Human Rights Syllabi: Rights-Based Development

Rights-Based Development
Ellen Messer, Visiting Professor
Sustainable International Development at the Heller School, Brandeis University
Fall 2002

Objectives:
This course will explore the promise and practice of human rights as a framework for development from legal, political-economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. Since 1997, human rights has been a central policy framework connecting U.N. reforms, follow-up to the 1990s global development summits, and government and NGO development program efforts. The U.N. Development Programme devoted its Human Development Report 2000 to the human rights-and-development theme, and human-rights advocacy has also been a principal rallying cry of those, especially NGOs, who oppose the politics of trade liberalization and globalization that emphasize economic growth but not necessarily individual human welfare, child survival cultural survival, or social justice. Course readings, discussions, and written assignments are designed to equip participants to access and integrate this growing literature into their thinking about sustainable development:

(a) to understand human rights as a philosophical and international legal framework, which is continually evolving, and to be cognizant of the U.N. instruments and mechanisms that guide human-rights developments and implementation

(b) to compare and contrast "rights-based" with other development frameworks, both as concept and in particular development contexts

(c ) to evaluate the rights-based and development performance in particular national cases

(d) to identify where cultural concepts of rights and duties come into conflict with universal human rights principles, and to consider how such conflicts might be negotiated to enhance human-development outcomes.

Classes will be run on a one-third lecture, two-thirds seminar format, with participants taking turns facilitating discussions.

Each week there will be required (*) and recommended readings, which include UN documents, NGO reports, and scholarly analysis. Short writing assignments accompany each week's readings, and are designed to enhance class discussions. Participants will also prepare a short (6-12 page) paper, which explores the legal, political-economic, and social-cultural dimensions of a particular rights-based development topic. Group projects are encouraged. An outline of the topic and sources should be handed in during week #4. Project papers will be presented during weeks #5 and #6, and written up, to be handed in week #7.

Grading will be based on class participation (25%), short written assignments (25%), and final oral and written presentations (50%).

Week 2: Write a short (1-2 pp.) defense or critique of "basic rights" as a basis for sustainable development, based on Shue and your other readings (and life experience) up to this point.

Week 3: Choose a country about which you have (or desire to have) greater knowledge, and find what human rights protections are explicitly or implicitly contained in its constitution and legal framework, and what human rights instruments this country has signed.

Week 4: Select a rights-based development topic (e.g., women's rights, the rights of the child, health and human rights, rights-in-conflict, freedom of religion, human rights and the environment) for your final presentation and paper, and provide an outline and sources indicating how you plan to develop the topic)

WEEKLY SESSIONS

Concepts and Theory

1. Overview: Basic concepts: human rights, a right to development, and rights-based development. (What are rights? What constitutes development? Who is classified as a human being deserving of rights and subject to obligations? How does a human rights framework link up with other development perspectives?)

Readings:
*Weissbrodt, David 1988 Human Rights: An Historical Perspective IN Human Rights, P.Davies, Ed. New York, pp.1-20 (Xerox)

* HDR 2000, Ch.1: Human Rights and Human Development (pp.19-28). (Download www.undp.org/hdr2000). (Pp.27-28 contain a useful table displaying the chronologies of world events/conferences, documents, and declarations/, and institutions. Please bring p.28 to class next week for reference and discussion)

Documents for discussion:
* Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) [class handout]
* Jones, A. 1999 A Human Rights Approach to Relief and Development Assistance (excerpt by CARE-US, 2pp. ) [class handout]

2. Four Generations of Rights and Development Paradigms (What are the philosophical, political, vs. legal bases for conceptualizing rights and duties? What are the different classes of human rights, and how are they established in international, national, and customary law? What are the arguments for and against economic-social-cultural and development rights as "human rights"? Are these arguments relevant to the notion of rights-based development? Should (do) some rights take priority over others? )

Readings:

* Shue, Henry 1982 Basic Rights. New York: Basic Books. (Read enough to ascertain Shue's notions of "basic rights" and to evaluate his argument that the right to subsistence, like the right to personal security, should be considered a universal individual human right.)

* Howard, Rhoda 1983 The Full Belly Thesis: Should Economic Rights Take Priority over Civil and Political Rights? Human Rights Quarterly 5:467-90 (If you would like to pursue her arguments at length, see her book, Human Rights in Commonwealth Africa

Zalaquett, J. 1984 The Relationship between Development and Human Rights. IN Food as a Human Right (A. Eide, ed), pp.141-51 (Xerox)

Messer, E. 1998 Anthropology, Human Rights, and Development. Development Anthropology 16,1-2:31-43 (Xerox)

* UNDP 2000 Human Development Report 2000 . Overview (pp.1-18) [Download www.undp.org/hdr2000] (Note: this summarizes current developing thinking, and can serve as a reference point throughout the course. See also the annex to Ch.2 (pp.44-47) which describes the human rights instruments that make up the legal framework).

