LW915 explores the connections between human rights, development and the environment within global contexts of poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, injustice and the legacies of colonialism.
Over 900 million people, concentrated in the global South, and particularly from marginalized groups, live in extreme poverty. Global inequality is growing. Prevailing approaches to development, centred around the economy, reliance on the markets, and consumption, have often neglected and undermined rights of groups including women, indigenous peoples, minorities as well as people living in poverty. The environmental toll of development raises questions for sustainability and has diverse human rights implications, as does the ‘just transition’ which is aimed at a fairer, more sustainable net-zero future. To what extent do international human rights law and institutions, and the human rights community, address these challenges? What are the obstacles and successes? What can human rights contribute to reducing poverty and to sustainable development? What actions are needed to ensure development is consistent with human rights?
Development and human rights have often been addressed through different agendas and institutions, like “ships passing in the night”, but important linkages between them are increasingly recognised. Throughout the module, the theory, institutions and practice of development are interrogated primarily from the perspective of human rights, including international human rights law and inter-disciplinary approaches to human rights. However, at the outset, we critically examine what is meant by, the history of and different critiques of international development. The module proceeds by exploring the different ways in which human rights and development have become linked conceptually and in practice, through critically examining: the ‘right to development’; the prevailing neoliberal approach to development and its human rights implications; ‘human rights-based approach to development’; and the relationship of human rights with global development agendas, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals. With the rise of concerns about the ecological and climate change impacts of development, why is international human rights law being used to addressing these issues? Given the climate crisis in particular, should environmental protection trump development and human rights? And does the concept of rights apply to nature, and what relationship might this have with human rights? The module examines some key international development actors, including the International Financial Institutions, UN agencies and donors; their impact on human rights; and what (if any) obligations have accrued to them under international human rights law. During the module, particular attention will be given to the human rights of some of the groups often marginalized in development, including people living in poverty, women and indigenous groups.
Whilst examining the law, and tools and techniques for addressing human rights in development, and what human rights contributes to development, the module also takes a critical approach. Thus, we not only consider positive examples, but also the limitations of the law and approaches of human rights actors. Key critical questions include: are human rights part of the solution or part of the problem of international development? Have rights been transformative or do their limitations, and they way they have been used, entrench existing power imbalances and undermine genuine transformation? Do they help address economic and other forms of inequalities? What needs to change?