Social Equity Matters
and
Human Rights
Francois Farah
Chief,
Social Development Division,
ESCWA
How Are Human Rights Linked to
Social Development?!
Very many people across the world suffer from
varieties of deprivation of freedom
“UNFREEDOM” (Amartya Sen)
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Famines
Mal or under nutrition
Poor access to health and sanitary
arrangements or clean water
People spend their lives fighting unnecessary
morbidity often succumbing to premature
mortality
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Lack of functional education or gainful
employment
Lack of economic and social security
Inequality between women and men (Sen’s)
Other forms of “unfreedom”
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Many people are denied political liberty and
basic civil rights
It is even claimed that denial of these rights
helps to stimulate economic growth and is
“good” for rapid economic development
1. The concept of development includes
respect for all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural,
as an inherent and constitutive part of
development, not a contingent aspect, nor
even an instrumental dimension
2. Rights are usually taken to be legal rights,
with a corresponding duty or obligation
attached to each right. Assertion of a right,
therefore, implies casting a duty upon the
state, from which it could not derogate,
without being guilty of violating the right
•
This strict correspondence between right
and duty, understandably, makes the state
hesitant about encouraging the
association of development with rights
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The development community should
therefore espouse a different conception
of rights, rather than a legal conception of
a one-to-one correspondence between
rights and duties
Can Human Rights Be Met
When:
1. Half the world's population lives below the twodollar-a-day poverty line?
2. gross inequity, exclusion and deprivation is allowed
to lead to state’s de-legitimization and to social
disintegration, conflict, and violence?
3. Further growth and profitable investment deepen
impoverishment and spread it within and across
countries? (ex. Pakistan 1988-1998)
Inequality: A Clear Abuse of Human Rights
Inequality has risen in
the last decades:
Within countries
Among countries
This is the result of
the choice of public
policies with limited
investments in social
development and clear
abuse of basic human
rights
What Do the Statistics Tell Us?
Indonesia: Sensitivity of poverty headcount (% people below poverty
line) using different poverty lines
POVERTY LINE
IN
US$ per
person/day
POVERTY LINE
Equivalent US$
per
person/month
POVERTY LINE
Equivalent
Rupiah per
person /month
HEADCOUNT
POVERTY
(% population
below poverty
line)
MILLIONS OF
PEOPLE BELOW
POVERTY LINE
0.27
8.38
62,870
9.75
22.0
0.29
8.80
66,021
12.10
26.1
0.30
9.22
69,165
14.55
31.4
0.32
9.64
72,309
17.40
37.6
0.33
10.06
75,452
20.18
43.6
0.34
10.47
78,596
23.03
49,7
Source: Based on SMERU and World Bank, 1996 Indonesia.
Evidence based research has now clearly shown that
1. The greater the inequality, the less the “trickledown” effect and the more the abuse of human
rights
2. Poverty and inequality inhibit growth, depress
domestic demand, hinder national economic
development and infringes on basic human
rights for a decent living and for freedom from
want
The Right To A “Fair Race”
Example of 400 meter race
People falling
on the margins
Abuse?
Regulatory
mechanisms
Equal access to
opportunity
Equal access to
basic social
services
Start off line
Social Policy: A Must Premise for Human Rights
1. well designed social programmes, can
contribute to equitable productive
development and therefore to upholding
human rights
1. Social welfare institutions reduce sources of
social tensions and extremisms and provide a
more stable environment for shared decent
living
Charity is a noble duty and is always
welcome but it can at best temporarily ease up
the suffering of a few individuals;
Equitable social development can however
enhance human dignity and curb the sheer
structural distortions of biased policies and
institutions that produce exclusion,
marginalization, and vulnerability, a serious
time threat for any protection, promotion or
upholding of basic human rights for
development
Thank You
Social Development Division