Hamm, Brigitte I. 2001 A Human Rights Approach to Development. Human Rights Quarterly 23:1005-31 (Xerox or download)

Documents:
* Covenant on Civil-Political Rights
* Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

3. Political-Economic Perspectives (What are relationships between entitlement, empowerment/enfranchisement, and human rights frameworks? What are the roles of governments, transnational corporations, inter-government organizations, and non-governmental organizations in assuring or denying human rights?)

Readings

* Sen, Amartya 1999 Development As Freedom . (This text was assigned as orientation reading. Review Sen's concepts of human rights, human capabilities, and so on. How do these relate to a rights-based framework?)

* George, Susan 1990 The Right to Food and the Politics of Hunger. Ill Fares the Land , pp.221-239 (Xerox)

* Farmer, Paul 1999 Pathologies of Power: Rethinking Health and Human Rights. American Journal of Public Health 89,10:1486-1496 (Xerox or download)

* HDR 2000, Chapter 2 (pp.29-55). (Note the tables indicating which countries have signed which treaties, pp.48-55. ).

Donnelly, Jack 1999 Human Rights, Democracy, and Development. Human Rights Quarterly 21.3:608-632 (Xerox or download)

Documents:

* Global Exchange 1999 The WTO Erodes Human Rights (Global Exchange) http://www.globalexchange.org/wto/CaseStudies.html

Check other NGO papers and networks for their writings on the contradictions between human rights and trade-liberalization goals:

WTOwatch.org
Institute on Agriculture and Trade Policy
Rural Advancement Foundation International (now etcgroup-action group on erosion, technology, and concentration)

4. Social and Cultural Perspectives (Who is defined as a human being and social person, and thereby guaranteed rights by the community? What are the rights of minorities or strangers? Of women, children, or the elderly? What rights do local communities prioritize? How do their priorities or recognition of rights contrast and conflict with international and national human-rights notions?)

Readings

* An Naím, A.A. 1990 Problems of Universal Cultural Legitimacy for Human Rights. IN Human Rights in Africa. Cross Cultural Perspectives , Naim, AA. And Deng, F.,eds. Washington D.C. Brookings. pp.331-367.

Deng., F.M. 1990 A Cultural Approach to Human Rights Among the Dinka. Pp.261-289 (see previous reference)

* Morgenthau, R. 1980 Strangers, Nationals, and Multi-Nationals in Contemporary Africa. IN Strangers in African Societies. W.A. Shack and E.P. Skinner, eds., pp.105-120. Berkeley: University of California Press

* Colson, E. 1980 The Assimilation of Aliens Among Zambian Tonga. Pp.35-54 IN From Tribe to Nation in Africa. Studies in Incorporation Processes . R. Cohen and J. Middleton, eds. Scranton, PA: Chandler Publishing Company

* Scheper-Hughes, Nancy 1997 Demography Without Numbers: Counting Angel Babies in Brazil. IN Anthropology and Demography, T.Fricke and D. Kerzer, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (Scheper-Hughes opposes the "top-down" premise of human rights. What might be the basis for construction of a more pluralistic, grass-roots approach to human rights?)

* Khare, Ravinder 1999 The Right to Food Among the Hindus. IN: Tradition, Pluralism, and Identity., In Honor of T.N. Madan , V.Das, D. Gupta, and P. Uberoi, eds. New Delhi: Sage. Pp.111-136

Documents:
Convention on the Rights of the Child
CEDAW

Sessions 5 and 6: Class presentations

Conclusions

* Baxi, U. 1989 From Human Rights to the Right to be Human: Some heresies. IN Rethinking Human Rights. Challenges for Theory and Action. S.Kothari, H.Sethi, eds. Pp.151-62. New York: New Horizons.

* Ignatieff, Michael. 2002 Is the Human Rights Era Ending? New York Times 5 February 2002 (op ed) 5

About AAA / Join AAA / Jobs & Careers / AAA Meetings / AAA Publications
Sections & Interest Groups / Staff Directory / Anthro Links / Support AAA

Questions or comments? We want to hear from you!
Contact us / AAA Privacy Policy