Universal Declaration

1

• Universal Declaration
• of Human Rights
• November 6, 2006

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Human Dignity

• Preamble UDHR
• 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,

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UDHR Article 25.

• Everyone has the right to a standard of
• living adequate for the health and well-being
• of himself and of his family, including food,
• clothing, housing and medical care and
• necessary social services, and the right to
• security in the event of unemployment,
• sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or
• other lack of livelihood in circumstances
• beyond his control.

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Negative VS Positive

• Minimal State and Negative Rights
• Negative constraint on institutional schemes
• Protect citizens against violence, coercion and
  fraud
• Enforcement of contracts
• Positive duty to protect generally healthcare,
  education, etc. are considered positive rights.
• Each citizen is guaranteed a fully adequate
  scheme of basic liberties, which is compatible
  with the same scheme of liberties for all others
  
• Social and economic inequalities must satisfy two
  conditions
• All offices and positions must be open to all
  under conditions of fair equality of opportunity
  
• Economic inequalities are only permitted insofar
  as they are to the greatest benefit of the least
  well off members of society.

5
Negative VS Positive

• Minimal State and Negative Rights
• Negative constraint on institutional schemes
• Protect citizens against violence, coercion and
  fraud
• Enforcement of contracts
• Positive duty to protect generally healthcare,
  education, etc. are considered positive rights.
• Each citizen is guaranteed a fully adequate
  scheme of basic liberties, which is compatible
  with the same scheme of liberties for all others
  
• Social and economic inequalities must satisfy two
  conditions
• All offices and positions must be open to all
  under conditions of fair equality of opportunity
  
• Economic inequalities are only permitted insofar
  as they are to the greatest benefit of the least
  well off members of society.

6
Peter Singer

• On his way to a lecture, Singer passes by a
  shallow ornamental pond. He notices that a small
  child has fallen in and is drowning. Singer
  realizes that if he wades in, he can save the
  child. However, he doesn't want to get his shoes
  wet and so chooses to just walk on by. As
  expected the child dies. Was Singers behavior
  immoral?

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The Singer Solution

• Peter Singer, an advocate of utilitarianism,
  maintains that Since An American household
  with an income of 50,000 spends around 30,000
  annually on necessities, according to the
  Conference Board, a nonprofit economic research
  organization....a household bringing in 50,000 a
  year, should provide donations to help the
  world's poor... as close as possible to 20,000.
  The 30,000 required for necessities holds for
  higher incomes as well. So a household making
  100,000 could cut a yearly check for 70,000.
  Again, the formula is simple whatever money
  you're spending on luxuries, not necessities,
  should be given away. Is Singers position
  reasonable?

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• Thomas Pogge
• World Poverty and Human Rights
• Human Flourishing and Universal Justice

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Human Dignity

• Preamble UDHR
• 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,

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The Human Cost of PovertyPogge Slide

• Among 6133 million human beings (2001), about
• 799 million are undernourished (UNDP 2003, p.
  87),
• 880 million have no access to basic medical
  care (UNDP 1999, p.22),
• 1000 million lack access to safe drinking water
  (UNDP 2003, p. 9),
• 1000 million lack adequate shelter (UNDP 1998, p.
  49),
• 2000 million have no electricity (UNDP 1998,
  p.49),
• 2400 million lack basic sanitation (UNDP 2003, p.
  9),
• 876 million adults are illiterate (UNDP 2003,
  p. 6),
• 250 million children (aged 5 to 14) do wage
  work outside their family, 8.4 million of them in
  the unconditionally worst forms of child labor,
  defined as slavery, trafficking, debt bondage
  and other forms of forced labour, forced
  recruitment of children for use in armed
  conflict, prostitution and pornography, and
  illicit activities (International Labour
  Organisation A Future Without Child Labour,
  2002).

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Human Right

• A human right, according to Pogge, is
  tantamount to the demand that, insofar as
  reasonably possible, any coercive social
  institutions be so designed that all human beings
  affected by them have secure access to the
  right.

