERTY PRODUCING PROCESSES?

Throughout the previous phases the search for causal explanations of poverty has been part of the research process. As could have been expected, no homogenous picture has emerged. Causal explanations have a tendency to follow the definition of poverty in a project - and poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. So far, too little effort has been invested, not in understanding the relationship between causes and effects, but in understanding the common nature of the causes and the way they interrelate. It is a missing link in the research process that needs to be investigated.

A different kind of vocabulary may instigate this process. In scientific language it is considered neutral to speak of ‘causes’ of poverty. It is not neutral to speak of ‘production’ of poverty since the wording suggests some kind of action to produce poverty. O n e way ahead in understanding the complexity of poverty formation may be to look closer at those ‘actions’ and the actors involved in the process. In an early (and largely overlooked) paper by Gans (1 973) he discussed the positive - ’functions’ of poverty, and stressed the fact that certain interests are actually served by upholding poverty. The interests vary from economic and political to social and emotional gains. This is a picture that strongly contradicts the harmony model within which official pro-poor plans avoid taking into account conflicts of interest.

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it can be argued that the time has come to focus research on poverty production and to understand better the forces that keep on producing poverty in spite of all the many poverty reducing strategies that have been introduced. Likewise, it can be argued that unless new Iinowledge is acquired to stop those poverty producing processes, or even better reverse them, there is little gain in introducing measures to counteract those forces. The process can be likened to the famous Lambeth Walk: one step forward and two steps back.

The available research literature contains scores of case studies that document how different groups, individuals, institutions and processes initiate and sustain poverty. Some studies show how actors deliberately participate in a process that creates massive production of poverty over long time. Apartheid in South Africa is a classic example. A different structural example case is the caste system in India. Others show how a single act unrelated to poverty can result in unintended poverty pi-oduc- tion. A regional water board, for example, behaves rationally when shifting a scarce water resource from a thinly populated rural area to a crowded urban area. At the same time, the decision exacerbates poverty in the rural area and contributes to an increased infant mortality and diseases due to a shortage of water for production and reproduction. When trying to interpret the many cases of poverty production, we tend to fall back on causal explanations within such generalised frameworks as evil forces, personal greed, moral decay, paternalism, historical determi- nism, capitalism, globalisation, and the spirit of multi-national corporations. That may be so. However, as researchers we need more if we are to proceed in the understanding of where those forces are born, in what kind of context they thrive, their direct and indirect impact on poverty formation, and the means by which they can be suppressed or done away with.

This is an important and difficult research arena that needs support also outside academic circles if it is to succeed and serve as part of the poverty reducing agenda as well. To achive this aim, it is necessary to make the nature of poverty producing processes more visible and have authorities, politicians, bureaucrats and civil society acknowledge that such poverty production does take place and that poverty reduction may be futile unless poverty production is brought to a halt. Of the many pro-poor and anti-poverty plans exhibited during the last decades, on the national as well as the international level, poverly producing forces are sometimes mentioned, but mainly in general terms. This may bc either because the specific links hetweeii a poverty producing agent and

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the resulting poverty is known only in general terms, or, as mentioned before, because there is little will to enter a conflict where strong poverty producing agents or forces have to be cliallenged. A model ofharmony is more comfortable to live within than a model of conflict, particularly when it means that actors with different agendas have to co-operate. A model of harmony tends to lead towards a consensus built on the lowest common denominator. The final declaration from the UN World Sum- mit for Social Development in 1995, the UN Millennium Development Goals 2000 and the Johannesburg Declaration 2002 all bear witness to this principle.

IDENTIFICA TI0 N OF POVERTY PRODUCING AGENTS

Poverty production takes place on all levels of society. O n the individual level, a poor school child is subjected to a poverty producing force when he/she is bullied out of school without an education and so faces a continued life of poverty. The ‘perpetrator’, to use the Human Rights language (Human Rights in Development, draft 2002: para 179), can be another child who is stronger and commands more resources, or it can be an alien school situation that offers no coping strategies to a poor child. This may be just a small-scale case that can be rejected as an individual failure and unimportant in a poverty context. However, if a pattern emerges and many such cases occur, a strong poverty producing agent is at play and needs to be identified if the process is to be reversed. An organisation like the educational system is fairly clearly set out and lines of command are usually visible. Therefore, identification of the poverty-producing agent becomes possible.

Take as another example a corporate mining company in Western Africa that produces ill-health and poverty through an unhealthy environment, minimal protection of the workers, too low wages for the survival of a family, and firing of those workers who protest or organise. Different perpetrators on different levels with different influence and interaction are at play. In order to sort out the set of actors involved it may be useful to distinguish between levels of perpetration. Within this mode of analysis the first line perpetrator in this fairly simple example is the management of the industry who gives the orders. The second line perpetrator are the members of the board of the company. The third line perpetrator are the shareholders and their persistent demand that their investments give the best possible return. Removed from the direct line of perpetration, but still part of the poverty

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producing process, is a government that refrains from interfeering in the mining industry on behalf of its citizens.

Another example can be located in one of the more universal features of poverty research mentioned above: that ‘poverty casts the major part of the burdcn on the women’. In some cultures women do all the physical labour while the men control the income of that labour and thereby keep the women in poverty. In some cultures, malnucricion among women is due to the fact that the men get the best part of the food available. Here the men and fathers can be identified as first line perpetrators. The cultural context in which they have learned to put their own needs first may be identified as second line perpetrator. Admittedly, the language exposing such realities does not sound pretty.

These are just a few out of tens of thousands examples, some of which are very well documented through research. Some of the poverty producing forces are simple, in the sense that only the first line perpetrator needs to be identified since the poverty producing force rests with only one perpetrator. Others are complicated to trace because they have a long line of perpetrators to be identified, some of whom are part of parallel networks where other poverty producing, as well as poverty reducing, forces are at play.

The identification of perpetrators is crucial because it circumvents the more general ‘cause’ of poverty and points to concrete actors engaged in poverty production. Within such a perspective it t is not sufficient to write in an anti-poverty plan that malnutrition or unhealthy labour conditions should be dealt with. The perpetrators need to be identified and dealt with, whether they take form of individuals, groups, institutions or carriers of harmful social traditions. Although a parallel can be drawn with the legal system where perpetrators are brought to justice, the aim is different here. The research aim is identification in order to produce knowledge for policy intervention. The policy aim is abandonment of the destructive force. The concept of justice enters only in relation to justice for the poor. Punishment of the perpetrators might be interesting mainly from a policy view and in so far as it can be secn ab an instrument to increase visibility and to prevent future poverty production. It can be argued that punishment is built into the abandonment of poverty producing forces as the perpetrator has to give LIP the privileges and benefits obtained through the discontinucd production of poverty.

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UNINTENDED AND DIRECT POVERTY PRODUCTION

Poverty producing agents can also be described and classified according to their awareness of the harmful effects their activity has on other people, their intentions with this activity, the benefits reaped from their poverty producing activity, and the vested interest they have in keeping up this activity. The results of such an analysis provides an indication of their strength as poverty producers.

it can well be argued that the major part of poverty producing activity is unintentional. Take for example the day-to-day poverty production we all take part in. It is likely to total more than the sum of ail the other poverty producing activities. Such poverty production takes place in spite of the fact that a majority society of non-poor has little interest in increasing poverty. It may even invest sizeable sums in poverty redu- ' cing activities. Still, such societies go about creating institutions within the sphere of non-poor interest and the majority mode of thinking. Edu- cational systems are created to fit the needs of non-poor children and students, transport systems are created to accommodate cars and air- planes, public spaces are planned for the use of the non-poor, banking is organised around those who have money, ever increasing industrial development calls for constant updating of new skills and introduction of still more highly developed technical equipment, sophisticated and extremely expensive health facilities are prioritised, etc.

In general, it can be said that the major bulk of public and private resources are invested in an infrastructure that ignores the needs of people already marginalised, while institutions of ail kinds are built on the norms and needs of the non-poor who set the agenda for what is good for its own kind. Much of this activity can not be said to benefit the poor, unless one is a strong believer in a fast trickle down effect. In reality, part of this activity is directly and indirectly harmful to the poor. The polluting high- ways and industry the non-poor does not want in its vicinity are built on the cheaper land in the neighbourhoods of the poor (Wratten, 1995). Scarce water resources are channelled to those who can pay, or have the power to have their needs heard. The non-poor demand for high technology health services are constructed at the expense of those decentralised health centres for ordinary diseases the poor is more lilrely to need (WHO, 2001). Courts and public offices are staffed in such a way that

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they are likely to give better service to people who speak the sanie language and are dressed the same way as the public servants, etc.

The examples are numerous, and together they add up to a massive, unintended and invisible poverty producing process. In this we are all perpetrators. This kind of poverty production can only be slowed down, or reversed, if all citizens become aware of it and see the sense in changing some present priorities. One of the many obstacles in changing such poverty production is that most of these activities lie within legal and legitimate boundaries. Therefore, the arguments in favour of a more pro-poor behaviour at the expense of less favouritism of non-poor interests, have to rest on moral grounds and the self-interest of the non-poor. Traditionally, the wealthy have been able to live in enclaves, protected from contact with the poor by social institutions, space and fences. As societies open up such protection may become part of past privilege.

Direct poverty production has a different nature. Some agents will have a purposeful intention in sustaining poverty. Again, the examples are plentiful. There are dictators and elites whose power is built on uneducated and poor people who can not mobilise resistance. At present, Zimbabwe displays a sinister case where poverty is induced politically and lack of food is used to suppress the opposition. in Latin America patrons have a tradition for relying on a partially deprived electorate to support their candidacy for a political post. An educated and informed electorate might chose Lheir patrons differently, or do without patrons. Industries locate their production in poor countries where they feed on a constant renewable flow of deprived and unorganised people who are willing to accept any kind of wage. The expenditure of these industries would increase considerably if international labour rights were enforced. Fruit growers in North America depend on a moving proletariat during the harvest season. The level of living conditions for elites in Arab states rest on the exploitation of poor female labour from poor countries. Much of the poverty producing activity portrayed here is visible and the perpetrators can be identified. Some of them operate within the law, whilst others ignore legal constraints. in general, it can be said that the basic rights of the poor are not protected, or enforced. For much of this poverty producing activity there is no legal framework to control it. International agreements and recommendations on labour rights coming from the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF (1989) on children’s’ rights are largely ignored, as are the more general protection of individual rights laid down in the UN Universal Declara-

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tion of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1 966/76).

Poverty production also happens in such major uprootings as war, epi- demics and natural disasters. People are impoverished through these kinds of processes, where they loose belongings, infrastructure, people on whom they depend or have to leave evevtliing behind and become a refugee. Poor people are particularly vulnerable. Part of their poverty is that they are less protected in all kinds of events and command fewer resources to buffer unexpected events and diseases. The wars in Afghanistan, Balkan and Rwanda have created massive poverty. Some of this poverty production was unintended although it was a calculated risk that a civil population would suffer. Other parts of the poverty production was intended and used as part. of the war strategy, in particular as part of an ethnic conflict. The enemy was to be fought not only with weapons, but also with deprivation of all available means, whether it was loss of belongings, land, personal security or identity. Some of these events are now brought into the legal arena. First, second and third line perpetrators are defined not only according to their actual participation in the violations, but according to their rank in the military and para-military hierarchy.

Natural disasters provide still another scenario. No intention of poverty production can be claimed and no direct perpetrator can be identified in spite of the fact that natural disasters create poverty and are likely to hit the poor harder than the non-poor. However, it can be argued that those responsible for not preventing the disaster, if at all preventable, and those responsible for not providing adequate help after- wards can be seen as a second and third line perpetrators.

MAKiNG THE IMPACT OF POVERTY PRODUCTION VISIBLE

IdentiSring poverty producing agents and trying to describe their activities and strength is only one step towards a broader understanding towards the impact of poverty production, The next step is to understand the specific nature and extent of poverty production. It means among other things to make the impact of poverty producing processes more visible through research and new kinds of data, and to initiate a discourse based on research and a more adequate approach to poverty understanding. The research literature is already addressing some issues of poverty production and studies from different disciplines and approaches are available. However, what is

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lacking at this stage is a comprehensive overview clirough a collocation of‘ existing studies that makes it possible to compare analyses from different countries and different sectors. The many databases on ‘best practices in poverty reduction’ (Krüger 2002) need a database-cousin of the ‘worst practices in poverty production’.

A database of worst practices would not only make poverty production and the poverty producing forces more visible. It will also provide the opportunity to ask new questions and to develop more powerful strategies to counteract poverty production. Comparison across countries is a central analytical tool for identif+ig patterns of behaviour that may go unnoticed in national studies where the context is taken for given. Comparisons make it easier to ask questions like why a certain behaviour is acceptable within one culture and rejected within another? Under what conditions is a ruthless poverty producing force at play? Have there been similar experiences in other countries that have now abandoned such practices? What were the conditions and interventions necessary to change such practices? w h o are the major actors in poverty production and what is their power base for such activity? W h o are the partners in this activity? Can a line of perpetrators be established? W h o are the victims? What kind of poverty is developed or sustained? H o w much poverty is produced, and for how long has this production been going on? What are the social costs of this production? Are rhere any social gains? If so, how can they be used to reverse a poverty production? W h a t is the moral and ethical foundation for continued poverty production? What are the social and economic gains of this production, besides the direct gain for the perpetrator? Are the perpetrators aware of the impact their activity has on poor people? Have they created a moral foundation for their activity that leaves them free of guilt? How much difference does a legal framework make in one country as compared to another? H o w much impact is the new donor pressure on accountability in goverilment in poor countries going to make on poverry producers located outside government?

The questions seem endless, because there is so much we do not yet know about a very important side of our societies. Here researchers have an enormous challenge to open up a field where answers are needed if efficient poverty reduction is to be induced.

Another means to make poverty production visible is to try to develop official statistics that portray poverty producing processes aiid

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their effects. At present, no such data is available. Aggregated data as seen in some national statistics and on a comparative national level in the UNDP Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index (UNDP Human Development Report, 1997) present an important, but static picture of the present state of poverty and deprivation in a certain country in a certain year. The processes behind can only be hypothesised and it is not possible to read into those figures anything about where and how poverty is produced.

Methodologically it will not be easy to develop reliable and valid indicators that are dynamic and point directly to poverty production. Much more information is needed about the poverty producing processes and their impact before such a scenario is likely to materialise. Still, it should not be abandoned. Good indicators developed for industrial production are part of official statistics in many countries. Perhaps they can serve as an example. Such indicators are considered important and necessary as an input to understand the national economy and to plan for future development. Poverty production needs the same luiid of indicators, particularly if it can be argued that poverty producing processes hamper national development, e.g. the discussioii on investment in social capital as a basic tool for the creation of economic growth. Poli- cymakers will depend on this type of information if they are to develop more pro-poor interventions. Researchers will benefit from such information as a baseline for their studies.

Politically the identification of poverty production is not likely to be easy. Poverty producing agents who benefit from such production may not be inclined towards accountability and the change an exposure in their activities might provoke. However, one should not underestimate the fact that some of those agents may not be fully aware of the detri- mental effects brought about by their activities.

Practically the identification of poverty production is not easy either. There are great lacunae in official statistics in countries in the South. In general, it can be said that the poorer a country is, tlie poorer is the available statistics on that country. However, it is not only the poorer countries that will need this kind of new addition to its statistics.

Part of the process is also to make visible the likely consequences if the present poverty production is allowed to continue at tlie same speed. O n the side of the poor, we know much about those consequences, spelled out in terms of high figures for infant mortality, diseases, malnu-

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trition, victimisation, exclusion from basic rights and lives in constant deprivation. The documentation is plentiful. O n the side of the non- poor w e know much less about the consequences of different kinds of poverty producing activities and a high frequency of poor people in a region or country. There are individuals and institutions that benefit from poverty producing activities and a certain amount of poverty. What part of the population is involved in direct poverty production is not known, and the extent of their benefits from the poverty producing activity is likewise unknown. The non-poor in general are likely to share a differentiated view of the consequences of poverty production and continued poverty. Some will want CO reduce poverty out of fear for crime, contagious diseases and rebellion. Some will fear the moral decay a society suffers when it allows a large amount of people to live in abject conditions. Others will deplore the loss of potential consumers and manpower that an uneducated mass represents. Still others do not see the poor and accept the situation as is.

THE NEED FOR A NEW DISCOURSE

There is an urgent need for a new discourse on poverty understaii- ding that challenges the dominating discourses of the last decades. Part of the process of introducing a new discourse is to analyse previous discourses in order to understand their aim and function better. Discourses do not just happen. They can be seen as an expression of certain vested interests, whether they are political, material or intellectual. To understand them better, it is necessary to raise questions like: Why was a certain discourse opened L L ~ in the first place, who introduced it and what kind of impact does it have on the questions researchers pose? What kind of interests lies behind it and why did a certain set of arguments become so powerfd that they dominate our way of thinking and the choice of analytical approaches? Why are certain concepts and strategies pushed up front and others made invisible? For example, Amarsya Sen’s concept of ‘capabilities’ coined in 1980 took almost a couple of decades to enter a discourse dominated by economic concepts, and was then used and transformed by major actors (St.Clair, forthcoming). W h o adopts a certain discourse, and why? What is the impact of a certain discourse on actual policymaking? How much power is invested in keeping che discourse alive? W h o are the benefactors of the outcome of a certain discourse, and just as important, who are those excluded through such a discourse? Unfortunately, this history of ideas and philosophical understanding of poverty has not been written yet.

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Part of the same process is to question previous practices stemming from a certain discourse and show them to be still valid, or no longer valid. A key word here is accountability where the burden of proof ought ro lie with those who promote certain poverty reducing strategies. They need to be held accountable for reporting on the expecred outcome of their ideas. For example, those who vigorously promote a dogmatic triclde down effect need to document its effects: who actually benefit from this principle, how much do they benefit, how much poverty of what Iund is done away with, and how long does it take before the effects of a certain triclde down process can be observed? Also, the underlying assumptions in a trickle down effect need to be made visible. The major actor in the present discourse, the World Bank, needs to be held accountable for the strategies it has implemented over time and the fervour with which it still promotes economic growth. The burden of proof ought to lie with the Bank that has the moral responsibility as well as the resources to follow LIP the consequences of its actions. From individual researchers and research institutions outside the Bank it has been argued that economic growth not only reduces poverty, but actually produces certain kinds of poverty. The dominance of the so-called ‘Washington consensus’ is being challenged through more complex analyses (Caufield, 1996; ISSJ, 2000; Dagdeviren, van der Hoeven and Weeks, 2001; Bigsteii and Levin, 2001; Stiglitz 2002). The World Bank has been reluctant to answer to these assertions and its discourse continues to fasten its dominance in scientific and political circles.

The promotion of democracy as a poverty reducing strategy offers another example of an incomplete element in a dominant discourse. Democracy is an icon of Western culture and donors as well as some researchers promote it as a central strategy to mobilise poor people who can [hen help improve their own living conditions. Still, democracy as a major poverty reducing strategy needs to be challenged, too. In some of the largest democracies in the world such as the United States and India poverty is flourishing and the poor live on the outside of the non-poor society. Western style democracy may be a necessary condition, but in its present form it represents an insufficient model for efficient poverty reducrion. The concepts of participation and citizenship need to be rethought within this context.

A new discourse on poverty production and the effects of different kinds of poverty production is research-based Itnowledge that brings out well-established facts about unintended and direct poverty production.

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A second focus is the attempt to develop a new language built on more adequate concepts that catches poverty production as a reality. Resear- chers need new tools to work with. A third focus is a critical approach to the present dominating discourse that describes poverty in a quasi-scientific language that conceals major poverty producing forces. A fourth focus is an approach that overlooks powerful tale-telling, ignores ineffec- tive and dubious standard solutions to poverty reduction, and repudiates empty rhetoric about concern for the poor. A final focus in the discourse is the right to turn every stone without being stopped and the right to ask questions and gather necessary information wherever it will serve an understanding of the extent and effect of poverty production. Partners for a broad discourse as outlined above are civil society, media, government, the churches, industry, the educational system, political movements, grass-root movements, labour unions and all interested parties.

The discourse will be forfeited if it turns into a witch hunt, although some may be tempted to just that. Neither should it be a discourse thac belongs only CO the left trying CO fight off neo-liberal forces. This discourse has a much wider range. Rather, such a discourse should serve as a tool for the broad exchange of information and understanding about those unwanted forces that destroy the lives and futures of millions of people. It should encourage a search for strategies that will put an end to practices that run counter to the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - as a first step towards effective poverty eradication.

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NOTE 1 I : i m grateful for comments providcd by professor Juliaii May, Universiry of Natal. South Afiica, niid di.. John-Andrew McNeish, CROP Secretariat, University of‘ Bergen, Norway. Chapcer in Nicolai Gcnov (ed.), (2002) Advances in Sociologi- cal Kiiowledge over H@n Ceiztziiy. Paris: Inwriiational Social Science Council.

REFERENCES AMBLER, John (1 999) Attackitig Poverty while Improviq h e Enuiimnzent: Tozuards W i n - W i n Policy Options. UNDP: New York. ANGELSEN, Arild (1 997) ‘Tlie poverty-erivironmcnt hypothesis: W a s Brundt- land wrong?’ F o r u i n j h Development Studies, 1 :125-154. BIGSTEN, h i c and Jorgeii LEVIN (2001) ‘Growcli, Iiicoine Distribution and Poverty: A Review’. WIDER Devekopment Conference on Growth and Poverty. Elel- sinki 25-26 May 2001. CAUFIELD, Cacheriiic (1 996) Masters of Jllusiun. The LVoihd Bank mid the Poverty ofNationS. New York: Henry Holt and Company. CHAMBERS, Robert (1997) Whose Reality Cotrnts? Pritting the Fiirt Last. Loridori: Intermediate Tecliriology Puhlications. CHR. MICHELSEN INSTITUTE (1 990) Norwegian Development Research Cnta- kogiie 1990. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Insti tute. DAGDEVIREN, Huyka, Rolph van der IIOEVEN and John WEEKS (2001) ‘Redistribution Does Mattcr. Growth and Redistribution for Poverty Reduction’. IL0 E m p l o y m e n t Paper, 200 1 / 1 0. GANS, Herbert J. (1 973) ‘Tlie Positive Funccions of Poverty’. American]ournaL of Sociohgy, 78, 2.

JOHANNESBURG S U M M I T (2002) Iit~p:/lww\~.johannesbur~suin~nit.org HELLAND, Johan (2001) Norsk zitvikljng~~rsk~~i?~g - utviklingstrekk og zifod,in- ger. Oslo: Norgrs Forsknirigsrad. HEYZER, Noelen and Gita SEN. Eds. (1994) Gender, Economic G?*owth and Puuei,ty. Market Grozutb and State Planning in Aria and the Paczfic. Kuala Lumpur: Asian and Pacific Developirient Centre. HVOSLEF-KRUGER, Joachim (2002) ‘Best Practices as Found on the Internet’. In: 0yen, Else, er. al. Best Practices in Pouerq Rediiction. An Annlyticnl Fmmeiuork. CROP International Studies in Poverty Research. London and New York: Zed Books. INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL (2000) ‘The Devcloprnent Delxrtr: Beyond the Washingcon Consensus’. Intei.nntianal Social Science foitinnl, 166. NARAYAN, D e e p (2000) Voices of the Poor. C m Any o n e Hear Us? New York: Oxford University Press.

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NORWEGIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL (2002) FaLLigdum, u d h g og i~ii40, Panelets anbejdiriger. Oslo: Norwegian Research Council. 0YEN, Else (1999) ‘The Politics of Poverty Reduction’. Irztel-nntiuiznlSucialScience .Journal, 162, 459-465. 0YEN, Else, ct al. (2002) Best I’raches in Poverty Redidon. An Analytical Fmnewurk. CROP Iiircrnational Studies in Poverty Research. London and Ncw York: Zcd Books. Si. CLAIR, Asuncion (forthcoming) ‘The Role of Ideas in [he United Nacioiis Development Programme’. 111: Baas, Mortcri and Dcsmoiid McNeill. Eds. Framirig the Wurld: The Rule (fldeas in the Mitltilateral System, London: Routledge. SEN, hiarrya (1980) ‘Equality of Whac?’ In: S. McMurriii. Ed. Tanner Lectzrm on H u m a n Values, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. STIGLITZ, Joseph (2002) Globfiliziztiun nnd Its Discorztents. London: The Periguiii Press. ST0LEN, Kristi Anne and Mariken VAA. Eds. (1991) Gender and Change ln Develuping Countries. Drammen, Noway: Norwegian Uiiivci-sity Press. TVEDT, Terje (1998) Angels of Mevcy or Development Diplomats? NGOs and Foreign Aid Trenton and James Currey, Oxford: Africa World Press. UNDP (1997) Human Development RepoTt 1997. Oxford and New York: Oxforcl Uriiversicy Press.

UN High Commissioner of I-luman Rights (UNHCHK) (1 966/1976) Internatiu- nal Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (http://~~~.~1ihchr.cti/htnil/menu3/b/a~cescr.htm).

UN High Corrimissioner of Human Rights (2002) H u m a n Rights in Deuelopment. Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Appoach tu Poverty Reduction Sttzltegies (http://www.iinhchr.ch/development/poverryfinal).

UNICEF ( 1 989) Convention on the Rights uf the Child (http://www.unicef.org/crc/crc.hcrn).

UN Milleniuni Developinent Goals (MDC) ht~p://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ WORLD B A N K (2000) Wudd Develupment Report 2000-2001: At-tacking Puverp. Oxford: Oxford University Press. WORLD BANK. I’oveity Reduction Strategy Pqeis: lictp://www4.worldbaiik.~rg/sprojects/

WORLD COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (1987) OILY Curnrnun Firtiwe [Thc Brundtland Reporc]. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. WHO (200 1) Mficruecunurnics and Health: Iwestitzg in Hefilth fi? Economic Deue- kupent. Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, WHO. WRATTEN, Ellen (1 995) ‘Conceptualising Urban Poverty’. Environineiit rind Urbanization, 7. 1 : i 1-36.

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http://www.iinhchr.ch/development/poverryfinal

http://www.unicef.org/crc/crc.hcrn

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

lictp://www4.worldbaiik.~rg/sprojects

SEMINAR 2

18 October 2004

Theme: “Rights-Based Approach to Poverty Eradication: A new commitment or a pilot experiment?”

Speakers: Bilateral Cooperating Agencies

Obiective:

Agencies of multilateral cooperation are increasingly integrating the rights-based approach in their programmes. The objective of this seminar is to identi6 the implementation guidelines of a rights-based approach and to determine to what extent this approach is becoming a condition to have access to funding.

An introductory presentation was made by a researcher on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Human Rights and International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

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POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPERS (PRSPS) AND THE WORLD BANWIMF: SPLITTING THE DEBATE ON POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS?

Susan Mathews University of Tilburg

Susan Mathews is an Indian lawyer w h o is currently doing her PhD. at Tilburg University, Netherlands. The working title of the PhD. project is "Mainstrea- ming Human Rights in the Poverty Reduction Strategies of International Financial Institutions: a critical evaluation", where she attempts to explore the linkages between the Institutions' poverty reduction policies and Interna- tional Human Rights Law. Her special interest areas include those relating to indigenous peoples, environment, HIV/AIDS, disability and anti-discrimination. In India, she worked mainly with public interest law centers, conducting and assisting in litigation and consultancies, training and other legal projects including environmental issues, labour standards, social impacts of development projects and juvenile justice.

INTRODUCTION

The choice of title is deliberate and deliberately probing. There has been an urgently meted out focus on poverty, human rights and its linkages in a furor of recent United Nations (UN) activity. Meanwhile, the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have repackaged and reposi- tioned their policies, pumping out the message of poverty reduction, exemplified in the creation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The PRSP is a policy paper predominantly prepared by low- income countries - it is used as a vehicle for donor lending and is a technology of governance for the times.

Poverty as amalgam, a web of income and resource deprivation or loss including a lack of food, water, health, education, shelter, livelihood is contes- tedly defined and begs serious responses. Myriad agencies, authorities and competencies, at varying scales, levels and places deploy, prosecute, fiindraise, distribute, aid and rescue in its name. The World Bank and die IMF with their explicit focus on poverty reduction are important accors in this ai-ena.

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This paper is based on the premise that it is time for the discourse surrounding poverty reduction to be urgently interrogated, be it in the UN system, state practice or in the work of international institutions like the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The key question I want to raise is how the notion of PRSPs affects the present debate on poverty and human rights, specifically in the UN system. A pressing focus, I believe should be on how PRSI’s reframe and complicate the international discourse on poverty and human rights and “internal” discourse within the UN human rights system. This in turn challenges the influence human rights norms can in fact have on PRSPs in theory and practice. In this presentation I make a modest attempt to marlc out some core conceptual and operacional issues in this regard.

POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES: A DIFFERENCE IN OUTLOOK

Poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), while avowing the larger aim of poverty reduction come from a very different quarter and they possess a distinct pedigree and agenda, forged at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While hardly representative of all poverty reduction strategies, the PRSPs, as a key vehicle of donor lending and aid disbursements wield power and influence. For this reason it teiids to overwhelm and subsume other strategies at other places and levels, possessing the reputation in some circles of leaving participants little choice but to tag onto “the only game in town”. Any look at poverty reduction strategies and human rights needs to focus on PRSPs, as it comes in tow with a number of ramifications and impacts that deserve assessment and response from a human rights perspective. Meanwhile PRSPs as mentioned in the core question of this paper challenges debates surrounding poverty and human rights in general.

REFRAMING POVERTY REDUCTION In 1999, the World Bank and IMF staff proposed a new framework

for poverty reduction. The framework’s stated objective is to assist countries in developing and implementing more effective strategies to fight poverty, embodied in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). These strategies are to be prepared by governments for a three-year period and to be used to prioritize the use of public and external resources for poverty reduction impact. There are five core principles

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underlying the development and implementation of poverty reduction strategies. The strategies should be:

Country-driven - involving broad-based participation by civil society and the private sector in all operational steps;

Results-oriented - focusing on outcomes that would benefit the poor;

Comprehensive in recognizing the multidimensional nature of poverty;

Partnership-oriented - involving coordinated participation of development partners (bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental);

Based on a long-term perspective for poverty reduction

The PRSP process has triggered off a range of side acts including joint staff assessments, poverty reduction strategy credits (PRSCs) - a supplemental credit to assist countries in their poverty reduction efforts and Poverty Social Impact Analysis (PSIA). The PRSP framework includes around 70-odd countries, including a number of low-income and highly indebted countries casting a wide net over a range of geographical regions. Other countries like India and China are under no obligation to join the framework but there they are encouraged to show a firm commitment to poverty reduction through policy documents and action. This country divide interestingly enough is where the PRSP process is exposed as being not just a routine preparation of a policy document for disbursing aid but as an ideology of poverty reduction and as mentioned earlier, a technology of governance. As ideology thc PRSP is used as leverage and as beacon, as a gentle but efficient standard-setter for poverty reduction, economic development and civilization.

PROBLEMS WITH PRSPS While the PRSP framework has been in circulation for a relatively

short period of around four years, it has generated a variety of reviews and commentaries on the issues surrounding it. I think this is prccisely because of its ideology function rather than it just being the nuts and bolts of preparing such a paper. There have been varying criticisms of how processes in the PRSP framework have actually operated in countries. Some key inputs from civil society have been that there are no minimum standards, participation is inadequate or not qualitative, there

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is poor information disclosure and national processes are undermined. A constant criticism is that key macroeconomic and structural reform issues are not open to criticism by third world states and peoples. In terms of content and overall impact, to many commentators, “the reality is that a PRSP is, in and of itself, a conditionality that provides the Bank and Furid with leeway to impose even more conditionalities”.G2

In tliis paper I group the concerns raised by civil society groups and experiences of people in countries who have had to prepare PRSPs under three broad heads - pav-ticipation, ownership dnd content. The issues of participation and ownership are linked and increasingly lead to empowermeiddisempower- ment depending on how it plays out in individual countries.

PARTICIPATION

Partnership is touted as a key step in the PRSP process, larger proof of the ownership of the process and was forged as a response to the criticism over tlie years that the World Bank and IMF have neglected this in their projects and strategies. In its PRSP activities, the WB/IMF have frequently recited the mantra of participation, citing it as a key pillar in this current policy approach. Participation has arguably moved from being a mere soundbite to a championed way of doing the business of poverty reduction, sprucing up tlie IFIs image in the process. Countries are asked to provide details in the PRSPs on how participation was conducted in the preparation of the document. Some of the persistent critiques on the experiences with participation in countries’ are as follows. O n the issue of capacity, it has been shown to be weak in many countries, though tlie weakness is possibly built into the participation design itself. The flip side of weak formal capacity is the participation-savvy expected of the participants. Those familiar with IF1 parlance and economic language possess a definite edge in the participation deal, what some authors Iiave referred to as a chance to “merge in die circle”. Another issue is one of exclusion and selectivity as evident in countries such as Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Bolivia, Tanzania and Hon- duras. Groups left out include parliamentarians, trade unions, women and marginalized groups. A third issue is that of information availability, through lack of access or language used and other such issues.

62. Jeriina Joy C:havez Malaluari and Slinlmali Guttal, “Structural AdjusrineiiL iii die name nf rlic Poor: ’The I’RSl’ experience in [lie Lao I’lIR, Cambodia aiid Vietnam, Focus on the Global Sourh”, January 2002

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Thc issue of participation becomes more complex when looking at the merits of engaging in the process itself. Some views from the South have cast doubt on this and allude to Northern NGOs who in the past were leading critics of structural adjustment but now encourage working with the PRSP framework as they now view it as an opportunity to alleviate poverty. This “explains why some big Northern NGOs have literally forced their Southern partners to participate in the DRSP process. This paternalistic attitude has been condemned by numerous Southern NGOs, especially African NGOs, during the last African Social Forum, in Addis Ababa, in January 2003’’.63

Even when communities have “participated”, they have not been able to engage in the design of frameworks or participate in macroeconomic and structural policy debates that lead into the realm of ownership.

O WERSHIP

Through the PRSP process, the World Bank and IMF have spent a great deal of effort in increasing and reinforcing country ownership at least on paper, a move from “donorship” to “Ownership” as some commentators have termed it. Two things to keep in mind are the policy content of the PRSPs and the fact that the final endorsement of the PRSI’ at whatever stage of its documentation depends on approval by the World Bank and the IMF before they qualify for new lending. As a result for many, “ ‘national ownership’ is more theoretical than real. The limited experience with PRSPs has shown that many civil society organizations have seriously noted the lack of choice in the process. It is one thing for the WB/IMF to endorse “participation” but it is another to ensure that participation can lead to policy change. In general, participation has had a minor incremental effect, legitimizing policy choices made elsewhere.

The dilemmas in ownership range from those groups and people who have been frustrated by the participation process thus seriously undermining ownership, to the relative impotency of governments. The governments who are the formal partners in the process have contribu-

63. Deiiiba Moussa ilernl~cle, T h e niyrlis arid (laiigcrs (I~I~I~SI~S, Sciiegal: l;«riim (its Alrcriiarivcs Africaines, 2003

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ted to the lack of participation in country. In any case they have no real incentive to encourage participation in respective countries, considering the significant lack of control and choice they have in the process itself. There seems to be no real choice and cash-strapped governments, “ . . .have a devilish choice: either heed their citizens or heed their crediiors (who have the last word in endorsing the PRSP”.G* This is compounded by the agenda at stake, which is considerably broader and deeper than in the past. “The IMF.. .World Bank have gained coiiside- rable power through the PRSP/HIPC programs. N o w the institutions can influence a borrower’s entire national development strategy - not just the policies related to their loans”.65 T o emphasize this point, note that “(t)he policy reforms imposed through the DKSP process has covered “all major economic decisions - budgets, tax and expenditure poli-. cies, exchange rates, trade and tariff policies, price policies, privatization, credit policies - such that countries subject to them have very little control over their economic policies”.G6 Another clue as to the nature of poor ownership has been the near consistency of approaches and even language in all the PRSPs and the importance given to macroeconomic growth and stability. All this has in turn strengthened the hand of donors, who have papered over the lack of choice and control through the seemingly noble artifacts of participation and ownership.

CONTENT

“The obsession with growth projections remains unashamedly dominant in the WB-IMF poverty relief thinlung’’.~7 An aspect of PRSP policies that raises doubts over the level of ownership and content of the PRSPs is the ‘‘lack of explicit linkages between macro-economic policies and poverty reduction goaIs’’.6* “There are a number of elements that are not included in PRSPs because they do not fit within the obligatory

~

64. CNES, “The more rliiiigs change, die more they stay the sanie: Poverty Reduction Straregy Papers (PRSPs) and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS), January 2002 65. Id. 66. Frances Srewart arid Michael Wang, Do PRSPs empower poor couiirries aiid clisempower [he World Dank, or is it rlie other way round?, 2 67.Tlie World Bank and rhe PRSP: Flawed Thinking and Failing Experiences 68. Fraiices Srewnrt aiid Michael Wang, D o PRSI3 cinpower poor counrries and discinpowcr die World Rank. or is ir the orlier way roiind?

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neoliberal parameters.”(”) Some of these elements that do not cvcn appear in the poverty diagnosis and therefore the strategies are land and agrarian reform, progressive taxation, support for doinestic markets and protection, food sovereignty, the protection of the environment and labour vis-à-vis investors, assurances of social rights and entitlements, and other forms of governmental protection vis-a-vis the free rnarket.7O

“There is a big gap between policies that are in the interest of the poor and those that the BWis (Bretton Woods’ Institutions’) consider as sound. The privatization of public and essential services, like water, health and education, is at the core of the BWIs policies and has contributed to spreading poverty. A case in point is Senegal, where, because of water privatization, poor groups in urban areas pay 3 to 4 times more than rich groups. The liberalization of tlie country’s groundnut sector, imposed by the BWIs, cost more than 400 jobs following the dissolution of transport company and their families to the brink of famine”.”

O n the issue of women and gendered policies, “since the international financial institutions (IFIs) first introduced the process of poverty reduction strategy papers.. ..poor women in these countries have been failed by tlie very process that should be helping them.”7* “The poverty analysis in PRSPs fails to reflect the gendered aspects of poverty.. .two factors that have been extremely problematic to achieving a gender sensitive PRSP process have been the lack of understanding of gender issues by those in key positions of drafting the PRSPs, and lack of financial and economic expertise amongst gender sensitive civil society groups and women’s groups”.7-l

The PRSPs have also generally been found to be neglecting key environmental issues in its content. If the environment is mentioned, it is mentioned purely as a sectoral issue rather than its principles permea- ting through the policies as such. This has led to the defining of “strategic frameworks” that “fail to recognize that the rural poor, constituting over 70% of the worlds poor, have an immediate survival dependence

63. The World 13ank and die I’RSI’: Flawed ‘I‘hinking aiid Failing Expcrieiices 70. Id. 71. ‘The riiyrlis aiid dangers of I’KSl’s 72. Kntheririe Nigliriiigale, Failiiig Woineii, Susraining Poverty, a look ar Anii Whitehead’s reporr oii womcri’s parriciparioii iii I’KSI’s, 2003 73. Id.

