On Relations between Human Rights and Development
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There are innate relations between human rights and development. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights were proclaimed as "the highest aspiration of common people", and "whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world," while "the ultimate goal of social development is to improve and enhance the quality of life of all people." Human rights and development share the same purpose. The universal attainment of the former is inseparable from the latter. The latter will be disoriented and meaningless if it does not aim to achieve the former. The former is the purpose, standard and definite contents of the latter. The significance of the former to the latter is irreplaceable. Studying the relations between them is of great theoretical and realistic significance.
I. Human rights and development are interdependent
Human rights and development represent an important topic of interest to the international community. Human rights are rights originating from human dignity. As explicitly declared in Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
What is the development? It means the overall development for society and for man. Just as pointed out in the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development, "development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting therefrom." This definition reflected the basic consensus achieved by the international community on the concept of development.
But over a long period in the past, people equated development with economic growth. Such a growth first-oriented approach on development one-sidedly summarized development as the process of growth in material wealth while neglecting justice and the main body status of man in the process of development. Such a traditional concept and model of development brought many social problems, such as the polarization of the poor and the rich, environmental pollution and social turmoil. This prompted people to reflect on and review development, and thus to form a new, comprehensive outlook on development.
The transition from focusing on material to focusing on man in development reflects the deepening of people's understanding about the relations between human rights and development. In the history of man, development and human rights have since followed "two separate trajectories". They were dealt with separately.
The 1945 UN Charter noted the innate relations between the two. It incorporated security, development and human rights into the three main aims of the United Nations, Article 55 stipulated, "With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote: (a) higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development; (b) solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems; and international cultural and educational cooperation; and (c) universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion."
These stipulations reflected man's insight into poverty, social polarization, sharp social contradictions and other in-depth reasons that would lead to war. They manifested the spirit of combining development with human rights, and guided concerns over, and researches of, the international community on their relations.
The 1969 UN Declaration on Social Progress and Development pointed out definitely, "Social progress and development shall be founded on respect for the dignity and value of the human person and shall ensure the promotion of human rights and social justice." It looked at the issue of development from the angle of human rights for the first time. It suggested the aims of development and the methods to achieve it, manifesting man's deeper and better understanding of the relations between the two.
The 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development combined development and human rights definitely for the first time and noted, "The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized."
"The human person is the central subject of development and should be the active participant and beneficiary of the right to development." The Declaration on the Right to Development enhanced the width and depth of understanding about development and established it for the first time a fundamental human right, and pushed forward its connotation and the viewpoint of its standard.
The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action adopted by the 3rd World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 defined once again the stipulations of The Declaration on the Right to Development, stressing: "Democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing."
The 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals explicitly defined human rights as the goals and indexes of development and further incorporated human rights into the concrete requirements of development.
These important international documents on human rights were crystals of the international community in understanding the relations between human rights and development.
Based on these, a series of new concepts have been engendered on development since the 1990s. The UN Human Development Report in 1990 raised the concept of "human development". The 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development clearly raised the concept of "sustainable development." The ICPD Programme of Action adopted by the 1994 UN Conference on Population and Development further pointed out, "human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development" stressing the importance of human rights standard to population and goals and indexes of development. The 1995 Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, clearly raised the concept of "social development and noted that the pivotal point of social development is to ensure man".
It was precisely the understanding of development from the angle of human rights that prompted the brand new revolutionary concept of development, which further stressed the importance of human rights in development.
The interdependent and mutually reinforcing between human rights and development are mainly manifested as follows.
Firstly, development is the means to achieve human rights while it is purported to human rights. The attainment of human rights requires the support of economic development while economic and social development provides the basis for the general attainment of human rights. Only by means of development can we fully achieve the rights to decent living standards, social security and education. Human rights cannot be fully realized without development. But development will not bring about the attainment of human rights automatically. Only by defining human rights as the fundamental goal of development can it become a process of realizing human rights.
Secondly, human rights are the definite contents of development. The point being stressed here is that only when development is based on human rights can it really become sustainable and conform to human happiness. The point being stressed here embraces the following implications: First, the human being is the central subject of development. "Development policy should therefore make the human being the main participant and beneficiary of development. Equal participation in development and sharing the fruits of social development is a fundamental human right." Second, development based on human rights features bringing social justice into development process while on the other hand development divorced from human rights would generate an unfair phenomenon in which the rich would become richer and the poor poorer. Unjust development would eventually make havoc to mankind. Hence, development is not just the growth of material wealth, but the process of realizing and developing human rights, which in turn will make development more personalized. Third, human rights are the core of development. The UN Millennium Development Goals stipulated the main goals to be realized by 2015 would be human rights goals: A. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; B. Achieve universal primary education; C. Promote gender equality and empower women; D. Reduce child mortality rate, etc. These important human rights indexes constituted the core of the millennium development goals. Human rights enriched the connotation of development.
Thirdly, human rights are an important standard for development. There are various evaluation standards for development. The human rights standard differs from other standards in that it stresses the justice of development, advocating development should protect the rights of all on the basis of equality instead of merely seeking the interest of isolated individuals or the minority in violation of human rights principles. Such a gauge of evaluation is irreplaceable; it can restrain and balance other gauges. Human rights provide the development goals and also the standard of evaluation. Development divorced from human rights can hardly be just. When development is stripped of radical dynamics, we can say nothing of sustainable development.
When human rights are made the goals, contents and standards of development, they raise new demands, requiring the application of methods based on human rights to all the aspects of human development.
Beyond doubt man has achieved unprecedented results in his development now. But the world is very unbalanced in its contemporary development. Poverty, hunger and the gap between haves and have-nots have not disappeared. How to better combine human rights and development in practice, to eradicate poverty and non-equality and let development bring happiness and rights to the whole of mankind remains a common subject matter for the international community.
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