Developing human rights

1
Developing human rights

• On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the
  United Nations adopted and proclaimed the
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• It was proclaimed as a common standard of
  achievement for all peoples and all nations.
• Every individual and every organ of each society
  was exhorted to promote these rights and freedoms
  and by progressive measures, national and
  international, to secure their universal and
  effective recognition and observance, both
  domestically and in other UN member nations.

2
The right to be developed

• There are 29 articles - many political and legal
  ones related to concepts of freedom.
• However, two, 25 and 26, in whole or in part very
  clearly deal with the kinds of national
  development issues considered in this class.
• Article 25 (1) 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.

3
The right to be developed

• Article 26 (1) Everyone has the right to
  education. Education shall be free, at least in
  the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary
  education shall be compulsory. Technical and
  professional education shall be made generally
  available and higher education shall be equally
  accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• Another key element, which each UNDP HDR has
  brought attention to, relates to gender equality
  in the receipt of these rights (see Article 1 -
  All human beings are born free and equal in
  dignity and rights... Article 2 - Everyone is
  entitled to all the rights and freedoms .
  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)

4
Achieving development rights

• It is generally agreed that human rights and
  human development are about securing basic
  freedoms, the two overlapping when it comes to
  the ability of each individual to lead a life of
  respect and value, fulfilling their
  capabilities.
• HDR 2000 highlights some key development areas
  in which considerable inequality still exists at
  the global level
• Freedom from discrimination - women and ethnic
  minorities in many nations continue to receive
  much lower economic, educational and other
  opportunities.
• Freedom from want - many millions live better
  lives but a billion still live below the poverty
  line with incomes of less than 1 (PPP) per day
  and have no safe water or sanitation.
• Freedom to realize ones potential - big gains
  this century but great global variation in
  education rates life expectancy.

5
An interesting twist

• Historically, human rights activists have
  targeted specific countries and their governments
  where human rights violations are implemented
  (e.g. Amnesty International, Global Exchange).
• They have sought to bring UN economic sanctions
  or bilateral or other multi-nation sanctions
  against offending nations (e.g. by petitioning US
  Congress, EC Commission).
• Increasingly, the attention of activists is
  against the UN, World Bank and IMF who are
  accused of rewarding rights violators with
  continued economic support.
• Moreover, activists have realized that
  multinational corporations are now important in
  the human rights arena because of their huge role
  in the global economy.
• Out of the worlds top 100 economies today, 51
  are actually corporations, many in the top 20!.

6
The right to a long and healthy life

• When examining this right, development
  specialists are seeking to examine global
  patterns of morbidity (illness) and mortality
  (death).
• Death and disease are not uniformly distributed
  around the globe.
• Life expectancy is still overwhelmingly
  correlated with degree of poverty/wealth.
• The WHO calls poverty the worlds biggest killer.
• While there are diseases of the affluent
  societies (cancer, heart disease), high morbidity
  rates, due in many cases to the inability to
  avoid or overcome disease, are also closely
  allied with poverty, although geography is a
  contributory factor (i.e. tropical illnesses -
  see Hausmann article again).

7
Life expectancy

• As one of the key indicators in the HDI, life
  expectancy shows great global disparities.
• To be born and live in Africa means, on average,
  to live 30 years less than if born in an
  industrialized nation.
• The least developed nations now have life
  expectancies averaging 51.9 compared to 76.4 in
  the industrialized nations and 64.7 in all
  developing countries as a whole.
• While progress has been spectacular the last 50
  years (global average was 67 in 1950, 40 in the
  developing countries), attainments still differ
  widely.
• Sierra Leone has the lowest life expectancy of
  37.9 compared to Japans 80 and our 76.8.

8
Our Way of Death

• According to the WHO, 52 million people died in
  1996 worldwide.
• Only 1/4 of these came with reliable cause of
  death information.
• In Third World nations, fully 42 of deaths are
  from communicable diseases, whereas in developed
  nations these account for only 6.1.
• The susceptibility to communicable diseases
  differs widely by region - Africa 65, Latin
  America 31, China 16, India 52, etc.
• Big Third World killers are pneumonia (10),
  diarrhea (7.5), TB (5) and measles (3).