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on access to Lise and sound management of environmental resources”.7~ There is also no mention of the environment in monitoring indicators.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE PRSP BANDWAGON

The PRSP can be viewed as a policy document that impacts the poor, where country budgets and spending habits affect real lives and determine whether people have food, health, shelter, livelihoods and education and where there are real issues of empowerment, discrimination and marginalisation. What could be more crucial in terms of human rights priorities but to jump onto this PKSP bandwagon? Maybe it is time to dust off those human rights treatises and start using human rights standards in a place where it can have real impact, a place where the business of poverty reduction is conducted, where one can finally put one’s money where one’s rhetoric is.

For these reasons there have been some steps taken to stamp a human rights influence on PRSP discourse. The motivations for this range from a need to ensure that low-income countries do not renege on their international human rights obligations, while implementing a PRSP or to those who believe that the PRSP is an opportune discursive terrain where the human rights accountability of the World Bank and IMF can be picked over.

I do believe that the debate tends to get cluttered for precisely this reason. The human rights expectations froin the PRSP are at varying scales and pursue diverse agendas. For this reason, I would like to break- down the different ways in which the PRSP and human rights talk takes place and also its potential.

COUNTRY OBLIGA TIONS

The first is that in the making of the PRSPs, countries should not violate their human rights obligations at an international and national level. This cuts across process issues such as ensuring participation, information disclosure and transparency. On the substantive side, while

71. WW~-M:icroec«iioriiics Program Office, Povercy Iicducrioii for the Poor, not the I’rivilcged, 2003

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implementing PRSP led policies, human rights should actively guide what countries do, making certain that core obligations are not violated, that issues of discrimination and marginalisation are adequately dealt with. A country with political goodwill, it has been suggested could use human rights as a shield, strengthening up their negotiations with IFIs and donors. Apart from the countries in the I’RSP process, donor nations might also be pushed to respect their obligations under international human rights law ensuring that their transnational activities, especially in IFIs does not violate human rights.

EMPOWERING PEOPLE

The second is that a human rights approach will empower people in countries that are in the PRSP fold. It will provide them with a means to push for core obligations to be respected, protected and fdfilled, ensure that they are not discriminated against, fight for participation, accountability and access to information. It will note that when it comes to food, health, education, shelter, livelihoods, it is a matter of rights, embodied in international law and in many national settings.

IFI A CCO UN TABILI T Y

The third is that PRSPs as mentioned earlier provide a discursive terrain to discuss the human rights accountability of the World Bank and IMF. This accountability and human rights deficit is not unique to the case of the PRSP. The debate rages for World Bank projects and the impacts of structural adjustment and strategies that have operated across countries. So with the advent of PRSPs a couple of things have take place. One is that finally there is a policy that avowedly says poverty reduction and it opens up a space for action and cooperation. And this space is a wide one, with donors, aid agencies, the EU, UN agencies, UN human rights bodies all able to engage with the process. And regarding UN agencies, specifically human rights bodies, the PRSP discourse might in addition provide a global interstice for dialogue between the IFIs and UN human rights bodies, allowing human rights to be planted slowly but surely in IF1 work.

That was the optimistic view. While the PRSP discourse might allow for these multiple layers of human rights meaning, some have warned of the potential overload on the PRSP itself, of expecting the PRSI’ to be a catch-all concept for a range of international projects. i believe that this caution is a handy one. After all, is the PRSP all that it is m a d e

out to be? The IFIs have changed acronyms every few years, it’s hard to keep track, moving from one development gadget to the next. At the very least, it is just a policy plan, which may not really be anything more [han a modest attempt at re-budgeting and re-managing poverty problems. Add in the usual growth formulas in low- income countries and have possibly incremental effect and minimal benefit.

PRSPS REFRAMING HUMAN RIGHTS

In the earlier section I pointed some scenarios on the impact that human rights might malie on PRSPs, some of which is definitely in current circulation in policy debates. But here I would like to pose certain challenges, keeping in mind the three core problem areas in the PRSP debate of participation, ownership and content. These challenges, 1 believe point out that while the aim is to use human rights to trans- form PRSPs, PRSPs might in return do some reframing of human rights ’

in the process, exposing certain chinks in the human rights armour. The following are some aspects that need to be kept in mind.

These three layers of talk including country obligations, empowering people and IF1 accountability may not be necessarily mutually reinforcing or equally evolved in an international human rights sense.

Of the three layers of talk I argue that it is the issue of IF1 accountability that is particularly problematic and has the potential to destabilize the engagement of PRSPs and human rights and may result in human rights falling short of providing regulation.

The IFis have been largely criticized for their lack of accountability, legitimacy and transparency. But international law does not draw the IFIs into its fold in a real “command and control” sense. Human Rights law is based on individual rights and is pursued against the State. In that strict sense, the World Bank and IMF do not seem subject therefore to International human rights law and do not answer to peoples that are affected by their strategies and policies. However there have been a variety of legal techniques used and arguments made by human rights scholars in the field citing the IFIs international legal responsibility, in the human rights arena, maintaining that at the very least they have a duty to ‘respect’ human rights, though how this should operate in practice is not definitively prescribed.

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There is also the controversial issue of IFIs postulating that their activities promote human rights and thus there is really no conflict and confrontation between the two fields. The other move on their part has been to ever so partially co-opt human rights, be it in the rule of law, good governance sense or even in their operational policies. The latter approach is evident in the projects that the World Bank undertakes while the former approach of conflatiiig human rights and their development strategies can be found in the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDFj and to a certain extent PliSPs which then maltes it more difficult to challenge. For example, the World Bank claims that through their activities they in fact further human rights. The end goals of development and socio-economic progress promote human rights. This “inarketization” of human rights by the IFIs and the implications of this for human rights discourse in general needs to be uncovered and examined.

The “human rights” language used by the IFIs, seems to base itself on neo-liberal economic agendas, and the pursuit of free markets and free trade. So thus there is an urgency to retain the essence of human rights language in negotiations with economic entities. But this search for an “authentic” human rights language might prove to be an elusive one, as the market and the economy buttress human rights as evoked in international standards. If the political economy in which human rights operates is a neo-liberal one, how can one adequately challenge issues arising out of that. O n the same tack, the key policies as advanced by the World Bank and IMF through aid conditionality, at its peak during the structural adjustment era are a mixed bag of trade and investment liberalization, privatization, deregulation, reducing government expenditure, restructuring of public services and sectors, rapid economic growth. Many commentators have stated that the international financial institutions have pushed for a “one-size fits all” macroeconomic and structural reform policy that has resulted in devastating economic and social reper- cussions. These key policies, in the eyes of critics has found its way into the PRSP framework and PRSPs far from being a change from the old structural adjustment framework is merely a continuation, by another name. What does present human rights discourse say definitely on any of the issues, including privatisation, liberalisation and the like? If the argument is that none of these are inherently problematic and it is all about country choices and that is where human rights sliould have a say then that ignores political and economic realities.

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There is deep injustice present in the world political and economic system, a far from level playing field. By attempting to mainstream human rights in poverty reduction strategies, the UN agencies are in danger of reproducing and replicating these inequalities. As an illustration of how this plays out, view the present mainstreaming exercises like the preparation of the Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strate- gies by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human kglits (OHCHR), 2002. The Draft Guidelines opt for a generic approach to poverty reduction and human rights. It does not adequately address the realities of technologies of governance like the PRSP, thus leaving it outside its scope. The thrust of responsibilities in the draft guidelines is on state parties, gently brushing aside real criticisms that need to be directed at external donor states and the World. Bank and IMF' for the impact of their neo-liberal agendas and economic and financial orthodoxies. In short, these sorts of maiiistreaming exercises seek to frame the lack of basic needs in the language of rights keeping the inequalities in global power, economics, trade and finance intact.

CONCLUSION Through this paper I would like to stress that while there is poten-

tial in the PRSP and human rights field, certain areas need urgent resolution. While country obligations and the empowerment of people in countries should be encouraged and fostered, the backdrop of political and economic inequalities, severe indebtedness, and the lack of human rights accountability on the part of IFIs present serious challenges. This accountability or human rights deficit is evident in the notion of PRSI's and overall in other projects and strategies. There have been moves to strengthen the same in human rights policy debates but there is still a major gap. Human rights discourse needs to exainine its ambiguous and possibly ambivalent relationship wicli neoliberal economic agendas and how distributional choices are made. While there is basic inequality in terms of political and economic power and the leverage and complicity of international financial institutions is not adequately foregrounded in a human rights sense, pushing for the rest might remain empty rhetoric and even counterproductive.

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RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH AS A CROSS-CUTTING ISSUE IN FINNISH FOREIGN POLICY

Mr. Rauno Merisaari Hiarzaii rights adviser

Miizistry foT Foreigiz AflaiTs Firilaiid

Rauno Merisaari has a Political Sciences academic background. Since 2003, he is Human Rights and Development adviser to the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Prior to that, he has been Special advisor to the Minis- try for Development co-operation (2002-2003), Secretary general at the Finnish UN Association (2000-2003), Special advisor in the European Parliament (1 997-1999).

He has also been member of the Advisory board for Human rights (MFA) (2000-2003), Advisor for Development co-operation (1 999-2003), Special advisor to the Minister for Development co-operation, advisor for Develop- ment co-operation (1 999-2003).

Finland promotes, as a part of its foreign and development policy, human rights on the one hand as a cross-cutting isszie through a rights- based approach and on the other hand through sppec.zfiL. projects for promoting human rights, democracy and good governance. Those specific HR-projects play a crucial role especially as a part in our reconstruction activities in S.C. post-conflict countries (and normally with UN agencies). But comparing the volume of those specific projects with total Finnish ODA and aiming more HR-impact, it’s evidently much more important to improve human rights as cross-cutting issue in development policy. This includes also our strategies and activities in infrastructure sectors like forestiy and water and sanitation or trade policy.

The human rights based approach to development (HRBA), also recorded as cross-cutting issue in our document, could be seen here as a part of vision, which believes in multilateral system, where promotion and implementatioii of international covenants and treaties play a crucial role, as best way to meet global challenges, like extreme poverty. Thus, the HRBA is also primarily linlted to the respect and promotion of Iiitcrnational Human rights covenants and treaties as well tlicir consistent interiiationd monitoring.

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Is this a new commitment by us or not ? The answer is both ’yes’ and ’no’. Promotion of Human rights has been one of the main priii- ciples and aims of Finnish developing co-operation just since 1990’s and the concept of HRBA lias been written into governmental documents just during last years. But on the other way Finnish government, among others, has been committed already quite a long time to same principles and aims by respecting Universal declaration of Human rights and by ratifications of International Covenants and Treaties. End of the Cold war and growing global interdependency have opened some possibilities to eliminate at least the cruelties forms of HR-violations.

It has mentioned that there is no jointly adopted iiiternational definition of HRBA. How we formulate the concept? And what are socio-economic and intellectual paths we have gone along to use this concept? How H

Fiistly one reason for iising more consistent way die concept of HRBA due to general debate on development and poverty. Following Mr. A m m p Sen‘s view of development as freedom, development and poverty alleviation could be, in our minds, seen by holistic way. It should be included, not just economic growth75 and fulfillment of material needs by the people but also overcoming of political alienation and marginalization in societies. It means, inter alia, everybody’s right to participate in social life as an empowered person.

Second4 w e believe that indivisibility of human rights, and especially equal stress and implementation of political and economic, social and cultural rights, can serve a proper approach to also to development and poverty discourse. Our guideline is more and more caring for this equilibrium.76 It’s clear that implementation of this kind of strategy

75. I consider ecological and social susrairiable econoniic growrh plus irriplemenrarioii of Iitiniaii riglirs as a kind of ideal iiiaxiin of good society 76. The approacli ro improve polirical aiid social refornis parallel and iiirerliiiked could be found also in Finnish nation-building history from one of clic pooresr Europeaii terrirories, including massive srarvation catascroplie, at rhe mid of 17th cenrury to recent nation wirh a quire high social sraiidards: tliese reforins includes many curreiir topics of developing discussion: like everybody’s access, or in facr obligarion to free basic education (lare 17th century), Women’s equal riglir ro vore aiid to be elected alrnosr precisely I O0 years ago, iiidependeiicy aiid laiid reforni for laiidless people arid srroiig inuiiicipal nutoiiorriy (nlmosr 90 years ago) aiid niaiiy welfare moclcl reforms after 2nd World War. ’lliis developmcnr hisror)., quite clcnrly srill in our minds, gives IO us also some kind of realistic opriniism aiid IiopefLilly also some ideas ro our partners in recenr devclopiiig policy.

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requires both improvenients for Human rights by respective governments and shared responsibility to finance development, including responsibility of rich countries and international community. Also Finland has to increase substantially its ODA77 and improve the coherence between trade and development policies. W e believe also that besides of holistic vision to the development, equal emphasizing of political and social rights can serve also an acceptable and balanced ground for international commitments to core human rights both by rich countries with their liberal tradition and by developing countries with their enormous economic and social needs. W e are working in same line in Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy, open and inclusive dialogue between major international stakeholders and initiated by Tanzanian and Finnish Governments. This forum searches novel and empowering solutions to the dilemmas of global governance.

Thirdly HRBA to development policy, at least in our minds, includes also the fact that extreme poverty constitutes maybe the most significant global human right problem today. This means chat poverty reduction shall consist by improvements in everybody’s right to basic social services and everybody’s right to participate and right to be heard and right to act as empowered person in their societies.

Fourthly w e emphasize the added value which HRBA can serve to poverty alleviation especially when it concerns rights of women and rights of s.c. most vulnerable groups: children, disabled people, different minorities and indigenous peoples. Among these people poverty, discrimination and human rights violations are much broader than on average. As a part of halving of the poverty by 2015 and achieving other MDG’s it’s usefd, besides of national and regional average values, to follow-up also how well MDG ’s will be reached specifically among those groups.

It’s much more easy to accept HRBA as a guiding principle to development policy and poverty reduction than to take it in action and.operationalise it. Assessment of HRBA-impacts is not the easiest one. H o w to measure implementation of HR’s? Annual quantity or current trend of identified human rights violations is no doubt one of the measures, but not the only one. H o w easy it’s evaluate political will of govern-

77. ‘T‘lie current level is a 0.4 ‘% ol‘GNI’; actiial goveriiiiiciit placfooriii iiicliiilcr clic aiiii Tri rencli die level 0.7 ‘%I hy year 20 i O.

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ment x to implement their commitments and obligations, especially if the state budget is insufficient and public administration is very weak? Readiness to co-operate with international community shows any way the political will to implement international commitments. Implemen- tation and Operationalizing of HRBA will be our main focus linking together human rights and development. W e have started some academic studies and more pragmatic intra-ministry studies to answer the question: how to operationalise the HRBA.

HRBA is just one cross-cutting issue in current Finnish development policy. For instance our current decision- in principle on development policy states HRBA as a cross-cutting theme besides of many other aspects like environmental sustainability, working model of economy’ including both public and private sectors, conflict resolution, good governance, anti-corruption and rights of women and most vulnerable groups. Taking so many angles so comprehensively can lead to situation where w e have too complex and too heavy guidelines, which fiiially can prevent using common sense and creating working concepts and in a longer run it can lead also to certain kind of “crosscutting fatigue”. Thais why w e are improving the implementation of HRBA parallel with other cross-cutting issues and trying produce our checklists and other tools for implementation so simple and user-friendly as possible.

Our aim is also arrange training on HRBA for our country desks and other actors parallel with implementation process. W e know that w e haven’t describe the concept of HRBA enough and that it’s still quite unclear to most of our desk officers. But we believe that besides of research and general discussions S.C. ’learning by doing’- model could help us to operatioiialise HRBA better and commit focal people to implementation more than any sophisticated, but clapped out guideline.

W e have still a lot to do. Policy coherence is one of those areas. W e are starting a pilot project how to include HRBA (among others cross- cutting issues) to our Forestry policy, one of main sectors in our development policy activities.

H o w far-reaching concept the HRBA will be? Before having possibility to give any real answer to that question, the concept lias to pass a test of Operationalizing. But more generally the question of usefulness of HRBA to development policy and poverty reduction links to the question: how much the development especially in developing countries relies on growing rights to participation by the people?

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Particitlarly if and when the educational level will improve among the younger generation, the empowerment of people is not just only option for the future. But it’s noc possible to ignore more ducated people by limiting their rights if all possible resources can be used for development and poverty alleviation. This gives also to Unesco a special role to improve HFU3A-concept. And in this spirit Finland will work, among other things, to enhance the drafting of an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights concerning a mechanism for individual complaints.

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RIGHTS -BASED APPROACHES IN THE UK DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (DFID)

Pat Holden Seriior Guider aiid Riglzfs Adviser

DFID Pat Holden is currently Senior Gender and Rights Adviser in the U.K. Depart- ment for International Development (DFID) Policy Division. She has worked for DFID since 1987 as Social Development Adviser and is a social anthropo- logist, teacher and researcher by background. From 1997-2001, she worked in the U.K. Mission to the United Nations in N e w York, focusing on gender and rights and social policy issues; moreover from 2001-2003 she was seconded to the ILO.

The UK government set out its commitment to the importance of integrating human rights into development in the White Paper of 2000. This formally committed the UK to working to protect and promote human rights internationally, both through development prograinnies and diplomatic efforts.

The DFID policy paper “Realising Human Rights for poor People” 2000 expanded on this by setting out a set of operational principles as the basis for integrating rights into development. The principles are participation; inclusion and fLilfilling obligation and are essential for addressing poverty reduction and achieving the Millennium Deve- lopment Goals.

Since the production of this paper many DFID programmes have attempted to take forward a rights-based approach. In 2004 DFID commissioned a review of its work on rights-based approaches.

in the policy area there has been work on off-track MDGs on rights-based approaches to maternal mortality, and on HIV/AIDS and rights. DFID has worked with the IL0 core labour standards and has undertaken programnies for Security and Access to Justice; and on the rights of indigenous peoples.

Partnerships have been developed based on adoption of a human rights approach. For example, DFID supported the work on the UN common understanding of a HRBA, there have been partnerships with

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NGOs based on a clear shift of focus from service delivery to an approach which emphasises the capacity of people to claim their rights, alongside the capacity of government to fulfil their obligations. DFID has supported UNICEF to develop rights-based approaches to programming and has worked with UNIFEM on women’s rights.

CHALLENGES in some cases DFID has incorporated rights into the overall analysis

of countiy programmes but generally human rights has not been systematically incorporated into planning systems; and into instruments such as PRSPs.

Many people in development organisations remain sceptical about rights. This is because they are concerned about affordability-particu- lady of economic, social and cultural rights-and often because development specialists have little specialist knowledge about rights.

ADDED VALUE OF RIGHTS However, the added-value of rights lies in the following:

It provides a normative framework to inform policy choices by basing donodgovernment relationships 011 shared international consensus on rights.

It provides an analytical framework for looking at th structural causes of poverty; emphasises power relationships and obligations; focuses on excluded and vulnerable groups; and helps set benchmarks for progress.

It has operational value because it strengthens good development practice and helps inforin policy choices.

FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR DFID AND OTHER DONORS.

Ensuring donor harmonisation of approaches to rights in development and to dialogue with partner governments.

Ensuring rights are understood in the context of MDGs a n d PRSPs and budgetary support

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Better dialogue between rights specialists and economists -especially over the causes and consequences of poverty in relation to rights.

Strengthening work on governance so that it encompasses fiilfîlling obligations.

Better understanding of the political sensitivities of rights.

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RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO POVERTY ERADICATION - POLICIES AND EXPERIENCES FROM SIDAlSWEDEN

Christine Lundberg Pelmaizelit Mission of Szoedeiz

After her studies in Political Sciences and Development (Stockholm IJniver- sity), she has been working in the field of development co-operation and human riyhts for more than 20 years. Since 2001, she is first secretary and the Representative for SIDA (Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency) in the field of human rights; she is based at the Swedish Per- manent Mission to the UN in Geneva. Her experience includes program management with a child rights N G O in Sweden and Central America and at program management at SIDA.

This paper talks about the Swedish policy and implementation of a rights based approach to poverty eradication. First, it will very briefly refer to Sida’s document “Perspectives of Poverty” which provides an analytical approach and points towards organisational consequences of that approach. Then it will continue presenting some of Sweden’s main policies and finally finish with the example of our development cooperation with South Africa.

PERSPECTIVES OF POVERTY Poverty is complex, it is context-specific, it is relative and it is dyna-

mic. Poverty deprives people of the freedom to decide over and shape their own lives. It robs them of the opportunity to choose on matters of fundamental importance to themselves. The essence of poverty is not only lack of material resources but also lack of power and choice. A litmus test of if ail intervention decreases poverty could thus be if the effect is that poor people have increased possibility to decide over their lives in areas of relevance to them.

Because lack of power and choice often makes it difficult for the poor to obtain adequate material resources, the democratic or Iiiimaii rights aspect of poverty interacts with the material dimension. As such,

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the human-rights approach emphasises the inclusion of all people, even the poor and the poorest.

Peace is a basic prerequisite for sustainable development. Conflicts always lead to poverty.

Democratic povernance empowers people and increases security. It makes governments more accountable, transparent and predictable, broadening opportunities for increased employment, as well as acquiring capital for investment.

Economy and social develoument is another prerequisite for poverty reduction. An institutional environment is essential for sustained poverty alleviation: institutions, including the market, must be made to work for the poor. In order to be effective, policies must be pro-poor, with a clear focus on the need to strengthen capacities and increase the opportunities for the poor.

A sustainable use of the environment is necessary to maintain long term efficiency in poverty reduction. The option is not to “fence off‘ natural resources but to ensure that their sustainable use and management provides a livelihood for poor people.

For partner countries as well as development organizations the analysis of poverty is crucial for planning, programming, budget decisions and for the design of an intervention. Causes aiid expressions of poverty often differ between men and women, age categories, ethnic groups and other categories of people.

Neither poverty nor development is neutral to cender. Causes as well as expressions of poverty may vary substantially between women and men. Gender inequalities related to poverty usually have roots that lead beyond the immediate life situations of poor people. Directly targeting poor women and men is therefore not enough. Measures that affect both direct and indirect gender-poverty linkages are required.

Nor is poverty neutral to ethnicity. Ethnic affiliation and cultural distinctiveness enrich societies. However, differences based on ethnic ascription are often used as excuses for discrimination. This may result in poverty due to blocked access to assets and information.

Povertv analysis is the responsibility of partner countries. Sida assists in building analytical capacity in partner countries to carry out studies,

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be they related to specific programmes or to national planning. Poverty analysis should be based on an integrated approach and should map the causes and dynamics of povercy as well as describe the symptoms. T h e analysis should be action-oriented and cry to foresee the impact of different processes.

The &of development co-operation is to create conditions and to support processes that lead to poverty reduction in partner countries. The partners must own the efforts and have the resources, capacity and opportunity to pursue the objectives. One of Sida’s main tasks is to strengthen capacities for partner countries to exercise ownership.

The dialogue with partners plays a central role in our work and involves various actors in partner countries, not just government officials. Dialogue on poverty issues demands a holistic perspective. It is sometimes a process of negotiation, at times a quest for a common platform. The dialogue does not exclude the raising of sensitive issues. It requires frankness, humility and respect. Not least, the dialogue requires that Sida representatives realise the complications of having the power of money.

Sida’s two main processes, the formulation of country strategies and the proiect cycle, analyse and describe poverty at different levels. Policy dialogue issues are identified in the country strategy decided by the Swe- dish Government. The country analysis, preferably based on partner plans or documents and in collaboration with other agencies, should identifi strength and weaknesses in poverty reduction strategies from the point of economic, human and environmental sustainability.

In analysing programmes and projects, there is a need to consider not only the programme itself, but also its context. Interventions with the aim of‘ reducing poverty can be of different types with more or less direct effects.

General structural changes aimed at underpinning pro-poor policies. These give support to efforts for democracy and good governance, macro-economic stability, increased accountability, transparency and the fight against corruption.

Indirect or inclusive actions directed to broad groups, including sector wide approaches that are geared to sectors of importance to the poor (education, rural development, small-scale enterprise etc.).

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Interventions directly and predominantly focused on different categories of poor people. Examples are targeted safety nets, labour-intensive works programmes, support to refugees and internally displaced persons as well as support to non-governmental organisations.

Good interventions require a thorough knowledge about the local situation. The best way to achieve this is through a strong presence in the field. Therefore, Sida puts great weight on having a strong field organisation.

SWEDEN’S POLICY FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

In December last year the Swedish Parliament passed a Government Bill called “Shared Responsibility: Sweden’s Policy for Global Develop- ment”. It proposes that a rights perspective’* and the perspective of the ,

poor should permeate nll policy areas. The overriding objective is equitable and sustainable global development. A few years ago, a Swedish National Human Rights Action Plan was also adopted, based on a survey of the human rights situation in Sweden. Thus, Sweden shows an ambition to work with an integrated human rights policy, both domes- tically and internationally.

The Policy is an ambitious and far-reaching attempt to live up to the obligations and declarations put down in the International Bill of Rights (the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the two covenants of Political & Civil Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (2000) as well as the large World Summits and UN Conferences, including the later ones on Financing for Development in Monterrey (2002), on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002) and on Trade within the W O (2001 & 2004).

The new Swedish Policy is based on the notion of consistency, coherence and coordination between different policy areas, like trade, agriculture, environment, security, migration, development cooperation and economic policy. Objectives must be harmonized and policy areas, ministries and authorities better coordinated.

78. I‘lie Governiiieiit Bill speliks of a riglics perspective but clarifies thnt rliis defiiiicioii includes litunan rights, democracy, cliild rights and gender equality.

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A common, core characteristic of rights is that they emphasise non- discrimination and DarticiDation: meaning that all people - regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, disability or other possible determinants of social end economic status - are entitled to the same rights. A democracy- aiid human rights-based approach puts the inclusion of deprived, excluded and marginalised groups on the development agenda.

However, it should be remembered that the human rights perspective has &members of society in focus, not a specific group. That is why the democracy- and rights based-approach emphasises the political dimension of development. It indicates that a broad-based democratic system is needed to fulfil human rights and promote opportunities for poor people to participate - directly or indirectly - in decisions that concern their lives.

The Swedish government has clearly expressed its view that reducing poverty can be done more effectively by starting from a human rights based approach to development cooperation. The human rights perspective and the perspective of the poor can help put the limelight on the poorest of the poor, the marginalised, discriminated and vulnerable groups: women - who often bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, children and youth - including aids orphans -, the elderly, people living with HIVIAIDS, disabled, indigenous people, refugees etc.

Applying the perspectives implies seeking methods to make it possible for these groups and individuals to voice their needs and aspirations in discussions and decision-making, through both their elected representatives in political arenas and directly in programming and implementing of development projects when this is desirable and possible.

Sida in its work with a human rights perspective often highlight some central principles that should be respected and indeed aimed for:

equality in dignity and rights,

openness and transparency,

accountability,

access to justice and

participation.

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However, it’s important to stress that poverty reduction also have other more technical and economical aspects that can not primarily be resolved through a human rights based approach and its emphasis on inclusion, empowerment and voice.

The multidiniensional poverty concept - described in Sida’s Perspectives of Poveyty - is based on an understanding of poverty as the lack of power, security and opportunities. A democracy79 and human rights based approach analysing power structures, state obligations, rights of individuals is thus a most relevant platform. The goal of Swe- den’s development cooperation and the role of Sida is to contribute to an environment supportive of poor people’s own efforts to improve their quality of life.

In the Policy for Global Development the perspective of the poor implies that poor people’s needs, interests, caDacitv arid conditions should be a point of departure. The policy also identifies eight central components for an equitable and sustainable development:

respect for human rights,

democracy and good governance,

gender equality,

sustainable use of natural resources and protection of the environment,

economic growth,

social development and security,

conflict prevention and management and

the production arid management of global public goods.

These should be the “cornerstones” of the integrated Swedish Policy. In the South African context the HIV/AIDS pandemic must be added to the equation.

79. For Sweden anti Sida ii: lias been iniporraiit to calk very specifically abouc a clc7m~cracy and Iiumnii rights based approncli, einphasising die policical dimension of tlevclopmciic. A dernticra- ric culture aiid rlie democratic iiistii:utioiis like free niid hair electioiis, parry systems, independent media, rule of law, participation, tolerance, dialoguc etc arc necessary ro upliold arid protect Iiunian rights.

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I will highlight the Swedish cooperation with South Africa, as we are in the proccss of transforming the partnership from that of a more traditional development cooperation into a broader cooperation, based on reciprocity and joint financing.

Sweden and today's South Africa share a unique kind of committed partnership, based on historical ties of solidarity. With South Africa having one of the world's most progressive constitutions (1996), - res- ting on an explicit human rights approach to developments') - and Swe- den with a National Human Rights Action Plan in place since 2002 (to be revised in 2005) and a brand new Policy for Global Development - based on the perception that two perspectives, the human rights perspective and the perspectives of the poor, should permeate all policy areas - there is clearly a common platform to address the dynamics of development and poverty.

Development cooperation between South Africa and Sweden has the overriding obiective to reduce poverty, inequality and vulnerability.

There has always been a strong emphasis on service-delivery and consequently assistance to the reform and capacity-building of the public administration. Important and strategic policies have been adopted in the last decade and focus has been to assist in the implementation phase of these.

Democratic eovernance is a prerequisite for sustainable poverty reduction. South Africa and Sweden share a strong belief in the rule of law, nondiscrimination, respect for human rights, gender equality and public participation - all necessary principles in a society where poor people will have the possibility to take an active part in their own development.

Rule of law and access to iustice - also for the poor - has been one area of cooperation in the past, with training of and support to paralegals, hopefully soon to Le integrated in the formal legal system.

South Africa has at this point in time the world's second largest inequality gap between rich and poor. Historically based inequalities along race and gender lines, large pockets of poverty and marginal-

80. iiicl tidiiig economic riiitl social i.ighrs, fundnrnerital fui- poverty rcdiicriori.

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isation, high unemployment rates and even widening of the inequality pose great challenges in the present and the future.

In the development and application of new technical instruments, financial mechanisms and forms of cooperation there should be initial and on-going discussions based on poverty and human rights analysis’s.

Human rights and poverty criteria and indicators should be used in the planning, implementing and monitoring of new instruments and forms of cooperation. There are already norms and values set out in the incernational human rights law as well as in Sweden’s and South Africa’s domestic approaches to human rights and poverty that could be used.

Primary stakeholders, like the poor, need to be identified and ways to support their empowerment and participation need to be developed. Access to information and to markets is often crucial. T o what extent has affected groups been able to participate in decision-making processes? Will the programine/process lead to decreased poverty, in any of the many dimensions of poverty? Will or could it lead to increased poverty? Will the programme/process lead to realization of human rights? Will the programme lead to violations of human rights? etc.

O n the Swedish side, the new coherence entity/authority to be set up should have an instrumental role in securing that all Swedish actors involved - at least all Swedish governmental agencies and ministies - are in sync with the essence of the new Policy. There is a need for a broad dialogue and closer cooperation between different stakeholders, public authorities at different levels, the business sector, the trade unions, civil society and non-governrnental organisations.

New policies, guidelines and forms of cooperations will probably also be developed and fine-tuned as a direct result of the adoption of the Policy for Global Development.

As for the cooperation between South Africa and Sweden, the dialogue should focus on how best that partnership should contribute to South Africa’s own strategies for poverty reduction.

Dialogue is the key - with the Swedish national human rights plan due to be revised in 2005, there could also be interesting openings for unconditional discussions, brain-storming and systematic exchange of experiences around challenges of complying with state obligations.

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The dialoglie could benefit both countries efforts to work relent- lessly on poverty and service-delivery even with a shift from traditional development cooperation into forms of broader cooperation, never losing track of the higher objective of' poverty reduction.

In conclusion, the future broader cooperation with South Africa will really prove be a litmus test for the aspirations of the new Policy for Global Development, putting into practice the human rights perspective and the perspective of the poor.

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SEMINAR 3

19 October 2004

Theme : “The Human Rights Requirements and the challenge of Poverty Eradication : A New Response or a Conditio- nality ?”

Agencies of the United Nations System Speakers :

This Seminar addresses the relationship between poverty and Human Rights. Why should the Human Rights framework be applied to poverty eradication ? What philosophy lies behind the reform launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations ?

Panelists of the United Nations System, given their experiences in different agencies, enriched and underscored the debate and the reflection on the requirements of the human rights when applied to poverty eradication.

The seminar started with an introductory contribution by Mr. Robert Archer, Director of the International Council on Human Rights Policy.

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OFTEN POVERTY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Robert Archer International Coiiiicil on Hiinzan Rights Policy

Robert Archer has been the Executive Director of the International Council on Human Rights Policy since it was established in Geneva in 1998. From 1991 -97, he was Policy Adviser at Christian Aid (London) where he worked on development and democratisation issues mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa. From 1981-1 991 he co-ordinated the Catholic Institute for International Relations’ advocacy and policy programme on human right: and political reform in East and Southeast Asia. He has degrees in philosophy and literature from Cambridge University and in African Studies from the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He has researched and taught in Madayascar, worked in publishing in Paris and is the author of books on Madagascar and South Africa.

This paper considers the international responsibilities that states have to take action abroad to reduce poverty and protect economic and social rights in other countries. It. is based on work the International Council did while preparing a report called Duties Sans Fnmtièws - Human rights and global social justice. It suggests that, based on the human rights framework, concentrating on the responsibility to act may be a more effective or cogent strategy than emphasizing violations.

POVERTY AS A VIOLATION OF RIGHTS It is attractive to think of poverty as a human rights violation. It

coincides with our feeling that poverty is a wrong. At the same time, making this idea powerful and practical, and doing so in relation to the human rights framework, poses challenges.

“POVERTY” IS ABSTRACT

To start with, “poverty” is abstract. In saying this I do not mean it is not real : clearly people are poor and the experience of being poor is real enough. However, most rights that touch on social and economic issues are expressed in positive terms : the right to housing ; the right to food ; the right to health ; the right to education. These objectives too

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are abstract, of course : it is partly because all these “goods” are relative and interpretable that w e have to spend effort developing ideas like “progressive realization”.

But the difference becomes clear if you try to turn the assertion that poverty is a violation into a positive claim. One crin speak of violating the right to housing, or violating the right to food - though the precise content of such claims may still be quite difficult to establish. But what does it mean in practice to speak of violating the right not to be poor ? W h a t practically does such a claim add ? What specific claim does it establish ?

POVERTY IS AN UMBRELLA CONCEPT

Part of the answer to this raises a further issue. W e are more and more recognizing that poverty is a complex condition which cannot be reduced to simple terms. The fact w e think this way is one of the great successes of modern development and human rights campaigning, aiid we should laud it. But it means that advocating for poverty as a violation of rights, or “non-poverty’’ as a right, becomes more complex too.

In practice, human rights activists speak of poverty as an umbrella notion : it covers, includes, or connects with a variety of other rights. The rights to food, to shelter, to political participation, to education, to health among others. ALI these rights are understood in the rights framework to be related ; but they are also specific. If you add them up, they do not define poverty ; and the term “poverty” does not define or contain the content of other rights either. In fact poverty only partly and imperfectly covers the range and content of economic, social and cultural rights, which have diverse and separate identities. Lack of access to a particular economic or social right does not necessarily imply lack of access to other rights. A person may be illiterate and have food ; may be homeless and well-educated ; may be sick due to a lack of medicines but fully involved in the cultural life of her community.

This said, lack of access to essential material resources does tend to be the factor that is most commonly shared by those who do not enjoy economic and social rights. The vast majority of those who are homeless,

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or illiterate, or without employment, or who lack access to health care, clean water, land or food, are also poor.81 (DSF p. )

For those who want to develop more focused work on poverty using the rights framework, this suggests that quite acute issues could arise if references to specific rights and references to poverty are “swapped” too casually. W e will need to ask : when does using “poverty” add focus and power to the language of rights, when does it duplicate the content of other rights less precisely, and when does it miss the target and fail to address issues that reference to other rights would address successfully.

POVERTY IS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL

Issues also arise because poverty is also a complex notion for those who do not use the human rights framework. In fact it contains a clan of conceptual children. W e recently asked the development economist Roger Riddell to set out the approaches to poverty that development activists, development economists and economists currently use. Without considering human rights approaches, he described five major schools and the differences between them - monetary, capability, social exclusion, participatory, and faith-based - plus (in a slightly different box) the UN’s own distinctive approaches through the World Bank and UNDP. As he pointed out. “There is unanimous agreement that [poverty] is a problem and that action is needed to address it. However, there is disagreement over what constitutes poverty, the unit of focus (individuals or families or households) and the importance to be given to different dimensions of poverty. There is disagreement about who should be involved in deciding what constitutes poverty. There is disagreement over how it should be understood temporally - whether at a particular point in time or over an extended period, and whether it should be understood as a permanent or temporary phenomenon. There is disagreement about the importance to be attached to the depth of poverty (the very poor, and the “not so poor”), to the vulnerability and risks of different groups to becoming poor, and to the gender dimensions of poverty.” 82

81. Huc if wc rccogiiise this, w e iiiust reineinlm coo char professional meri in New York inay I O S C rhcir jobs arid beçuirie Iioiiieles, aiid rlinr peoplc wirhour ctlucnrion m a y be marerially siicceîsfiil. 82. Roger Riddell, App‘mncl,e.c to I’overiy - 17 izotefbin the diwhjinreiit po:ymltivc, page 1 ,

Particularly for analysts and activists who do not confine themselves to the human rights framework but draw on other intellectual traditions as well, thinking of poverty only in relation to rights may exclude useful tools and angles of approach - just as, it must be emphasised, adoption of a human rights approach will add sharpness and strength to various areas of policy. When w e think of poverty in terms of human rights, therefore, w e probably need to think non-exclusively (not in terms of rights alone), and above all we ought to ask : What is the human rights framework good at ? What are its strengths ?

Very broadly, poverty is analysed in two main dimensions : in terms of material deprivation and need ; and in terms of powerlessness and injustice. It is important to compute levels of deprivation and need, and to do so objectively, in relation to non-material as well as material deprivation. However, such analyses describe a state or condition and are morally neutral because they do not need to take account of cause or responsibility. By contrast, when poverty is assessed from the perspective of powerlessness and injustice, analysis necessarily focuses on the relationships between people who are poor, on one hand, and people or circumstances which cause them to be so, on the other. Though it can use quantitative information, the human rights framework naturally adopts this form of analysis. The big question is : How far can one take it ? H o w far can one go in saying that people are poor because other people (or circumstances for which other people are responsible) cause them to be so ?

