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Human Rights and Development: Towards Mutual Reinforcement. Edited by Philip Alston and Mary Robinson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 576. $55.00.

Reviewed by Kerstin Blome.

 

Human rights and sustainable development belong together and are interdependent. This assessment is not new. As far back as 1968 the International Conference on Human Rights has emphasized that the “achievement of lasting progress in the implementation of human rights is dependent upon sound and effective national and international policies of economic and social development”.[1] In 1977 the UN Commission on Human Rights proclaimed the existence of a human right to development which led to the “Declaration of the Right to Development” in 1986, adopted by the UN General Assembly. And recently it has been called for a rights-based approach to development in international fora. Despite these events, the topics of human rights and development are still dealt with in two different communities which often are sceptical of each other’s approaches. At this point, the present volume wants to help with the ambitious aim to bring together the two communities of international human rights and development practitioners, and encourage dialogue “in order to reinforce one another in their efforts to achieve shared goals” (p. 1), and “to contribute, both in conceptual and practical terms, to moving the debate forward” (p. 3).

 

The book results from a conference held at New York University Law School in 2004, and contains contributions from representatives from key international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, leading scholars and NGOs. In seven sections the volume gives a broad overview of the topic and covers a wide range of aspects, such as the compatibility of economic policy with economic and social rights, the role of the private sector in promoting human rights, or the experiences with the poverty reduction strategy papers.

 

One central aim of the book is to reveal the interaction between human rights and development. In particular, the realization of economic and social human rights depends on the economic development, while at the same time the realization of high standards of health, education etc. are conducive to economic growth. Nevertheless, the advancement of one of the two aspects may lead to adverse effects on the other, impressively demonstrated in the section on land rights and women’s empowerment (section B, pp. 87 – 169). While secure land rights are reasonable from an economic standpoint, reforms to install formal property rights often undermine women’s human rights and may lead to gender inequality, which in turn may cause undesirable consequences for development (p. 114). Therefore Kerry Rittich pleads for reform programmes, which take into account human rights such as non-discrimination (p. 109) and Mason and Carlsson give examples of land reforms conducted in accordance with women’s rights (p. 122).

 

The reciprocity between human rights and development is the leitmotif of the volume and leads to the second ambition: to foster communication and understanding between both communities. By picking up common prejudices and criticism from each side, e.g. that, on the one hand, human rights are unrealistic and do not take into account actual state resources (p. 33) and that, on the other hand, economists often develop their programmes regardless of the human rights impacts, authors from both communities are given the opportunity to respond to these allegations (e. g. pp. 37-41). Thereby it is revealed how both communities can learn from each other in order to attain shared goals, e. g. the end of child labour (section C, pp. 173 – 265).

 

The analysis, accomplished by scholars as well as practitioners from diverse fields, is comprehensive and insightful, and its broad thematic scope is illustrated well by a large number of examples. However, what is missing is a final chapter which aims at summarizing the most important findings and thereby helps the reader not to get lost in the details.

 

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