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21. Development as a Human Right: Legal, Political, and Economic Dimensions

Author:
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
In the foreword to this volume, a Nobel Symposium Book from the Harvard School of Public Health, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour writes: There is growing support for the idea that global poverty is an affront to human rights, and that the realization of human rights for a life of freedom and dignity is inescapably a central purpose of development. Yet the right to development remains a politically divisive issue. The concept has its roots in the political economy of the 1970 s and 1980 s, when developing countries mobilized for a New International Economic Order in which countries of the North would actively facilitate growth and development in the South through aid, trade, and investment. While the right to development is still championed by developing countries and resisted by donor countries, it (and the broader concept of a human rights-based approach to development) is also controversial among theorists and practitioners in both the human rights and the development fields. Some human rights legal scholars challenge its usefulness, arguing that it brings together rights that already exist. In the development community, little attention has been paid to the right to development per se, and economists who dominate the mainstream of development theory and practice are somewhat puzzled by the idea that human rights in general should be a concern in development at all. They often question the relevance of human rights discourse on development and see it as idealistic and utopian, since it insists on the equal value of all rights. Given that economic policymaking is about setting priorities and considering trade-offs, ''rights talk'' seems to be an obstacle rather than an aid to the task of formulating policies and strategies.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Human Rights, and United Nations

22. Just War Theory and the Privatization of Military Force

Author:
James Pattison
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Since the 1990 s there has been a marked growth in the private military industry. Private military companies (PMCs) have been taking on an ever-increasing number of roles traditionally performed by the regular military. These range from supplying training, logistics, and other support services to engaging occasionally in actual fighting. This is most notable in Iraq, where the U.K. and U.S. governments have employed a host of ''security'' companies, such as Aegis, Blackwater, Control Risks Group, Erinys, Vinnell, and KBR. The use of these companies has by no means been limited to Iraq, however. Nor is it only the U.K. and the U.S. that have made use of their services. Other states, multinational companies, NGOs, and even the U.N. have hired PMCs.
Topic:
Privatization, United Nations, and War
Political Geography:
United States and United Kingdom

23. Horizontal Accountability in Intergovernmental Organizations

Author:
Alexandru Grigorescu
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Many intergovernmental organizations (IOs) have recently established offices of internal oversight. Yet scandals such as the one surrounding the Oil-for-Food Program in the United Nations have revealed serious flaws in the design of these institutions, especially their lack of independence from top administrators of the bureaucracies that they are supposed to oversee. This study argues that this is due, in great part, to the initial use of an imperfect domestic model. It shows that, in addition to using a flawed model as a starting point for negotiations, states and IO officials intentionally weakened oversight offices even more. The study argues that member-states need to quickly give such offices increased independence in order to make them more effective and to avoid the continued erosion of the legitimacy of IOs.
Topic:
Government and United Nations

24. Keeping the Peace in Africa: Why "African" Solutions Are Not Enough

Author:
Paul D. Williams
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Since the early 1990s, a variety of African and Western governments alike have often suggested that finding "African solutions to African problems" represents the best approach to keeping the peace in Africa. Not only does the empirical evidence from post-Cold War Africa suggest that there are some fundamental problems with this approach, it also rests upon some problematic normative commitments. Specifically in relation to the problem of armed conflict, the "African solutions" logic would have at least three negative consequences: it would undermine the UN; it would provide a convenient excuse for powerful Western states that wished to avoid sending their own soldiers to peace operations in Africa; and it would help African autocrats fend off international, especially Western, criticism of their policies. After providing an overview of the constituent elements of the "African solutions" approach, this article sets out in general terms the central problems with it before turning to a specific illustration of how these problems affected the international responses to the ongoing war in Darfur, Sudan. Instead of searching for "African solutions", policymakers should focus on developing effective solutions for the complex challenges raised by the issue of armed conflict in Africa. To this end, Western states in general and the P-3 in particular should give greater support to conflict management activities undertaken by the United Nations, develop clearer guidelines for how these should relate to regional initiatives, and facilitate the efforts of civic associations to build the foundations for stable peace in the continent's war zones.
Topic:
Cold War and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and Darfur

25. The Human Rights Council: A New Era in UN Human Rights Work?

Author:
Yvonne Terlingen
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Kofi Annan did more than any UN Secretary-General before him to stress the close link between human rights and peace and security. In his inaugural address to the newly created Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 19, 2006, he said: ''. . . lack of respect for human rights and dignity is the fundamental reason why the peace of the world today is so precarious, and why prosperity is so unequally shared.'' With the creation of the Human Rights Council, ''a new era in the human rights work of the United Nations has been proclaimed.''
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Geneva