THE HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORK There is not space to rehearse here the assumption of human rights

theory.8’ But three core assumptions of the legal framework are that the content of every violation needs to be defined ; that a specific person (or group of persons) must be the subject of the violation in question ; and that someone (or some institution) must be responsible for the violation or for removing it. In jargon, specialists speak of the content of a right, the rights holdel; and the duty bearer. It is important to note that duty bearers come in two kinds : one may be a duty bearer if one is responsible for a violation ; but there may also be a duty to act, especially on governments, when not responsible for the violation concerned. For

83. T h e y are suminarizid briefly in chapter one of Diities s m s Frokim.

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this rcason, specialists distinguish actions to protect rights, to promo te rights and to fulfil rights.84 They also distinguish between “violations” of rights (where an actor is guilty of violating the rights of another) and “nonfulfilment” of rights (where the actor has a duty to act but is not responsible for the violation in question or wliere no-one can be considered directly responsible).

H o w far w e can go then, when considering poverty or economic and social rights, in applying the notions of “duty bearer” and “violation” ?

VIOLATIONS

When a person is mugged, she is mugged by someone. When an individual is tortured, it is usually by a military or civilian official. When a journalist is imprisoned, he is arrested by a police officer, on the orders of an official, sentenced by a judge, and incarcerated by guards. When crimes against humanity were committed in the former Yugoslavia, the former president of that country was eventually tried for ordering them. In very many cases, there are perpetrators (violators), as well as victims and duty-bearers, and the first responsibility of duty-bearers is often to identi@ them and bring them to book. Since officials of the state, aiid state policies, are frequently the cause of rights violations, states are very often both duty-bearer and perpetrator in relation to human rights abuses. As a result, much human rights campaigning has always called upon states to reform themselves.

While it is true, however, that a perpetrator can often be identified, in other cases there is either no perpetrator (no person has caused the problem in question), or the existence of perpetrators can be disputed. While such cases come up in relation to many human rights, they are particularly relevant when we discuss poverty and failure to achieve particular economic and social rights.

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It is certainly true that a person may go hungry, for example, because a powerfd landowner or state agency has unjustly deprived him of access to land to which he is entitled. A child may similarly be deprived of schooling because her local government has corruptly diver- ted the money set aside for education and no money remains to pay her teacher. In such cases, it is both possible and reasonable to identi@ victim, violator (landowner and local officials) and duty- bearer (no doubt the government). In such cases, the same methods may be applied to political and civil rights violations and to economic and social rights violations.

Sometimes, however, there is no violator, or the responsibility of people alleged to be violators can be challenged or is unclear. It is difficult, for example, to argue that all poverty in the world is imputable to acts of extortion, discrimination or oppression - even if many individual cases of exploitation and abuse can be identified. The same arguments may be made in relation to access to clean water, access to health facilities, even access to adequate schooling. Rights may be violated, but no one may be guilty in the way that rhe thief, the tortureï, the corrupt official or the abusive landowner are directly guilty.

At this point the usefiilness of the idea of duty-bearer becomes re- apparent, because it separates the responsibility to act to end violations of rights from the responsibility for causing the violations in question. The distinction is particularly helpful in relation to economic and social rights, where frequently no consensus exists as to the presence of a perpetrator. Whereas in relation to many (civil and political) violations, the state is often enjoined to prevent violations which it itself causes, this is less often true of economic and social rights. The duty to act exists, but not because the state concerned is necessarily responsible for violating the rights concerned. In many instances, indeed, it can be argued that no one has violated those rights : no one is directly to blame - but the duty to act remains. This distinction explains why human rights experts often speak of fulfilment of ESC rights (or unfiilfilled rights) in contrast to violations of ESC rights.

Once again, it must be emphasised that this does not exonerate authorities or other individuals from responsibility for their actions. Quite clearly, poor people are particularly subject to exploitation, and they are usually less well-protected than others by the police, courts and other government institutions that should enforce their rights. Discrimi-

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nation plays a key role in ûeepening violacions of economic, social ancl cultural rights, and when, as is so often the case, the poor are treated differently on account of their race, gender, religion, caste or social status, this is quite properly a human rights issue. Nevertheless, to a greater degree than in relation to civil and political rights, violations of economic rights may not imply a perpetrator. The responsibility of governments and other actors to intervene is then solely in order to protect the victim (and not to sanction a perpetrator).

Of course, where governments and other actors fail to act, they then become complicit in a violation - and, in the face of persistent evidence that economic and social violations are occurring, responsible for the continuation of that violation. The violation itself may still, nevertheless, have no identifiable perpetrator.

It is in this sense that human rights organisations now widely accept that poverty and deprivation are human rights concerns and that, when basic needs (food, shelter, health care, etc.) are not met, this may violate fundamental human rights. They increasingly accept the notion that failure to overcome poverty implies failure to implement human rights.

I hope this short analysis illustrates some of the difficulties in applying a simple “violation” model to poverty or economic and social rights. The difficulties increase when one considers the crucial issue of internatioiial responsibility in causing poverty, and the duty on states to take action abroad, in other countries, to help end it. This is the principal issue addressed in Duties Sms Froiztiél-es. When do countries have an obligation ? What is the extent of their duty ? H o w is the duty to be calculated and balanced against other duties, for example to their own citizens ?

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF STATES

Dealing with poverty is primarily the responsibility of national governments. This is agreed by all human rights thinkers. Pressure to internationalise responsibility for poverty is nevertheless intense because it is evident that poor states cannot deal with poverty in their societies effectively using the resources that their economies generate. There is a n evident shortfall.

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It is also agreed that human rights law indicates clearly that claims can be made on states abroad to assist. In Duties sans Frontières w e list some of the places where this is affirmed in international law and practice : the best known example is Article 2.1 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights which states that “Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to nchieviizg progressively the full realisation of the rights recognised in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of Legislative rneasziws. ’’

Duties Sans Frontiéres considers cases where rich countries are directly responsible for violations ; where they can be considered indirectly responsible ; where the claim is disputable ; and also where they are not - or cannot reasonably be held - responsible.

It equally considers their duties when national governments inalte evident efforts to address poverty, and when, by their action or inaction, they are partly or wholly responsible for the level or gravity of poverty in their countries.

When the above questions are tested out on the many international policy issues that arise in relation to trade, debt, investment, financial transfers, and so forth, it becomes clear that no simple mechanism is likely to describe the obligations of states in relation to human rights violations in other countries ; and no simple model will describe the range of actions that outside states should consider in order to meet their obligations. Moreover, actors other than states (private companies, for example) may be responsible for violations or may (like UN agencies) share responsibility to act. Too many variables are in play, and responsibilities are incurred to varying degree in too many circumstances.

Nevertheless a few rules of thumb or criteria (rather than principles) can be identified.

RULES OF THUMB

To start with, duty-bearers closest to those whose rights are violated have the first responsibility to respond to violations of ESC and other rights. In most cases, this means national governments. They alone (and

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to a lesser extent other national actors) can put systems cif law and regulatory frameworks in place that will effectively protect rights.

Outside states have a duty to assist when a government laclis the resources or capacity to talie the necessary actions alone.

Further, outside states have a duty to act when a government is unwilling to prevent violations of rights in their territories or is itself the cause of those violations. The obligation on outside states is limited in practice, in particular by their own capacity to respond. Their duty is to act, within their capacity, to assist and protect those whose rights are being violated.

The fact that ESC rights are qualified (progressive realisation, resource constraints), and that effects are often indirect, makes it harder to identi+ clearly when outsiders are responsible for violations of ESC rights. Principles of international responsibility are better established in relation to civil and political rights. Where this is so, their applicability to violations of economic and social rights should be tested wherever possible.

When an outsider’s policies can be shown to cause or aggravate violations of ESC rights, or prevent their fulfilment, the closeness and directness of the link will be relevant both to the degree of responsibility and to the obligation to act. Where clear evidence exists that a state’s acts (or failures to act) cause or aggravate violations of rights in another society, that state will have a rather strong duty to reform its policies so that the violations end. Where the state takes no action to reform, Itno- wing the effects of its behaviour, one can speak of its complicity in the violations concerned.85

Where the link between an outside actor’s behaviour and violations of rights is less direct or less discernible, its responsibility (and therefore its duty to respond) is weaker. For example, where private institutions (banks, international companies) are responsible for violations, outside states may have limited control over them. In other cases, the chain of effects between an outside state’s policies and identified violations may be so long or so indirect that the state cannot credibly be held

85. For a discussion ofcoriiplicity, iii die cotirext of‘busiiicss rcspoiisihiliry, scc iiirct-narimial Coiincil on Hiimnii I<iglits Policy, Bq~oiid Vulzintarisin.

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responsible for causing them, and actions that it might be in a position to take would be unlikely to end them.

The obligation to act should be considered separately from the question of responsibility for the abuse. Where a party is responsible for violations, it has a duty to change its policies and behaviour so that the violations cease. However, in many circumstances outsiders have an obligation to help end violations of ESC alid other rights abroad even when they have no responsibility for causing them. Indeed, in many cases there is no clear perpetrator.

In summary foreign states have responsibility to the degree :

- that they directly or indirectly contribute to the violations concerned ;

- that the national state is unable, for lack of resources or capacity, to end the violations on its own ;

- that the national state is unwilling to act to prevent the violations, or is itself responsible for them ;

- that the violations are grave and widespread, particularly when they have an international character.

In taking action, outsiders should take the following responsibilities into account :

- Their duty to ensure that the first and overriding aim of action is to end the violations in question and protect and promote the rights of those whose rights are unmet or are being violated ;

- Their duty to reform their own policies and actions where these cause or aggravate violations in other states ;

- Their duty to support national duty-bearers (notably national governments) in their attempts to take sustained and effective action to fulfil and end violations of rights in their territory ;

- Their duty to consider all forms of action that will effectively mitigate or end the violations in cases where national duty-bearers are not willing to take action or are responsible for the violations concerned. Choice of policy should be governed by the overriding objective to protect those whose rights are unfulfilled or being violated.

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This summary rakes the argument a certain distance but not by any means far enough. T h e above ‘conclusions’ remain general and lack means of application. Who, for example, is to decide on the extent of responsibility in a given case ? H o w is the proximity of a state to a given violation to be measured objectively ? What institutions might be in a position to monitor or sanction states that are found to be guilty of causing violations of rights or impeding their fulfilment ?

When Duties sans Frontières was conceived, the Council hoped to test its arguments on specific policy issues (for example, management of international debt, trade or aid). This turned out to be a bite too many. In detail, each is highly complex and there is no political consensus about how they should be described. In addition, as noted already, it will not be useful or appropriate to apply the arguments in a mechanical fashion. These very general principles and values will therefore need to be tested and adapted and interpreted in specific cases, over time, if they are to be useful. In that sense, the framework is essentially indicative.

This said, it is clear, first, that governments (and in certain instances, other actors) do have international obligations ; that such obligations are reflected in, and assumed by, international human rights law ; and that, though subject to development, the application and extension of such obligations is likely to become more specific and significant over time.

CONCLUSION In conclusion, it is right to speak of the persistence and prevalence

of poverty as implying a violation of rights. Poverty is everywhere in many dimensions associated with violations of many rights.

But making the language usefd in the more formal and less intui- tive terms that governments use human rights - that is, as human righrs are framed in legal texts - needs to be done more conditionally, much more cautiously. No surprise there.

There are cases where by clear tests governments (and other actors) violate economic and social rights and where “poverty” is the direct consequence of such violations, by action or inaction.

But in numerous other instances, use of the language of “violation” may bc less helpful than language that focuses on the obligation to act.

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In this regard, it may be worthwhile to extend the arguments that were developed by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Their report “The Responsibility to Pmtect” focused on military intervention and properly set high tests for legitimate intervention using force. Duties sans Frontières suggests that the tests that just$ international action to tackle poverty are far easier to meet.

Duties sans Fmztièi-es recognises, finally, that human rights criteria alone are unlikely to action. They have not yet been developed sufficiently. This said, they add weight and edge to other arguments that need to be deployed alongside them - arguments based on ethics, on national interest and on public goods.

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THE ILO, DECENT WORK AND POVERTY REDUCTION

Graeme Buckley

Senior Econonzist

Director, Policy Integration Departiîzent IL0 Geneva

The article is written in the author’s person capacity : ideas and views expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily represent official IL0 policy.

INTRODUCTION

Since mid 200 I, the International Labour Organisation (comprising the Geneva based Office together with the tripartite constituents, namely Governments, employers’ organisations and trade unions) has sought to engage in PRSP processes, principally in a core set of pilot countries (Mali, Tanzania, Honduras, Nepal and Cambodia). This work is coordinated by the Policy Incegration Department in the ILO, which has been mandated to support IL0 country-level work contributing to the PRSPs, through the development and promotion of coherent cross- sectoral strategies and integrated frameworks for connecting the poverty and Decent Work Agendas at the national level (see Table I). This now centres on three broad objectives :

Empowering the social partners (trade unions and employers’ organisations) to influence the drafting and implementation of poverty reduction strategies through social dialogue ;

Incorporating aspects of decent work into PRSPs ; and

Influencing development organisations and governments involved in designing and implementing poverty reduction strategies to embrace the principles and rights at work, employment policies and social protection as poverty reducing strategies and to listen CO the voices of the social partners and other stakeholders such as cooperatives.

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WHAT IS DECENT WORK ? Decent work is about opportunities for women and men to obtain

decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Work is obviously central to human existence, identity and well-being. It empowers people to make choices. It promotes cohesion and stability of societies. Decent work relates to the aspirations of people in their working lives. it has been argued that decent work has the following six dimensions86 :

First, opportunities for work refer to the need for all persons who want work to be able to find work, since decent work is obviously not possible without work itself. The underlying concept of work is a broad one, encompassing all forms of economic activity, including self- employment, agricultural work, unpaid family work and wage employment in the informal and formal sectors.

Second, the idea of work in conditions of freedom underscores the fact that work should be freely chosen - i.e. not forced on individuals and that certain forms of work are not acceptable in the twenty-first century. Specifically, this means that bonded labour, slave labour and the worst forms of child labour should be eliminated in accordance with applicable international conventions. It also means that workers should be free to join workers’ organizations and be free from discrimination (likewise for employers).

Third, productive work is essential for workers to have acceptable livelihoods for themselves and their families, as well as to ensure sustainable development and the competitiveness of enterprises and countries.

Fourth, the notion of equity in work represents workers’ need to enjoy fair and equitable treatment and opportunity in work. It encompasses absence of discrimination at work and in access to work, and the possibility of balancing work with family life.

Fifth, security at work is a reminder of the need to safeguard health, pensions and livelihoods, and to provide adequate financial and other protection in the event of sickness and other contingencies. It also reco-

86. For hurther information on this inethodological framework see Aiiker et al : 2003

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gnizes workers’ need to limit the insecurity associated with clie possibility of loss of work and livelihood.

Sixth, dignity at work requires that workers be treated with respect at work, and that they be able to voice their concerns and participate in decision-making about their own working conditions. An essen cial aspect of this is workers’ freedom to represent their interests collectively.

The first two dimensions of decent work - opportunities for work and work in conditions of freedom - are concerned with the availability and basic acceptability of work. The other four dimensions productive work, equity, security and dignity - are concerned with the extent to which available and freely accepted work is “decent”. In addition to these six dimensions of decent work, the socio-economic context is important too, since this partly determines both what constitutes decency in a given society and the extent to which the achievement of decent work enhances national economic, social and labour market performance.

Decent work means being able to earn a living, having a job, a trade, a profession or a business. It means having an income that is “adequate” enough to cover the daily needs of a household/family, to put children through school, to put food on the table, build a home, and get medical care when someone in the family is sick. Decent work is also about having some means to cover basic needs in old age, or in unexpected emergencies. It also refers to a safe workplace where one is not likely to get sick or meet an accident that could disable you from working. it is about having equal access to resources and opportunities that are necessary to secure work and to advance oneself. Everybody, everywhere, has a sense ofwhat decent work means in his or her own life, and in relation to his or her society. Clearly, by this definition, decent work has relevance to the informal economy and the rural economy as well as the formal economy both public and private.

Everyone has a right to decent work - farmers, farm workers, factory workers, street vendors, bus drivers, construction workers, government employees, nurses, managers, and so on. Work refers to all forms of work - paid and unpaid, wage and self-employment, formal and informal. However, decent work is relacive and country-specific. Because countries differ in social and economic situations, none can aim for the same absolute conditions of work. Each country will have to set its own specific targets for decent work. Rut there is a universal social

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floor. This social floor, which applies everywhere regardless of the level of economic development of a society, is the respect for basic human rights. These rights are embodied in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work which all member states of the IL0 committed themselves to promote and respect in 1998. The Declaration embraces eight fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization concerning freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining ; the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation ; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour ; and the effective abolition of child labour.

Gaps between people’s decent work aspirations and their reality exist everywhere. The gaps are huge in some areas and for certain groups of people. Poverty could partly be traced to problems regarding work, and, more specifically, to gaps in decent work. Decent work gaps are inter-connected and are often linked to social and economic policies and institutions, which affect peoples’ working lives and labour market institutions. An integrated agenda towards decent work consists of mutually reinforcing policies in four inter-related areas : the respect for, and protection of basic human rights at work ; the promotion and creation of opportunities for full employment ; broad social protection ; and sustained social dialogue among constituents (workers, employers and government).

THE CONCEPTUAL CASE FOR DECENT WORK AS A POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY

The conceptual framework for talung forward the ILO’s work on poverty reduction is grounded in the twin concepts of entitlement and equity. The IL0 is fundamentally concerned with social justice. With respect to poverty, this can be expressed as a right to inclusion or participation, protection, access to decent jobs and decent incomes. Poor people suffer a “deficit of entitlements” because their ability to com- inand, for example, decent work, depends on the entitlement relations that govern possession and use in any given society. For a poor person, her access to decent work depends on what she owns (not a lot), what exchange possibilities are offered to her (very few), what is given to her

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(virtually nothing) and what is taken away from her (a lot). Poverty reduction, therefore, is essentially about increasing both the asset endowments of the poor and their exchange entitlements.

The fulfilment of these rights depends on certain economic preconditions and to meet these preconditions it is necessary to build up the capacities of people to secure improvements to their well being and livelihoods and of the corresponding systems of governance that define - amongst other things - markets for labour. Thus, the achievement of rights involves the development of both economic and social capability. Inclusion, integration and, of course, access to incomes all imply the centrality of employment creation as an economic priority. More generally, the need to build social objectives into macro-economic policy implies a stress on redistribution, equity and solidarity. In terms of the international division of labour in pursuit of poverty reduction, this is where the comparative advantage or value added of the IL0 tests.

This conceptual framework underlines the point that economic growth is an essential but not sufficient condition for poverty reduction. Poverty reduction involves growth with a substantial reorientation in favour of the poor (what is often referred to as “pro-poor growth”). It includes changes in institutions, laws, regulations and practices that are part of the process that creates and perpetuates poverty (such as harassment of the poor and restrictions on their livelihood activities), and detailed, targeted interventions that will enable all categories of the poor to more fully integrate into economic processes so that they can take advantage of opportunities to improve their economic and social well being, i.e. asset endowments and exchange entitlements. This approach puts renewed emphasis on policies that promote equity and which challenge global and national inequalities and injustices.

Among the most important structural changes required to reduce poverty is the need for low income countries to move away from a society where work and economic opportunities are allocated based on ascribed roles and responsibilities to one more firmly grounded in merit and transparency. It is also invariably essential to introduce a more equitable fiscal system as a means for malting societies fhction not only more fairly but also more efficiently and more effectively (there is a close correlation between good fiscal policy and good governance). This approach implies a role for active labour inarltet policies using demand management, fiscal and monetary instruments to guide macroeconomic

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policy. It means that structural adjustment, socio-economic restructuring and market reforms (including privatisation and other liberalisation policies) should be promoted in light of decent work objectives.

Decent work, then, becomes an essential component of poverty reduction strategies. It is a cross cutting holistic concept which should have an impact greater than the sum of its four constituent parts (rights ; employment ; social protection ; and social dialogue). It follows, therefore, that decent work cuts across other fields or areas much as gender does, as part of the effort to deliver on health and education outcomes and other goals agreed in the context of the Millennium Development Goals.

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Table 1. Decent work as a poverty reduction strategy in PRSPs :An example of an integrated national strategy

A. CONTENT

1. Underscandinr aiid dimensions 1.1. Causes of pnvcrcy

1.2. Exrcnc [breadth) aiid intensity (deprh)

1.3. Historical view of povercy OF povercy

1.4. Individual indicators and aggregare variables (work and cmploymcnr)

2. Perceptions of Social Partners 2.1. Diffcrenciated perception of povercy

3. Parameters 3.1. Consideration of “boundaries”

3.2. Rule of law aiid rights

3.3. Incorporarion of gender and good govcrnancc with fighting poverty acrioiis

4. Solutions 4.1. Integration of endogenous and

exogenous srrarcgies

B. PROCEEDURE (METHODOLOGY)

Ernpowerincnr

Parriciparion

Clari ficarion of roles in iiiiplemeiicariori

W i a t “inceeralioii” nieans Sysceinic underxanding of povcrry, work and livelilioods Takes into account objective descri priori as well as subjective experience Analysis of rhe dynamic process of uovertv Assessment of decent work deficits

The various perceptions of donors aiid the poor aiid how rhey arc wciglircd (multi-dimensionaliry and relariviryj linkcd CO clic perceived needs of social parrnrrs

Blending of decenc work issues into iiirernarional (e.g. MDGs) and national objecrives Mapping of exteiic arid eiiforceability of rielits for clic DOOL linked ro CLS crc. Interacrioris between poverty and oilier imporrant transversal decent work tliciiies

Mutual exchange of inforinacion and cominunicarions herween consrirueiirs and IL0 aiid negociarion ofjoinr scraregy

Capacity building and sltill developmenr for social parrncrs The social partners are equal partnrrs arid . .

have an iiifliierice on die process (possibly in alliance with orhers siicli as NGO or donor lohbics) Clcar tlcfnicioii of value added xid roles as a prerccliiisirc for cffecrive pmiicrsliip

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COUNTRY LEVEL EXPERIENCES

Probably the principal difference between PRSP processes and the structural adjustment programmes which preceded them is the notion of national ownership based on an inclusive participatory process. This is consistent with a greater appreciation today of the need to strengthen the rule of law and democratic institutions and processes, taking into account fundamental rights to organise, enjoy freedom of association, be free from child labour and forced labour and to enjoy equal rights without discrimination on the basis of gender or other factors. Conse- quently, social dialogue becomes a vital process in and of itself. At the country level great attention has been placed on building the capacity of trade unions and employers’ associations and strengthening tripartism more generally. It is evident that as the IL0 and constituents become increasingly involved in PRSP activities their profile and that of decent work is enhanced vis-à-vis others in the international development community. Working relations with IFIs (principally the World Bank) and bilaterals, among others, are becoming more significant and productive. The PRSP process, therefore, constitutes a vehicle through which the voice of the IL0 including that of the constituents can be heard at the level of national planning and budgeting and through the UN CCA and UNDAF processes.

Other aspects of impact can be noted from the following three descriptions of country level work :

INDONESIA : TECHNICAL INPUTS AND A COMMUNICA- TIONS STRATEGY

In addition to capacity building for constituents, the ILO’s support towards the poverty reduction strategy process in Indonesia centred on providing substantial technical contributions to the PRS drafting process, in the form of a series of twelve technical briefing notes and a comprehensive report containing a set of policy recommendations. The short and focused technical briefing notes served two key purposes : as background documents, on issues and policy choices critical to poverty reduction and as building blocks towards the comprehensive IL0 report - Working out Of Poverty : An IL0 Submission fir the Indonesia PRSP

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that provides specific recommendations for the Government. The following are examples of the technical briefing notes : ‘Employment dimensions of macro and sectoral policies’, ‘Youth employmenc : path- ways from school to work’, ‘Promoting good governance in the labour market’ ; and ‘Addressing gender issues in poverty reduction’. The IL0 office in Jakarta has been actively involved in awareness raising and promoting decent work as a component of poverty reduction via an excellent PRSP communications strategy. This has been based on the technical briefing notes and full report but also includes publishing various brochures, posters and even a PRSP diary and the launch of a commemorative stamp under the banner “IL0 Supports Indonesia to Tackle Poverty”, all of which have helped to raise the profile of ILO’s work towards poverty reduction. The Office has engaged on a regular basis with donors and through the auspices of the UN country team on decent work issues and poverty reduction. A good working relationship has been established with the World Bank Office in Indonesia. Through its involvement in the PRS process, the IL0 has also built up a sound working relationship with BAPPENAS (the Planning Ministry) and has been actively involved in providing technical support to the formulation of the national development plan and medium term expenditure framework.

ETHIOPIA : STRENGTHENING SOCIAL DIALOGUE

PRSP processes have encouraged social partners to look outwards and examine the role they can play in broad development and planning processes. In Ethiopia, for example, training has been provided to help the trade union movement to undertake economic analysis so that they can engage in and critique national policy. Promoting social dialogue for poverty reduction also has multiplier effects. In Ethiopia, PRSP capacity building workshops and awareness raising seminars helped strengthen and re-invigorate the National Labour Advisory Board and have added weight to the process towards ratification of Convention 144 on Tripartite Consultation. This work on strengthening tripartism has including a major emphasis on productivity enhancement through improved labour relations and lias served to highlight gender issues in the context of che PRSP through a series of national rind regional seminars on various issues pertaining to gender and the work of work.

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GHANA : SUPPORT TO EQUITABLE PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

In Ghana emphasis is placed on building the technical capacity of the social partners to engage in productivity and incomes policy debates as their contribution to the PRSP revision process. The social partners are now well positioned to argue for the inclusion of these issues in the revised PRSP. A major plank of the Ghanaian PRSP is private sector development through better infrastructure. Public procurement policies currently do not realize the considerable potential from large investments in infrastructure for the generation of employment and income in deprived areas. They also do not make use of the positive experience in Ghana with including specific provisions on conditions of employment and workers’ rights in the tender documents. Thus, a policy brief has been developed with guidance on the necessary modifications in tende- ring rules and procedures, capacity building in relevant institutions and better access to information. Furthermore, the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment in Ghana has successfully accessed HIPC funds, allocated through the PRSP process, to finance vocational training programmes.

CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES In all these cases and usually starting from a low base, the IL0 has

succeeded in empowering the social partners to engage in PRSP processes and has sought to add value to countries’ planning processes in specific technical areas. It remains a major challenge to integrate decent work into poverty reduction strategies partly because there is still much work to be done in terms of applying in a pragmatic and realistic way the concept of decent work in what is often a very crowded “market place” for ideas and contributions in PRSPs. The Office, seeks to mainstream decent work so that it can be applied across a range of policy interventions in PRSPs, including in the fields of health sector and education sector reform, which along with economic reform and macroeconomic adjustment typically constitute the pillars on which PRSPs are constructed. The Office repeatedly argues that more attention should be given to equity and not just growth in PRSPs and that the social partners and ministries of labour should be more systematically integrated into the participatory process underpinning the design and implementation of PRSPs.

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In order to operationalise the concept of decent work in die conrexr of PRSPs, it is often essential to more precisely define the ILOs added value in a language which is readily understood and embraced by key stakeholders - including the constituents and donors. This will involve developing indicators for inclusion in PRSPs that clarify how groups of poor people will benefit from decent work and how improvements to their well-being can be measured in terms of decent work. This then needs to be linked with the wider policy environment, especially as it affects the rural economy and the informal economy where the vast majority of the poorest are to be found. With this methodology in place, it will then be easier to justify further involvement of the IL0 and the social partners in the respective PRSP processes and, in particular, in terms of having an influence in the allocation of resources used to implement PRSP goals at the country level. Further work in promoting evidence based policy making and a measurable framework against which to build the case for decent work as a component of poverty reduction strategies is required. Specific elements of this include :

- capacity building for social partners in evidence based policy making partly in order to develop alternative economic policies and techniques of monitoring and evaluating government policies and programmes using decent work concepts and indicators.

- capacity building of IL0 field staff working in Low Income Countries in the application of decent work methodologies and indicators to poverty reduction strategies and [he elaboration of IL0

. communications strategies vis-à-vis PRSI’ processes and other development dialogues

- further research into appropriate locationally specific decent work strategies and indicators for groups or categories of poor people in Low Income Countries.

- awareness raising/advocacy events (on decent work indicators) for key stakeholders in the PRSP process - especially at the country level - including bilateral and multilateral donors, govcrnment departments (in addition to ministries of labour), NGOs and civil society organisations.

REQUIREMENTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CHALLENGE OF POVERTY ERADICATION : A NEW RESPONSE OR CONDITIONALITY BETWEEN CONCEPT AND OPERATION

Agnès Picod Office of the High Coiiziiiisçiorier for Hiininn Rights

Ms Picod worked for 7 years in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including with the Office of the High Representative (Human Rights Department) but mainly with O H C H R field office. Focus : human rights in economic and social reforms ; discrimination in access to economic and Social rights ; worked on developing a human rights approach to the BiH poverty reduction strategy with national counterparts, the very first pilot project of this type. She is n o w Human rights officer with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), focal point for poverty/Poverty Reduction Strategies

Increasingly since the 1990’s, the struggle against poverty has emerged as the top priority within the UN system. Towards this most challenging aiid pressing objective, the Millennium Development Goals and the PRSP framework appear as the main available instruments, including for the work of the United Nations. Within this system, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights certainly has a major role to play towards the implementation of a human rights approach to poverty reduction. Such an endeavour is in line with the UN Reform and, in particular, with the terms of the Stamford Common Understanding which calls upon the whole system to integrate human rights in all of its work.

Poverty reduction and the protection of human rights constituting ever difficult goals due to the multidimensional implications, the development of a human rights approach to poverty reduction or eradication appears all the more challenging. The human rights approach to poverty reduction lies on the postulate that these two objectives are indivisible and that this perspective would actually enable more targeted, effective and sustainable poverty reduction. Although it can hardly be contested, this correlation remains to be practically demonstrated. Indeed, while quite a sophisticated conceptual approach has been developed, there is no instance of operationalisation.

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The topic of this panel actually requires to take one step back and to return to issues raised in panel 2 with bilateral cooperation agencies : “Rights-based approach to poverty eradication : a commitment or a pilot experiment ?” Indeed, before wondering whether a human rights approach to poverty eradication is a conditionality, we must first see what this approach is about and whether it has been implemented. And if not, one must consider possible obstacles and constraints.

Buc before this, it may be useful to start with the core subject of the seminar, the question of poverty as a human rights violation, and to briefly see how the UN human rights mechanisms and OHCHR have been considering the linkages between povertylextreme poverty and human rights. indeed, the topic of this panel leads us to move between concept and operation and to examine where we stand on each. This will then enable us to answer whether, at this stage, we can invoke a commitment or requirement for a human rights approach to poverty reduction. W e will then see whether a human rights approach to poverty reduction should constitute a conditionality.

FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFINITION OF POVERTY TO A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO POVERTY

What do w e mean by a human rights approach to poverty ? Where do w e stand on this concept within the UN human rights system ? W e will go through a quick survey of the role and work of human rights bodies regarding poverty and human rights, namely the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protec- tion of Human Rights as well as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. W e will also look at the work supported by OHCHR on this matter.

The Sub-Commission and Commission started to look at the question of poverty from ;1 human rights angle in the late 1980’s but, initially, strictly with regard to economic, social and cultural rights. It is in the early 1990’s, with the creation of a special rapporteur mandate on human rights and extreme povercy (1992-1996), that the Sub-Commis- sion began to examine extreme poverty as related to the whole, indivible spectrum of human rights - economic, social, cultural, civil and political. The Commission later established the mandate of the independent

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expert on extreme poverty (1998-present) and, since 200 1, a Sub-Coin- mission group of experts on extreme poverty has been exploring, upon a Commission’s request, the possibility to developing “guiding principles on the implementation of existing human rights norms and standards in the context of the fight against extreme poverty”.

These mandates have arose from an assumption that extreme poverty severely impedes the enjoyment of all human rights. They have all been focusing on extreme poverty (not just poverty), on its causes, manifestations and consequences as realted to human rights. A major intention and difficulty for the mandate-holders has been to qualib and even define extreme poverty from a human rights perspective. The work of the successive mandate-holders has revealed the wide scope and complexity of the subject. While we can almost evoke an intimate conviction that extreme poverty does constitute a violation of human rights, a legal demoiistration proves highly arduous and, above all, the political implications are most delicate. Successive resolutions by the Commission, Sub-Commission and General Assembly, have consistently limited themselves to qualib extreme poverty as “a violation of human dignity and a denial of human rights”. Further elaboration on the notion of dignity could be the heart of the matter and may lead to more conclusive results to pin down how poverty could be defined as a violation of human rights.

O n the side of the treaty bodies, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been the most active on che issue of poverty. In a statement on poverty delivered in 2001, the Committee described poverty as constituting “a denial of human rights”. In light of the examination of country reports, the Committee expressed concern over the systematic absence of consideration for human rights in the then recent PKSP initiative. The Committee decided to solicit OHCHK to work on this question, requesting the Office to develop guidelines to integrate human rights into Poverty Reduction Strategies. Hence the OHCHR Draft Guidelines on a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies (to be revised in early 2005).

With a very different objective than the above-described mandates, the Draft Guidelines focused on the development of a human rights approach to poverty reduction, with the ambition of being operational. The aim was, therefore, on the basis of a proposed conceptual framework, to provide practical steps to assist policy-makers and practitioners

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involved in poverty reduction, in integrating human rights throughout the preparation, design, implementation and monitoring of relevant strategies and programmes. The document targeted poverty in general but certainly encompassed extreme poverty. It primarily applied to a PRSP context (in response to the Committee’s request), althougli not strictly.

It is worth underlining that the document was elaborated in consultation with a variety of counterparts, including the International Finan- cial institutions. As guidelines, the document did not intend to be prescriptive but appeared as a tool. The Guidelines have generally been received as a most interesting conceptual advance. They have been widely applauded for an innovative attempt made at articulating a clear linkage between poverty and human rights and for trying to bridge the gap between the development and human rights spheres. OHCHR has submitted them for comments to a variety of counterparts and a number of comments nts have been collected, highlighing a need to clariSl certain aspects. [For details about the approach, See OHCHR Draft Guidelines on a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies (2002) and “Human Rights and Poverty Reduction : A Conceptual Approach” (OHCHR, 2004), both available at http ://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/poverty] .

Yet, while there is still room to fine-tune the concept, the crucial question at this stage is that of operationalisation of the human rights approach to poverty reduction strategies and for now, it seems that the Draft Guidelines in themselves do not provide a key to such a challenge. The absence of piloting to this day seems to show that the shift from concept to operation is a complex undertaking and w e will try to see why in the second section, including by highlighting some of the obstacles and constraints as revealed by one pilot experience, in Bosnia and Her- zegovina. But another more fundamental issue is the lack of knowledge about the approach and the need for information, exchange and training.

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http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/poverty

FROM CONCEPT TO OPERATIONALISATION : WHAT DOES A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO POVERTY REDUCTION IMPLY PRACTICALLY ?

Having considered the complexities of the conceptual aspect, what can we say about operationalisation ? Beyond the concept which has been developed in the OHCHR Draft Guidelines, do we fully comprehend what a human rights approach to poverty reduction means and implies ? The intricacies raised through the conceptual research certainly impact on the practical translation. Are we, including in the human rights sphere, in a position to advise on operationalisation ? The crucial question now is how to articulate the concepts, principles and approach into practice. W h y is it not taking place ? This is obviously a huge challenge for all stakeholders, development and human rights practitioners alike.

The human rights approach to poverty reduction certainly stands out as a very ambitious objective (as much as poverty reduction is in itself and as much as the realisation of human rights can be). There may be reluctance to deal with the enormous challenge of this twin objective, there may be political reluctance to pursue such a task which remains after all quite controversial, [he teclinicalities at stake, the pluridiscipli- nary implications, may seem too complicated and overwhelming, the linkage may not be accepted or understood, the efforts would be time- consuming and probably only long-term, some may argue that it requires financial resources, etc.

For indeed, coming back to the question put to donors on Panel 2 (“Rights-based approach to poverty eradication : a commitment or a pilot experiment ?”), has there been any commitment or pilot experiment of a human rights approach to poverty eradication ? Not really. There has in fact been no systematic, fiill-fledged attempt at operationa- lisatiori. And actually, the interventions at Panel 2 underlined the need for pilot experiments, noting that there was at the same time still much to do to inform and educate on the concept. As long as there is no wide dissemination and training on the conceptual approach among relevant stakeholders, it is irrealistic to envisage a shift to implementation.

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A few OIHCIHR field offices initiated pilot projects, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter BiH), Serbia and Montenegro and Cambodia, trying to explore the development of a human rights approach to the PRS process in these countries.

Leaving aside a description of the overall experience, one will focus on a few lessons learnt from BiH in order to illustrate some of the contraints on and resistance to operationalisation - this in an optimal situation of an OHCHR long-term field presence and of implication from the earliest stages of the PRS process (from the I-PRSP). First of all, one has to consider the contextual restraints : the very peculiar situation of BiH, an ethnically, politically, administratively fragmented post- conflict country in economic transition and mainly ruled by decisions of a massive international community. This combination maltes the process of participation particularly heavy and the question of ownership and accountability ambiguous. In this post conflict country, still strug- gling to mature as a State, the PRSP was the first national - or at least nationwide - exercise and therefore constituted a ti-emendous challenge (e.g. efforts of cooordination, participation). On the procesdinforma- tiodadvocacy front, it was not obvious and time-consuming to convince the PRSP Coordination Office and the Government of the relevance of the approach, simply of the linkages between human rights and poverty reduction. Once the importance of this accepted, and despite the appointment of a human rights focal point within the PRSP Coordina- tion Office, there was no actual in-depth comprehension of the approach and stakes and enormous difficulties to influence the heavy, divided, sectoral drafting system which had been set up to prepare the PRS. in our BiH experience, the objective was not go beyond the letter of the OHCHR Draft Guidelines on a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies, and to focus on the country context, based on knowledge of the political, economic, institutional, human rights situation and contigencies. Bearing this in mind, we essentially concentrated on the human rights situation, especially vis-à-vis the policies at stake. In particular, we concentrated on a analysis of and caution against an unquestioned adoption of some of the policies classically advocated in the PRS such as privatisation, labour market reform and quick employment creation, the prevalence of economics and macro-economics over social reform, land reforms ( ?). W e underlined the potential negative impact that some measures could have on the most vulnerable groups and for people in general in a highly fragmented society, insisting on discrimination issues. This proved to be an arduous task given the com-

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plexity of the country but also because we were touching upon a sphere with which most human rights practitioners are unfamiliar with but which is inevitably at the essence of PRSPs : macroeconomics and economics. Two of the main difficulties of operationalising a human rights approach to poverty reduction seems to be 1) the political resistance ; 2) getting into the sphere of macroeconomics, being able to provide credible analyses and, above all, having the possibility to prevent and reverse policies which indeed prove to negatively impact human rights.

