Influenced by Arjun Sengupta’s article published in Economic and Political Weekly, there are contrasting views considering some of the issues surrounding the right to development as a human right, whose nature is frequently susceptible to differing interpretations. A further argument is made that the right to development is linked to the concepts of justice and equality all over the world and is fundamentally distinct from traditional development plans and programs, taking into account various criticisms of the approach. Yet, however, the fundamental question revolves around why the right to development faced such difficulty in securing enough consensus among the member states of the UN.
In 1986, the United Nations enacted the Declaration on the Right to Development, which declared categorically that the right to development is a human right, with the United States casting the lone opposing vote, although president Roosevelt’s “four freedoms” that he wanted to incorporate in the International Bill of Rights showed no ambiguity regarding “true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence”. Moreover, Eleanor Roosevelt also advocated for the right to development when she claimed, during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “one of the most important rights is the right to development”. However, in the 1950s, the world community’s consensus on the unity of civil and political rights with economic, social, and cultural rights was disrupted, and it took years of international proceedings and negotiations for the international society to return to the original concept of integrated and indivisible human rights, which resulted in the Declaration on the Right to Development. Three questions could be raised about the right of development being declared as a human right: 1) the nature of the right to the development itself? 2) what benefit does it bring to the development process if it is recognized as a human right? 3) why has it been so difficult to reach an agreement on this topic thus far?
A textual analysis of the nature of the right to development portrays it as an inalienable human right that cannot be bargained away as Article 1 of the Declaration regards “all peoples” being subjected to the right to development. Clause 1 of Article 2 recognizes the “human person” as the central subject of development. Articles 8 states “equality of opportunity for all”. Hence, women must play an active role in the development process. Clause 2 of Article 2 concedes, “all human beings have a responsibility for development individually and collectively”. Article 3, nevertheless, calls it upon the states to have the “primary responsibility for the creation of national and international conditions favorable to the realization of the right to development”. The Declaration emphasizes the role of international cooperation by utilizing Articles 55 and 56 of the UN Charter and the Vienna Declaration of 1993 which expresses all governments’ earnest commitment to fulfill these duties in conformity with the United Nations Charter.
Adding value to the human rights approach to development, it compels authorities, both nationally and internationally, to fulfill their responsibilities in conveying that right in a country. It must adopt appropriate policies and allocate the necessary resources to facilitate such delivery because meeting human rights obligations would have a primary claim on all of the country’s resources – physical, financial, and institutional. When the right to development is recognized as a human right through a legal process of consensus building, it becomes the main claim on a country’s resources. It also includes the legal right to censure the parties who are obligated to supply as the counterpart to the rights holders. Such reprimands have taken the shape of sanctions or international pressures on a global scale, but they must be carried out through public opinion or the mechanism of international law, compacts, or mutual agreements. As a result, once established as a human right, the right to development would be entitled to the same treatment as any other globally recognized human right.
Taking into consideration the controversies regarding the right to development, the first for many years has existed during the cold war period when western democracies and second-world communist nations refused to respect civil and political rights equally with economic, social, and cultural rights, much alone see them as parts of an integrated whole of the International Bill of Rights. Amartya Sen put forward the second criticism as the “coherence critique”, such that “rights are entitlements that require correlative duties”. The third criticism claims that human rights having to be absolutely justiciable does not have a decisive force; confusing human rights with legal rights.
Nonetheless, monitoring the implementation process is frequently more vital than enforcing the law. What may be needed instead of a court of law to settle disputes is a monitoring authority or some conflict resolution agency, such as democratic institutions of local bodies, non-governmental organizations, or public litigation agencies. Moreover, in order to comprehend the human rights approach to development, it is critical to recognize the intrinsic link between the collective and the individual. Individual rights may often only be fulfilled in a collective framework, and the right of a state or country to grow is a fundamental prerequisite for the fulfillment of human rights and the realization of individual development.
It’s critical to grasp the full weight of the fact that the right to development links development to equality and justice. Any human rights approach to an economic and social policy may be built on the foundation of justice because it stems from a sense of human dignity and a social compact in which all members of civil society are expected to have participated. Not all theories are predicated on equity, but the Declaration on the Right to Development is without a doubt founded on the idea that the right to development entails a demand for an equitable social order; its articles clearly call for equality of opportunity, equality of access to resources, equality in the sharing of benefits and fairness of distribution and the equality in the rights to participation. Conclusively, the right to development proposes a qualitatively new approach to development, one in which equality and justice are the key determinants of progress.