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Social Institutions and Short falls

• Shortfall is officially mandated
• Shortfall is legally authorized
• Social institutions foreseeably and avoidably
  engender shortfall
• Legally prohibit shortfall but law is not
  enforced

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Examples

• Shortfall is officially mandated Conquest comes
  quickly to mind. For a more contemporary example,
  one can think of the institution of slavery in
  the United States that ensured that Africans were
  second-class citizens. The Nuremberg Laws provide
  another example.
• Shortfall is legally authorized Colonialism and
  the mercantilist policies In regards the United
  States the 1883 the Supreme Court effectively
  cancelled the 1875 Civil Rights Act, by saying
  that the federal government cannot bar
  discrimination by corporations or individuals.
  Moreover, the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson of
  1896 upheld the separate but equal doctrine,
  authorizing states to maintain patterns of
  segregation.
• Social institutions foreseeably and avoidably
  engender shortfall The global institutional
  order including the conduct and policies of the
  WTO, the World Bank and the IMF epitomize this
  relation. Although it is true that in 1868 and in
  1870 the United States ratified the 14th
  Amendment conferring citizenship added to
  Constitution and the 15th Amendment barring
  racial discrimination in voting added to
  Constitution, the imposition of the Poll Tax that
  is not revoked until 1964 with the ratification
  of the 24th Amendment for all practical purposes
  prohibited its poorest and most vulnerable
  citizens from voting. Moreover, the challenge to
  Jim Crow is approximately a 100-year struggle.
• Legally prohibit shortfall but law is not
  enforced In 1964 Congress passes the Civil
  Rights Act making discrimination based on race
  illegal, but it was not clear how this would be
  enforced. Furthermore, it is not clear that even
  President Johnsons Executive Order (1965)
  requiring federal contractors to "take
  affirmative action to ensure that applicants are
  employed, and that employees are treated during
  employment, without regard to their race, creed,
  color, or national origin" has any enforcement
  mechanism that will ensure an end to racial
  discrimination.

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Harm

• Imposing on the global poor the lasting effects
  of historical crimes
• (Actively) Holding the global poor below any
  credible state-of-nature baseline.
• Collaborating and imposing an unjust global
  institutional order

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Unjust global order

• Global institutional order/arrangement is
  causally related to poverty (Explanatory
  nationalism)
• Governments of affluent nations are responsible
  and can foresee detrimental effects (Resource
  Privilege, Borrowing Privilege, Intl Arms Trade
  Privilege, Treaty Privilege)
• Citizens of affluent nations are beneficiaries

16
Human Rights Violation

• Human Rights Deficit
• Cooperation by affluent/powerful
• Global institutions and rules foreseeably give
  rise to poverty
• Reasonably avoidable
• Alternative is feasible

17
The Human Cost of PovertyPogge Slide

• Among 6133 million human beings (2001), about
• 799 million are undernourished (UNDP 2003, p.
  87),
• 880 million have no access to basic medical
  care (UNDP 1999, p.22),
• 1000 million lack access to safe drinking water
  (UNDP 2003, p. 9),
• 1000 million lack adequate shelter (UNDP 1998, p.
  49),
• 2000 million have no electricity (UNDP 1998,
  p.49),
• 2400 million lack basic sanitation (UNDP 2003, p.
  9),
• 876 million adults are illiterate (UNDP 2003,
  p. 6),
• 250 million children (aged 5 to 14) do wage
  work outside their family, 8.4 million of them in
  the unconditionally worst forms of child labor,
  defined as slavery, trafficking, debt bondage
  and other forms of forced labour, forced
  recruitment of children for use in armed
  conflict, prostitution and pornography, and
  illicit activities (International Labour
  Organisation A Future Without Child Labour,
  2002).

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Deaths(Millions) Pogge Slide
19
Related Annual Amounts Pogge Slide
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Collective HR Violations

• Many acting together w/marginal contribution 0
• Person who pulled the trigger and persons who
  contributed to the context enabled the act
• Chain-of-command situations ?
• Facially harmless contributions ?
• Democratically authorized ?

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Institutional

• Human rights deficit
• Causally traceable to social rules/institutional
  order
• Active individuals in designing and imposing
  order that harms
• Official character of rules (moral legitimacy and
  moral duty of compliance
• Agent intends, foresees, should foresee the harm
  and there is an alternative institutional design

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Causing Harm

• Article 25 and Article 28 together show that a
  human rights deficit as regards standard of
  living entails a human rights violation.
• Pogge is maintaining explicitly that the whole
  industrialized world is guilty of massive human
  rights violations.

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Unjust global order

• Global institutional order/arrangement is
  causally related to poverty (Explanatory
  nationalism)
• Governments of affluent nations are responsible
  and can foresee detrimental effects (Resource
  Privilege, Borrowing Privilege, Intl Arms Trade
  Privilege, Treaty Privilege)
• Citizens of affluent nations are beneficiaries

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• Global Institutional Order