Despite all the contigencies at stake, it is now crucial to move from concepts to operationalisation of human rights approaches (rather than a human rights approach) to poverty reduction and to demonstrate the value added of such an undertaking. It would also in turn enable to ' refine and strengthen the conceptual approach itself.

CONCLUSION : A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO POVERTY REDUCTION : A NEW RESPONSE OR A CONDITIONALITY ?

A human rights approach to poverty reduction - operationally - can definitely be considered as a new response to poverty in the sense that it should aim at more comprehensive analyses and remedies, bringing out the multidimensional nature of this condition, its causes and consequences with a view to addressing them specifically. The hypothesis is to develop more efficient, comprehensive, targeted and sustainable strategies. In addition, the value of a human rights approach would be to target prevention as much as remedies.

But a human rights approach to poverty reduction should not be seen in terms of conditionality. In other words it cannot be imposed as this would contradict one of the main principles of a human rights approach and of World Bank and IMF terms : ownership. Indeed, this approach needs to be matured and this can only happen if it has been understood, accepted and willfully tested. As treaty bodies advise, assist and recommend States in order for them to progress towards compliance with their commitments under international human rights law, the development of rights-based poverty reduction strategies should be done in patnerships between all stakeholders : governments, donors, the UN sysrem, civil society, at the international, regional and national levels.

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Terms should thereofre be discussed and agreed, not iniposed (even though PRSPs are often paradoxically seen as imposed, which is itself a challenge to the human rights approach), assistance tools and bencli- marks can be developed in a collaborative manner. This involves continuous dialogue, capacity-building. A big issue though is that PRSPs do bear conditionalities, even if they are not obvious or direct, to meet a certain degrec of compliance with World Bank and 1MF lines, an aspect which somehow seeins to challenge owenership and, often, to undermine the impact of national participation.

Actually, a human rights approach to poverty reduction strategies can be seen as an integral part of human rights obligations and obligations do involve ownership, that is responsibility. Most countries are parties to at least one human rights treaty - almost universally to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This incurs international and national binding human rights obligations and thereby grants legitimacy to the human rights approach to PRS which should then inscribe itself within this existing legal framework. One can argue that the promotion and protection of human rights is inherent in the poverty eradication objective and similarly, poverty reduction and eradication are a must in the efforts to promote and protect human rights. The human rights approach should therefore not be seen as a burden, as an additional conditionality, but as inherent in the process, even strengthening it.

One could say that poverty reduction, while being the essence of PRSPs, has not necessarily been a condition and that the target has often been deplorably missed. PRSPs are still recent though and in the process of maturing, and this is even more so the case for the human rights approach to poverty reduction. PKSPs are becoming the main donor’s tool, especially in MDG context, including to enable alignment. An introspection of this framework has begun (See World Bank and IMF reviews) with an awareness of some of the shortcomings and limits, including on what w e can consider as human rights relevant : participation, ownership, monitoring, issues of accountability as well as social impact. Such positive steps will hopefuly lead to increasing opportunities for a human rights approach. It will undoubtedly be time- consuming and a long-term process, but so has been the PRSP formula.

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UNDP AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Patrick van Weerelt Hiiiiiari Rights Adviser,

Democratic Governance Group, Bureau for Developinen t Policy,

UNDP

Patrick van Weerelt holds a Master of Law degree from Maastricht University (The Netherlands) and a Master of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from the University of Lund/Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Sweden. He has a previous work experience with the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands‘ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1998 he joined UNDP where he worked as Governance Programme Officer in South Africa. Since 2000, Mr. Van Weerelt serves as the HURIST Programme Officer/Human rights Adviser in UNDP Geneva. As of January 2005, he will assume his functions as Human rights Adviser in UNDP HQ in New-York.

W e will soon commemorate the 56th anniversary of the proclama- tion, by the UN General Assembly, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The reason why we commemorate the UDHR on a yearly basis is grounded in both its virtues and magnitude. The Univer- sal Declaration has had, and still has, a major impact on the world we live in today ; and it is moreover the proud recipient of a “Gztiness Book of World Recoyds” nomination to give you a bit of modern time flavour attached to it. The UDHR is the most translated document of our time, with more than 300 different language versions available in htnzl, pdf and grapliical forms.

Since 1948, Governments have discussed, negotiated and agreed upon many hundreds of fundamental principles and legal provisions designed to protect and promote an array of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Significant progress has been made, but an equally long road must be travelled to make the respect for human rights a reality for every man, woman and child. It is in this light that w e must strongly value the importance that our senior UN Leadership is atta- ching to human rights. T h e Secretary-General has made it abundantly clear that human rights are the business of the United Nations. To use one of his well-known quotes : (and I quote).

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“ - I he prumotion and pi-utectiun of hziman rights is a bedrock require- m e n t for the realisation of the C h m t e r ? vision of njist andpeacefid world’:

This quest to place human rights at the centre of the activities of the UN system has been a consistent focus of the Secretary-General’s Reform Agenda since its launch in 1997.

Recently, more impetus was provided for this when -Action 2”was launched by the Deputy Secretary-General, the UN High Commissio- ner for Human Rights, Mark Malloch Brown in his capacity of Chair of the United Nations Development Group, and several other UN Heads of Agencies, with the aim to support the efforts of Member States, at their request, in strengthening their national human rights promotion and protection systems.

T h e Action 2 programine will strengthen the capacity of Country Teams with practical tools, training advice, knowledge sharing (and it is noteworthy in this respect that UNDP has offered it’s Human Rights Knowledge Network, Hui-Talk, as a system-wide tool), and seed fLm- ding for capacity development and pilot programming.

Action 2 also encourages closer interactions between UN Country Teams and UN Human Rights Mechanisms such as treaty monitoring bodies and fact-finding missions of Special Rapporteurs and Indepen- dent Experts of the Commission on Human Rights. But the ultimate aim of Action 2 is of course to ensure that the rights of individuals are respected and protected, through strengthened national human rights protection systems.

W e are thus witnessing consistent enhancement and attention for human rights at the intergovernmental level, and at the intra-UN level. But where are we in UNDP ? UNDP, and UNDP staff members, has and have individually and collectively clear instructions to move forward on the human rights agenda too. Let m e briefly give you an overview of where we stand today :

In step with the UN Reforms, UNDP issued its policy of integrating human rights with human development in January 1998. In it, UNDP underlined its commitment to strengthen its support for all human rights in a holistic way, and to mainstream human rights into its work in support of Sustainable Human Development. This policy is still

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at the centre of what is now considered UNDP service Line 2.4, on‘yzis- tice and Human Rights”.

To give teeth to the policy, a Memorandum of Understanding was concluded with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ; a joint Global Programme HURIST was developed ; and 5 Regional workshops for Resident Representatives and other senior UNDP staff and government counterparts were organised. At the Regio- nal level “Paragon” and “GOLD”, in Asia and the Pacific and “POGAR” in the RBAS region started operating ; whilsr human rights capacity development workshops were organised around the world.

But despite the increasing number of activities in the field, we shouldn’t close our eyes for the shortcomings thus far. Are we in UNDP for example all clear on the theoretical and normative basis underpinning our move towards human rights in development ? And, what is the corporate line to move human rights really up the UNDP agenda ? Many colleagues in the organisation are also asking whether we are moving beyond the rhetoric of human rights. However legitimate these questions are, I for one certainly believe that we have moved on, and I am convinced that we have crossed the line of no return. And if w e haven’t, the intergovernmental system has.

In the UN system, w e are now in the happy situation that there is a framework definition on a human rights-based approach to programming linking the work of the respective UN Agencies. The framework definition stems from May 2003, a date which probably signals a tur- ning point in UN operations and human rights.

In the Stamford meeting, the UN agreed upon, what is now called, the ‘‘ UN Conznzoî2 Uzdeistanding on a human Tights-based approach to pmgimnrning”. This definition was subsequently endorsed by the UN Development Group (UNDG), and is since included in the CCNUNDAF Guidelines, making it an inherent programming tool for UNDP as well. Although I won’t go into the details of the UN Common Understanding at this stage, let m e read the three paragraphs, as the definition is both crisp and simple. It is moreover cooperative and positive in nature, rather than punitive or violations oriented.

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UN COMMON UNDERSTANDING 1. All programmes of development co-operation, policics and

technical assistance should further the realisation of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.

2. Human rights standards contained in, and principles derived from, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments guide all development cooperation and programming in all sectors and in all phases of the programming process.

3. Development cooperation contributes to the development of the capacities of ‘duty-bearers’ to meet their obligations and/or of ‘rights-holders’ to claim their rights.

The UN Common Understanding will influence programming in at least four ways, and I would like to ask you to think about that during our workshop. First, it forces programme staff and policy-makers to reflect upon the why and how of their actions beyond the question of what should be done. Second, the global legitimacy of human rights provides an objective starting point for dialogue and discussions with government, the people and external partners. Third, it helps policy- makers and citizens to recognise the power dynamics of the development process. Foztrth, the accountability structure pursued through a human rights-based approach facilitates the development of quantitative and qualitative benchmarks and indicators for measuring progress in development planning and delivery. UNDP is committed to fLirther operationalising the UN Common Understanding at the programmatic level.

But if the above describes the vision and value added, what then should be our strategy ? Well, obviously this is going to be the topic of intensive debates. But some elements that we have already thought about, and which stem very much from the acronym “NILE’ (which means Norms, Institutions, Legal Frameworks and Enabling Environ- ment) as developed in the HDR 2000, have led us to believe that a three-pronged strategy for human rights in developmeiit mighc be suc- cesfiil.

First, UNDP supports the “Streragthening of National Hzimarz Rights Systems” Several entry points used by Country Offices in this regard relate to : broad-based assessments of the human rights situation at country level ; support for access to justice initiatives, strengthening the ability of courts and other judicial, quasi-judicial and law enforcement bodies to provide protection against, and remedies for, human rights violations ; strengthening parliaments as guardians and promoters of human rights ; supporting the establishment of National Human Rights Action Plans ; strengthening the capacities of national institutions, CSOs, NGOs and CBOs that protect and help groups in need of special protection such as indigenous peoples, minorities, women, children, the disabled, internally displaced persons and people living with HIV/AlDS : and supporting and enhancing an open and vibrant civil society and free and independent media.

Second&, UNDP must genuinely take up its role as leading Agency in applying a human rights-based approach to programming. There is a lot to be learnt from gender mainstreaining in this regard, both positive and negative ; and gender experts, human rights experts and development experts should join hands in further placing the individual man, woman and child at the heart of our attention.

The third part of the strategy has to do with the normative level. Success in the promotion and protection of human rights at national level depends to a large extent on the effectiveness of the international human rights machinery led by the United Nations. As an agency of the UN, UNDP has a corporate responsibility to promote and strengthen this machinery at both the global and the coiintiy levels. Many country offices already provide support to the international human rights system through such enay points as : Undertaking advocacy for the ratification of international and regional human rights treaties ; by providing support to the preparation of State reports to UN treaty monitoring bodies, including encouraging broad-based stakeholder participation in the preparation of the reports and, where necessary, supporting CSOs and NGOs to prepare and submit ‘shadow’ reports ; and by supporting measures to ensure the conformity of national policies and legislation with international and regional human rights standards and norms.

A carefd look at this three pronged approach tells us to strive towards a plus plus situation. Indeed human rights in development can only become a reality if and when they transpire through the norms,

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institutions, legal frameworks and enabling environment that shape a country and society. Moreover, it is about awareness, application in law and reality, and about redress, the three of which together will force a process of social transformation towards a culture of human rights.

In conclusion, let m e share my appreciation for the invitation extended to us by UNESCO. It is heartwarming to note that so many of us are going through similar processes in putting human rights on to the larger development agenda. And joined forces strengthen the case. W e are not alone, and should not go at it alone either.

SEMINAR 4

19 October 2004

Theme : “UNESCO in the fight against poverty : Future Orientations”

Speakers : Representatives of each Sector of UNESCO

This seminar was devoted to raking stock of UNESCO’s commitment in the struggle against poverty compared to the efforts made by other partners.

The representative of each Sector of UNESCO, was asked to take part to the debate on the role of UNESCO in achieving the Millennium Development Goals as well as its contribution to the major poverty reduction frameworks. Based on past and more recent examples of the intersectoral projects implemented by the Organization, the representative of each sector was asked to articulate the sectoral specificity in the view to inscribing it within an intersectoral and holistic approach. They were also called to present plans for mainstreaming poverty eradication. The last point of the debate was the position of each Sector vis a vis the reform strategy put forward by the Secretary-General of the United Nations aimed at a rights-based approach in programming.

An introductory contribution by Mr. Adama Dieng, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, Registrar of the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. is also included.

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AN APPROACH TO THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY WHICH INCLUDES HUMAN RIGHTS

Adama Dieng United Nations Assistant Secretary-Geizeral

Registrar of the United Nations Criminal Tribiirzal for Rzoaizcla

Adama Dieng assumes his position, as Assistant Secretary-General and Registrar of the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as from 2001.

In 1973, Adama Dieng began his career as Registrar of the Regional and Labour Courts in Senegal and later served for six years as Registrar of the Supreme Court. In 1982, he joined the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva (Switzerland) as Legal Officer for Africa. In 1990, Mr. Dieng was elected as Secretary-General of the ICJ and served two terms until 2000. Meanwhile, Mr. Dieng performed special assignments as United Nations Independent Expert for Haiti (1 995).

As an elected Chairman of the editorial group, Mr. Dieng assisted the International Panel of Eminent Personalities to investigate the Rwandan genocide. Mr. Dieng, an acclaimed human rights expert, consultant, and lec- turer on issues relating to international law and the development of capacity- building in the area of democratic institutions, has also served as member of the boards of directors of many international organizations including the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) as well as the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF).

Mr. Dieng is the author of many legal and political articles, and of publications in both French and English.

INTRODUCTION Poverty is the point where violations of economic, social, cultural,

political and civil rights converge, and where we can most clearly see these rights’ indivisibility and interdependence ; widespread poverty is still a major obstacle to the effective exercise of human rights ; it weakens democracy and popular participation and makes them more vulnerable.

For some decades now it has been dawning on the international community that the conditions of existence of the poor cunstituie a systematic violation of human rights - and also that upholding thesc rights

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could be a way of improving their condition of existence. The fight against poverty has occupied political thinking for decades”. The link between poverty and the violation of human rights quickly found its place at the centre of the international community’s concerns, and this led to improved contacts among the various partners in development, as well as a challenge to certain simplistic explanations tending to exonerate the poor countries themselves from any responsibility for the causes of poverty.

In recent years there has been a strong international consensus for mobilizing to eradicate poverty, and this has led to the building up of a solid legal arsenal to tackle its causes.

The fight against poverty, waged on the basis of human rights, continues to attract supporters and practitioners around tlie world.

To understand this new approach, w e must first clarify the approach itself (I) and then investigate its effectiveness (II) ; lastly, we must establish a worldwide partnership to work for its successful implementation (III).

CLARIFYING THE APPROACH What are the legal outlines of this new approach to the fight against

poverty, based on human rights ? The approach relies on notions of “rights” and “obligations” instead of those of “assistance” or “charity” ; specifically, it points to the United Nations Charter, the Universal

87. One of the objecrives sec by rlie United Nations World Summit for H u m a n Ilcvelopinent held in Copcnhagcii in 1995 was CO eradicate poverty by developing iiarioiid definitions, indicators and insrrumenrs for rhe measurement of absolute poverry, and narional plans to figlir ir. Soine years later, tlie conclusions of the United Nations Confe- rence on the Leasr Developed Countries recognized rhac poverty eradication policies had failed. ’l’lie UNIII’ made its own disrincrivc studies of poverty, establishiiig prograinnies for rhe cvnluarion of poverty and developing a poverty tliresliold measured in money : one dollar per day pcr person. There arc inany legal instruments defiiiiilg spccific srandards for the erndicarion of poverty : amoiig orliers, we may nieiirion the Conventions on Economic and Social Iiiglirs, rhc IL0 Convcnrion concerning the Proliibitioii and Irnrncdiarc Action for rlic F,liiiiiiiatioii of clic Worsr Forms of Child Labour. The prorectiori of human righrs coiiccrniiig food securiry, the social prorccrion of the iiiforinal sector, and strict minimum wagc legislation deserve particular attention.

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Declaration of Human Rights and the binding provisions of the various treaties relating to human rights.

The aim of the approach is to make responsibility for poverty reduction a universal obligation. The State must have the primary responsibility for guaranteeing the people’s rights throughout its national jurisdiction ; but non-governmental agents also have an obligation to help ensure that human rights are respected. The conduct of international affairs should be governed by strict rules for technical and financial support, and the necessary efforts should be made to introduce a balanced multilateral system which takes account of the poor countries’ interests.

Based on universally recognized moral values and attended by legal obligations, international human rights law provides a binding framework within which international and national policies, including strategies for the fight against poverty, should be defined.

There are two points to be made about the way certain anti-poverty programmes complement programmes for the defence of human rights and vice versa : first, we should observe that this approach does not constitute a radical break with existing techniques for studying poverty ; and secondly, the approach itself has been reinforced, on the legal side, by the means used to combat poverty. W e have to recognize that “anti- poverty policies are more likely to be effective, sustainable, inclusive, equitable and meaningful to those living in poverty if they are based upon international human rights.”88

There can be no doubt that the international systems for protecting human rights provide an ideal framework for establishiiig strategies to combat poverty. Such strategies must be based on coherent programmes which take account of political responsibility, equality and non-discrimination, and of participation and the fostering of independence. The eradication of poverty is now part of sustainable development ; we have to stop measuring development solely in terms of economic growth. The recognition of the fundamental rights of the poor is a first step towards strengthening our resources for action : these rights will make it possible

88. i1ecl:irariori or1 Poverty rind the I~iterriatiorial C:overiaiit 0 1 1 Ecoriornic, Social :iiitl

Cultural Riglics, atiopd 011 4 M a y 2001 by rlic Cnminirrw rit1 I!coiiriinic, Soci;il ; i n c l C~iItural Riglirs E/C. 12/’2~01/10 para 13.

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CO give a human face to economic programmes that have so far been generally governed by the logic of balancing budgets, and their result should be that decision-makers at all levels can give special attention to the most vulnerable groups when implementing economic policies ; for there is a close and well-established link between poverty and the violation of rights. It is proper that governments, international financial organizations and multinational corporations should be accountable for the consequences their restrictive policies have on the most vulnerable social categories.

The World Bank has recently been experimenting with a new concept of “social development”, and has set up an unit to handle human rights. Every World Bank region and technical department now has a human rights officer who systematically analyses the state of application of human rights in the region.

Ideally, the fight against poverty at national level means setting LIP a social security system. Legislation is needed to guarantee a minimum level of social protection for vulnerable groups. Each State must, as part of its poverty reduction strategy, draw up a timetable for the necessary measures and investments that can ensure these groups enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights.

Strengthening judicial protection is a way of enabling a system which presently condemns huge swathes of humanity to destitution to change courses9.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE APPROACH Regarding poverty as a violation of human rights makes it necessary

to adopt measures dictated by law rather than mere declarations that have no binding force. Human rights provide a normative framework within which anti-poverty programmes can be drawn up.

Many international instruments have been adopted whose primary purpose is the eradication of poverty. The protection of human rights concerns the right to a decent life, to food, housing, health, education and social security.

on H u m a n Righrs 89. E/CN. 4/Sub 56rli Session, Sub-Committee 2/2004/44 social and ciiltiiral righrs : poverty as a violarion of human rights.

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economic,

Article 11 of the United Nations Covenant on Economic and Social Rights provides that “the States Parties CO the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his faniily, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right.” Further on, this Covenant extends the scope of protection to include a person’s right to be free from hunger (Article 11, para. 2), the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 12), and the right to education, work and pay.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights establishes social, economic and cultural rights including the right to work under equitable and satisfactory conditions90, the right to health^' , the right to education and to take part freely in the cultural life of the community9~ as well as protection for the family and for particular categories‘”.

The Vienna Declaration on Human Rights reiterated the interdependent and complementary nature of political and economic rights. Some States have thought it possible to legislate poverty out of existence with a series of declarations and resolutions ; but establishing the right to development did not in itself make development possible, for it quickly ran up against the contrary interests of parties not constrained by international law, such as the multinational companies, and also against the national interests of States : another instance of the eternal conflict between law and reality.

If w e are to examine poverty in terms of human rights, we must first undertake a review of the present legal, regulatory and standard-setting framework governing those rights. Treaties, once ratified, give rise to legal obligations for all the contracting parties. States that send their representatives to international conferences on human rights must really apply their signed undertakings in practice‘4. They are bound to adopt legislative measures that provide for human rights to be effectively

90. Arriclc 1 5 of the Africaii Cliarccr of Hurriaii arid I’c(>ples’ RiglitS. 91. Article 1 U, Jhid. 92. Arriclc 17, ibid. 93. Rrticlc 18, Ibicl.

applied. Anti-poverty programmes reinforce the specific provisions made concerning rights granted to the poor.

This approach does not recommend immediately instituting a guarantee of poor people's rights ; rather, it progressively establishes the conditions for achieving that goal. It does however impose certain conditions for steady progress towards the targets set : a minimum standard of rights and obligations that must always be respected. Failure to take specific measures to combat poverty can make States liable to the charge of failing to progressively implement human rights. The progressive establishment of human rights and the implementation of strategies to combat poverty both make it necessary to monitor objectives, indicators and deadlines. Developed countries and international organizations could support poor countries' efforts to fulfil their essential obligations and attain the international minimum threshold for those rights, subject to the rule of progressive implementation.

A stable government is needed to protect individual rights, including trade union rights in enterprises and the right to access education and health services". The flight from country to town, the breaking- down of traditional structures, civil conflict and refugee movements place billions of people in a most precarious social situation.

The application of human rights under anti-poverty programmes increases the effectiveness of their strategies by reinforcing them with international legal obligations. Strategies deployed with a view to reducing poverty could make cooperation easier, for they will no longer be seen as pious hopes but as actual obligations binding on States which have ratified international human rights instruments.

Strategies to combat poverty lay particular emphasis on such obligations, compelling the obligated organizations (States and international organizations) to account for their actions concerning human rights.

94. W e m a y mention che 1993 Vienna Conference on Iiumaii Rights, clic 1996 Rome Declaration on World Food Securiry and die Ilakar Framework far Action adopted at the World Education Forum ; also che developinerit goals sec out in the Uniced Nacions Millennium I~eclararion in 2000. 95. E/CN4/2004/43 23 February 2004 ; Commission on Humai1 Riglirs 60th Session, Ecoiioiiiic, social and cultural rights. Hurnaii rights aiid excreine poverry ; Reporr by the independent expert Anne-Marie Liziii.

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The monitoring and enforcement proccdiircs for the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights must be revised.

For the application of economic, social and cultural rights to be effective, four categories of monitoring and enforcement mechanism are envisaged :

- monitoring (of governments’ actions or omissions) and enforcement by special courts. For some while now, the promotion of certain economic and social rights has been resisted in various quarters ; but civil and political rights and social and economic rights are interrelated, indivisible and interdependent. In the eighth paragraph of the Preamble to the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, the contracting parties solemnly recognize that “civil and political rights cannot be dis- sociated f;om economic, social and cultural rights in their conception as well as universality”. Only civil and political rights are currently protected by their own courts (under regional treaties for the protection of human rights). Economic, social and cultural rights should be included within the scope of human rights in general, so that they can benefit from the protection afforded by human rights jurisdictions.

- monitoring and enforcement by quasi-judiciary bodies (set up under treaties concerning human rights, to monitor their application). There are two forms of mechanism which could be tried. O n the one hand, permanent rcgular scrutiny before a failure occurs is in general a form of control designed to assist and help organize a contracting party’s efforts to fulfil its obligations. It issues information on how such parties are carrying out their international obligations. The parties submit regular reports on the state of application of international instruments concerning poverty. The verification procedure is one of reporting rather than auditing. O n the other hand, there is the quasi-judiciary hearing of complaints of non-observance : a selective audit, applying only to those few States which default on poverty standards.

In addition to the activities of the United Nations’ various specialized agencies (ILO, UNESCO, UNDP) for defining social and economic rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides that “The States Parties ... undertake to submit ... reports on the measures which they have adopted and the progress made

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in achieving the observance of the rights recognized herein.”96 These reports are addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who forwards a copy to the Economic and Social Council for consideration. Article 18 prescribes that ECOSOC may also “make arrangements with the specialized agencies in respect of their reporting to it on the progress made in achieving the observance of the provisions of the present Covenant falling within the scope of their activities”. Lastly, ECOSOC may transmit these reports to the Commission on Human Rights, for study and general recommendation or for information97.

- monitoring by administrative bodies (human rights impact assessments). This form of monitoring is designed to ensure that the measures talten are as effective as possible. Such assessment of governments’ practical implementation of their undertakings on fighting poverty will make for improvements : the procedure will enable relations of cause and effect to be established, and the influence of the monitoring process to be measured.

- political monitoring and enforcement (through parliamentary processes). National parliaments may have the job of monitoring the fiilfilment of their country’s convention obligations as well as those derived from their own national legislation. Parliamentary coinmittees may be able to take on real assessment powers as they express their concerns over governments’ attitudes to poverty reduction enactments and standards.

States can sign up to a number of mechanisms for monitoring the exercise of responsibilities under national instruments for poverty reduction.

Disadvantaged social categories such as the poor must be treated as partners if social changes in their status are to be brought about that really improve their dignity and well-being. Their freedom of choice must be increased - and their freedom of action, so that they can organize their own lives. The upholding of human rights in practice will be an effective way of enabling the poor to take responsibility, by giving them rights which give rise to legal obligations. One important part of the “rights” approach to the fight against poverty is the recognition of

96. Article 16. 97. Article 13.

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the principle of equality. This approach will make it possible to take steps to guarantee fundamental rights as part of strategies to combat poverty ; far from being an exception, it actually offers the poor better protection. It must encourage the drawing LLP of nacional poverty reduction strategies, with legal obligations. Non-discrimination is a fbndamental principle of human rights ; and poverty may give rise to discrimination, just as discrimination inay give rise to poverty. A nuinber of international instruments place the principles of equality and non-discrimination at the heart of their mandate98 : the principles of non-discrimination and equality are clearly expressed in the International Conven-tion on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimi- nation against Women. Both instruments set up monitoring bodies with the task of assessing the anti-discrimination policies enshrined in national legislation.

A large proportion of those in vulnerable categories are generally quite unaware that they have a right to information ; this right should be an essential component of poverty reduction strategies (lack of inforination on aid programmes, or of information about special training).

The inclusion of human rights within strategies to combat poverty will make it easier for vulnerable groups, the poor especially, to take a more effective part in public life by actively participating in the decisions that concern their lives. The right to take part in the conduct of public affairs is one fundamental aspect of human right@'). Conservative forces dominated by traditional elites hinder the active participation of the poor in decision-making processes. The right to take part in public life must be protected by law, because this right is closely connected with the enjoyment of other human rights such as the right to a minimum level of economic security and welfare. The Committee on Economic,

98, Tliç Universal Declararion of Human Rights, rhe Interiiational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Iiirernational Covenaiir on Economic, Social aiid Cultural Riglirs, rlie UN Coiiveiirion on [lie Righrs of the Child, the inreriiatioiial Coiiveiition on the Eliiiiiiiatioii of' all Forins of Iiacial Discriininarion, [he Iiiceriiatiorial Cuiiveiitioii 011 rhe Elimination of Discriiriiiiatioii agaiiisr W o m e n and rlie Iiircrnarional Convention on the I'rotectioii of clic liiglits of All Migraiir Workers arid Meinbers of I'lieir Fainilies. 99. ArLicle 21 of rhc Universal Declararion of I-lumaii liiglits, Article 25 of the Iiirernarional Covciianc on Civil aiicl I'olitical Riglits aiici Article i 3 riF the Iiirci~iiniional (:ovciiaiit on Ecoiioiriic, Social aiid CulttiIal Righrs.

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Social and Cultural Rights has stated that “the right to work, an adequate standard of living, housing, food, health and education, wliich lay at the heart of the Coveiiant, had a direct and immediate bearing upon the eradication of poverty.”’”O

A WORLDWIDE PARTNERSHIP TO MAKE THE APPROACH A SUCCESS

Economic institutions have a major part to play in protecting the lives and dignity of human beings.

The cure for the social problems of poverty has to be related to an analysis of existing global economic mechanisms. In Copenhagen, 11 8 Heads of State and Government undertook to taclde both the underlying causes of these problems and their deplorable consequences, with a vicw to reducing uncertainty and insecurity by eliminating extreme poverty. These countries’ undertakings also concerned the need to ensure faster development in Africa by including social development goals in structural adjustment programmes. It is essential to create an economic, social, political, cultural and legal environment favourable to social development ; but despite these good intentions, there is still a great deal to be done, and much that needs completing or re-doing.

The international financial organizations can make a difference to structural poverty ; never have humans been so far apart in their enjoyment of the right to freedom, life and education.

The Millennium Declaration set the goal of instituting a worldwide partnership for development.

Under Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.” The Declaration on the Right to Development states as one of its basic principles that “States have the duty to co-operate with each other in ensuring development and eliminating obstacles to deveIopment.”lOl

100. Poverty aiid clic Iiiternational Covenant on Economic, Social arid Cultural Rights : Sta- tement adopted by die Cnnuiiittee on Economic, Social arid Cultural Rights on 4 May 2001

101. General Assembly Resolution 41/128 dated 4 December 1986, Article 3 para 3. E/C. 12/2001/10 [lard 1.

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The UNDP, for its part, has said “the capacity of developing countries to negotiate global and regional trade agreements needs to be strengthened - another important area for development assistance.”’@

The expression “development policy” has lost currency with the arrival of a reductionist term, expressing the concept of “the fight against poverty”. Developing countries should initiate rounds of negotiations with the developed countries. W e should remember that under the former GATT, the expression “development policy” made it possible to open many negotiations. GATT was aimed at developing certain basic principles with a view to governing world trade in an anti-protectionist way, and played its part in a drive to integrate national economies into one huge world market where commercial transactions would be free from tariff and other barriers. There was a time when the poor countries managed to get the rich ones to accept the principle of negotiation. They were neither the leading producers nor even the leading exporters of raw materials, but they found themselves directly concerned nevertheless by the multilateral negotiations that were taking place.

UNCTAD made one of its prime objectives a rise in raw materials prices. Later, many forms of approach were developed, from “product by product” or sectoral negotiation to a global approach consisting of the establishment of an overall programme for the various products : these programmes were to serve as a basis for negotiating individual agreements for each product in accordance with its intrinsic characteristics and conditions obtaining in its market.

States should pursue their current negotiations on international trade ; at present there is stalemate on the agenda concerning agricultural subsidies. Experts who have been following the whole of the WTO Doha Round consider that success in these negotiations would mean over 140 million people could be lifted out of poverty and the third world‘s income could be raised by 350 billion dollars a year. W e should recall that the Doha Programme was presented in Geneva in JUIY 2004. The developing countries have high expectations of this ambitious programme, which should make it possible to put the finishing touches to the agreement on trade, in particular for agricultural products.

~

102. UNDI’, Overcoiriiiig I-Iuiiiaii I’ovcity : UNDP Povci ry l1cpoi.r 2000, 11 I l

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Development contracts are an essential means of backing poor countries’ strategies in the fight against poverty.

The international economic organizations should redraft their policies of support for developing countries. Structural adjustment policies are helping to speed up the process of pauperization, by leading to the abandonment of national public policies. The IMF was set up.to promote monetary cooperation and the orderly adjustment of payment balances. Some SOLI]-searching on IMF policies is in order, and on its methods and practices over Che last 24 years in relation to balance of payment stabilization policies. Policies for restoring sound public finance do not put human needs first. These stabilization policies are in thrall to the accountant’s logic, the balancing of accounts by means of financial transactions, the balancing of budgets, and the privatizing and liberalizing of entire national sectors by total deregulation. The danger for these countries, as they face the demands of these structural adjustment plans, is that these policies for dealing with economic imbalance become a substitute for the developinent strategies put in place earlier. Sectors which do not generate added value are no longer priorities under these programmes.

To turn to aid : we must arrange for this to be not less than 0.7 % of GDP. Aid must be integrated with the national development effort, and public development aid must adopt a new approach, one adapted to the local situation.

Total lending to Africa between 1970 and 2002 is estimated at $540 billion. This inept policy has had a disastrous effect on the repay- ment and servicing of the debt : including interest, Africa had already repaid $550 billion by 2002, but still owed $295 billion. The developed countries should wipe out the developing countries’ debt ; this would make it possible for the poor countries to concentrate their efforts on real development programmes.

Developing countries will find it hard to protect human rights in an economy governed by globalization’03. Mu1 tinational corporations often fail to respect social, economic and cultural rules and standards. A

103. C. Ceccoli, droics sociaux et droit international [social rights aiid iiicernational law], Bullecin des droits de l’homme, 1998, pp. 17ff.

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Uniced Nations study made in 1995 revcaled that thcsc multinationals accounted for a diird of world production and had a combined turnover of some $5,200 billion ; three quarters of che curnover of the 37,000 multinationals surveyed went to just the biggest 100 firms"'4.

The International Labour Organisation's report argues for worldwide governance with the institution of fair rules, especially for crade, and for greater efforts on development aid. A number of the report's suggested measures involve placing political restraints on globalization in the form of economic and social governance, and better accommodation of social issues in the WO's measures.

CONCLUSION

If social justice is to be established on firm foundations, we urgently need a renewal of political will to tackle the failure of structural adjustment policies1"j. The basis of all social justice is solidarity. The economy should exist to serve people, not the other way around ; and social, cultural, economic and political concerns must all be properly taken into account. The only valid economic principles are those directed towards social justice which ensure balanced economic development. The social crisis which the poor countries are undergoing today is not something unavoidable, but rather the result of policies that are ill-suited to their real political, social and economic situations. Social policy must be based on education and the building of a social dialogue so that people can really benefit from equal rights and opportunities. Social equilibrium must be elevated into a principle of economic action. Social policy must no longer be a matter of national policy only : the thresholds set as social minima for the world of labour and for social and environmental condi- cions must be sec at world level.

The fight against poverty will have to be approached in an integrated way by national governments, the United Nations and the international financial institutions. The new strategies developed will have to be ones that stress human and social aspects, and the interrela-

104. M. Delmas-Marcy, l'rois fois pour un droir inoiidid [T'hrce cries a[ global law], Ed Seuil. Essais, p 140. 105. Full rcporr on implcinciirarioii of rhc World Siiiniriit kir World dcvclopiucnr : iicpnct by che Secretary-Gcncral of chc prcpararory commirrcc.

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tion between protecting fundamental rights and eradicating extreme poverty.

W e feel globalization must be made human. The President of France had this to say on the subject : “A globalization which would tolerate the grabbing of all its benefits by a predatory minority lias no fLiture. A globalization which would destroy the social and environmental balance, crush the weak and deny human rights has no future. It is our job to make sure the world does not drift that way.’’l06 And the Pre- sident of Brazil has said “the deadliest weapon of mass destruction is destitution.”’07 These two statements, made before the United Nations Assembly, show us how much needs to be achieved by the application of social ethics to globalization.

106. Address by Prcsideiic Jacques Chirac to the 60th Session of rlie Geiieral Assembly, New York 20 September 2004. 107. Address by I’resideiic Luiz. lnacio Lula da Silva tn clic 6Och Session of clic General Asseiiibly, N e w York 20 September 2004.

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UNESCO IN THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY : FUTURE ORIENTATIONS

Francis Childe Senior Prograririiie Specialist

Europe, Asia-Pacifc Tangible Heritage Sectioii

Cirlttrral Heritage Divisioii Ciilfiire Sector

Poverty, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations recalled one year ago, presents a threat to world security that affects each and every one of us. With some three billion women and men living on less than two dollars a day, poverty demolishes cultures arid rules, identities and values, rights and duties.

Allow m e to take this opportunity to present aspects of the UNESCO Culture Sector activities on the protection and safeguarding of the world cultural heritage, on the protection and promotion of the world’s cultural diversity which are directly related to the fight against poverty within the perspective of the relevant UN Millennium Development Goals. Mounir Bouchenaki, Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO, is not able to be with us here this afternoon - due to prior commitments and much to his regret - and therefore I shall be speaking on his behalf and on behalf of colleagues working on the fight against poverty in the Culture Sector.

W e are convinced in the Sector for Culture that, by giving priority to the cultural dimension of development, we shall be able to bring about a more equitable cultural, economic and social environment in particular for populations and communities living in extreme poverty.

At a time when a new world solidarity is required in order to give fresh impetus to development assistance, it is fitting that w e try to redress social and cultural inequalities that are undermining present-day societies. In particular, cultural concerns must conrinue to fLiel international action as a whole because they are part of the very essence of development and the wealth of nations. In this regard, the safeguarding of heritage aiid promotion of cultural diversity and sustainable development, are among the main thrusts bcing undertalcen by

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UNESCO’s Culture Sector and lie at the heart of the fight against poverty.

Poverty is also a threat to the world’s cultural diversity. Globaliza- tion, of course, cannot be held responsible for all threats to global diversity but the scale and rapidity of globalization processes today are providing an added dimension to poverty, one, which needs timely and effective responses. The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001) is a landmark document in this regard.

in response to the march of globalization, a process that brings many benefits but also a number of potential risks, especially in the field of culture ; w e must not reduce our options to choosing between the global and the local. In the Culture Sector it is our view that both dimensions are equally important. W e must continue to defend and promote universality as an expression of our shared humanity and of the rights and freedoms w e all share. W e must also acknowledge and respect the contribution of all peoples to world civilization. At the same time, we niut not sever our links to our own cultures, which are the wells- pring of spirituality, identity, and artistic creation. Cultural diversity provides strength and sustenance to communities, and it provides channels for intercultural dialogue and crossfertilization.

The need to promote pluralism through recognizing and safeguarding the world’s cultural diversity countering poverty is evident in many fields : for example, in regard to biodiversity, linguistic diversity, and the multiple forms of creative human expression embodied both in tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Furthennore, diversity is also a vital dimension of scientific enquiry, the search for new knowledge in all academic disciplines and the transmission of traditional knowledge. And, in our increasingly multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies, tolerance and respect for diversity are public virtues on which new forms of social cohesion can be built hence directly contributing to poverty reduction.

The Stockholm Conference on Cultural Policies for Development of 1998, the Johannesburg Summit of Sustainable Development of 2001 and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (200 i), have constituted the three foundations on which UNESCO tries to enhance and reinforce the crucial links between culture and development and the intrinsic contribution that culture can make to sustainable development and to the fight against poverty.

