Human Rights Approach to Development

Both the Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights explore the idea of how government enables and preserves its citizen’s rights to pursue the good life. No longer can individuals live outside the borders of a country, in which they would be considered truly free, therefore, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that they are granted full rights and can live as if they were free. Put aptly in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, “The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man”. Without the rights warranted in these two documents the good life would be unattainable.

Human rights are rights innate to every single individual, whatever our nationality, where you live, sex, national or ethnic birthplace, color of skin, religion, dialect/language, and many more. We are all similarly qualified for our human rights without segregation. These rights are altogether interrelated, associated and resolute. Widespread human rights are regularly communicated and ensured by law, in the types of treaties, standard global law, general standards and different wellsprings of international. International human rights law sets down commitments of Governments to act in certain routes or to cease from specific acts, keeping in mind the end goal to advance and secure human rights and central flexibilities of people or

At the heart of this framework is an approach which recognises the right of all

I intend to discuss these issues while also discussing why it is important for these issues to be highlighted in this document. Firstly, the issues of personal rights are acknowledged at the beginning of the document. “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good” . At this time, to be equal meant the end of legal differences.

There needs to be a flexible set of requirements regarding just social welfare and other issues that are linked to the poverty and inequality that most, if not all societies face. We are currently in what seems a globalized economy, where a simple economic action from one place in the world can affect all other countries in one way or another. It is important that we concentrate and deliberate on what is needed for social justice, human rights and equity to work properly in regards to every society’s main concern. Although these three concepts are hard to exercise in a way that no more issues can emerge from them it is possible to adjust them to alleviate the conditions and diminish the damages caused by the lack of

“Humanity will not enjoy security without development, it will not enjoy development without security and it will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” - UN World Summit, Outcome Document 2005. There have been many conflicts in the world that have affected

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” (United Nations, 2012).

It is important to adopt a human rights approach to care and education in practice as children are looked upon as vunerable in society as they cannot express or defend themselves, therefore they need us to do that for them. Every child is equal no matter what gender, ethnicity, religion, language or ability. Because of this, every child should have their rights valued and respected in a care and education practice. Not only is it upto the carer in education practice to make sure that a human rights approach is adopted, but it is upto everyone. Many people say that being in school/nursery is the best years of their lives therefore it is upto us to make sure that in a care or education practice that a human rights approach is taken to ensure that this is the same for all children. It is important to adopt a human rights approach so that all children are developing and learning to their full potential. Also, when at school/nursery, the way others act towards you could impact on how you act towards others. Therefore, by making sure the children are meeting their rights will then hopefully make sure that they will make sure others do.

On a global political stand point there was a uniting of ideas and governments; what we know today as the United Nations (UN). One of the main ideas which the UN has grown up around is ‘The individual possess rights simply by virtue of being Human’ (The Universal Declaration of human rights); which was adopted by the general assembly in 10th December 1948. This statement is reflect in the core principles

“The right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences…….. in family, cultural and social life”.

This problem is just one example of the difficulty of implementing human rights in deprived areas. The question is never whether or not the citizens deserve human rights; rather, it is a question of how to support the people without supporting the oppressive regime as

Social justice is a long debated subject that continues to prove controversial and divisive all over the world. Opinions on what constitutes social justice vary on a continuum from more conservative opinions which note individual responsibility to a more liberal stance which promotes a moral responsibility to support social equality (Mapp, 2008). Despite the varying opinions of what establishes social justice, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) serves as the first step in promoting social justice by outlining the basic rights that should be afforded to humanity (United Nations, n.d.). More specifically, Article 22 of the UDHR states that all people should have access to social security protection that works to provide essential needs, provisions for preserving dignity, and freedom to pursue personal interest (United Nations, n.d.). In spite of the established declaration, social justice remains unavailable for too many people. Worldwide, the lack of social protection leads to 1.4 billion people struggling to meet their essential needs due to lack of access to resources which promote a decent standard of living. Another 100 million fall into poverty due to unforeseen complications (GIPSPSI, 2011). Therefore, there is a crucial need to recognize social protection as a human right in order to guarantee equal access to basic services and equal opportunity to all of humankind.

In this paper I will provide an argument, and prove how rights-based approaches to development intersect with the discussion of service delivery proposed by Batley et al.

The capability approach which was first proposed by Amartya Sen and developed by Martha Nussbaum. “The capability approach has in the last twenty years become a hugely influential theory for international social justice.” (Deneulin et al. (eds.),2006: P:2). The basic idea of the capabilities approach is to point to what people are actually able to do and to be, and a life that is worthy of the dignity of the human being (Nussbaum, 2000, P: 5).

For nearly three hundred and fifty years, human rights have been important, if not dominant, instruments in the quest for social justice among the classes. For much of this history, contestants have cited universal rights as marking their position on the field of struggle. It is equally important to notice that before the seventeenth century, social justice was more often than not contested in a language other than rights-talk. Many different voices have spoken on the theory of human rights and if they truly are a universal from philosophers like Plato and Socrates to utilitarians like Jeremy Bentham. Karl Marx has the most convincing and believable case against the implementation of human rights in society because he finds them to have an intimate linkage with strict capitalistic society, which is the primary foundation of some of the biggest societies today, like the United States,