9
Environmental Health Threats

• Africa and Asia are the geographic regions with
  the largest risk from health impacts resulting
  from air, water or food contamination (World
  Resources Institute, 1998).
• In the Third World today, perhaps the biggest
  single influence on mortality and morbidity is
  the combination of inadequate hygiene, sanitation
  and water supply.
• Industrialized nations went through a sanitary
  revolution at the end of the 19th century but
  many Third World nations have yet to complete
  theirs.
• Around 7.5 of all deaths worldwide are directly
  due to waterborne or water-transmitted disease,
  diarrhea alone kills at least 2.5m children a
  year.

10
In Sickness and in Health

• Contrasting countries based on how sick their
  people are is difficult and complicated.
• Health and development analysts have come up with
  the concept of DALYs - disability-adjusted life
  years - to try and capture the notion
  quantitatively (World Resources Institute, 1998).
• DALYs combine premature death (actual death age -
  expected death age) and loss of healthy life from
  the debilitating effects of illness into
  equivalent years.
• Thus short-lived acute illnesses and those
  occurring at old age contribute little to the
  DALY metric.
• Over 90 of the global DALYs accrue to the Third
  World nations, where only 10 of the health care
  are spent.

11
Malnutrition

• One of the best ways to ensure a long and
  disease-free life is to have a good diet from
  birth.
• Malnutrition is a persistent problem leading to
  diseases of obesity in the rich nations and
  diseases of under-nourishment in the Third World
  nations.
• Poverty, not a lack of global food production, is
  the cause of malnutrition - the unequal
  distribution of calories.
• According to the UN Food and Agricultural
  Organization, some 1/5 people do not have enough
  food to be healthy.
• Insufficient calorific intake leads to low
  body-weights, protein deficiency and low energy
  levels, and micronutrient deficiencies leads to
  avoidable diseases like blindness (vit. A -
  300,000 children/yr), brain damage (iodine -
  26m/yr).

12
HIV and AIDS

• HDR 2000, summarizes the world situation with
  respect to AIDS in Table 10.
• AIDS is thought to kill 2.5 times more people
  than malaria.
• More than 30m worldwide now suffer from HIV/AIDS
  (the US declared the disease a national security
  concern because of its potential global impact if
  left unabated) - some 1 of all adults 15-49 are
  infected globally.
• Over 95 of all those now infected are in the
  Third World.
• Thirteen countries in Africa have HIV infection
  rates of 10 or greater and can expect life
  expectancies to drop an average 17 years in the
  coming decades (HDR 1999).
• Some in Africa have infections of the 15-49 age
  group of gt25 compared to rates of 0.01-0.76 for
  the top 20 HDI ranks.

13
Prevention, Cures and Poverty

• Curing diseases that afflict poor people in the
  Third World is low on the priorities of
  multi-national drug companies.
• For example, only now is any significant work
  being done on finding vaccines for Malaria and
  other tropical diseases as opposed to
  prophylactics that foreign visitors can take on a
  temporary basis.
• A new drug in the US usually costs around 500m
  to get to the human testing stage and thus those
  that make it to market are priced high to make a
  profit.
• Of all global research, only 0.2 of the funding
  goes to medicines aimed at the common diseases,
  like diarrhoeal pathogens, pneumonia and TB, that
  cause close to 20 of all morbidity.

14
The multinationals

• Multinational drug companies are fighting
  pressures to market expensive drugs at cost or
  below cost of manufacture in the poorest
  countries, or else to allow generic versions of
  patented products to be made more cheaply in
  those countries.
• The biggest pressure is being placed on making
  available AIDS drugs and those that ameliorate,
  prevent or cure other life-threatening or
  debilitating diseases common to both rich and
  poor lifestyles (i.e. development status
  independent).
• Most companies are not resisting this pressure
  because of the loss of profit on Third World
  sales, since this is negligible. Rather, they are
  concerned about their ability to a). maintain the
  principle of patent rights on other drugs b).
  prevent the flood of cheap imports/generics
  coming back.

15
Prevention Needed, Not Cures?

• The best prevention against disease and early
  death is to educate the poor (esp. women) and
  raise their standards of living, especially their
  diet. Remember, poverty kills!
• Removal of environmental hazards through the
  provision of public services, particularly safe
  drinking water and sanitation and solid waste
  collection, provides major improvements.
• Improving fuel efficiency and reducing the use of
  indoor wood-burning stoves can greatly cut
  respiratory diseases.
• Controlling disease vectors - mosquitoes
  (malaria, dengue, etc.), Chagas
  (tripanasomaisis), river snails (bilharzia),
  Cyclops (guinea-worm), etc. - is an effective
  prevention.
• Universal inoculation programs for childhood
  diseases cuts infant mortality and later disease
  susceptibility enormously.