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Over more recent years, and with the laiincli of UNESCO’s cross- sectoral effort and strategy for the alleviation of poverty, especially extreme poverty, the Culture Sector lias aimed to show more parricularly how work carried out to promote the intangible or the tangible cultural heritage while helping to protect and safeguard that heritage and its intrinsic cultural value, identities and traditions. The gradual loss of such heritage and its vulnerability to the impact of globalization calls for a great effort on the part of UNESCO, which aims to combine efforts under various approaches in order to keep it alive by malting young people, in particular, aware of the values of cultural heritage.

Today, we cannot fail to recognize that intangible cultural heritage has been neglected over the years. It has essential to address this vital dimension of heritage, especially in view of its fragility and vulnerability and in order to ensure sustainable development of populations across the world. Moreover, experience has taught us how important are the links between intangible cultural heritage and the cultural identity of individuals and communities. Questions of intangible cultural heritage also intersect with issues of cultural diversity and biodiversity that are attrac- ting mounting concern at global, national and local levels. For these and other reasons, it is neither possible nor acceptable CO allow intangible cultural heritage to continue being neglected.

The intangible cultural heritage embraces oral expressions, traditional performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, or knowledge and practices about nature, whereas the tangible heritage consists of sites, monuments and places. Safeguarding all forms of cultural heritage is undoubtedly contributing to the fight against poverty.

Poverty is multidimensional and has many components : it is also about the loss of cultural traditions and cultural identities. UNESCO’s culture projects in the alleviation of poverty, therefore, foster traditional skills and competencies and conserve and revivi@ cultural traditions, showing how these things both bear an economic value and how their loss can in itself constitute an acute form of poverty.

This afternoon I would like to begin by presenting aspects of the Culture Sector’s experience in this field taken against the backdrop of a wider tradition of work in promoting the link between culture and SLIS- tainable development. 1 will then introduce a short film on work that is currently underway in Central and South Asia. I hope that this will show, in an immediate way, some of the work UNESCO’s Culture Sec-

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tor is doing and some of the results thus far achieved. It is also my hope that this introduction and film presentation will stimulate discussion here roday on ways forward in this work and particularly on its inter-dis- ciplinary character, particularly since w e are privileged to have with us representatives from all the UNESCO programme sectors, as well as many other distinguished invited speakers, experts and guests. This constitutes a unique opportunity for all of us to learn of each other’s activities and to share perspectives and views.

Efforts to figlit poverty in a culturally sensitive perspective are also devoted at fostering the development of cultural enterprise and cultural industries with a view to impulse job creation and empower local populations in the field of endogenous cultural creativity and production.

Under the Global Alliance foi. Cult!tziraL Diversity Project, efforts are carried out since 2002 to help developing countries or countries in transition to establish viable and competitive cultural industries, from the national and international standpoints, and to put in place cultural policies that create the conditions in which a range of cultural expressions can flourish, Contributing in this way to the Millennium Development Goals, in particular, the eradication of poverty. Particular attention is being paid in this field to support Mi-icm countries in the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Another successfd pilot-project entitled Crn$ as n Window to /ob Opportunities for the Poorest Youth, is seeking to demonstrate how craft techniques, skills and maditions are essential parts of a country’s cultural heritage, and how they can be revitalized and mobilized for income and employment generation, particularly for younger people. In inany cases, these skills, techniques and traditions are in danger of disappearing with the break-up of rural communities under the impact of rural-to-urban migration, or the loss of cultural traditions under the generalized impact of processes allied to globalization.

Many of UNESCO’s activities in the field of culture focus on giving an economic value to the cultural heritage, aside from its obvious value as a vector of identity and a source of national and of personal pride. Many of these activities aimed at enhancing the culture’s economic value have therefore looked at the role that culture can also play in tourism, and in [he leisure industries more generally.

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In its report “Tourism and Poverty Alleviation”, the World Tourism Organization noted “the position of tourism as an important stimulus to international and national economies is not fully recognised. It deserves more attention from finance ministries and organisations concerned with economic development, as well as from ministries of tourism and culture and all those committed to the UN Millennium Declaration to halve poverty in the world’s poorest countries by 201 5.. . Tourism can be harnessed as a significant force for the alleviation of poverty, as well as for environmental protection, giving economic value to cultural heritage [and] creating employment”.

UNESCO, as the United Nations organization having a special responsibility for culture and as the agency responsible for the presewa- tion and the protection of the world cultural heritage has long sought to demonstrate how tourism at heritage sites, when properly managed and controlled, can give economic value to that heritage. It has sought to demonstrate how such tourism can also help to preserve it as a resource for the country’s economic development and for the creation of employment opportunities for local populations.

Nevertheless, it is not only the flagship heritage sites of the UNESCO World Heritage List, such as Angkor in Cambodia, or the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, two countries that have benefited very significantly from the growth of cultural tourism, that can contribute to the fight against poverty and improvement of the living conditions of poor local populations. Indeed, projects that UNESCO’s Culture Sector has been implementing as part of the Organization’s strategy for the alleviation of poverty have sought to show how less well-known intangible cultural assets such as crafts, can also be harnessed for the fight against poverty through the development of cultural industries and cultural tourism. This can help to ensure that these skills are passed on to the younger generation and their salience and identity-conferring aspects reinforced.

The projects undertaken by the Culture Sector within the strategy for the alleviation of poverty demonstrate the links between cultural development, the development of cultural tourism and poverty alleviation showing the real benefits to local people in ternis of sltills and employment opportunities, as well as in increasing national GDP figures and other aggregate economic indicators.

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The project Sahara of Czsltzires and Peoples, includes similar activities in the ten African Sahel states of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, tlie Sudan ancl Tunisia. Other similar projects elsewhere in the world include Czrltural and Eco- tourism in the Mountainous Regions of Central and South Asia, involving activities in remote mountainous areas of eight Central and South Asian countries, and the YoutbPATH project in the Caribbean. The latter seeks to involve young people in heritage tourism throughout the Carib- bean region, giving training in heritage conservation, promotion and marketing and providing them with entrepreneurial skills and access to inforination technology.

In a moment, w e will be seeing a brief clip from a film on the UNESCO Culture Sector’s work in these regards, made this summer in India, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. The activities reported on in this film, we believe, show in an immediate way the promotion of the cultural heritage, the reinforcement of cultural identity and diversity and the bringing of real economic benefits to local populations in the fight against poverty. The film shows UNESCO’s work in supporting novel and innovative activities, iii the field, that are achieving real results.

No doubt my colleagues working in tlie Caribbean, the Sahara, or Latin America would be able to report similarly encouraging results. These efforts have both the virtue of revitalizing and reinforcing the cultural heritage and of giving it an economic value, as a source of income and a means of employment for peoples and communities living in extreme poverty.

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POVERTY, EDUCATION FOR ALL AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Mir Açghar Huçain Director of the Division of Educational Policies rind Strategies

Educatioii Sector

EDUCATION AND POVERTY ERADICATION

Poverty is considered today as a denial of human rights and the very antithesis of development. The eradication of poverty has become the overarching international target. Yet, despite all efforts in the past years, poverty and exclusion have deepened and become pervasive.

Similarly, education is a human right and is considered as a public good. Despite this, more than 100 million children today do not attend school, an equally large number drop out before literacy is properly acquired and more than 800 million adults are illiterate. The majority of these children and adults are girls and women. The stark reality is that one in five adults on the planet are illiterate, two thirds of illiterate adults are women and 140 million are illiterate young people - aged 15-24.

Think of the waste of human potential that this represents !

Mr Kofi Anan, the Secretary General of the United Nations had said at the official launch of the UN Literacy Decade in February 2003 that the fact that 20 percent of the world's adults are deprived of literacy should fill us with shame.

During the past decades, as the focus on the eradication of poverty deepened, lack of access to education of millions of children, young people and adults became a growing concern for the international community. Given that the nearly i billion illiterate population today is amongst the 1.3 billion living in extreme poverty, it is generally acl- \nowledged that education and poverty eradication are inextricably bound, and, that investment in education is one of the most important determinants of human welfare and opportunity as well as social and economic growth. Furthermore, the majority of the people living in poverty as well as the majority of the illiterate population being women, it is also ack-

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nowledged that the lack of appropriate educational opportunities for girls and women, has a bearing on the feininisation of poverty. Access to basic education for all and equality of educational opportunities are therefore considered vital for reducing the inequalities between and within societies.

At the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2002, the international community agreed to work towards poverty reduction through education. The Dakar Framework for Action, while reaffirming the vision of the international community at Jomtien that all children, young people and adults have the human rights to benefit from an education that will meet their basic learning needs, gave more precise operational direction towards the fight against poverty and paid special attention to the learning needs of the poor and the excluded.

The consensus that has emerged over the past decades that education must be central to the internatioiiai fight against poverty and exclusion, is of particular importance to UNESCO. Of equal importance is the growing recognition that education must play a key role in learning to live together in a globalizing and increasingly interdependent world, in particular through the promotion of tolerance and respect for universally shared values, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Education’s central role in the societal development has been recurrent in the recent thinking on economic development and thereby high- quality growth is no more measured by economic results alone, but improved social conditions and the cultural contexts of heterogeneous groups of people who live in poverty are also taken into consideration. The importance of human capital for future growth is increasingly being acknowledged and investment in education is considered crucial to enhance people’s capabilities and widen their choices to enjoy the freedoms that make life meaningfd and worthwhile.

Thus with regard to education’s role in poverty eradication, UNESCO believes that in addition to transforming the right to education from an ideal to a reality for all, it is vital to foster the development of an integrated concept of education, one that enables individuals to enhance their capabilities and enables them to adapt to a rapidly changing social, cultural and economic environment. Also to continue to learn through out life. It is no longer sufficient to learn how to read, write and count. As per the four pillars of the lifelong learning presented in the Delors Commission’s work on Education for the 215~

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Century, learners must also learn to be, to ch, to learn, and to together.

EDUCATION FOR ALL AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE LIVING IN EXTREME POVERTY

At the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000, the world community made collective commitments to the attainment of the following six goals :

- Expanding and improving the comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children ;

- Ensuring that by 20 15 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to and complete free and primary education of good quality ;

- Ensuring that learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programme ;

- Achieving a 50 Yo improvement in levels of adult literacy by 20 15, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults ;

- Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girl’s full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality ;

- Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

In addition to 2 Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs) also directly relate to education :

- Goal 2. Achieve universal primary education (UPE) - Target 3, Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling ;

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- Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women -Target 4, Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015.

UNESCO has placed the Dakar Framework for Action as well as the MDGs related to education, at the heart of its work during 2002- 2007 (Medium-terin Strategy). Considering these goals as the overriding priority for its education strategy, it has placed its mission to promote quality education central to all its tasks and for its iiiteriiatioiial standing.

One of the biggest challenges is to create and expand educational opportunities for millions of those who are victims of poverty, in particular extreme poverty. Fundamental changes are required in the distribution of resources, both human (teachers and trainers) and financial for achieving UPE through free and compulsory primary education of ’

good quality for all so that the children from poor families are not relegated to the most disadvantaged schools. Moreover, adequate legal and policy measures are required to be taken at the international, regional and national levels to ensure that literacy for all becomes a reality and education truly inclusive, reaching out effectively to the un-reached - such as the people living in poverty, women and girls, rural populations, people with special needs, minorities, refugees as well as countries or populations which are victims of disasters.

As Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO stated in his address to the first meeting of the High Level Group on Education for All (UNESCO, October 2001), w e must concentrate on building effective and imaginative strategies for educating the poor, the excluded and the disadvantaged, as poverty remains the greatest obstacle to realizing the right to education.

Today it is clear that unless the right to education is secured as a human right, it will be difficult to achieve the other development goals, particularly the MDGs. Similarly transforming the right to education from an ideal into reality calls for renewed emphasis on poverty reduction strategies at all levels. To this end, one of the objectives of UNESCO’ Medium- term Strategy is promoting education LZJ a jisndanzental right in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Within this framework, the Education Sector is :

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- Building partnerships for EFA - UNESCO in close cooperation with the four official partners in the EFA movement (the World Bank, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children’s Fund) and in collaboration with the Member States, coordinates comprctiensive and continuous policy planning at all levels and advocates to increase the quantity and quality of resources provided for implementing the EFA commitments.

- Supporting policy reforms in favour of EFA - UNESCO supports the Member States in policy reforms for promoting universal access to basic education and for ensuring that educational policies adopt inclusive approaches that embrace marginalised groups, people with special needs and ethnic minorities. To this end, UNESCO participates in the PRSI’ processes initiated by the World Bank, aimed at encouraging countries to develop strategies to counter the escalation of poverty and social inequality in their respective countries

- Advancing the right to education - UNESCO generates dialogues with its Member States and new educational providers, highlighting education as a public good and encourage all actors in the field of education to pay due regard in their undertakings to the need for equity, inclusion and social cohesion in today’s societies. In addition it renews the efforts towards achieving literacy for all, targeting principally girls and women and places emphasis on an education that helps to meet the challenges of poverty and exclusion.

- Empowering the poor and reaching the un-reached through education - UNESCO helps to build the necessary capacities in national government and civil society, gather and disseminates best practices and stimulates dialogue about inclusive approaches to educational strategies for ensuring access to education for millions of children and adults living in poverty and disadvantaged by economic status.

UNESCO’s work in poverty eradication related to EFA is carried out through both formal and non-formal setting. Non formal education (NFE) has enabled millions of children, adolescents and adults, who were unserved or underserved by the formal sector, to access basic education and skills training and has proven to be an important mode for meeting the learning needs of the marginalized population.

Moreover, under the broad rubric of NFE a wide range of programmes can be offered to different age groups, including new

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opportunities for school dropouts to continue education in the formal sector. Whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity, NFE responds both to the needs of learning as well as those of livelihoods, of heterogeneous disadvantaged groups which are outside the realm of formal systems. A majority of the UNESCO NFE programmes therefore include basic education, particularly literacy linked with a variety of development initiatives such as basic and repro- ductive health care, legal awareness, training in income generation, enterprise development and microfinance as well as, popularisation of science and technology as well as application of information and communication technology relevant to the needs and aspiration of local corn munities.

Within the framework of EFA UNESCO’s activities related poverty eradication is guided by three core concerns :

1. To maximize the capacities of Member States to design pro- poor policies and define national action plans in the pursuit of Education for All ;

2. To create a deeper commitment to poverty eradication and a better understanding of the ways in which the persistence of poverty vio- lates human rights and undermine the welfare of all ; and

3. To engage the international community in a concerted effort to fdfil its stated commitments to EFA.

To spearhead our EFA initiatives, we will put emphasis on the three following programmes which are a direct response to the immediate and medium as well as long term needs expressed by the Member States, and where UNESCO has a comparative advantage in relation to its other partners : 1) the Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (which constitutes a launching pad for our global approach to teacher education) ; 2) Global Initiative to expand HIV/AIDS Preventive Education, and the 3) Literacy Initiative for the Excluded (LIFE).

Literacy Initiative for the Excluded (LIFE) will target the countries which either have an illiteracy rate of above 50 Yo or an illiterate population larger than 10 million. It is important to note that a majority of these countries are also the least developed couiitries (LDCs) and the E-9 countries, where the majority of the worlds poor people are concentrated. The objective of this initiative is to assist these countries in

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carrying out concrete actions to improve their literacy rates with appropriate learning programmes which responds adequately CO the needs of the learners, who did not have access ro education so far.

ERADICATION OF EXTREME POVERTY, A CROSS-CUTTING THEME IN UNESCO

Finally, poverty being complex and multidimensional, it cannot be tackled successfully and effeccively unless responses to its various dimensions are fdly examined and integrated, if and where necessary. A comprehensive concept of poverty- eradication must capture the economic, social and cultural dimensions of development. It also requires a strategy based on integrated cross- sectoral approaches. Given clie enormity of both the challenge and the task, a concerted effort must be made by all development partners and national governments as well as civil societies to join forces in the pursuit of halving extreme poverty by 2015.

Poverty eradication thus requires inclusive vision, coherent policies and concerted efforts. it requires coordinated action among various sectors at different levels within and beyond national boundaries, involving interaction and collaboration between international organisations, national governments, regional bodies, various ministries, NGOs, religious groups, the private sectors and the poor themselves. Coordination among such a large number of different groups is an enormous task, but

, is essential for the efficient use of resources and sustainable development.

While EFA forms parc of the national and international agenda for poverty eradication, it is important to know more about whar makes education a powerful tool for poverty eradication.

While investment in education plays a vital role in identifying and building endogenous capacity and considered an important determinant of human welfare, opportunity and economic growth the complex process of poverty eradication cannot be resolved by successful intervention in any one area. For example, even well-designed educational intervention will have limited impact on the quality of life of the poor if malnutrition, disease and HIV/AIDS, unemployment etc i.e lack of access to basic services, remain at the present level. Education has also to be a feature in the global campaign to fight HIV/AIDS and achieving other MGDs.

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W e need to understand better the learning needs of the people living in poverty, what education enables them to improve their livelihoods and enables them to work their way out of poverty with dignity. W e also need to have a holistic perception of povercy and understand the factors operating in specific local contexts that determine the outcomes of policies and strategies, arid why the same policies do not achieve the same results in different contexts.

In other words, we need to strengthen research and knowledge. UNESCO and many other organisations (such as OECD) are conducting research as well as developing indicators and guidelines for linking education effectively to poverty eradication and assessing its impact.

UNESCO considers poverty eradication as a cross-cutting theme (CCT). It has launched for the period of 2002-2007 an innovative mechanisms through which intersectoral teams are encouraged to work on interdisciplinary projects combining its various fields of competence. These projects cover broad areas ranging from targeted research to policy formulation and involving pilot testing at the community level as well as review of concrete issues at the regional on sub-regional levels.

Four cross-cucting project pertaining to the theme of eradication of extreme poverty are being carried out under the leader ship of the Education Sectors. All these four projects are focusing on empowerment of the people living in poverty, especially girls and women with a broad based capacity building programme linking literacy to vocational slulls and income generation with access to science and appropriate technology as well as ICs. While carrying out pilot testing at the community level, these project are generating policy debates through a human right perspective towards meeting the basic needs of the target group with appropriate and complementary cross cutting activities pertaining to UNESCO’s various fields of competence.

Interdisciplinary projects by their very nature calls for experts and professional from different fields, not only at the project design level but at the project implementation level as well. It also requires collaboration of different ministries at policy formulation level. Similarly, intersectoral collaboration requires greater commitment of the sectors to facilitate teamwork. The CCT projects are therefore setting examples on how concerted and coherent poverty eradication programmes can be developed with strong partnerships within and outside UNESCO and lessons learned through these will allow the education sector, to respond more

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effectively to the learning needs of the people living in poverty with a deeper unders tanding of their multifaceted needs and their local contexts.

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THE RIGHT TO KNOWLEDGE IN ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE POVERTY

Tony Marjoram Progranme Specialist

Eizgiizeeriiig Sciences and Technology Sec fioiz Division of Basic mid Etzgiizeering Sciences

Nattiral Scieizces Sector

POVERTY - ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE TO ADDRESS BASIC HUMAN NEEDS

Poverty is usually considered in economic terms, but relates primarily to the limited access of people living in poverty to the knowledge and resources with which to address their basic needs and promote SLIS- tainable livelihood development.

Areas of basic need iiiclude water supply, sanitation, food security, housing, energy, transportation, communications, income-generation and job creation. The application of knowledge in these areas relates particularly to knowledge transfer and associated capacity building in engineering, science and technology.

The importance of science and technology in driving sustainable economic and social development and addressing basic needs and the reduction of poverty was emphasised at the World Conference on Science in 1333, the World Engineers’ Conventions in 2000 (Hanover) and WEC 2004 (Shanghai), the Johannesburg World Summit on Sus- tainable Development in 2002 and relate particularly to the UN Millennium Development Goals.

ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT

Addressing basic human needs in these areas is a basic human right, and access to knowledge in engineering, science and technology should therefore be considered a central component of a rights-based approach to poverty eradication. The failure to address basic needs is not only a

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denial and violation of the right to knowledge and education, but also contributes to the further marginalisation, exclusion and alienation of people living in poverty, and associated issues of governance and security.

The World Conference on Science, held in Budapest in 1999, considered access to knowledge in science and technology from a rights perspective, and Article 39 of the World Conference on Science proclaims : “The practice of scientific research and the use of knowledge from that research should always aim at the welfare of humankind, including the reduction of poverty, be respectful of the dignity and rights of human beings, and of the global environment, and take fully into account our responsibility towards present and future generations. There should be a new commitment to these important principles by all parties concerned.”

At the World Engineers’ Convention, held in Shanghai in November 2004, over 3000 participants from 70 different countries helped produce the “Shanghai Declaration on Engineering and the Sus- tainable Future”, where it is stated that “Governments need to recognize and reinforce the role of engineering in social and economic development, addressing basic human needs and poverty reduction, bridging the ‘knowledge divide’ and promoting intercultural dialogue, cooperation and conflict resolution.” The importance of international cooperation is also emphasized “There are excessive disparities between people and countries. This can lead to increasing insecurity and conflict. International cooperation in engineering facilitates the exchange of ltnowledge and promotes technological applications for health, wealth and well-being, poverty reduction and the culture of peace.”

SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY FOR POVERTY ERADICATION

“It is important for us to remember the vital contribution of engineering and technology to development in general. W e need to encourage international commitments to promote the kind of engineering and technology that contributes to lasting development around the world’.

Koïchiro Matsuura Director-Gcncriil 11f LINESCO,

World Eizgii leers ‘ Coizvcii tiuii, 2000

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“Mobilise global science and technology to tackle the interlocking crisis of hunger, disease, environmental degradation and conflict that are holding back the developing world”.

Kofi Annan Secretary-Geizerd of the UN

World Ecoizoiizic Forum, 2000

“Engineering will be vital in providing sustainable solutions to such issues as transportation, energy, natural and resource use, environmental protection, cleaner production, recycling and pollution control. Engineering is also vital, of course, in the context of the UN Millennium Development Goals and the reduction of poverty”.

Walter Erdelen Assistant Director-Geizeval for Natural Sciences,

World Engineers‘ Conveiztioiz, 2004

Since the dawn of civilization knowledge has been essential for the survival of humanity. Since the 19th century the application of ltnowledge in science, engineering and technology has been seen to underpin and drive sustainable social and economic development.

As noted above, poverty relates primarily to the limited access of poor people to the knowledge and resources with which to address their basic human needs. These include water supply and sanitation, food production and processing, housing, energy, transportation, communication and enterprise development in income generation and employ- men[ creation.

Examples of science and technology in these areas include water chemistry and engineering, waste management, food science and technology, building and civil engineering, power, transportation and communications engineering. These include both the overall benefit of science, engineering and technology to general social and economic development, and direct applications - such as in water pumps, improved toilet and waste management technology, tools and techniques for food production and processing, affordable housing and appropriate building codes, improved lighting and cooking technologies, low-cost road construction, and new and improved ICTs. Technologies also form the basis of many micro and small-scale enterprises - as illustrated by the fact that a large percentage of small loans and microfinance activities are for the acquisition of business tools and equipment.

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Science, engineering and technology need to be appropriate to the context of poor people in terms of the social, economic, educational and knowledge situations, and are vital in enabling people living in poverty to address their own poverty and promote sustainable livelihood development. Poor people are often more exposed to emergencies, natural and man-made disasters, and there is an important role for science, engineering and technology in emergency and disaster preparedness, mitigation and response.

Science Sector activities focus on science, engineering and technology for poverty eradication, improving innovation systems through applied research, development of information, information-sharing and pilot project activity, with particular reference to the least developed countries.

The importance of applying such knowledge for human, social and economic development, to address basic needs and reduce poverty has been at no time greater than at present. Yet the ability to apply engineering, science and technology for development, has decreased, with the increasing knowledge gap between rich and poor countries. The main challenge we now face is to reduce this gap and help poor countries apply engineering, science and technology to reduce poverty and promote sustainable social and economic development. Part of this challenge is to overcome institutional constraints and barriers.

CAPACITY BUILDING IN SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

To apply science, engineering and technology to poverty reduction and sustainable development, we first need adequate human and institutional capacity - which is in short supply in many countries. Capacity building in science, engineering and technology is therefore an initial and principal priority.

W e live in globalizing knowledge societies, where the application of science, engineering and technology are of increasing importance for economic and social development. As knowledge-based development is emphasized, science and engineering are faced with the prospect of shor- tages of qualified engineers and supporting technologists primarily in developing nations.

Sector strategy to promote human and institutional capacity building in engineering focuses on developing and strengthening :

- Science and engineering education, training, research and professional development ;

- standards, quality assurance and accreditation ;

- curricula, learning/teaching materials and methods ;

- distance and interactive learning ;

- science and engineering ethics and codes of practice ;

- advocacy and public understanding of science and engineering ;

- indicators, information and communication systems for science and engineering ;

- women and gender issues in science and engineering ;

- science, engineering aiid technology policy and planning.

The Sector also recognises the increasing need to develop capacity and apply science, engineering and technology in emergency and disaster response, relief, prevention and management. Science and engineering play a crucial but often under-recognised role in dealing with emergencies, disasters and post-conflict situations. To facilitate activity in this area the Sector maintains and develops linkages with international agencies active in these fields and in partnership with relevant NGOs.

SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

To be sustainable, poverty reduction needs to be addressed in the context of sustainable social, economic and environmental development. Science, engineering and technology currently exists to make significant progress towards meeting basic human needs and advancing more quicldy towards sustainable development as outlined in the WSSD and the UN Millennium Development Goals. It is imperative to apply such

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knowledge and resources now where they are necded and can make the most difference.

Sector activities in sustainable development focus particularly on the United Nations WEHAB (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity) objectives articulated at WSSD including :

- water supply and sanitation

- cleaner production and recycling

- energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy and clean coal technology

- emergencies and disaster preparedness and response, including urban security

- post shock and conflict restoration, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES SECTOR

The overall vision and mission of UNESCO in science and technology is to promote human and institutional capacity building for poverty reduction and sustainable economic and social development. In order to promote science, engineering and technology for poverty reduction there is a need to enhance the public understanding of science and engineering, and for reform in science and engineering educaciori to encompass wider social and ethical concerns in such areas as gender sensitivity, sustainable design, problem- and project-based learning and an inter-sectoral approach.

The overall strategy of the Sector in promoting science, engineering and technology for poverty reduction is a focus on human and institutional capaciry building, particularly in the developing countrieî, through the transfer and exchange of knowledge and innovation in international networking, cooperation, intercultural dialogue and partnership. This strategy reflects the UN Millennium Developrncnt Goals and UNESCO priorities and Medium Term Strategy including sustainable development and poverty eradication, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) priorities, Least Developed Countries

(LDCs), small island states, young people, women and gender issues in engineering. Key strategic challenges include declining enrolment in science and engineering around the world and how this may be understood and addressed, how best to promote tlie public understanding of science and engineering. and how science and engineering may most effectively be applied to poverty eradication and sustainable development.

The overall objectives of the Sector are to strengthen human and institutional capacity in developing and developed countries, to promote science and engineering to young people and to provide an interactive and catalytic role for the application of science, engineering and technological resources to sustainable economic and social development and poverty eradication. There is specific reference to the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, ensuring environmental sustainability, promoting gender equity and empowering women and developing global partnership for development.

This focus and activity will facilitate the commitment of the international science and engineering community to work with and strengthen the capacity of UNESCO to assist member states in applying science, engineering and technology to sustainable development and poverty eradication. The Sector seeks to strengthen regular programme activities as an integral programme of UNESCO, using Regular Programme and extra-budgetary financial support.

POVERTY REDUCTION ACTIVITY IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES SECTOR

All programmes and Divisions of the Natural Sciences Sector are involved, directly and indirectly, in poverty reduction activity, both as general programme activity and as part of the intersectoral cross-cutting theme (CCT) projects on poverty eradication. These include the basic and engineering sciences, ecological and earth sciences and science policy and sustainable development. The small islands platform and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission also link to poverty reduction of people living in coastal regions. In the water sciences tlie UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft focuses on water science and engineering.

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Examples of CCS projects activities includc the Teclinoloby and Poverty Eradication (TAPE) project in the Basic and Engineering Sciences Division focuses on promoting access to knowledge in engineering and technology to address basic needs and promote sustainable livelihoods development. The Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) project in the Coastd Zones and Small Islands Unit focuses on the importance of recognising local and indigenous linow- ledge systems in sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Field offices are closely involved in general programme and CCT projects on poverty eradication. particular activities include a project to integrate science and technology into micro-finance schemes, to promote sustainable living and small-scale enterprises. This project focuses on the important role and need to integrate science and technology into micro-finance schemes to promote sustainable living and small enterprise development. Another project focuses on small- scale mining and sustainable development. Small-scale mining is an important economic activity for many people in countries with deposits of mineable ores. This project provides information to small-scale mining activities to promote sustainable development.

POLICY ISSUES FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR POVERTY ERADICATION

The main policy issues for science, engineering and technology for the eradication of poverty relate to policy instruments - such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), and implications for more general development goals - such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and broader considerations relating to science and technology policy and related issues - such as institutional factors regarding the UN system approach to poverty eradication.

Policy implications regarding policy instr~uneiits and PRSPs relate mainly to the need to include reference to the role and importance of engineering, science and technology for poverty reduction, and the need for specific mention of EST in PRSPs and related documents. Policy implications for more general development goals and the MDGs similarly require reference to EST in areas where the importance of EST may otherwise be overloolted - such as the need for refrigeration in vaccine

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transportation and storage. Implications for science and technology policy in general include the need for S&T policy to focus more on poverty eradication as an important policy issue in developed and developing countries. Developed countries are currently taking greater interest in the role of science and engineering in poverty reduction - as indicated by the recent Africa Commission emphasis on capacity building in these fields. Implications for related issues include such institutional factors in the UN system as the need for better linkages and cooperation between UN agencies in the approach to and implementation of poverty eradication activities, and the need for the sharing of good practice.

In the Science Sector various workshop, publication and networking activities to promote access to information and knowledge sharing to reduce poverty have been initiated. The sector has also contributed to the production of the UN Millennium Project report of the Task Force on Science, ïecl-inology and Innovation, “Jnnovation : Applying Know- ledge in Development”. Key recommendations of this report relate to :

- the need to build upon existing technologies ;

- the importance of technology and infrastructure development ; -the need for enhanced investment in knowledge and S&T

education ;

-the need for government to promote activity in EST and innovation ;

- the need for good advice to government on EST and innovation.

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ICTS AT WORK IN THE HANDS OF THE POOR INNOVATION AND RESEARCH IN SOUTH ASIA

Venus Jennings Assistant Progranziiie Specialist

Media and Society Sectiorz Conziniinication Developiiicizt Division Cornnzziizica tioiz and Iizforiiiatioii Sector

The application of Communication and information technologies to poverty reduction should essentially be well researched so that the process of investigation and understanding is bo th holistic and focused on an overall information and communication environment, and integrated with the initiatives of the poor. Since 2002, UNESCO has been exploring innovative ICT solutions that have a direct impact on poverty reduction through a research venture in South Asia. The research, based on nine individual project sites, developed social and technological access models that address fundamental poverty issues and key barriers to ICT usage by the poor. This paper provides an insight not only on some aspects of the methodology but more on the process that leads to substantial findings linked closely to potential ICT poverty reduction solutions and strategies.

A BRIEF LOOKAT THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

The ethnographic action research used in this programme is based on combining two research methodologies : ethnography and action research. Ethnography is traditionally used as a research method to understand different cultures. Action research is used to inform and adapt strategies as projects proceeds by reflection, adjusting project plans and actions. Ethnography guided the research process while action research linked the research back to each project's planning and implementation. Ethnographic action research aims to integrate broadly qualitative research methods within specific project development.

Each project site employs a full-time, on-site researcher who is involved on a daily basis with the work of the project, generally combining both project development and research responsibilities. '.the resear-

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chers are trained and supported through workshops, on-line facilities (a shared website, chat and email), and field visits from the research team. Researchers were trained to use the normal repertoire of ethnographic research (interviews, participant observation, diaries, surveys) to address the structures of both poverty and media use in their locality. Resear- chers seek to understand how poverty is experienced and managed qua- litatively by their target groups rather than through measurement or other quantitative indicators. They are also encouraged to look and work within at the complete ‘communicative ecology’ of their area, that is to investigate the full range of means of communication that are employed and the local social networks through which information and communication flow. This gave them the required detailed understanding to see how ICT interventions fit into local poverty and communications, and how these interventions might be more effective.

The analysis has been shaped by the important themes that emerged from the preliminary data. Some of the themes are empowerment, learning and education and social networks.

LOCAL INITIATIVES

- Namma Dhwani Local ICT Network (Budikote, Kolar District, Karnataka, India) combines a radio studio, an audio cable network that delivers radio to local households, and a telecentre with computers, internet connectivity and other multimedia tools.

- Empowering Resource Poor Women to Use ICTs (Chennai, Kan- cheepuram and Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India) has put computers with internet connectivity into the homes of women’s self-help group (SHG) members.

- ICT Learning Centre for Women (Seelampur, New Delhi, India) is an open learning centre for girls and women located at a madrasa (Isla- mic school) in a high-density, low-income area of east Delhi.

- Nabanna : Networking Rural Women aiid Knowledge (Baduria, North 24 Parganas District, We s t Bengal, India) uses grassroots processes to build information-sharing networks among low-income, rural women through face-to-face regular meetings as well as web- and print- based media.

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- Darjeeling Himalayan Int-ernet Railway (Darjeeling, West Bengal, India) has community ICT centres with computer training and internet- access at stations along the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR).

- Youth-Led Digital Opportunities (Sitakund, Chittagong District, Bangladesh) has a rural ICT centre and linked it to a grassroots youth development network that works to address root causes of poverty and key areas of social and economic development.

- Tansen Community Media Centre (Tansen, Palpa District, Nepal) works with local youth from poor families and marginalised groups, training them in TV production and the use of ICTs.

- Jakar Community Multimedia Centre ('Jakar, Bhutan) is part of a remote Bhutan Broadcasting Service production station in Jakar. Local TV and radio production feeds into the national broadcast system, allowing for increased level of content from isolated rural areas.

- Uva Community Media Network (Uva Province, Sri Lanka) uses a combination of radio and new ICTs as a way to facilitate responsive development aiid governance on a province-wide basis.

(please log on to www.ictm.nic.in for more details on the local initiatives)

WHAT IS POVERTY?

The overall aim of the sub-regional UNESCO initiative is ro explore how 1C'T interventions in the poorest communities could make an impact on the lives of poor people. Researchers work to develop detailed pictures of how poverty is understood, experienced and lived in their locality. They do this by investigating the question 'What is poverty ?' throughout their research, using methods such as interviews and conversations, observations, diaries, mindmapping and PRA (participatory rural appraisal) exercises. The focus is on how people expressed their own understanding and experience of poverty.

It is important to note that the local understanding of poverty can be contentious, either for participants or project workers or both. For example, in numerous cases poverty is identified as having coo many daughters and not enough sons, thus incurring dowry costs and forfei- ting income. Project workers, whose centres represented a direct intervention in such social norms, are implicitly conlesting these views

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http://www.ictm.nic.in

of poverty. In this context, local defiiiitions of poverty are not uncontested truths ; they become part of the learning processes around the ICT centres through group discussions, research, changes that arise from cencre activities, training and general social interaction.

It is also important to recognize that poverty is always relative poverty. The programme was remitted to explore ICTs and poverty reduction among the very poorest communities but participants themselves drew many distinctions between different kinds and degrees of poverty. Moreover, poverty changes over time, and insecurity is itself a crucial aspect of poverty. Different ltinds of poverty cannot always mea- ningfully be ranked quantitatively into poorest and less poor, while official poverty classifications and people’s declarations of poverty are not a reliable guide to who is and isn’t poor. Finally, people at different levels or kinds of poverty do not generally live in different worlds - they lead interconnected lives.

POVERTY AND PARTICIPATION

In order to achieve participation, local ICT initiatives, be they centres, studios, networks or any other variation, have to understand and deal with certain basic structures of poverty chat materially prevent people from accessing ICTs or that prevent them from seeing the relevance of ICTs in improving their conditions. It is the poorest and most marginalized people who most clearly articulate these themes, but they are issues that confront people at many different levels of poverty.

1. Restriction to daily needs and daily labour : Women frequently pointed to lack of time to participate in centres after attending to household work ; many people say they cannot forego any potential earnings in order to participate in a centre :

“I did not have lunch today as I have only small quantity of food hence I did not eat. I kept it for my children. They can’t tolerate hunger.”

Under this situation I feel it is dzflcult for Mrs. Natesan to learn about computers. She is working as rt seruant maid and earning Rr 2OOper month nnd hey husband is doing Inzindyl work. He is earning RrI500 /month which is not suflcient to run the fdmily. Vshe is to Learn about computers it zuozdd be dificzrlt to make ends nzeet. (Fieldnotes from Tamil Nadu)

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2. Mobility : Participation of the rural poor may involve enormous costs in time and transport. Women are often dealing with restrictions on their mobility : in Seelampur and Sitakund, for example, Muslim women cannot travel or use public spaces without socially acceptable reasons. Hindu fishing communities in Sitakund are amongst the poorest and most marginalized within the programme. They are geogra- phically remote, with poor transport ; the level of poverty made travel prohibitively expensive and only justified if there was direct monetary benefit ; inhabitants have the lowest caste status within the Hindu population and are ostracized and exploited by surrounding Muslim villages. The idea of participating in an ICT centre was almost inconceivable, though some of the young men expressed interest.

3. Marginalization : The poorest often fear that ICTs and ICT centres are not places for people like them : the very factors that structured their poverty- caste, illiteracy, gender - also seemed to exclude them by definition froin prestigious modern technologies. People often assume that both ICTs and ICT centres are only for educated people ; illiterate people frequently asked if they were only open to the literate. Moreover, the design of the centres themselves could suggest that it was not for them :

People used to fear entering the ICT centre. Not only the centre is equipped with computers but the outlook of the centre must have given an expression that the centre is meant for some one better than themselves. The centres are well furnished with marble flooring.. . (Darjeeling fieldnotes)

4. Relevance and practical outcomes : given these problems of access, particularly for the poorest and most marginalized, the relevance of ICTs to their conditions is harder to demonstrate, and has to be demonstrated in terms of more direct practical outcomes.

While the Darjeeling site researcher was interviewing in a quite remote Himalayan village, one participant Vijay stormed off angrily and said :

“What will poor people do by learning compiiters ? If w e go to learn computers who will feed our stomachs. Poor people spend their life as labourers. None of us here have time for computers. W e maystarve if we don’t work for a day. Anyway what is the use of learning computers ? Hey Nima lets go for work, why do we need to waste our time here ? W e

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are not going to benefit anything out of it. It’s the same old thing, they simply document, nothing will happen practically.. .”

HOPES, ASPIRATIONS AND CHANGE

The very idea of ‘poverty reduction’ depends on understanding how people formulate and act upon aspirations, concepts of social change and images of the possibilities open to them. These themes are also crucial for understanding how people relate to ICT centres and sldls. For most participants, access to ICTs represents real or symbolic access to modernity; the future, education and knowledge, and therefore ICT centres constitute a space into which people can project and develop a sense of change and possibility.

However, there is a considerable gap between these aspirations and people’s lino~dedge of this ‘modern world’ in which they wanted their children to establish themselves. Both parents and children have little direct experience of offices, professions and the range of modern work. In general, young people are literate but their parents (or mothers) are not, and have no personal understanding of the kinds of skills they believe to be necessary. They therefore find it difficult to articulate precisely how education or information translates into improvement or jobs, or to assess the quality of education and to make informed choices over their very considerable investments in education.

Young people in particular express many aspirations other than employment and education, many of which can be summarized under the idea of empowerment. Young people feel they are growing up in a world where they expect to be literate (whereas many of their parents are not), to be lrnowledgeable and educated, to move beyond restrictive family and community norms in order to lead more autonomous lives, and to have a higher status within their communities. ICT centres fit these aspirations particularly closely, both because of the modern and prestige associations of new technologies and skills and because the ICT centres themselves tend to be perceived as free spaces in which people can develop autonomy and confidence.

ICT centres are intervening in diverse structures of poverty as well as wide ranging conceptions of poverty and poverty reduction within poor communities. Members of the community themselves draw widely different connections between poverty and ICTs, which also change over time and as they become involved with ICTs and ICT centres.

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Moreover, different ICTs and combinations of ICTs are connected to poverty in different ways. The central lesson learned from the programme is that it is counterproductive to look for direct impacts of specific ICTs on specific poverty conditions. The most promising poverty reduction processes often arise from combinations of different media and channels of communication ; and these processes are often indirect and subtle, mediated through different social networks, organizations and attitudes. Moreover, the shift from direct impacts to media mixes and mediated processes parallels the experience of many participants in ICT centres : they often start by looking for direct material benefits but also find themselves engaged in processes of innovation and exploration whose benefits are more subtle and long term.

DIRECT AND INDIRECT ‘IMPACTS’

For some people, particularly amongst the poorest, the relevance of ICTs is judged almost entirely in terms of their capacity to generate income or employment in the short term. Those with a longer term view connect ICTs to poverty reduction in terms of education : securing ICT skills is a route to better jobs in the future, directly or by continuing into higlier education. As a wall poster for a private computer school in rural Tamil Nadu put it, ‘Computer education : boon for middle class’ : ICT sltills and certificares are seen as (a necessary) part of a broader and more long term strategy for social advancement.

All the local initiatives are careful not to feed the inflated promises of ICTs by making it clear to participants that computer sltills do not guarantee jobs, though it was ohen difficult to counter these expectations. In fact, the more direct connections between ICTs and income generation are often the least promising. In the case of computers, for example, mastering basic computer literacy plus Microsoft Word, and learning to type CVs and letters, is increasingly seen as essential for future employment for the next generation. It is central to aspirations to white collar jobs, and some young people reported failing to get jobs because of lack of computer skills. However, this has little relevance to the very poor and agricultural population who do not see this route as realistically open to them.

Several of the local iniriatives focus specifically on income generating activities and direct employment benefits from ICTs and tlieir experience to the need to place this work in a broader context.

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The project workers have moved away from direct intervention in income generation in response to the ways the participants themselves are engaging with the ICTs. They only returned to an explicit focus on income generating activities later in the initiative, on the basis of the confidence, social and technical skills and freedom for autonomous activity that young women have built up through their experiences at local training centres. Often, the most important impact on women’s prospects of employment emerged from providing a space for information exchange, support networks, and a range of interrelated social, technical and economic skills and experience.

Contrasts between more or less direct ICT impacts on poverty are evident in everyday use and content. This is particularly clear in the case of computing and internet ; the disjuncture was less clear in radio and video, and perhaps least of all where there is a clear mix of media.

All the centres involve some element of structured computer training which taught basic computer literacy as well as Microsoft Office and internet functions. This is essential partly because it corresponded to people’s understandings of what ‘learning ICTs’ means and partly because it can impact on their lives : it means learning the functions which are associated with getting jobs or advancing into higher education (word processing, including CV writing ; and spreadsheets). This also includes the skills essential to feeling comfortable on a computer (mouse and keyboard skills, and ability to save and organize files, to understand the ‘topography’ of the computer - where things are). This is the basic sense of ‘using computers’ that is associated with getting certi- ficates from computer schools or centres, and with possessing credentials that are accepted by employers. This approach to computing is also associated with learning other valuable and marketable skills, above all English and secretarial skills.

However, even within this kind of ICT use, people’s encounter with computers rapidly diversifies. Learning to use the mouse through drawing and games rapidly develops an excitement about multi-media possibilities and an exploration of visual skills and pleasures. Using PowerPoint in order to teach Office gets people involved in sequencing images and texts, which can develop into narratives and - in some sites - into giving presentations to the rest of the group. In the case of less literate people, seeing one’s name on the monitor is a primarily uiszid expe-

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rience, more to do with drawing and self-expression than with office skills.

At the same time, the more creative uses of ICTs generate problems. They can require considerable technical sltills on the part of staff and trainers, as well as time to develop structured programmes and support project work. It is clear that this approach was much better developed in the community radio and video projects, and needs to be extended to computing and internet. Moreover, some staff felt uncomfortable or lacking control when media use is largely informal and driven by participants’ interests. This is particularly true where there were status differences of gender or education. Interestingly, in Sitakund, participants are extremely vocal in criticizing staff who imposed their authority not only by their attitude but also by structuring classes too formally.

Finally, innovative use of ICTs can be challenging to the wider community. For instance, parents questioned why they were paying even nominal fees for their daughters to participate in frivolous activities like listening to CDs that seemed to have little to do with serious education.

EMPOWERMENT

As the initiatives have developed, the notion of ‘empowerment’ has emerged as both a useful term to describe the positive effects of the introduction of community multimedia centres. At the same time, it is a dangerously broad and over simplistic way to describe those same, often contradictoiy effects - particularly for women. Project staff and participants widely regarded this term as expressing the benefits of their interventions in the broadest and deepest form, and closest to the personal experiences of beneficiaries. It served as a useful way of collecting together data that indicated the ways in which communities or individuals became somehow ‘empowered’ to operate outside of their traditional spheres of activity, or to challenge restrictive social norms, or see though not always necessarily act upon opportunities they previously were not aware of or did not aspire to. In this respect, empowerment as it is used in this paper refers broadly to the challenging of social norms, shifts in power relations, an increase in perceived opportunity, and increases in ‘confidence’ (mainly of individuals) and the consequences that arise from this. W e might define empowerment in this context as

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the confidence and capabilities to express oneself and to act effectively in the social world.

Empowerment is most commonly defined in terms of increased confidence, particularly by women. By dealing with challenging experiences, interacting with others and moving outside restrictive social norms they discover in themselves the ability to do what they thought was beyond them, and to discover new possibilities. A typical narrative comes from a young woman in Seelampur :

Yasmin narrated how different she feels today than when she had come from her village. She recalls an incident when she had come for the first time to the centre with her cousin and had cried when could not use the mouse and this macle her feel so depressed that she thought that her education till 10th grade held no relevance to something so simple that everyone else seemed to use so confidently. She gained so much confidence and feels so motivated, now that she is managing. Yasmin is ’

determined to acquire economic independence in 10 days time and has postponed her plans to go back to her village. N ow she is looking for a job. She will get back to her village only after she gets job. In the early days she was frustrated at not being able to use a computer, for being shy, and for lacking confidence so much so that she missed her college admission opportunity.

It would be difficult, and in fact misguided, to separate the various technical and social bases of Yasmin’s confidence : mastering the mouse, chatting and being in the city : ICTs and spaces of sociability are closely interlinked in the above story. Both Yasmin’s regrets about her past and her new aspirations arise from a sense of the expanded possibilities that she can now contemplate on the basis of developing herself in a supportive but challenging environment.

Similar stories come from an essay writing exercise amongst participants in the Sitakund site, “Changes in you after coming to the centre”. The researcher summarizes the confidence theme in the following way :

“None of the male users mentioned any change in terms of raised confidence while each and every female user mentioned rising confidence levels as a major change.”

“But among these changes the most significant change in me has been that previously I used to feel some kind of a fear to get out of the house

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alone and I used to feel diffidence after coming to the centre. But now there is not a bit of that previous fear in me. This is the biggest change in me.”

Thus the repeated stories of overcoming fears in order to use the mouse or organize files narrate both literal and symbolic. Finally, this engagement with new technologies has a sometimes dramatic impact on participants’ social standing in their homes or community. Being seen to master prestigious new technologies changes participants’ relationships with others.

At ICT Centre Seelampur, there are a number of examples to conclusi- vely show that the participants have gained self-confidence in many ways. N o w they have a say in their family. Their parents, husbands, in- laws and of course their siblings feel proud as they use the most sophisticated technical device. They are also admired because they are coming out of home to know good things and exchanging information with others. Some of them are involved in decision-making in their family. They realize that women have the right to speak. In the society they have a distinct position, as they know how to use computers, they interact directly with outsiders like us as well as UNESCO visitors. (Seelampur site).

A single year of ICT use in the social hierarchy in Baduria is not sufficient to claim much change, but married women who had previously no right to express themselves, can now give an opinion and participate in decision making [at the household level]. After coming to the centre and mixing with lot ofwomen they have realized they have the right to speak (Baduria team).

A key issue for poor communities is whether ICTs and ICT centres are ‘for them’ ; conversely, access to ICTs - as modern technologies for educated people - may mean a change in their perception of their own status. In an interview from Tansen, a young man shares how he was excluded by both poverty and caste from ever watching television ; the ICT centre designates it as ‘his’ technology for the first time :

VOICE AND INFORMATION

The general changes in confidence, status and self-expression translate unpredictably into direct impacts. The research experience has focused on diverse processes rather than on specific pieces of information,

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accessed via ICTs, that had direct outcomes. For example, several of the Darjeeling centres gradually began to see themselves as spaces for information exchange : people value them as places where ideas and information are accessed and exchanged through numerous channels - face-to- face interaction, print media, computers, public displays. The kind of information is equally diverse, including medical and educational facilities, HIV/AIDS awareness, training in stuffed-toy production and legal advice, or simply the possibility of sitt.ing in a centre reading a newspaper or magazine. In terms of empowerment, the message is that people value the very idea of their right to free and transparent access to information and ideas.

“Leela and her friend said that they have formed a SHG (self help group) after getting information from ICT centre. The SHG members originated because of the ICT centre. None of us knew each other before we actually met in the ICT centre. So the ICT centre has not only made us friends but has made us aware and given us ideas. The idea behind the SHG emerged within the users in the centre who now have a meeting once a week in the ICT centre. The name of the SHG is the SAHAYATA, which they have associated with the ICT project. Deolu said, I have got more than what I expected from this centre. This centre has become an eye opener for not only the margiiialized section of the community but even to the people who lacked information (Darjeeling researcher notes)”.

NE GO TIA TING CHANGE

Empowerment is a way of defining changes that embrace peoples’ sense of social agency, power relations within family and community, and the social norms that govern relationships aiid institutions. They embrace shifts in gender, caste, class and age divisions. Although participants generally describe increases in their confidence and in their opportunities and aspirations, they also have to deal with considerable tensions.

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social exclusion is a major indicator of poverty and plays a central role in its reproduction. Inclusion in social networks provides vital access to information, social support, confidence and che ability to participate in collective life. Poorer people have fewer and narrower social connec-

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tions, excluded by their conditions from the very social resoiirces which might improve them.

Investigating social networks means studying ‘Who is connected to whom ?’ ‘What is the social and geographical range of people’s connections ?’ ‘At what points and for what reasons are people prevented from making connections with others, are excluded ?’ ‘How do people use their connections ?’ Social networks are also part of understanding the flow of communications within communities and therefore the ways in which ICT initiatives connect to the community : how is information circulated ? H o w do initiatives relate to existing social networks and to what extent are they accepted within the community ?

What has emerged most strongly from the research experience has been the effectiveness of the ICT centres in expanding users’ social networks. They do this in many ways.

- They provide legitimate spaces to socialise and work with different people, and in free and interesting situations.

- The centres act as ‘hubs’ where different social networks can intersect - e.g., friendship networks across educational, religious, caste or gender divisions.

- Participation in ICT centres builds the confidence and sltills to deal with new people and situations.

- Centres are connected to larger organizations, and attract visitors, giving a sense that the locale is connected to a wider world.

This exclusion from social and commercial networks, on the basis of gender restrictions on mobility, is repeated in many of the sites, in both Muslim and non-Muslim households. For example, in both Budikote and Tamil Nadu sites there is a clear distinction between women who were in self-help groups and those who were not, or between life before and after joining an SHG. Outside of self-help groups, women are generally restricted to the immediate family, a few neighbours and some extended family, living and working in considerable isolation. Many have married into their villages and their only connection to wider social networks are very occasional visits [O their place of origin. Joining a self help group, and in these cases, by extension, an ICT initiative, immediately expands the social networks to which they are connected not only to other members biit also to committees and gatherings of other SHGs, to

bank and government offices with which they have to deal and sometimes to the partner organizations and NCOs that the SHGs and ICT initiatives are connected to.

Restricted social networks reflect social norms that narrow people’s mobility, access to information and resources, and their ability to interact with others to gain support and to organize collectively. Conver- sely, interventions that expand social networks challenge the social norms - such as gender roles and caste exclusions - that restrict people’s mobility and social connections.

1. ICT centres are social centres : whatever else they do in the way of resource and skills access, they are places where people can meet, interact, work together and exchange information.

2. While much literature has focused on how ICTs expand mediated information access and communication, milch of the initiative’s experience points in the opposite direction : ICT access produced increased face-to-face communication within local social networks.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

The paper draws upon research conducted on ICT interventions for aperiod of one year. It demonstrates significant findings on the impact of ICT interventions on empowerment of the poor and the creation of social networks. It identifies the role played by people’s own understanding and perceptions about their situations and how they would want to change it. This is particularly true in relation to their experience of poverty and holdsimportant lessons for ICT interventions that may be developed in the future in this region.

To summarise in key bullet points :

- Strong links between social and technical networks emerge as highly important for the successful development of community-based ICT initiatives

- Involvement in local content creation is a powerful way to engage people with ICTs, enabling them to have a voice

- Integrating new ICTs with established media has a positive impact on sustainability

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- ICSs play a crucial symbolic role in people’s aspirations and ideas of wht skills will be necessary for the fLiture

- ICT initiatives are clearly valued for providing a different model of teaching and learning that stands in marked contrast to general experiences of schooling

- ICTs link to empowerment in extremely diverse ways. ICT sliills link to aspects such as li-teracy, expression and access to information

- ICT initiatives have been as important as a social intervention as they have been as a technical one

- Successful development of the initiatives has proven to be a gradual process that works best when developed organically froin both community demands and careful research

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TO BE PROTECTED FROM POVERTY IS A HUMAN RIGHT

Pierre Sané Assis tant Director-General for Social and Htinzan Sciences

The theine here is a straightforward, direct proposition : pauperism will only end when being protected from poverty is recognized as a human right, and when poverty is abolished in view of this.

W e must realize that the most conspicuous feature of our civilization, globalized around a quest for unprecedented prosperity, is che persistence and even worsening of poverty. It is a vast phenomenon affecting almost one out of every two persons. It is a reality that is spreading : the overwhelming majority of the two to three billion human beings who will join the world’s population by the end of the century will be exposed to it. It is a reality that weighs on the environment and balances of the world in a way which is of concern to many. The figures are to say the least apocalyptic : 8 million children die every year from poverty- related illness, 150 million under the age of five suffer from aggravated malnutrition, 100 million children live in the street. Every three seconds, poverty kills a child somewhere. And out world shrugs this off.

Since the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, there has been a consensus in the international community to describe poverty as a state of denial of human rights, a state of violation of human dignity. The Vienna consensus has of course been reiterated since by various bodies, in particular the United Nations General Assembly and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system. Even so, despite the consensus, the intellectual community has not committed itself to giving any substantial content to this statement, which has consequently remained purely political in nature. “Being protected froin poverty is a human right.” What exactly does that mean ? It is, I would venture, a field that remains to be cleared by philosophers but also by experts in international law, sociologists, economists, non- governmental organizations, national human rights commissions and anybody actively involved in trying to eradicate poverty.

When poverty is defined as a violation of human rights, we are going beyond economic, social and cultural rights. Once we accept the

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indivisibility of rights, the situation of poverty is not just denial of access to school : in fact, one can go to school and be poor, be given medical care and still be poor, have a roof over one’s head and thus enjoy the right to housing and still be poor, enjoy certain civil and political rights and still be poor. T h e definition of poverty must then be sought beyond the first barrier of violations of economic, social and civil rights.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has proposed the most fhctional definition of poverty, which makes work on poverty a field that legitimately belongs to human rights. The definition is as follows : “a human condition characterized by sustained or chronic deprivation of resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights”.

It is not expressed in monetary terms and it is not connected to the threshold of $1 a day. It is expressed in terms that are intangible and that go the heart of what makes us human : our dignity. The poor individual is then one who has nothing, who has no power, no choice, no relations ; he or she is, in short, someone who becomes invisible, marginalized and thus excluded.

What then does this definition of poverty mean, given that practically half the population of the planet lives below the poverty line ! It means that one inhabitant in two of this planet is excluded from humanity according to the very terms of the definition (“deprivation of resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other human rights”). It seems to m e that this is how we must today define humanity : by its capacity to enjoy all human rights as codified in tlie various declarations.

Human rights have as it happens been a breakthrough, a bid to belong to the club we call humanity. There are then three billion individuals debarred from the club of humanity. For centuries, slaves fought to gain access to the status of members of humanity ; for decades, the colonized peoples fought to gain access to the status of a fully fledged part of humanity, enjoying all the rights contained in tlie Universal Declaration. All those who have suffered from racism were de facto excluded from humanity ; likewise, women were long excluded from humanity. When, in 1789, the French revolutionaries adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, it was of course understood that women were excluded from its benefits, not to mention

slaves and colonized peoples. Why ? Because they were not “endowed with reason”, they were not part of humanity as it was conceived of at the time by the dominant peoples. In the same way, the American revolution did not include slaves in humanity, they counted for three fifths of a man. It was only with the Haitian revolution that the Haitians told the French that what they had proclaimed in 1789 held true for all the peoples of the world, and that they, the people of Haiti, would rally to the banner of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Only then was Haiti able to burst into humanity and, symbolically, trace its future trajectory, that is, the gradual inclusion of all those freeing themselves from oppression.

Thus, whether it concerned those who were forced to suffer slavery, colonization, racism, inequality between men and women or apartheid, the definition of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would have applied to them when they did not enjoy that right to humanity, when their rights were not yet recognized.

Let us return to the force of figures. Three billion individuals, that is, half the world’s population, live below the poverty line, so that one individual in two is debarred from participating in society and enjoying basic human rights ; this individual is then quite simply excluded from humanity, which is indeed defined by the capacity of individuals to enjoy all human rights as codified in the various declarations. This is the victory of humanity in question, this eternal fight, from the struggles of slaves to those of colonized peoples, to those of women, minorities, all victims of discrimination and the victims of apartheid, all of the past fights that have consigned so many injustices to the yellowing pages of history. Today, however, there is still ONE fight, to enable each inhabitant of this planet to gain access to the status of humanity : the fight to abolish poverty and “free” the poor from the yoke of pauperization by endowing them with rights and thus restoring the proper balance of power.

This new victory takes the following form : “Being protected from poverty is a human right.” Set as a premise, it will remain a political statement requiring functional content in order to move on from concept to action. W e started this work two years ago. It is based on a whole series of seminars, symposia, research works and publications with philosophers, legal experts, sociologists and economists. It seeks to lend substance to this concept, which, as you can imagine, will not be easily accep red.

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W h a t are the arguments one hears in favour of the view that protection against poverty cannot be considered a human right ?

W e know that poverty is a product of how our societies are constructed, being produced and reproduced by a national and international system that redistributes to some groups and keeps others in a state of penury. The situation regarding poverty varies from one place [O another ; it is indeed one of great historical complexity. Since poverty is the result of human action, of decisions taken both internationally and nationally and of policies whose implementation has meant that in Africa today and throughout the world poverty is on the increase, the responsibility lies with humans. Its causes being identified as human, it follows that it is for society and the State to protect citizens against poverty. Yes, there are societies that have overcome poverty. It may be said that in Europe today, structurally speaking, poverty no longer exists. Admittedly, pockets of poverty remain ; new cases of poverty emerge, new homeless people, it is true. But it can be asserted that the mechanisms are in place today in Europe that make poverty a thing of the past. It is possible to overcome poverty, as the Chinese are currently demonstrating, in common with many South Asian countries, and as the South Koreans have already shown. It is also possible to go in the opposite direction, as Latin America is in the process of demonstrating. Forty or 50 years ago, Argentina was the eighth power in the world, while today poverty is on the increase in Latin America. This backs the perception that poverty is human and not an inevitability.

So, if w e accept that it is not an inevitability, that it is not inesca- pable, the question is “Can poverty be eradicated ?” The answer of course is that “poverty can be eradicated because the planet has never been so rich in all its human history. Technology, information and resources are there for the purpose. W e have the possibility of doing away with poverty not in 15 years but right now, immediately. What is involved ? W e see that 80 Yo of humanity lives on 1.2 o/o of gross world product ; and that 17 O/o of the inhabitants of this planet enjoy 8 1.4 ‘Yo of its income. So, if it is the case that a little over $2 a day is enough to take someone out of extreme poverty, it would suffice to transfer 1 ‘Yo of the aggregate income of the 17 Yo of the worlds richest inhabitants, who corner 81.4 940 of its incoine, to raise the living standards of 81 Yo of the population immediately and raise the income of three billion people to a level above $2 a day. Yet what actually happens ? The transfer continues but in the other direction : the poverty gap widens to the advantage of a

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small minority continuing to grow richer because of the terms of trade and all the other reasons of which you are aware.

And then w e are told, it is true, that there is a right to education, chere is a right to health, there is a right to housing, and so forth, but there is not really a right to be protected against poverty. This is quite wrong. Firstly, because a right is not something that falls out of the blue. it is something that is constructed, that is negotiated in international forums. For example, Article 30 of the European Social Charter specifically includes the right to protection against poverty ; it complements other articles on the right to food, to protection of health and to housing. So we are seeing the emergence of a new right, the right to live free of poverty. It is found in Europe and in Canada and, while it does not feature as such in an international treaty, it is found in fragmented form in various treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimina- tion against Women, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the African Charter and the Latin American Chart.

What is the role of civil society ? Linking the abolition of poverty to human rights, in accordance with our basic postulate, logically means that NGOs and other CSOs concerned with human rights and development should move closer together and evolve convergent strategies. In some cases, taking the concept into account could lead them to rethink the access to rights from the standpoint of abolishing poverty, in other cases to refocusing the fight against poverty in terms of law and the observance of human rights. Civil society in its preventive and watchdog role is called upon to monitor the shift in public policies regarding the obligations imposed by the provisions inherent in this declaration.

What is needed in the last analysis is to mobilize public opinion in support of universal justice, since that universal justice lies within our reach. What will also be required is, by giving them rights, to get poor population sectors to act in the legal sphere and enable them to become actors in changing their communities. The gestation of this change has been very protracted. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Rome Conference instituting the International Criminal Court, chis process has been punctuated with barbarous acts representing an affront to human dignity. But now the instruments exist, and gradually the experiences and initiatives in this regard feed our hopes ; our task

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now is to galvanize political will throiigli daily mobilization, through reflection, tlirough the contribution of experts, and through support to victims and their families.

W h a t does this global justice have to offer ? Let nie quote the Nobel literature laureate José Sararnago : “If this justice were to exist, there would not be a single human being dying of hunger o r of any of the many diseases that are curable for some but not for others. If this justice were to exist, then life would not be the harsh sentence that it has so far been for over half of humanity. To put this justice into practice, we already have a plan of action that has been enshrined for the last 50 years in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With its forthright principles and its clear objectives, the Declaration could usefully replace the programmes of all of the world’s political parties.”

WHAT ROLE IS THERE FOR UNESCO ?

According to its Constitution, UNESCO’s purpose is that of “advancing, through the educational and scientific and cultural relations of the peoples of the world, the objectives of international peace and of the common welfare of mankind for which the United Natioiis Organi- zation was established and which its Charter proclaims”. This goal of common welfare is plainly flouted by the present state of the world in such a way as to undoubtedly constitute the main threat to the peace desired.

The Social and Human Sciences Sector takes on the task of advancing international cooperation and international norms and standards, and calling for solidarity and global justice. It is now working to dari@ this consensual postulate, by organizing series of thematic research studies exploring the different facets of the issue. in this way, philosophers, sociologists, political analysts, scientists and legal experts come to tackle the question of poverty, so that their output taken as a whole can converge on a conceptual framework and thereby supply content for what remains to this day a political declaration. A second challenge is bringing the States of the South into the ongoing intei-national debate on poverty and human rights, and offering them an approach to the issue that could give their policies an alternative direction aiid lead them to review the overall context in which they operate to reduce poverty. With this challenge in mind, UNESCO ensures che necessary means by

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offering researchers, NGOs and national institutions working to eradicate poverty a subsidized empirical research programme.

Finally, UNESCO’s mandate requires it confidently and assertively to bring to the heart of the international debate the core idea - a powerful and workable one - that freedom from poverty is a huinan right.

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PUBLIC LECTURES

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PUBLIC LECTURE 1

18 October 2004

A COSMOPOLITAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Thomas W. Pogge Centre for Applied Pliilosophy and Public Efhics

Atis t va lian Nat ional University Thomas Pogge is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and (part- time) at the University of Oslo. He is currently (2004-06) Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University.

Pogge received his Ph. D. at Harvard University (1983) under John Rawls. Concentrating his research in political philosophy (esp. global justice), ethics, and Kant, he has written well over a hundred essays and reviews as well as three books and edited a few more. His latest book, World Poverty and Human Rights (Polity 2002) is in its fourth printing. His work has been translated into a dozen languages.

Pogge has received numerous grants from (among others) All Souls College, the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, the National Institutes of Health, the MacArthur Foundation, the Princeton Center for Human Values, the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, the Oslo Centre for Advanced Study, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Rockefeller Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. He was made a m e m - ber of the Norwegian Academy of Science and has w o n an Alexander Hamil- ton Medal from the Columbia University Alumni Association as well as a Cer- tificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Harvard-Danforth Center for Teaching and Learning.

Pogge has given some 380 lectures in 28 countries, supervised 36 Ph. D. dis- sertations, and taught twenty-one graduate seminar; around the world, including in Amsterdam, Bergen, Fribourg, Molveno, Oslo, Oxford, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Suzhou, Taipei, and Turku. He is editor for social and political philosophy for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and on the editorial boards of eight international academic journals.

In a recent book,108 I have claimed that w e - the more advantaged citizens of the affluent countries - are actively responsible for most of the

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life-threatening poverty in thc world. The book focuses on the 15 years since che end of the Cold War. In this period, billioiis of people have suffered greatly from poverty-related causes : from hunger and malnutrition, from child labor and trafficlting, from lack of access to basic health care and safe drinking water, from lack of shelter, basic sanitation, electricity, and elementary educatiori.I(I‘1 Some 18 million people have died prematurely each year from poverty-related causes, accounting for fully one third of all human deaths. This 15-year death toll of 270 million is considerably larger than the 200-million death toll from all the wars, civil wars, genocides and other government repression of the entire 20‘11 century combined.’ 1”

Some critics maintain that these problems are peanuts compared to the bad old days when a large majority of humankind was poor.”’ In 1820, they tell us, 75 percent of humankind were living below the World Bank’s “$1 /day” poverty line, while today this percentage is only 20 percent. (This poverty line is defined in terms of the purchasing power that a monthly income of $32.74 had in the year 1993.ll2 In 2004, this line corresponds to the purchasing power of $500 per year in

108. l’hoiiias W. Pogge, Wodd Pouei-g ~rrd HZL~UIIZ Righls : Co.ii~/opoh~ii l ~ ~ , ~ ~ ~ i i j i b ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ , ~ , riiid

Reforins (Cambridge : Polity Prcss 2002). 109. Ainoiig 6 133 iiiilhiii human beings (2001), ahoiir 799 niilliriii are uiidcrnoLirishcd (UNDP : FZzrinnn Devclopmrnt Report 7003 (New York : Oxford University Prcss 2003), p. 87) ; 880 million have no access co basic medical care (UNI)P : Hunrtrti L)eoelupitieiit /&port 1995’ (New York : Oxford University Press 1333), p. 22) ; 1000 million lack access to safe drinking water (UNDP : Hziiiznn Deuelopiizent IIepurt 2003, p. 9) ; 1 O00 niillioii lack adequate shelter and 2000 rnillioii have no electricity (UNDI’ Hzimniz Deve/opinent Report 1998 (New York, Oxford University Press 1938), p. 49) ; 2400 iiiillioii lack basic saiiicarioii (UNDP : Hiininn Deuelupnzent h’rport 3003, p. 9) ; and X76 millioii adults are illirerare (&id., p. 6). Soiricl 250 iiiillioii children (aged 5 K J 14) do wage work oursidc their family, 8.4 niillioii oFrheni in the “uncoiidiriorially woi-sr” foi-ms of child labor, “defiiiecl as slavci-)., crafficking, debt boiidage arid oclier forms of forced labor, forced recruirinenr of cliildrcn for use in armed çunflict, prosriturion and pornography, aiid ilkit acrivirics” (Incernatioiial Labour Organisacioii : A Fzitiue IVitliozct Child Labour (Geneva : Iiircrnari(iiial Labor Office 2002, www.ilo.org/public/englisti/stan~~ards/decl/~~1bl/r~p~~rrs/rep~~rt3.hr11i)). Feiiiaics and people of color are hcavily ovcrrcprescnred in all rlicsr horrifying scarisrics (UNDP : Hziiiii~.ii Developnzent Reyurt 2003, rip. 310-3.30). i io. See Iiitp :/lusers.crols.coinlniwliii-e28iwar-1<)00.liciii for rhc figiires ;iiid clic relcv;iiii I iccraciire supporting tliein. 1 i 1 . Norahly c;erdcl ~.;:iiiS : ‘ ‘ i ~ ; I c h ~ntc~~vicw c m i’ogge’s woddi’ouerfy mid b/iwi/mi /++irr“ 011

lchis mid hii~,.r (WITS-PM), I9 January 2093, www.etsu.çd~i/~~liilos/rn<lio/~i~is-~~plir.hr~ii ;

http://www.ilo.org/public/englisti/stan~~ards/decl/~~1bl/r~p~~rrs/rep~~rt3.hr11i

the United States.113) According to these critics, what is remarkable about world poverty is how very little of it there still is today.

I disagree. For one thing, it is quite inappropriate to use percentages for the comparison. The killing of a given number of people does not become morally less troubling the more world population increases. What matters morally is the nzimber of people in extreme poverty. In 1820, this number was about 750 million (75 percent of about one bil- lionl14). In 1998, this number was nearly 1200 million.~~5 Since 1820, the number of extremely poor people has thus increased by over 50 percent, while the number of people living below the World Bank‘s more reasonable “$2/day” poverty line has tripled.116 Moreover, severe poverty was quite hard to avoid in 1820, because even the average purchasing power of incomes worldwide barely reached the World Bank’s higher poverty line. Today, by contrast, the average purcliasing power of incomes worldwide is well over ten times that level, and severe poverty is ,

entirely avoidable. W e are not avoiding it only because of the fantastic increase in inequality.117

M y main claim is then that, by shaping and enforcing the social conditions that, foreseeably and avoidably, cause the monumental suffering of global poverty, we are harming the global poor - or, to put it more descriptively, w e are active participants in the largest, though not the gravest, crime against humanity ever committed. Hitler and Stalin

and Marliias Risse : “Do Wc H a r m rlie Global Poor I,” presentation at Author Meets Critics session :Ir the Easrcrii Division Meeriiig of thc Amcricm Pliilosophical Associarioii, 30 Deceinber 2003 (hcrp ://ksgliome.liarvard.edu/-.nirissc.acacleinic.ksg/p~pers_Philoso- phy.hrni). 1 17. Sliaoliua Clien ancl Marriii Ravallioii : “How Did thc World’s Poorex Fare in [lie

1990s ?” Keuieiu oflnconze mid Wwhh 47 (2001), pp. 283-300, a[ p. 285. 1 13. Cy ~vww.hls.gov/cpi/lioiiie.Iitiii. 1 1 4. C’ w~\~~v.ceiisus.gov/ipc/w~v/wor~d~iis.~irni~. 115. Clien and Ravdlion : “How Did Che World’s Pooresr Fare in the 1990s ?,” p. 290 ; cf: www.world ban k.org/researcli/povmoiiicor for lacer figurcs. 116. To 2512 million (Clien and liavallion : “How Dicl rlie World’s Poorest Fare in Che 1990s I,” p. 290) ; .f: www.worldbank.org/research/povinoniror. 117. The ratio in average incorne tierween the fifrli of the world’s people living iii the Iiighcsr-income couiirries aiid rlie fifth living in che loweçr income countries “was 74 ro I in 1997, tip froin 60 to 1 iii 1990 and 30 ro 1 in 1960. [Earlier] [he iiicoiiic gap becween the rnp aiitl bortoni coiiiirrics increased h r i i 3 ro I in 1820 to 7 to 1 in 1870 CO 1 1 ro 1 iii 191.3” (UNDI’ : Hzttvnn Deuchpmcnt Report 1999. p. 3, L$ p. 38).

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http://www.worldb

http://www.worldbank.org/research/povinoniror

were vastly more evil than our political leaders, but in terms of killing and harming people they never came anywhere near causing 18 millions deaths per year.

Most of my readers believe that this claim is obviously mistaken, if not preposterous. Perhaps for this reason, they pay little attention to the structure and details of the case I a m building. instead, they present various general conjectures about what my mistake may be. They suggest that I a m making conceptual mistakes by re-labeling as harm what are really failures to aid and protect.ll* They suggest that I am factually wrong about the causal explanaLion of severe poverty or confused about the counterfactuals to which I compare the world as it is.119 They suggest that I a m mord& wrong by presenting as minimal certain moral requirements that are actually excessively demanding120 These criticisms are worth addressing, and I will address many of them in the context of explaining the main lines of argument in the book.

POSITIVE DUTIES

Before doing this, I should dispose of one misunderstanding. M y book seeks to show how existing world poverty manifests a violation of our negative duties, our duties not to harm. To show this, I leave posi-

Th e rrend piccure is no more encouraging when «ne compares the incomes of Iiouseliolds worldwide via purchasing power paricics : Over a recenr five-year period, “world inequalicy has iiicreased . . . fmm a Gini of 62.8 in 1988 to 66.0 in 1993. l‘liis represents an increase of 0.6 Giiii points per year. This is a very fasr increase, faster chan the increase experieiiccd by rhe US and UK in rhe decade of che 1980’s. ... T h e borrom 5 percent of the world grew poorer, as heir real incomes decreased berweeii 1988 and 1993 by -, while rlie richest qiiin- tile grew richer. IC gained 12 pci-cenr in real rems, rhar is ir grew more rhan twice as m u c h as mean world income (5.7 percerit)” (Braiiko Milanovic : “T’rue World Incorne Iliscrihurion, 1988 aiid 1973 : First Calcularion Bascd on Household Surveys Aloiie,” ïhr ü u ~ ~ u n z i c Jozirizal 1 1 2 (201)2), www.hlackwellpuhlisliers.co.ul~/specialarticles/ecojSO673.pdf, pp. 5 1 - 92, at p. 88). 118. Gaus : “Radio lncerview on I’ogge’s woru poverty and Hzi~nair Ri&>l,S” ; Alan I’arrcn : “Remarks on Pogge’s W / J T ~ ~ J+~~ei-ty aiid Hui?iaii Rights” at Author Meets Critics session ac Che Easrerii Division Meeting of rhc American I’liilosophiçal Associariori, 30 December 2003. 119. Gaus : “Radio Iiirerview on Pogge’s IVurld Puuerty ntzd Hz~marz Right? ; ikbra SXL : “(~omrnents 011 Pogge’s Wodd Pouerty aiid Hiiiniiii Righ~s’’ ar Author Meetc (;i.itic.c session a[ rhc Eastern Division Meetiiig of the Arnericaii I’liilosuplii~al Arauçiatioii, LI0 Dcçeiiihcr 2003. 120. Parrcii : “Remarks on Pogge’s Woi.ll I’uueriy m i c i H I ~ I ~ I Highs.”

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http://www.hlackwellpuhlisliers.co.ul~/specialarticles/ecojSO673.pdpfp

tive duties aside. I do not assert that there are no positive duties, or that such duties are feeble. Rather, I avoid claims about positive duties so as to make clear that my case does not depend on such claims. M y focus is solely on duties not to harm as well as on duties to avert harms that one’s own past conduct may cause in the future.

Duties of this last kind - to avert harms that one’s past conduct may cause in the future - do not fit well into the conventional dichotomy of positive and negative duties. They are positive insofar as they require the agent to do something and also negative insofar as this requirement is continuous with the duty to avoid causing harm to others. One might call them intermediate duties, in recognition also of their intermediate striiigency. M y focus is exclusively on negative and intermediate duties, and thus on harm we are materially involved in causing rather than on all the harm people suffer.

This focus is motivated by the belief that negative and intermediate moral duties are more stringent than positive ones. For example, the duty not to assault people is more stringent than the duty to prevent such assaults by others. And, having assaulted another, the attacker has more reason to ensure that his victim’s injuries are treated than a bystan- der would. Suggesting these views in the book, I do assume something about positive duties after all. But this is meant to be a very weak assumption, accepted not merely by libertarians but by pretty much all except act-consequentialists. I do not assume that any negative or intermediate duty is more stringent than all positive duties. Rather, I assume that negative and intermediate duties are more stringent than positive duties when what is ut stake for nll concerned is held constnnt.12’ I go to some length to stress that I do not believe the absurdity some critics122 have attributed to me : namely that any negative duty, including the duty to refrain from doing some small harm, is more stringent than eue? positive duty, including the duty to rescue thousands of children.123

Now if negative duties (not to harm) and intermediate duties (to avert harms that one’s past conduct may cause in the future) are indeed more stringent than positive duties, then it could be misleading to appeal only to positive duties when duties of the other two kinds are also

121. Poggc, WorldI-’oucr[~~ m d Huninn Rights, p. 132. 122. Notably Sarz : “Coinmencs on Pogge’s W o r k Poouer[y and Hzmnri Rights.”

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in play. Consider a corporation polluting a river with dire consequences for the health of many. One might ask this corporation, along with other businesses in the region, to help reduce that problem through donations toward purchasing pollution control equipment and toward paying for medical treatment of those sickened by the pollution. This sort of request may be politically opportune. But it also misleadingly suggests that the polluting corporation is morally in the same boat as the other potential donors : helping out for a good cause, pursuant to an imperfect positive duty of occasional charity. In fact, these two points are related. What makes such a plea in the positive-duty idiom politically opportune (when it is so) typically is precisely the misleading suggestion that its addressees have no negative and intermediate duties to forestall the harm they are being asked to help mitigate.

One may well think that being misleading is a very small price to pay for political success against the catastrophic problem of world poverty. But, for better or worse, it does not seem that we are actually facing this choice. The appeal to positive duties has been well presented by Peter Singer, Henry Shue, Peter Unger, and others.12,’ If citizens in the affluent countries were minimally decent and humane, they would respond to these appeals and would do their bit to eradicate world poverty. If they did this, my argument would be of much less interest and importance, and I might not see the need to elaborate it at such length. As it is, I see it as my best chance to contribute to ending or reducing the immense deprivations we affluent are now inflicting upon the global poor.

I also see m y argument as essential to an accurate portrayal of how w e affluent citizens of the rich countries are morally related to those deprivations. Yes, we are able to alleviate them, and, seeing how cheaply this can be done, w e surely have positive duties to do so. But because we

123. I repeatedly warn against this rnisunderstaiidiiig in forinLilarioris such as rhis : “I hope I have made clear cnough rhac rhis is nor prescnrcd as a stricr, o r lexical, hierarchy : It is çerie- rally acknowledged that a higher niorai reason can bc oucweiglied by a lowcr, if more is at stake in the latter” (l’oggc, Worldi’avrrty n11dHz~vzn12 /<iyl,ts, p. 240, n. 207 ; sec nlso p. I32 and p. 241, 11. 216). 124. Pcter Singcr : “Fnmine, Affluence and Moraliry,” /%hro/i/,) ~ziz~liJi[bljc~l~[j~,. 1 (1 972), pp. 229-243 ; I-Ieiiry Sliiie : Baric Rights : Sirbsistci~ce, Afliience, mid U.S. Fo~eip Policy (Pi-iii- c e m n : Priiiccroii University I’rcss 1980) ; aiid Peter Uiiger : Liiiiilx Hig/i mid Lerhg Die : Our MZL.&II ofIr2norenc.e (Oxford, Oxford Uiiiversiry Press i 907).

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are also implicated, with many others, in shaping and enforcing the social institutions that produce these deprivations, and are moreover benefiting from the enormous inequalities these unjust institutions reproduce, we have much more stringent duties to seek to reform these social institutions and to. do our fair share toward mitigating the harms they cause.

AN ECUMENICAL APPROACH TO DEMONS- TRATING HARM

Let us now look at the arguments of the book. The case 1 seek to build is broadly ecumenical. I am trying to convince not merely the adherents of some particular moral conception or theory - Lockeans or Rawlsians or libertarians or communitarians for example. Rather, I am trying to convince the aâherencs of all the main views now alive in Western political thought. This ambition makes the task much harder, because I must defend my conclusion on multiple fronts, fielding parallel arguments that address and appeal to diverse and often mutually incompatible moral conceptions and beliefs.

This ecumenical strategy has been confusing to some who complain that I am unclear and inconsistent about die baseline relative to which the global poor are supposedly harmed by existing institutional arraiige- ments.123 They are right that I do not provide a single consistent such baseline. But they are wrong to see tliis as a flaw. If I want to convince readers with diverse ideas about morality and justice, then I must support my conclusions with diverse arguments. And these inay have to appeal to diverse baselines. A state-of-nature baseline is relevant to a reader with Lockean or Nozickian views. But a Rawlsian will reject such a baseline, insisting that the existing distributional profile should be compared to the profiles achievable under alternative feasible institutional arrangements. To satisfy readers of both kinds, I need to give different arguments to them, each with a different baseline. This is more work, to be sure. But the pay-off is that my case cannot justifiably be dismissed as dependent on some partisan moral premises or theory which readers may feel free to reject.

125. Thorn.

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T h e ecumenical strategy is broadest and most explicit in the final chapter, which argues for a global resources dividend. M y first step there is to show that our world is pervaded by what, following T o m Nage1,”d I call radical inequality :

a The worse-off are very badly off in absolute terms.

b They are also very badly off in relative terms - very much worse off than many others.

c The inequality is impervious : It is difficult or impossible for the worse-off substantially to improve their lot ; and most of the better-off never experience life at the bottom for even a few months and have no vivid idea of what it is like to live in that way.

d The inequality is pervasive : It concerns not merely some aspects of life, such as the climate or access to natural beauty or high culture, but most aspects or all.

e The inequality is avoidable : The better-off can improve the circumstances of the worse-off without becoming badly off themselves.

I go on to assume that most of my readers demand more than the fact of radical inequality between us and the global poor as proof that w e are harming them. I also assume that different readers differ on the question of what is missing. T o satisfy more readers, I present in parallel

, three second steps of the argument, each of which shows in a differenc way that the existing radical inequality involves us in harming the global poor. All three strands of the argument lead to the conclusion that today’s massive and severe poverty manifests a violation by the affluent of their negative duties : an immense crime in which we affluent citizens of the rich countries (as well as the political and economic “elites” of most poor countries) are implicated.

126. Thomas Nage! : “l’civerty ;irid Food : Why Charity Is Not Enough,” in Percr Ri-owri aiid Iicnry Shiie, etls. : t.ii(id Policy : ïlie i(c.iyoiisibility (~f’the Uuitecl . ? I ~ I ~ I iii the [.if. ,itid

Dmth Choircs (New York : Ilie Free I’rebs 1977).

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ENGAGING HISTORICAL CONCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

In one strand of the argument I invoke the effects of a coininon and violent history. The present world is characterized not only by radical inequality as defined, but also by the fact that “the social starting positions of the worse-off and the better-off have emerged from a single historical process that was pervaded by massive grievous wrongs.”127 I invoke these historical facts specifically for readers who believe that it matters morally how radical inequality has evolved. Most of the existing international inequality in standards of living was built up in the colonial period when today’s affluent countries ruled today’s poor regions of the world : trading their people like cattle, destroying their political institutions and cultures, and taking their natural resources. In 1960, when rhe colonizers finally left, taking what they could and destroying much else, the inequality in per capita income between Europe and ’

Africa had grown to 30 : 1, and vast inequalities existed also in education, health-care, infrastructure, and legal and political organization. These inequalities greatly disadvantaged Africans in their dealings with governments and corporations of the affluent countries. This disadvantage helps explain why the Europe/Africa inequality in per capita income has since risen to 40 :l. But even if per capita income had, since 1960, increased a full percentage point more each year in Africa than in Europe, this inequality would still be 20 :1 today and would be fully erased only early in the 24th century.

Readers attracted to historical-entitlement conceptions of justice disagree about the conditions an historical process must meet in order for it to justib gross inequalities in life chances. On this point, I can once more afford to be ecumenical. The relevant historical crimes were so horrendous, so diverse, and so consequential that no his torical-entitlement conception could credibly support the conclusion that our common history was sufficiently benign to just$ even the radical inequalities in starting positions we are witnessing today.

In short, then, upholding a radical inequality counts as harming the worse-off when the historical path on which this inequality arose is per-

127. Pogge, World Poverty and Hrinzniz 1liglt.s. p. 203.

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vaded by grievous wrongs. “A morally deeply tarnished history must not be allowed to result in rdical inequality.”l’* This is the moral rationale behind Abraham Lincoln’s 40-acres-and-a-mule promise of 1863, which of course was quickly rescinded. And it is the rationale for saying that w e are not entitled to the huge advantages w e enjoy from birth over the global poor, given how these inequalities have been built up.

Some critics may seein to address this strand of the argument when they point out that the radical inequality between Europe and Africa might have come about even without colonialism.129 Perhaps Europe could have “taken off” even without slavery and stolen raw materials, and perhaps the resulting inequality would then have been equally great. In the absence of conclusive proof that, without the horrors of European conquest, severe poverty worldwide would be substantially less today, Risse suggests, we are entitled to keep and defend what we possess, even at the cost of millions of deaths each year. (I wonder if he would make the same argument against the 40-acres-and-a-mule proposal.)

As a response to the first strand of the argument, this complaint is irrelevant. The first strand addresses readers who believe that the actual history is relevant. These readers will say : “Yes, if things had transpired as in Risse’s hypothetical, then the citizens of the affluent countries might not, by upholding the radical inequality, be harming the global poor. But this has no bearing on whether such upholding of radical inequality constitutes harm in the actual world with its actual history.”

Still, Risse’s complaint resonates with other readers who believe that it is permissible to uphold an economic distribution if merely it could have come about on a morally acceptable path. It is such readers that the second strand of my argument addresses. T o be sure, a y distribution, however skewed, cazrld have been the outcome of a sequence of voluntary bets or gambles. Appeal to such a fictional history would “justiv’ anything and would thus be wholly implausible. Locke does much better, holding that a fictional history can justify the status quo only if the changes in holdings and social rules it involves are ones that all participants could have rationally agreed to. H e also holds that in a state of nature persons would be entitled to a proportional share of the world’s

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natural resources. He thus makes the justice of any institutional order depend on whether the worst-off under it are at least as well off as people would be in a Lockean state of nature with a proportional resource share.13‘) Locke held, implausibly, that this condition was fulfilled in his time, claiming that “a King of a large fruitful territory [in the Americas] feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day Laborer in England.”131 I argue that this condition is not fulfilled for the global poor today who, living below even the day laborers in Locke’s England, are coercively denied “enough and as good132 of the world’s natural resources without having access to an equivalent substitute.

Readers inclined to a Loclcean conception disagree about the relevant state-of-nature baseline that determines how bad the worst social starting positions imposed by a just social order may be. On this question I can once more be ecumenical. However one may want to imagine a state of nature among human beings on this planet, one could not realistically conceive it as producing an enduring poverty death toll of 18 million annually. Only a thoroughly organized state of civilization can sustain horrendous suffering on such a massive scale.

Catering to Lockeans, the second strand of my argument invokes the uncompensated exclusion of the worse-off from a proportional share of global resources : The present world is characterized not merely by radical inequality as defined, but also by the fact that “the better-off enjoy significant advantages in the use of a single natural resource base from whose benefits the worse-off are largely, and without compensa- cion, excluded.”l~~ The better-off - w e - are hnrming the worse-off insofar as the radical inequality we uphold excludes the global poor from a proportional share of the world’s natural resources and any equivalent substitute.

The point I was malting about Locke is quite similar to one Satz puts forth in a tone of criticism. For Locke, she says, “property rights,

130. CJ Pogge, World Poverty and Hzimaiz Rights, pp. 16, 137-139, and 202-203, for a fiil- ler reading of Locke’s argument. 131. John Locke : “An Essay Conceriiing rhe True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Governmenr” [1689], in Pctcr Laslett etl., John Locke : Twu I>edreJ of Governnient (Cam- hritlge : Cambridge University Press 1360), $41, $ 937. 137. Ibid. $27, $33. 133. I’oggc, World Paver9 and Hiininn Rights, p. 202.

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however acquired, do not prevail in the facc of dcspcrate need” because “everyone has an original pre-appropriation claim-right to an adequate subsistence from the resources of the world.”’j’i This is correct, although the poor can really have a claiin only to a proportional resources share, not to adequate subsistence, because there may simply not be enough to go around. But why does Satz speak in this context of a “positive ‘property right’ of the needy in the means of subsistence.”’j5 What m e positive as opposed to negative property rights ? Does Satz want to say that we affluent have merely a positive duty toward the needy ? This would suggest that our property rights do prevail after all - that our assets are ours though we ought to give away some. But Satz correctly presents Locke as rejecting this picture : W e affluent have no rights to property, however acquired, in the face of the excluded. Rather, they have a right to what w e hold. When w e prevent them from exercising this right - when we deprive them of what is justly theirs - then we violate this original right of the poor and we harm them. In this way it is a violation of a negative duty to deprive others of “enough and as good - either through unilateral appropriations or through institutional arrangements such as a radically inegalitarian property regme. 136

Let m e sum up the first two strands of the argument. These strands address readers for whom the justice of the present economic distribution or of present economic arrangements turns on their actual or imagi- nable history. I conclude that such conceptions of justice cannot justify the status quo. One may try to justib the coercively upheld radical inequality today by appeal to the historical process that actually led up to

’ it. But this appeal fails because the actual historical process is massively pervaded by the most grievous wrongs. Alternatively, one may try to justib this coercively upheld radical inequality by appeal to some morally acceptable j’îctionnl historical process that might have led to it. O n Locke’s permissive version of this account, some small elite may appropriate all, or almost all, of the huge cooperative surplus produced by modern social organization. But such an elite must not enlarge its share even further by reducing the poor below the state-of-nature baseline so that this elite’s share of the cooperative surplus is actually more than 100 percent and the share of the poor correspondingly less than

134. Sncz : “C;orrirrierits on Pogge’s World Poverty m d Hiwmi Righr,” p. 16. 1 3 5. Iùid. 136. This is argucd nt lerig~li iri Pogge, CVorfd Poverty aiid Hziiiztiii Rig/~i~, chapter 5.

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zero. As it is, the citizens and governments of the affluent states are violating this negative duty when we, in collaboration with the ruling cliques of many poor couiitries, coercively exclude the global poor from a proportional resource share and any equivalent substitute.

ENGAGING BROADLY CONSEQUENTIALIST CONCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

Most contemporary theorists of justice endorse neither of these historical views. instead, they hold that an economic order and the economic distribution it shapes should be assessed by its foreseeable effects against the background of its feasible alternatives. Thus Rawls considers a domestic economic order to be just if it produces fair equality of opportunity across social classes and no feasible alternative to it would afford better prospects to the least advantaged.

The third strand of my argument addresses such broadly come- quentialist conceptions which invoke the effects of shared social institutions. The present world is characterized not only by radical inequality as defined, but also by the following facts : “There is a shared institutional order that is shaped by the better-off and imposed on the worse-off. This institutional order is implicated in the reproduction of radical inequality in that there is a feasible institutional alternative under which so severe and extensive poverty would not persist. The radical inequality cannot be traced to extra-social factors (such as genetic handi- caps or natural disasters) which, as such, affect different human beings differentially.”’37 When these further facts obtain, so my claim, then the better-off - we - are harming the worse-off insofar as w e are upholding a shared institutional order that is unjust by foreseeably and avoidably (re)producing radical inequality.

N o w there are many different such broadly consequentialist concep- cions of justice which judge an institutional order by comparing its distributional effects to those its feasible alternatives would have. These conceptions differ along three dimensions. They differ in how they cha- racterize the relevant affected parties (groups, persons, time-slices of persons, etc.). They differ about the metric for assessing relevant effects

137. Ibid., p. 139.

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(social primary goods, capabilities, welfare, etc.). And they differ about how to aggregate relevant effects across affected parties. Once again, my response to such diversity is ecumenical. i a m trying to specib very minimal conditions of justice that are widely accepted. Most broadly consequentialist theorists agree that a national economic order is unjust when it leaves social and economic human rights unfulfilled on a massive scale even while there is a feasible alternative order under which these human rights would be much better realized. Most theorists would demand more, of course. But I need no more for my purpose, because our global economic order does not even meet the very weak requirements that form the common core of the various broadly consequentialist theories of economic justice defended today.

Keeping in mind this background as well as the remarks on positive duties in Section 2, we can now address various misreadings of my account of human rights. I understand human rights, within the context of broadly consequentialist conceptions of justice, primarily as weighty moral claims on social institutions. A n institutional order is human- rights violacing when it foreseeably gives rise to greacer insecurity in access to the objects of human rights (physical integrity, freedom of movement, adequate nutrition, etc.) than would be reasonably avoidable through an alternative feasible institutional design. Moral claims on social institutions are also, indirectly, moral claims against those who participate in designing and upholding these social institutions : Such agents, too, are violating human rights by imposing an institutional order under which access to the objects of human rights is foreseeably and avoidably insecure for some or all participants. I hold that most of the avoidable global underfulfillment of human rights today can be traced back to the design of the global institutional order : Had the avoi- dance of severe poverty been a priority in the redesign this order has undergone in the early 1990’s, then most of that current global underfulfillment of human rights could have been averted.

Can an individual or collective agent violate human rights directly, for example through torture - irrespective of whether there is an institutional order and, if so, of whether this order is just or unjust ? I have been reluctant to answer this question affirmatively because I believe that the common use of the expression “human rights” is restricted to crimes that are in some sense official in character. I have been criticized for this reluctance on the ground that it is surely no worse to participate in the imposition of an institutional scheme under which people get tor-

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tured than to torture people directly (holding constant what is at stake for the agents and their victims). I completely agree with this substantive point. M y reluctance was based not on any comparative moral judgment, but on common usage. Still, I do not object to calling ordinary crimes of torture, rape, etc., human rights violations. In any case, this terminological issue is irrelevant to my work, which is focused specifically on human rights violations committed by means of imposing institutional arrangements that foreseeably produce greater serious insecurity in access to the objects of human rights than would be reasonably avoidable.

Can an individual or collective agent violate human rights passively, by failing to protect people threatened by violence or starvation even when this could be done safely, easily, and at low cost ? Human rights are in principle enforceable, so the answer can be affirmative only in cases where it is morally permissible for some other agent to use some coercive means to force the relevant individual or collective to protect the people under threat. In addition, the right to be protected must be general and important enough to quali6 as (part of) a human right. Finally, there are two terminological issues to consider. As pointed out, I have been reluctant to apply the language of human rights to ordinary crimes such as a private citizen’s refusal to toss a life preserver to a drowning swimmer. Moreover, with regard to passive failures to protect that are official in character, I have proposed that w e classi+ them as oficial diswsprct for human rights, but not as human rights violations, in order to recognize the moral significance of the passivelactive distinction.

I adduce three reasons in support of my plea. One is common usage. The notion of a human rights violation has an active ring and is thus not a fitting label for someone’s failure to protect others when she had no role in causing their urgent need for such protection.

It might seem desirable to stretch common usage so as to include certain failures to protect under this notion. But such a move might well be counterproductive with respect to that large number of human beings who - though they know about hunger and torture abroad and do not doubt that, with a bit of research, they could contribute to an effective protection effort - never do anything toward protecting foreigners in great distress.

Moreover, in the world as it is, we can make a more forceful appeal to these people without stretching laiiguage. Conceding that they are

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not human rights violators for passively ignoring even the most vital needs of others, we can still point out that nearly all of them are human rights violators through their uncompensated participation in the imposition of a global institutional order that, foreseeably and avoidably, reproduces a huge excess in human rights underfulfillment. In our world, most of the avoidable underfulfillment of human rights wo~lld be avoided if the global institutional order imposed by the affluent countries (in collaboration with many political elites in the developing world) were not so grievously unjust.

It is hard to deny that reasonably privileged citizens of the rich democracies share some responsibility for the global institutional order which their governments are shaping and upholding. But one can question whether this order is human-rights violating. If it is not, then participation in its imposition cannot constitute a human-rights violation either.

I believe, and will argue in the next section, that the present global institutional order is human-rights violating in that the underfulfillment of human rights is foreseeably much greater under this order than it would be under various feasible modifications thereof. If this is true, then it follows that the existing global order is unjust by the lights of all broadly consequentialist conceptions of social justice that recognize human rights as minimal constraints on the justice of social institutions : this order is unjust by foreseeably giving rise to a greater underfulfillment of human rights than would be reasonably avoidable. Uncompen- sated participation in the imposition of this order can then be said to be harming those whose human rights remain unfulfilled by helping to impose upon them unjust social institutions that contribute to their pre- d‘ icament.

In most ordinary contexts, the word “harm” is understood in an historical sense - either diachronically (someone is harmed when she is rendered worse off than she was at some earlier time) or subjunctively (someone is harmed when she is rendered worse off than she would have been had some earlier arrangements continued undisturbed). As we have seen, the second strand of my argument, operating on Lockean terrain, conceives justice in terms of harm : Prevailing economic arrangements and the present economic distribution are shown to be unjust in virtue of the fact that they harm inany by forcing them below any credible state-of-nature baseline. It is worth stressing, then, that the third strand

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of my argument, catering to broadly consequentialist conceptions of social justice, does not, pare Satz,’38 conceive justice and injustice in terms of an independently specified notion of harm. Rather, this third strand relates the concepts of harm and justice in the opposite way, conceiving harm in terms of an independently specified conception of social justice. O n my ecumenical response to broadly consequentialist conceptions of social justice, w e are harming the global poor if and insofar as we collaborate in imposing zinjztst social institutions upon them ; and social institutions are certainly unjust if and insofar as they foreseeably give rise to large-scale avoidable underfulfillment of human rights.

Moreover, pace Patten,*39 this third strand of my argument is not addressed to libertarians, who indeed reject any non-historical, broadly consequentialist assessment of social institutions. Libertarians are addressed by the first and, to some extent, by the second strand. T o be sure, the third strand, like the two others, is meant to support the conclusion that the immense catastrophe of world poverty manifests not merely the affluents’ failure to fdfill their positive duties, but also, and more importantly, their massive violation of their negative duties. But the moral significance of this conclusion can be appreciated far beyond the confines of the libertarian school. Nearly everyoiie in the affluent countries would agree that our moral duty not to contribute to the imposition of conditions of extreme poverty on people and our moral duty to help protect people from harm in whose production w e are implicated in this way are each more stringent than our moral duty to help protect people from harm in whose production w e are not materially involved. 140

As I try to implement the third strand of my argument, specifically for a human right to basic necessities, it involves three main tasks. I seek to show that it is, .among broadly consequentialist conceptions, a minimal and widely acceptable demand of justice on all national institutional schemes that these must be designed to avoid life-threatening poverty insofar as this is reasonably possible. I then seek to show that this demand of justice applies not merely to any domestic institutional arran-

138. Satz : “Cominents on Pogge’s World Poverty aiid Hziimiz Rights.” 139. Parreii : “Reinarks on Pogge’s Work Puverty azd i h n m Ri&.” 140. These coiiiparisons, once again, hold constanr the cost or opportunity cost of the required conduct to die diiry bearers as well as [lie reducrion in Iiarrri ir brings ro Che beneficiaries.

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gements, but to the global order as well. And I must then show, thirdly, that there are feasible alternatives to the existing global institutional order under which life-threatening poverty would be wholly or largely avoided.

Task One is easy. There simply is no broadly consequentialist conception of social justice in the field that purports to justi$, within one national society, radical inequality of the kind the world at large displays today. T o be sure, Patten is right to point out that some libertarians (Nozick) do purport to justie such extreme inequalities. But they do this by appeal to historical conceptions of social justice ; and I have sketched my response to such justifications in the preceding section.

Task T w o involves a highly complex argument to which I cannot possibly do justice here.141 So let m e here concentrate on Task Three, on which my critics have focused most of their attention.

THE CAUSAL ROLE OF THE GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL ORDER IN THE REPRODUCTION OF SEVERE POVERTY

Many critics believe that I see the global institutional order as the main cause of world poverty. And they respond that, in light of the incompetence, corruption, and oppression prevalent in so many poor

, countries, this claim is simply not credible or, at the very least, unsup- ported by empirical evidence. They are wrong on both counts.

Let us begin with a quick general reflection on causes. In the simplest cases, multiple causes add zp to produce an effect. Thus the smoke in a bar is the sum of the smoke released by all the smokers. In [he case of world poverty, however, the relation among causes is more complex in at least two ways. One complexity is that the different causes of poverty, such as global institutional factors and national policies, influence one another’s effects.142 How harmful corrupt leaders in poor countries are, for example, is strongly influenced by whether the global order recognizes such leaders, on the basis of effective power alone, as

141. <,y ibid., cliaptcr 4, a i i d I‘lioinns W. Pogge : “’i’lic iiicolicrciicc Ixtwecii ii;iwls’s 711ico- ries of Justice,” Fordham i,aw IkuieiiJ 72 :5 (2004), pp. 17219-59.

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entitled to sell us their country’s resources, to borrow in its name, and to use the proceeds to buy the means of internal repression.

Given this special complexity, it is not correct to identie my assertion that most severe poverty worldwide was and is avoidable through global institutional reform with the claim that the existing global institutional order is the main cause of world poverty. M y assertion is perfectly compatible with the assertion (which I also endorse) that most severe poverty worldwide was and is avoidable through better national policies and better social institutions in the poor countries. T o put it simplistically, the interaction between the two sets of causal factors is not so much additive as multiplicative. The worse each set of factors is, the more it also aggravates the marginal harmful impact of the other.

But if, as development economists like to stress, most severe poverty worldwide was and is avoidable through better national policies and better social institutions in the poor countries, does this not show that our global institutional order is morally acceptable as it is ? Am I not, as Pat- ten put i~14.3 demanding too much from ourselves, given that the ruling elites in the poor countries could also eradicate much poverty ?

N o w it is true that many of these elites are incompetent, corrupt, and oppressive. Failing, as badly as w e are and often worse, to honor their negative duties not to harm, they are indeed responsible for most severe poverty worldwide. But this is quite compatible with the advantaged citizens in the rich countries also being responsible for most: severe poverty worldwide. For it is equally true that most such poverty was and is avoidable through a better global institutional order. Given this basic symmetry, we cannot accept Patten’s judgment that zue should not be required to stop our contribution until they are ready to stop theirs. If this were right, then it would be permissible for two parties together to bring about as much harm as they like, each of them pointing out that it has no obligation to stop so long as the other continues.

The situation is roughly analogous to that of two upstream factories releasing chemicals into a river. The chemicals of each factory would cause little harm by themselves. But the mixture of chemicals from both plants causes huge harm downstream. In this sort of case, w e must not

142. Biscussioii of the orher cornplcxiry bcgins six paragraphs down. 143. Parrcn : “Reinarks on I’ogge’s World Poverry mid Httmnn Rights.’’

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hold each factory owner responsible for only the small harm he would be causing if the other did not pollute. This would leave unaccounted-for most of the harm they produce together and wo~ild thus be quite implausible. In a case of this kind, provided each factory owner Itnows about che effluent released by the other and can foresee the harmful effects they together produce, each owner bears responsibility for his marginal contribution, that is, for as much of the harm as would be avoided if he alone were not discharging his chemicals. Each factory owner is then responsible for most of the harm they jointly produce.

Despite this symmetry in my causal account, m y critics nonetheless have a point when they accuse me of explanatory globalisml4~ (in ana- logy to the explanatory nationalism of which I am accusing the majority of development economists’45). This accusation is accurate in that lfocz~s much more on global than on national factors. I do this, because these are the factors that my readers and I are morally responsible for and because, not unrelatedly, these factors are grossly neglected by development economists of all stripes, by the media, and by the citizens of the affluent countries for whom I a m writing.

And 1 have another reason for paying more attention to the causal role of global factors in the reproduction of massive severe poverty. This further reason depends on the second special complexity 1 mentioned earlier, which is that the causes of world poverty also influence one another. As the global institutional order is shaped by the political leaders of the most powerful countries, who in turn are selected and shaped by their domestic institutional arrangements, so the global institutional order powerfully shapes the national regimes especially of the weaker countries as well as the composition, incentives, and opportunities of their ruling elites. For example, corrupt rule in poor countries is made much more likely by the fact that our global order accords such rulers, on the basis of effective power alone, the international resource and bor- rowing privileges just described.146 These privileges provide strong incentives to potential predators (military officers, most frequently) to take power by force and compel even the most well-intentioned rulers, if they want to maintain their hold on power, to allow such potential put-

27 8

schists corruptly to divert state revenues. The global order thus exerts a strong influence upon the weaker and poorer countries, which makes them considerably more likely to have corrupt and oppressive national regimes. Not all of them will have such regimes, of course, but many of them will, as is well-illustrated by Nigeria and many other developing countries in which the resource sector accounts for a large fraction of GDP.147 This is one more reason to focus on global factors - especially on those that affect the quality of national regimes in the poorer countries.

Let us now look at the evidence I have for believing that severe poverty is largely avoidable through global institutional reforms. Because the effects of sweeping reforms are harder to assess, I discuss in some detail several small reforms and their likely effects. In the WTO negotiations, the affluent countries insisted on continued and asymmetrical prorections of their markets through tariffs, quotas, anti-dumping duties, export credits, and subsidies to domestic producers, greatly impairing the export opportunities of even the very poorest countries. These protections cost developing countries hundreds of billions of Dollars in lost export revenues.’b* Risse believes these protections will be phased out. Let us hope so. Still, these protections certainly account for a sizable fraction of the 270 million poverty deaths since 1989.

MODERATE AND FEASIBLE REFORMS OF THE GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL ORDER

Are chere other feasible reforms of the existing global order through which severe poverty could be largely or wholly avoided ? The reform I discuss in most detail involves a small change in international property rights.149 In accordance with Locke’s inalienable right to a proportional share of the world’s resources or some adequate equivalent, this change would set aside a small part of the value of any natural resources used for those who would otherwise be excluded from a proportional share. I

146. CJ ibid., sccrions 4.9, 6.3, 6.4. 147. Cy Ricky Imn and I.coiiard Waiircliekori : “Dictatorships as a Polirical Diirch Disease” (www.library.yale.cdu/socsci/egcdp~95.pdF, 1 999) ; Lcoiiard Wanrchckoii : “ W h y Do Iksource Depcndeiir Counrries Have Authorirarian Governments ?” (www.yale.cdu/leir- iicr/pdf/l999-1 l.pdf, 1999). 148. C$ Pogge, Worki Poverty and Hrimnn Rights, secrion IV.

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http://www.library.yale.cdu/socsci/egcdp~95.pdF

http://www.yale.cdu/leir-iicr/pdf/l999-l1.pdf



show how this global resources dividend could comfortably raise one percent of the global social product specifically for poverty eradication. And I outline how these funds could be spent so as to provide strong incentives toward better government in the developing countries.

The proposed GRD in the amount of one percent of the global product would currently raise about $320 billion annually, or 86 times what all affluent countries combined are now spending on basic social services in the developing world. What sort of impact would this money have ? Consider health care. The WHO Commission on Macroecono- mics and Health, chaired by Jeffrey Sachs, has put the cost of providing basic medical care in the developing world at $62 billion annually and has estimated that this initiative alone would prevent about 8 million deaths from poverty-related causes each year.150 Another $20 billion could go to incentivize research into the so-called neglected diseases which, because they affect mostly the poor, are grossly under-researched thus far : hepatitis, meningitis, dengue fever, leprosy, sleeping sicl- \ness, Chagas disease, river blindness, leishmaniasis, Buruli ulcer, lymphatic filariasis, bilharzia, malaria, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. There would be money to give every human being access to clean water and electricity. There would be money for free nutritious meals in schools that children could attend free of charge (thanks to the IMF, many schools in developing countries are now charging attendance fees). There would be money to subsidize micro-lending which has been highly effective in recent decades even while charging interest rates of around 20 percent. And there would be money to relieve the crushing debt burden - often accumulated under wholly undemocratic regimes - that is weighing down many of the poorest countries.lj1

'

Critics have worried about domestic cooperation. But how many governments would refuse the offer to spend large amounts of money in their country ? Consider India, which has about 30 percent of the world's poor and currently receives about $1.7 billion annually in all kinds of official development assistance from all rich countries combined. Under the reform, some $96 billion of GRD funds could be spent there, greatly benefiting also India's pharmaceutical industry, its agricultural sector, its construction firms, its minimum wage level, its unem-

149. (3.' ibid., cliapter 8. 150. The EcocolzonzrSt, 22 Deceiiiber 2001, 111). 82-83.,

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ployment rate, and its tax intake. India’s politicians would be extremely eager to cooperate in securing India’s share of the GRD funds.

The GRD, though it re-channels money from the consumers of resources to the global poor, is not, pace Satz,lj2 a forin of aid. It does not take away some of what belongs to the affluent. Rather, ic modifies conventional property rights so as to give legal effect to an inalienable moral right of the poor. For libercarians, this is the right not to be deprived of a decent start in life through a grievously unjust historical process. For Locke, this is the pre-institutional right not to be excluded, without equivalent substitute, from a proportional share of the world’s resources. For broadly consequentialist theorists of justice, this is the right not to have imposed upon one an institutioiial order that is unjust by virtue of the fact that under this order, foreseeably and avoidably, many human beings cannot meet their most basic needs.

Patten claims that mine is just an exercise in re-labeling. But by assuming that I must redly be calling for aid and assistance, he is begging the question I raise. Our moral failure in the face of world poverty is a mere failure to aid only if w e really are morally entitled to the huge advantages we enjoy, from birth, under present institutional arrangements. And this is exactly what I a m denying - by appeal to how our advantages arose historically, by appeal to Locke’s resource-share criterion, and by appeal to the massive life-threatening poverty to which the existing global institutional order foreseeably and avoidably exposes the majority of humanltind.

Patten worries that if the rich countries were to implement my proposals, they and their citizens would be unfairly disadvantaged vis-à-vis the elites of many poor countries who would continue to refuse to shoul-

151. An especially drarnaric example of rhis perverse consequence of [lie iiiternariond borro- wing privilcge is playcd our in Rwanda : “Perhaps diere was no bercer rcfleccion of [lie world’s sliabhy treatmenc of post-genocide Rwanda than rhe marrer of [lie debr hurdeii incurred by chc Hahyarimaiia govcrnmciit. The major source of che unpaid debt was the weapons rhe regime had purchased for the war againsr [lie RPF, which Iiad dien been turned againsr iiinoceiit ’l’ursi during the genocide. . . . incrcdibly eiioiigli, the new goveriiineiir was deemed respoiisihle for repaying to rlicise mulrilarerd arid national lenders the tlehr accrued by irs predeccssors” (Inrcrnarional Paiiel of Erninciir Personalities : Riunndd : The i’rcvrnrahle Gmnridc, 7 July 2000 (wivl~~.visioii~.ca/RemernbcrRwanda/Report.pd~, sections 17.30 and 17.33). 152. Sarz : “Coiiiinenrs oil Pogge’s World I’ovcriy rind HUBZLI~~ Rights.’’

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der their fair share of the cost of eradicating global poverty.1’3 The details of the GRD proposal show that no country could avoid the levy on resource uses without incurring even greater surcharges on their exports (and possibly imports as well). Still, Patten is right that some politically privileged people in poor countries (and some economically privileged people in rich countries !) will manage to contribute less than their fair share to the eradication of world poverty. What is baffling is how Patten can deem this unfairness a sufficient reason to release us from our duty to contribute.

i suspect he is once more tacitly assuming here that our relevant duty is a duty to aid and that the literacure 011 fair sharing of the burdens of positive duties is therefore relevant. Perhaps one may indeed refuse to contribute one’s fair share to a morally urgent aid project on the ground that others similarly placed successfully avoid contributing theirs. But appealing to this thought again assumes what I dispute : that the status quo involves us in violating only positive duties toward the global poor. Once it is accepted that w e are violating our negative and intermediate duties toward the poor, Patten’s postulated permission seems absurd. One may not refuse to bear the opportunity cost of ceasing to harm others on the ground that others similarly placed continue their harming. Thus, in particular, w e are not entitled to go on inflicting harm upon the global poor on die ground that others (preditorial elites in the poor countries) are also continuing. Likewise, w e may stop some from harming third parties, and compel some to mitigate harms they have caused, even when we are unable so to stop and to compel all who do harm in a similar way. Thus, in particular, we are no more barred from setting up a GRD by the fact that some of the affluent would unfairly escape its effects than we are barred from setting up a criminal-justice system by the fact that some crimes and criminals are unfairly neither prevented, nor deterred, nor punished. Yes, some will get away with murder or with enriching themselves by starving the poor. But this sad fact neither permits us to join their ranks, nor forbids us to reduce such crimes as far as w e can.

PUBLIC LECTURE 2

19 October 2004

EXTREME POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Arjun Sengupta

Arjun Sengupta is a former professor at the School of International Studies,Jawaharlal Nehru University, and currently an adjunct professor of Development and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health and Chairman of the Center for Development and Human Right: in N e w Delhi. Professor Arjun Sengupta has held numerous positions of high office in the Government of India. In the 1980s he was Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. Subsequently, he was an Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund in Wazhington DC. Thereafter he was an Indian Ambassador to the European Union. He is also the former U N Independent Expert on the Right to Development and current independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty. As such, his UN reports and other publications have shaped the contemporary debate about one of the most controversial human rights topics Professor Sengupta has recently been appointed by the Government of India as Chairman of a National Comrnis- Sion ; preparing programmes and reviewing the problems and policies for enterprises and employment in India's vast unorganized and informal sectors.

INTRODUCTION 1. For about a decade and through various meetings, conferences,

and resolutions of the Human Rights Commission and NGO conclaves the human rights community has been considering the question of human rights and extreme poverty, exploring their relationship. The complex problematic of qualifying extreme poverty as a deprivation of human rights to better comprehend the nature and causes of this condition and consequently to address it more effectively, has been at the heart of this scrutiny. This paper attempts a consolidation of the previous discussions, with a view to proposing concrete steps, to be adopted nationally and internationally, towards the eradication of extreme poverty in the perspective of realization of international human rights.

2. Building on previous approaches to poverty eradication, the first section provides a definition of extreme poverty, which would enable us to focus on concrete measures to address the matter. The second section explores the linkage between the proposed definition and human rights, suggesting how the issues pertaining to poverty eradication can be mea- ningfully related to the fulfillment of human rights. The third section discusses possible national measures for poverty eradication from a human rights perspective while the fourth section concentrates on possible international actions towards the eradication of poverty as a fulfillment of human rights obligations of the international community through international cooperation. The final section contains the conclusions and recommendations for further work.

THE DEFINITION OF EXTREME POVERTY

1. Poverty has been conventionally viewed as the lack of income or purchasing power to secure basic needs. This income poverty can be considered in absolute or relative terms, depending upon the understanding of the notion of basic needs. A simple absolutist interpretation would be to fix a minimum daily amount of calorie intake from food necessary for survival in a reasonably healthy condition, supplemented by some minimum amount of non-food items regarded as essential for a decent social existence. Once such items are specified, it is possible to determine for a country and for a period of time a minimum expenditure line that would cover those items as tlie poverty line, people who live, below it are considered as poor. It should then be possible to compare poverty lines in space and time, tlie number of poor people from one country to another, and to track whether a country lias become poorer or richer over time.154

2. An alternative form of this absolutist interpretation of income poverty would be to agree, by convention, to a per capita level of expenditure as a poverty line, such as US$ 1 a day or US$ 2 a day, in terms of a comparable level of purchasing power. This approach would avoid the difficult exercise of determining the minimum calorie requirement of food and the essential nature of the minimum amount of non-food-item consumption. But this implies accepting a minimum commodity basket whose total value is covered by US$ 1 or US$2 per day per capita as the standard to determine the level of poverty in a country at a given time. 155

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3. Income poverty can also be seen in a relativist way. Basic needs may be made dependent upon the sociocultural norms of a country so that even while a person’s income covers the requirements of subsistence and essential consumption, she may be regarded as poor if her income does not allow access to goods and services required to satisfy sociocultural norms. A group of people may thus be regarded as poor in one country even if they are considered non-poor or relatively rich in terms of income poverty criteria in another country. For instance, a group of people would be regarded as poor in the United States if their income does not permit access to, say, minimally decent housing, with heating and sanitation, or reasonable warm clothing or transport facilities between places of residence and work - even if their income would be more than sufficient to provide food items satisfying the calorie requirement and other essential consumer goods. Poverty would still be related to access to goods and services and therefore purchasing power or income, although the poverty line for some countries would be much higher than in other, poorer countries. An alternative definition of relative poverty can be provided more directly in terms of income distribution. For example, people belonging to the lowest 10 per cent in the scale of incoine distribution can be regarded, by social consensus, as relatively poor. In several European countries, the poverty line is set at half the average national income, making people living below this line relatively poor.156

4. It is important to appreciate the characteristic features of this relative poverty. As soon as w e move out of the absolutist notion of poverty, w e enter into the realm of social relations and the identification of standards of social norms and access to goods and services satis+ing such standards. The notion of social exclusion, to which we shall revert shortly, is an extension of this relativist concept of income poverty,

154. In the classical economic literature from Adan Siiiitli CO Alfred Marshall poverry was seen as lack of resources leading to absolute depreviarion of basic riecessicies such as insufficient nucririon, i l l Iicaltli and poor housing. In 1901, Kownrrec studied poverry in York in ternis of insufficient earnings “IO obraiii die ininiinuin iiecessirics for clic maintenance of merely physical efficiciicy,” (c.f. Rownrrcc, S : Poverry : A Sriidy of‘l’own Life, MeciniIlan, 1901) For developing countries, rhe pioneering work was by üaiicleker and Rnrh (Poverry in Inclia. 1971, Iiicliaii Scliool of I’oliticai Ecoiioiny, I’ooiia), who Ixiilr iip the povcrry hie as iiicriiiie needed ro huy rhe iniiiiiniiin nutritional recluirerrieiics as 2250 caloi-ies per cnpira per day ac prevailing prices. -1’hci.c is a siibarantial literacure developing chis approncli in Indi:i :iiitl elscwlierc, refcrrcd CO iii rlie bibliography ofAiriartya Seri’s study, on T’ovcrry and Pnniine, IIX). 1981.

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except that it goes beyond the simple purchasing power for goods and services to cover other elements that are not captured by the concept of income. 157

5. The distinction between poverty and extreme poverty in the framework of income poverty would be essentially a question of degree or extent of the phenomenon. Since poverty is defined in terms of access to and availability of goods and services, extreme poverty would mean the command over a much smaller basket of goods and services and/or the prevalence of a longer duration of poverty. For instance, if US$ 2 a day per capita income is the poverty line, $1 per day can be regarded as the extreme poverty line. Or, if a group of people remains poor for generations, they can be described as suffering from chronic poverty and can be considered as extremely poor. In a relativist framework, people affected by chronic poverty over generations may suffer from a chronic rigidity of social norms because they are expected by society to behave in a particular manner or play a particular role, from which it is difficult for them to deviate - and which is different from the behaviour or roles of people with higher income and who constitute the social mainstream. People affected with chronic extreme poverty would thus tend to become socially excluded.

6. In the last two decades, though, the poverty discourse has moved much beyond the income criterion. People living in poverty are now considered as subject to extreme deprivation of “well-being”. Income is only one constituent element of well-being, but more importantly, it plays an instrumental role determining the enjoyment of other elements constituting well-being. indeed, income is regarded by many obsewers only as an instrumental variable. Conceptually, however, there is no reason why it cannot be considered as having both a constituent and an instrumental role. It may be seen as a proxy variable for all the good things in life constituting well-being, and it also can be considered as desirable in itself] representing power, status, security and command over resources - even when these are not actually exercised. In general, however, the instrumental role of income is more important. An increase

155. See World 13evelopineiit Report 2000/2001. Attacking l’overy, World Baiik, Wasliingtoii. 156. See Peter ‘l’ownscnd : “Povcrty as Rclative Deprivation : Resources aiid Stylcs of Living” in Wetlderbum, D (e.d.) : Poverty Iiiec!ualin, arid Class Structure. Cambridge, 1974

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in income may not be sufficient to improve the other constituent elements of well-being, but in most situations it is a necessary precondicion.

7. In view of this, the development literature has considered directly targeting other elements of well-being, in addition to income growth, as development objectives. The logic of this case has been cogently articulated by the United Nations Development Programme in its Human Development Reuortsljs which, in order to represent a Human Development Index, formulated certain indicators of health, education, food, nutrition and other basic needs or requirements for a decent life, in addition to per capita income. Poverty could then be regarded as deprivation of human development, and extreme poverty as extreme or severe deprivation.

8. Amartya Sen provided the rationale for considering these human development indicators as components of the notion of well- being which, for him, means the ability of a person to lead a life that she values - a life that is equated to “being and doing”159. Sen has gone to great length to show that these ideas have deep roots in our intellectual tradition, from Aristotle to Adam Smith and many other later philosophers, economists and policy makers. He coined the term “capability” as the freedom or ability to lead a life of value in terms of what a person chooses to be or to do. Poverty, in that sense, can be defined as deprivation of that capability, and extreme poverty may be regarded as extreme deprivation of such capability.

9. The definition of poverty as capability deprivation is multidimensional, related to the freedoms that all individuals identify with their well-being. However, it has not yet been possible to devise a universally accepted measure for this capability. The closest has been the elaboration of human development indices. In the UNDP reports, several indicators have been identified as representing specific freedoms that are constitutive elements of capability. For example, indices of life expec- tancy or infant mortality have been described as indicators of the freedom to lead a Iiealthy life. Similarly, literacy rates or school enrol-

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157. Sce ’l‘ony Arkirison, “Social exclusion, poverty ancl uiierriployirieiic”, presideiicial address to Section F of clic Bricish Associ:itioii for die Advaiiceirieiit of Scicncc, Aiiriual Meering, University of Leeds, September 1997 riiit! Aiiiartya Sui, “Social cxclusioii : ~(iiiccpr, applicarion, aiicl scruliriy on ‘Social Exclusion”’, Social I3evclopnicnr I’alxIs No. 1 , Asian Developrncnr Bank, June 2000.

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ment ratios represent freedom from ignorance and the lack of education. Clearly, such indicators do not reflect all the dimensions of any of these specific freedoms. Nor would any average or composite index or several of these indicators represent the full multidimensionality of the concept of capability. But all these do not detract from the appeal of the concept of capability, which focuses on the individual components of freedom as well-being. It highlights policies, measures and social arrangements necessary to achieve those freedoms according to the context. It also focuses on both processes and outcomes of changing social arrangements and policies, emphasizing both the constitutive and the instrumental role of freedoms. For example, the freedom to lead a healthy life is a constitutive element of a person’s well-being. But it is also instrumental in allowing the person to enjoy other freedoms, including freedom of work or freedom of movement. Education is an essential element of a person’s well-being and also allows the enjoyment of most other freedoms that a person values. Similarly, income can be recognized both in its constitutive and instrumental role, though in most cases, insrru- mentality is much more important chan its intrinsic value.

1 O. Capability poverty then means deprivation of basic capabilities, regarded as a composite of income poverty and human development poverty. The level of indicators to be identified with poverty has to be decided by some form of consensus about what is meant by “basic”, which would differ across countries. in assessing poverty, one has to look at the elements aiid the level of both income poverty and human development, and at their interdependence.

11. A third element of the notion of poverty would be social exclusion. Quite distinct from income poverty and human development poverty, it is an essential component of the notion of “well-being”. It can be seen both in its constitutive role with intrinsic value and in its instrumental role as influencing the enjoyment of other elements of well-being. Social exclusion affects the level of different human development indicators and, often, the level of income itself, just as income and human development would influence social exclusion.

158. See i i i particular, UNDI’, I-Iiiinan Development Report 2000 : Hii~~im Rights and Hu inaii Ilevelopnient. 1 53. Ariiarcya Sen, Coinmodiries ruid Capabilities, Oxford Uiiiversiry Press, August 1799.

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12.Tlie concept of social exclusion has bcen most cxtcnsively discussed in the French economic aiid social literature, and is central in policy discussions iii most European countriesl6‘J. The French definition describes social exclusion as a disruption of social bonds, which would enable the harmonious and orderly development of society. The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions defined it in 1995 as “the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society within which they live”. The concept has also been applied in many other countries for policy-making and has been accommodating issues of vulnerability and insecurity in different contexts. The underlying theme has been the consideration of social exclusion as the opposite of social integration, where the poor, the unemployed, ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups have remained “outsiders” in the social hierarchy. The focus of analysis, whether in identi+ing problems or in proposing solutions, has been “relational”, that is, looking at how the different groups of individuals relate to each other, and how social mechanisms, institutions and agents interact to cause deprivation.

13. It is this relational aspect of social exclusion that brings a distinct value to the poverty discourse. Income and human development poverty focus on individuals while social exclusion focuses on social relationships. When an individual suffers from deprivation due to the lack of adequate income or because of a failure in achieving different forms of human development, her condition can be analysed in terms of income poverty or human development poverty. But when an individual suffers from deprivation because of belonging to a social group whose interaction with other groups causes that deprivation, the problems can be analysed more pertinently in terms of social exclusion. The relevant issues then concern the nature and causes of disruption of the social bonds, of the inability of the group to participate in society, of the discrimination they face, or of a denial of their rights within the existing legal system.

14.There would, of course, be major overlaps in the analyses of these causes and effects because income deprivation and human development deprivation all occur within a social context. But conceptually, these are distinct spheres of analysis, which have to be pursued in terms of their respective characteristics and domains. For instance, (a deprivation like hunger, or being excluded from the ability to consume food, because the individual does not have adequate incomc or because of rising food prices owing to exogenous factors that reduce the real

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value of income, is best analysed in terms of income poverty. An individual’s inability to consume food because of poor health, lack of employment - or skills to avail herself of employment opportunities - all constitute human development failures. But when hunger is caused by famines where social organizations deny a group access to food, even when there is ample food available in the country, the problem is one of social exclusion. An instance of social exclusion, prevalent in many developing countries, is that of intra-family discrimination against women, which prevents equal access to food).

15. It is important to underline the specific nature of this social exclusion paradigm. Quite often, rhetorically, all forms of deprivation are described as “being excluded from” some particular facilities. There would be little gain in invoking this language unless the social relation aspects of the problem are identified and highlighted as distinct from other causes of deprivation. It is, of course, a difficult exercise to identi@ 8

these causes separately from each other due to their interdependence. Income and human development poverty can cause social exclusion just as social exclusion can cause income and human development poverty. But a careful analysis of the different causes, especially of deprivation, can be very enlightening and can lead to more effective methods of addressing the problems.

16.In the present paper, we shall use, as a working definition of poverty, a composite of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion. Extreme poverty would be regarded as an extreme deprivation, in terms of some consensual definitions of severity of deprivation, especially when all these elements of deprivation coexist. Chronic poverty applies to people suffering from income poverty and human development poverty as well as social exclusion for such a long time that it ossifies social relationships as the affected group is expected by others to remain deprived and socially excluded forever. To address this situation, one would then have to concentrate on measures to move away from social exclusion in terms of much more than solving problems of income and human development poverty - although both must receive close attention.

160. Draft paper prepared by Arjan de Haan and Amaresli Dubey for the international coiifcreiice “Staying Poor : Chronic l’ovcrcy aiid Developmeiit Policy”, Manchester, Unitcd Kirigdom, April 2003.

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17. This view of extreme poverty does not contradict ocher definitions. The most comprehensive definition used in human rights reports on extreme poverty was based on Father Joseph Wresinslci’s concept of the lack of “basic security”’61, combining the French approach of social exclusion in terms of lack of participation and rupture of social bonds, with other economic and social factors preventing the enjoyment of freedoms and human rights. in his final report submitted in 1996 (E/CN.4/Sub.2/ 1996/ I 3), Leaiidro Despouy, the first Special Rappor- teur on the issue of human rights and extreme poverty, summarized this concept : “the lack of basic security connotes the absence of one or more factors enabling individuals and families to assume basic responsibilities and to enjoy fundamental rights . . .. The lack of basic security leads to chronic poverty, when it simultaneously affects several aspects of peoples’ lives, when it is prolonged and when it severely compromises peoples’ chances of regaining their rights and of reassuming their responsibility in the foreseeable future’’ (annex III). (The factors that “[enable] individuals and families to assume basic responsibilities” directly refer to access to income and human development. But they also include features that relate to social exclusion because basic responsibilities imply a social role linked to the enjoyment of rights that have to be recognized by society). The notion of chronic poverty highlights the social exclusion aspect of the lack of basic security “that severely compromises peoples’ chances of regaining their rights”. Nothing would be lost if this definition were to be recast in the form of a composite of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion. O n the contrary, it would enormously improve the relevance of “the lack of basic security” in defining extreme poverty.

18. Capability poverty, which has now been broadly accepted in the human development literature, can also be regarded as a simultaneous deprivation of income, human development and social exclusion. In fact, Amartya Sen’s definition of capability “as freedom to lead a life one has reasons to choose” is clearly multidimensional. It would combine income and human development as components of capability, both as constituent and as instrumental variables. They have their own intrinsic values but they also affect each other’s levels. If all the elements constituting a “desirable life” could be specified as elements of human development, income may be left only with an instrumental role. But so long as that is not possible, income may stand for all those unspecified constitutive elements.

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19. Since Sen’s capability approach is basically individualistic, it has sometimes been alleged that the relational notion of social exclusion is not captured by the concept of deprivation of basic capabilities. But Sen has emphatically denied that, arguing that “we have good reasons to value not being excluded from social relations and in this sense social exclusion may be directly a part of capability poverty”’”. H e refers to Adam Smith’s focus on the deprivation involved in “not being able to appear in public without shame” as capability deprivation in the form of social exclusion. Furthermore, being excluded from social relations can cause other deprivations, such as being excluded from being employed, causing impoverishment, and leading in turn to other deprivations. Sen argues that “social exclusion can thus be constitutively a part of capability deprivation as well as instrumentally a cause of capability failure”.

20.For our purpose it is sufficient to indicate die congruence of these definitions and to recognize that the notion of extreme poverty as a combination of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion. In a serious and prolonged form, it is consistent with the approach of capability deprivation, which, as argued by Sen, covers all forms of deprivation as well as social exclusion. By identifjhg the three basic components (playing both constitutive and instrumental roles) in defining extreme poverty) one can focus on specific factors.

EXTREME POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 21. Before we relate our definition of extreme poverty to human

rights, it may be usefd to examine the value-added of such an endeavour. If a human rights analysis of extreme poverty creates a better understanding of its nature and improves the chance of removing it through more appropriate policy measures, there is a distinct advantage over considering it mainly as a socio-economic problem to be resolved through the usual policies. The human rights laiiguage is obviously appealing, for if poverty is considered as a violation of human rights, it could mobilize public action which itself may significantly contribute to the adoption of appropriate policies, especially by Governments in democratic countries. But to go beyond the rhetoric, it would be necessary to examine carefully the concept that the eradication of poverty is a

161. Fatlier Wreçiiiski’s scaceineiit Iiefore thc forcy-rliird session of che Commission o n Huniaii Riglics, Geneva, 20 February 1387.

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Iiuinan rights entitlement that eiitails enforceable obligations on identified duty bearers.

22. Indeed, the significaiice of recognizing a desirable objective as a human right is essentially the corresponding enforcement of obligations. Human rights are recognized as highly valuable objectives that all individuals in a society are inherently entitled to as human beings. Agents of society - individuals, institutions, corporations arid Governments representing the State, all have obligations to enable individuals to enjoy their rights. The State is regarded as the primary duty bearer and is obliged to frame laws and meclianisms to influence the behaviour of other agents, with the obligation to protect, respect and fulfil human rights.

23. Human rights obligations are binding and mechanisms must be in place to enforce these obligations. The accountability of duty bearers is essential for the enforcement of human rights, through legislation or executive actions, by special bodies or committees, national or international, or even by peer pressure and public action, separately from the countries' judicial system.

24. The ratification of international human rights instruments implies that all States parties, as well as international institutions and other agencies, are obliged to protect, promote and fulfil human rights. They may meet difficulties in doing so as many factors influence the realization of human rights, and the actions and policies of the agents - such as the States or the international institutions - may not invariably

' lead to the intended results. But a binding obligation means that these agents must be able to demonstrate that they made their best efforts to fulfil those rights by adopting policies and programmes, individually and in association with others, that have the maximum likelihood of achieving those results.

25. Clearly, if the eradication of extreme poverty could be described in terms of the realization of human rights, it would provide an enormous push towards international efforts in that direction. In order to do that, it will first be necessary to ideiitib the nature of extreme poverty as directly related to the non-fulfilment of human rights. There is a considerable debate as to whether extreme poverty cm be described as a

violation of human rights, or whether it is a condition that is caused by human rights violations. These propositions differ not only in the nature of the characteristics that define extreme poverty, but also in the corresponding policy obligations and implications. If extreme poverty can be identified in itself as a violation of human rights, it becomes an obligation for both the concerned States and the international community to make the best efforts directly to remove it. The discussion would then effectively centre around what policies could have the maximum impact for poverty eradication and, if such policies are not adopted, which agencies are responsible and accountable, and what steps can be taken to compensate for less than “best efforts” made by the respective duty bearers. If, however, extreme poverty was associated with conditions created by the non-fulfilment of the various human rights, the obligations would turn on the realization of those rights. That may or may not be sufficient to eradicate extreme poverty.

26. In the latter proposition, human rights are taken in their instrumental role in creating a condition of well-being for the right holder, leading to the eradication of extreme poverty. In the former proposition, human rights are constituent elements of well-being, identified with the eradication of extreme poverty. If the obligation of poverty eradication is derived from the instrumental role of human rights, then even if the latter are realized, there may be other factors or instrumental variables that prevent poverty eradication, and human rights obligations for State agencies and the international community would not necessarily entail policies to tackle those other instrumental variables. But if human rights were the constituent elements of well-being when there is no poverty, the corresponding obligations would cover all policies that are necessary to eradicate poverty.

27. The human rights community would therefore like to see extreme poverty as a violation or denial of human rights in the constitutive sense. But logically, the equivalence between these two concepts is not that straightforward. A concept or a category A is regarded as equivalent to another concept or category B if they satis+ the binary relation of “if and only if’, or satis6 both the necessary and sufficient conditions for fulfilling each other. The concepts of extreme poverty and that of violation or denial of human rights would be regarded as equivalent if a violation of human rights is sufficient to cause extreme poverty and if extreme poverty also entails a violation of human rights. This equivalence may not be established if extreme poverty can exist without a

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violatioil of human rights. It can, howevcr, be dcrnonstrated, both empi- rically and logically, that a violation or denial of human rights would cause and be instrumental to creating a state of extreme poverty. The fulfilment of these human rights can still be regarded as important, often overwhelmingly so, in eliminating poverty, and anti-poverty programmes can be designed in a rights-based manner, that is, in a way that fulfils human rights.

28.There is sometimes a debate between the relevance of the notions of violation and of denial, but they are not really relevant when human rights are seen in their instrumental role. However, if the fulfilment of human rights was considered as a constituent element of well- being without extreme poverty, the obligations resulting from the violation would be different from those resulting from denial. A violation would imply that the duty bearers - the State or international institutions - are deliberately following policies in pursuance of other objectives that result in extreme poverty. Their obligations may then call for some form of reprimand for the actions of the agents, and even for compensation. But if the denial of human rights is the cause, without imputing any motive or active role of the agents in creating this condition, their obligations would essentially call for a programme to promote and fulfil human rights and thereby facilitate the eradication of extreme poverty.

29.The definition of extreme poverty as a composite of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion would be fully compatible with Father Wresinski’s definition of the lack of basic security. It also should be possible to demonstrate that the fulfilment of all human rights would facilitate the removal of basic insecurity and thereby the eradication of extreme poverty. It will, however, be difficult to establish the equivalence between the lack of basic insecurity and human rights. The notion of basic security may be plausibly seen as being entailed by the f~ilfilment of human rights but cannot be said to entail them in turn. People can enjoy basic security without enjoying all human rights. As a result, it may not be possible, givcn the present system of recognized human rights, to equate the lack of basic security or the prevalence of extreme poverty with the lack of human rights, in conformity with the demands of the human rights community. For that purpose, basic security should be recognized as a human right on its own, and one that can be achieved only through the pressure of international public opinion and through a due process of international

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legislation, a treaty, a covenant or a United Nations resolution based on consensus.

30. The case is similar with respect to capability deprivation. Extreme poverty as the composite of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion can be defined as extreme capability deprivation. But it may not be plausible to argue that capability deprivation is equivalent to human rights deprivation, unless the freedoms that are lacking when there is a deprivation of capabilities are identified with and claimed as human rights. In fact, both in the capability literature and in human rights discourse attempts have been made to establish that human rights are essentially claims to some fundamental freedoms to which all human beings are entitled. In that sense, capability deprivation can be seen as the lack of human rights. The only problem there is that the constituent freedoms have to be recognized as human rights through “due process”. The international human rights law currently recognizes only a limited number of such freedoins as human rights, such as civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The space of capability is much broader, consisting of all kinds of freedoms that are necessary to let an individual lead a life of value. Basic capabilities that correspond to the notion of extreme poverty would cover only a subset of the total space of capabilities. If that subset is taken as consisting of freedoms currently recognized as rights, extreme poverty, or basic capability deprivation, can be identified with the lack of human rights.

3 1. In international human rights law, there is a well-recognized right to development, adopted through the Declaration of the Right to Development of 1986 and reiterated by international consensus in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 1993.163 The right to development is a right to a process of improvement of well-being when all fhdamental freedoms and human rights are realized. The condition of extreme poverty can then be considered as the denial or violation of that right for a group of people identified as poor by society. The right to development applies to all individuals and in particular to a subset of those individuals identified, by social consensus, as poor. A denial of that right makes them extremely poor, suffering simultaneously from income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion.

32.Although the right to development has been recognized by United Nations resolutions, including at the Millennium Summit of

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2000, there is still no consensus about the content of this right and the nature of corresponding obligations, and the debate on this subject is ongoing in the international community. However, if a consensus is reached, it could directly satis& the demand for equating extreme poverty with the denial of human rights.

33. However, it is not necessary to wait for such a consensus before the international community may respond to the challenge of removing extreme poverty through programmes designed in terms of human rights. The realization of human rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights - can be shown to be most important in the removal of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion and, therefore, in the eradication of extreme poverty. To design such programmes, it would be necessary to identify the obligations of different duty bearers and to work out national actions and international measures. As mentioned above, human rights entail obligations of States as the primary duty bearers, and of the international community - also consisting of States, including through international institutions. In the following two sections w e shall discuss respectively national and international actions for the eradication of extreme poverty in terms of human rights obligations.

NATIONAL ACTIONS 34. There is a significant amount of literature about economic pro-

grammes that States can adopt to eradicate poverty, through direct governmental actions and by indirectly influencing other actors through incentives as well as disincentives. Similarly, there is a large literature on the removal of social exclusion, all of which would be relevant to deal with extreme poverty. W e do not intend to survey the whole field, but instead, we would like to highlight specific human rights-related actions or measures that can lead to the eradication of extreme poverty. W e need not elaborate on obvious direct connections between the realization of rights and the removal of specific elements of extreme poverty. For example, the realization of the rights to an adequate standard of living, food, social security or employment could be easily shown to directly impact on income poverty. Several other economic, social and cultural

163. See the reporrs (if' clic independcnr cxpcrr on tlic righc cri dcvclopinciir, available ;Ir Iirtp ://~vww.1i1i~iclir.~ti/lit11ii/11i~1i1i2/7/h/m~~ev.hr1n.

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rights would directly contribute to the improvement of human development indicators. Civil and political rights, in combination with economic, social and cultural rights, may be shown to be most effective instruments to remove social exclusion. The work of the previous independent expert and special rapporteur on extreme poverty, as well as of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, are excellent references.

35. A most important requirement to conduct human rights policy is for all States that have ratified international human rights treaties to incorporate them in their domestic legal system.

36. Secondly, in addition to the elaboration of domestic legal systems, and especially when there is a substantial time lag in carrying it out, it is important that all States must establish their own iiational human rights commission that can adjudicate, review and recommend appropriate remedial actions when human rights are violated, for individuals and groups to seek such actions. There is by now an internationally accepted procedure for setting up such national institutions and their work. There should be a universal campaign to set up such institutions all over the world, as well as a universal campaign to spread human rights education. Indeed, the effectiveness of any human rights practice depends not only on the identification of the obligations and the establishment of mechanisms to enforce these obligations, but also on the act of claiming these rights by individuals or groups through public actions and legal proceedings. Human rights education and awareness is a prerequisite. The international community has just completed a decade for human rights education and efforts have to be extended with greater vigor in all countries of the world, both developed and developing.

37. Thirdly, measures have to be taken in a planned and coordinated manner to promote a development programme that facilitates the realization of human rights. This has been spelt out in all the reports of the independent expert on the right to development. Human rights are supposed to be progressively realized, some more immediately than others, and the speed of progression would depend upon the flexibility of social, legal and economic institutions, and the availability of resources. Economic development in a very real sense implies reforming these institutions to adapt themselves to changing objectives accepted by societies and, in this case, to realizing human rights as well as expanding

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resources adequately. Indeed, resource and institutional constraints are mostly responsible for the pace of realization of human rights. A national programme for human rights development would therefore imply adopting a coordinated programme of actions to remove such constraints through increase in resources and institutional adjustments.

38. For the removal of extreme poverty, such programmes must be given a more specific focus. They should develop targeted actions to alleviate the conditions of people living in poverty or of the groups identified as most vulnerable, lacking essentially in income and human development and mostly excluded from participating in social interactions. Such programmes must focus on women. Many empirical studies have shown that allowing women to enjoy all their rights in full measures has a major impact on the enjoyment of these rights for the society as a whole. A national programme for realizing human rights must take these factors fully into account.

39. A programme of action for economic development targeting specific groups would require a quality of government behaviour that is not readily available in many countries. Dependence on the markets alone can seldom achieve these specific targets and may often accentuate the deprivation of vulnerable groups even further. This highlights the importance of reforms in the system of governance for implementing any effective programme for rights-based development. There is again an enormous literature on the subject of governance, which may have to be explored further in terms of human rights. Without improving the sys-

' tem of governance, it may be very difficult to ensure the success of human rights realization.

40. If a comprehensive national programme of economic development covering all sectors proves too time consuming and difficult, there is one programme that can have a substantial impact on eradicating extreme poverty in terms of reduction of income and human development poverty as well as social exclusion : it is employment generation, especially for the poorer sections residing in bo th rural and urban areas and mostly in the unorganized sectors. Employment provides income and allows access to all human development facilities, which in turn increases labour productivity, contributing to employment sustainability - one major way of overcoming social exclusion. A person living on social security may be protected from income poverty, but may not be saved from the ignominy of social exclusion that accompanies not

having a job. Even in industrial countries unemployment is the principal source of social exclusion. In inox developing countries unemployment, open or disguised, is a source of extreme poverty in all its dimensions. If there is one programme of action that can be taken as the most effective way of dealing with extreme poverty, it is the creation of sustainable employment opportunities, especially for the vulnerable and marginalized groups. Often, these people cannot afford to be fully unemployed, for reasons of sheer survival. They therefore become engaged in precarious, sometimes hazardous, low-productive occupations with very little income, such as home-based work and self-employment, or in micro and small enterprises, scattered over the rural and urban landscape.

4 I. Employment generation programmes in the inforinal sector have to be based on three essential measures. Firstly, the targeted people must have access to training, which means that facilities have to be set up throughout the country to meet the requirements of specific, but low-grade and simple sliills. The programme must be driven by market demand for skills, with public support to increase supply by training and vocational education. Secondly, the products of these semi- and low- sltilled workers must have access to markets. Connectivity with markets depends on information, transport facilities and telecommunications. Connectivity with product markets has to be supplemented by access to input markets and essential services for engaging in production, such as access to power, water, shelter and sanitation, and then to finance. Expanding microfinance facilities, as have been instituted in many developing countries, together with reorienting the existing financial intermediary institutions of a country with adequate refinancing and appropriate risk-sharing, must be taken up in these countries supported by central banks and often by national and international financing institutions.

42. The sustainability of employment generation under these programmes will not only depend upon taking all these steps, but also on allowing the people concerned access eventually to higher-level skills, connectivity with larger markets of outputs and inputs and access to a larger scale of financing when production units employing such labour expand. In other words, plans to support employment expansion among the unorganized, poorer and low-sltill segments of the population must evolve into a general employment strategy for the country as a whole if it is to reduce the overall level of unemployment.

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43. A plan for employment generation consistent with human rights standards, respecting international labour rights and standards and removing the constraints induced by income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion, will be universally relevant both in developed and developing countries. Which particular elements of such a plan should prevail would depend upon the economic and social situation of the country concerned. Sometimes, the issue of social exclusion will be more important to tackle than, say, providing a mini- m u m level of income. In other instances, human development concerns such as appropriate health services or education facilities or proper housing inay be a priority. in general, however, a programme for employment expansion may be the most effective way of tackling extreme poverty as a denial of human rights.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS 44. international obligations for the realization of human riglirs tdte

the form of international cooperation to which all States of the world pledged themselves under Articles 55 and 56 of the Charter of the United Nations and of obligations specified in various international conventions. The international community must create an environment that facilitates the realization of human rights. When States, as the primary duty bearers, adopt policies to realize human rights, international cooperation could provide aid and greater access to credit through debt restructuring and to international markets for exports and technology transfer. But even when national actions on the part of developing countries are not forthcoming, the international community has the obligation to maintain an environment of liberal trade and flows of capital and technology, helping the poorer countries to enhance their output and employment.

45. Agencies of the international community may be galvanized to adopt policies specifically aimed at removing income and human development poverty as well as social exclusion by following policics based on human rights standards of participation, accountability, trâns- parency, equity and non-discrimination. The reorientation of their methods of operation is an imperative for all agencies, such as UNDP, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development organization (UNIDO). But most

important would be tlie role of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the two major international financial institutions, as well as other regional institutions that facilitate access to finance in these countries. In most reports on international cooperation, the need to increase the officiai development assistance of developed countries lias been highlighted. It is important to reiterate that point in any poverty eradication programme. Without a conscious targeting of increased ODA, providing a support mechanism in case of market failure or malfunctioning, no such programme can succeed. However, there is a need to coordinate ODA with policies of international cooperation. A mechanism has to be created to manage development partnerships or development compacts, as elaborated in previous reports of the independent expert on tlie right to development164. It may also be necessary to establish a special fund for the eradication of extreme poverty, in line with the Millennium Development Fund to supplement the mechanisms operating this area.

46.The most relevant mechanism today is that of the poverty reduction strategies followed by the IMF and tlie World Bank. Instead of setting up a new mechanism, it is possible to suggest measures to improve that facility and to aim precisely at the eradication of poverty in the framework of the realization of human rights. Three such measures may have to be adopted immediately in that direction.

47. First, as suggested by the former independent expert in her last report (E/CN.4/2004/43), the Articles of Agreement of IMF and the World Bank may be amended by adding the phrase “while respecting human rights, particularly economic and social rights” to article I (ii) and article IV, section 1 (i), in the case of the IMF, and to article II (iii) and article III, section 5 (b), for the World Bank. These amendments are necessary to move away from the so-called inability of these institutions to focus on human rights objectives in carrying out their operations.

Although it is plausible to argue that since the member States that set up these institutions are bound by their obligations to international treaties and covenants, the institutions are equally bound by them. However, as the operations of these institutions are guided by their Articles of Agreement, which at the present time do not contain any explicit reference to human rights obligations, it may be more straightforward and useful to amend those articles to include such provisions. The human rights community, therefore, should take up the

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recommeridations of Ms. Lizin and press upon Governments to follow them in the boards of the respective institutions.

48.Secondly, it would be desirable to provide for an open-ended financing of poverty reduction strategies. This means that if these strategies are implemented by different countries in a manner that facilitates the realization of human rights and thus contributes to the eradication of poverty, their programmes of action must not be allowed to be disrupted due to a lack of international funds. Currently, the IMF and the World Bank have ceilings on resources available for any programmes to implement these strategies. These institutions sometimes promise that they will catalyze more funds if necessary, but in practice the programmes are dovetailed with the availability of resources. Attempts should be made to remove these restrictions, first by allowing these institutions to recommend specific improvements in the trade, debt and technology transfer environments as measures of international cooperation. Secondly, they should be able to draw from a larger source of potential financial flows from developed countries and provide additional resources both to improve cooperation and to support countries implementing rights-based programmes. That source could be a contingency financing facility, created by a commitment by all developed countries to raise their ODA to the level of 0.7 per cent of GDP. Such a contingency facility, based on callable capital, would not involve any actual contribution of finance by the donor countries over and above their current levels until they are called upon to contribute to an additional requirement for finance by the countries implementing the

' strategy, as determined by the Bank and the Fund. It is possible to conceive of this facility as being in addition to the Millennium Development Fund or as a part of it, but it should be explicitly aimed at servicing the poverty reduction strategy implemented in a rights-based manner.

49. The third suggestion to strengthen the poverty reduction strategy process as a means of implementing human rights would be to set up in each recipient country an independent monitoring authority consisting of three national and three international experts of renowned ability, completely independent and appointed by the international

164. Sec, for exaiiiple, clic third report of rlic iiidepciidciit c x p t oii tlic i-iglit to tlevelopiiiciic (E/CN.4/2001 /WG. 18/2).

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financial institii tions in consultation with the national authorities. The essen~ial element of a Iiunian rights operation is the mechanism of monitoring and the setting up of accountability, as well as recommending remedial actions. Every party affected by the poverty reduction programmes in a country should have the option of appealing to these authorities, who should hold regular and periodic meetings to monitor the programmes and hear such appeals, and determine the responsibilities for lapses in performance and make appropriate recommendations. Even if those recommendations were not binding, the fact that the operation of the poverty reduction strategy process would be subject to independent monitoring and scrutiny would improve the prospects for the implementation of the strategy, enhance its appeal in the implementing country and increase the likelihood of greater engagement by the donor countries. What is more, such a monitoring mechanism would be entirely in accordance with the principles of human rights obligations.

50. Finally, if the suggestion made in the earlier section on national '

action to institute a national plan for expanding employment opportunities for the poor and vulnerable groups in the unorganized sector is accepted, it would be appropriate to recommend that both the Fund and the Bank create an additional window of finance supporting such employment expansion programmes. Creating skills, establishing market connectivity, expanding infrastructure and services, and then refinancing and sharing the risk of financing micro and small enterprises would all require additional finance. The countries concerned may or may not be able to mobilize those resources by themselves. A special financing facility to support these programmes that explicitly stressed that they must be carried out in a manner consistent with human rights standards would go a long way towards their implementation.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5 1. W e can summarize the main conclusions and recommendations

of this report as follows :

(a) First, defining extreme poverty in terms of a composite of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion would capture the different definitions provided in previous reports of human rights experts and in the literature of economic and social development. It would incorporate in a comprehensive manner the notions of the lack of basic security, capability deprivation and social

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exclusion and would be a basis for policies that would address each of these components separately as well as in an integrated manncr. Such an approach builds on the multidimensionality of the concept and talcs account of the interdependence of different constitutive elements ;

(b) It may be difficult to argue plausibly and logically that extreme poverty is equivalent to a violation of human rights ; it would be more straightforward to establish that a denial or violation of human rights would create conditions for the spread of extreme poverty. It may, however, be desirable to regard extreme poverty as a denial or violation of human rights so that the corresponding obligations are not limited only to the fulfillment of human rights, but extend also to the actual eradication of poverty. For that purpose it may be necessary to establish that linkage through a resolution or a declaration based on international consensus. In any case, it should be possible to go quite far in iniple- menting measures for eradicating poverty, based on the instrumental role of human rights ;

(c) Human rights entail corresponding obligations both within the scope of national action and international cooperation. A programme to adopt such actions with a view to fulfilling human rights, more specifically of the vulnerable and marginal groups of people living in poverty, arid aimed at eradicating extreme poverty can be adopted both at the national and international levels. National actions would aim directly at fulfilling civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights to remove income and human development poverty as well as social exclusion. They would build on a national development programme for the growth of resources and for reforms of the social, technological and legal institutions, specifically benefiting groups suffering from extreme poverty ;

(d) One plan of action that might be most relevant in dealing with extreme poverty, including social exclusion, would be employment creation for the poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups, particularly in the unorganized sector. Such a programme should rely on establishing connectivity with markets, skills and finance. T o make the programme sustainable, it should be allowed to expand to include eventually the unemployed labour force of the country as a whole ;

(e) At the incernational level, ail appropriate mechanism should be set up to coordinate devclopment cooperation activities of differcnt Governments and agencies. 1 his may take the form of worlciiig out pro- I ï

grammes of development partnership or following the model of development compacts ;

(f) Within the existing mechanisms, it would be useful to concentrate on the operations of the World Bank and the IMF and their implementation of poverty reduction strategies explicitly in the forin of human rights fiilfilment. To this end, a first requirement may be the amendment of the Articles of Agreement of the World Bank and the IMF, as suggested by the former independent expert ;

(g) It may be necessary to make the funding of poverty reduction strategies open-ended, by allowing the international financial institutions to recommend the effective expansion of cooperation in the fields of trade, debt and technology transfer, and additional fLinding, when coLintries successfdly conduct their strategies in a rights-based manner. In addition, it may be useful to set up a financing facility of callable fnnds created on the basis of commitments by all countries to contribute 0.7 per cent of their GDP. The funds would only be available once the Bank and the Fund had determined that the poverty reduction strategy had been implemented in accordance with human rights standards ;

(12) In addition, for each implementing country, an independent body could be set up, consisting of independent experts, to monitor the programmes and to adjudicate on appeals by all the concerned parties, focusing on the responsibilities and recommending remedial actions. Even if those recommendations are not binding, the exercise would facilitate the implementation of the programme ;

(i) Finally, a special window could be created within the Bank and the Fund for financing plans by developing countries to expand employment opportunities for the poor, the marginal arid vulnerable in the unorganized sector. This would be the international couilterpart of the national action described above.

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