Economic Human Rights Research Articles

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Assessing Welfare Reform, Over a Decade Later

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Assessing Welfare Reform, Over a Decade Later

Extreme Poverty and Human Rights - A Mission Report on the United States

As the Independent Expert on the question of Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, for the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, I visited the United States of America from 24th October to 4th November 2005 and held meetings with people living in poverty, civil society organizations working for and with people living in poverty, as well as government officials in New York City; Immokalee in Florida; New Orleans and Baton Rouge in Louisiana; Jackson and the Delta region in Mississippi; Appalachia in Kentucky; and Washington, D.C. On the basis of these discussions and the materials submitted to me by all the participants and many studies on the subject of poverty in the U.S., I submitted a report to the Human Rights Commission on 17th March, 2006. After that, I was invited to the National Truth Commission, organised by Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, where a large number of activist organizations from different parts of the United States, presented the current status of living conditions and the nature of abject poverty of the various sections of the poor, living in America. Later another group, actively engaged in research on poverty in the U.S. met me in New York. All this enables me to update my earlier report, which was considered at a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 27th and attended by all governments, a large number of NGO's and many international institutions, who participated vigorously in the discussion, calling for follow-up actions. As the international human rights community is increasingly engaged in discussions on issues of extreme poverty, centering around poverty in the US, it may be useful to put the arguments I raised in my earlier reports, up for wider consideration.

Political Economy of Human Rights in BRICs : Current Situations and Prospects

Political Economy of Human Rights in BRICs : Current Situations and Prospects

Transgressing rights: La Via Campesina's call for food sovereignty / Exploring collaborations: Heterodox economics and an economic social rights framework / Workers in the informal sector: Special challenges for economic human rights

The notion of rights is a powerful one, but the channels through which they have been promoted and enforced since World War II have militated against the more radical promise of rights. These explorations examine the question of economic rights with an international focus. The contributions touch on such diverse topics as the international peasant federation called La Vía Campesina, heterodox and social economic analyses, and the informal sector. The authors address the question of human rights with respect to the conditions that delimit and enforce these rights, the connections between macroeconomics and human rights, social movements that strive to protect these rights, and the different theoretical approaches to incorporating rights into an academic framework. Though each contribution's methodology and focus are different, the composite takes an important step in evaluating this very critical question of economic rights that greatly affects individual lives, social conditions, economic policies, and the study of economics.

La defensa de los derechos humanos económicos y sociales y los límites de la intervención judicial

La cuestión de la implementación de los derechos humanos, especialmente los económicos y sociales, se ha convertido en uno de los puntos más controvertidos de la filosofía política y jurídica actual. La creación de la Corte Penal Internacional puso de manifiesto el status especial de los derechos humanos civiles y políticos que se sitúan por encima de las soberanías nacionales. Los derechos económicos y sociales, sin embargo, están lejos de haber alcanzado una situación similar. En el presente trabajo discutiré la tradicional distinción entre derechos negativos y positivos, el papel del estado en general y de los jueces en especial en el resguardo de ambos tipos de derechos y mostraré las correlaciones que existen entre ambos tipos de derechos. Analizaré, por último, de qué modo es factible que los jueces defiendan la validez y vigencia de los derechos humanos económicos y sociales cuando los otros poderes, ejecutivo y legislativo, no ofrecen una efectiva implementación de aquellos. Esta intervención del poder judicial es usualmente considerada una indebida intromisión de los jueces en la arena democrática, sin tener tras de sí el respaldo de haber sido elegidos por la ciudadanía. Intentaré responder a esta objeción.

WHAT KIND OF GLOBALIZATION? ORGANIZING FOR WORKERS’ HUMAN RIGHTS

Globalized neoliberalism is neither inevitable nor irreversible. By strategically reimagining labor activism, globally conscious local organizers are expanding the range of answers to the question of what kind of globalization will eventually predominate. The first part of the article notes that U.S.‐ratified international human rights law, in requiring states to provide means of subsistence and work with dignity to all their people, provides a normative frame for organizing for a “socially aware global economy.” However, the institutions and policies of globalized market messianism have prevented the realization of these ideals, instead creating an economic human rights catastrophe for most of humanity. The second part of the article proposes a framework for transformative organizing to build a socially aware global economy by linking local organizing to transnational networks. It explores the efficacy of three divergent but complementary strategic manifestations of this framework, which seek to give life to economic human rights law, build transnational solidarity through cross‐border action, and prefigure alternative policies and institutions.

Stand Tall and Speak Up: Beyond Technology—Our Commitment to Social Responsibility

New opportunities will increasingly involve heavy oil, or stranded natural gas, or resources in ultra-deep water. Large investments in infrastructure will be required to bring these resources to market, so it will take years just to recover the initial investments. While we are accustomed to thinking of our industry as being built on long-term relationships, the rise in the percentage of projects with huge investments in facilities will increase the importance of maintaining good relationships. For relationships to withstand the tests of time, they must be win-win for all the stakeholders, not just those who sign the contracts. In long-term relationships, many issues that are covered by the broad category of social responsibility will take on greater importance. Definitions of social responsibility vary, but generally embrace ethical business practices, community economic development, human rights, indigenous-population care, worker rights and benefits, and a broad range of environmental issues (including climate change, water management, waste disposal, and biodiversity). Social responsibility is an umbrella term that can be considered to encompass all of what we now classify as health, environment, and safety matters. Public perception of how we perform on the broad portfolio of social-responsibility issues has a major impact on our industry's image and plays a major role in maintaining our industry's ability to operate. In comparison with other multinational industries, the public tends to rank the petroleum industry very low. Some oil and gas companies have placed a larger emphasis on social responsibility than others and indications are that the public recognizes the commitment these companies have made. However, when major problems erupt, the industry as a whole suffers. Trade associations have taken the lead on social responsibility issues. The Intl. Assn. of Oil & Gas Producers (www.ogp.org.uk) and the Intl. Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Assn. (www.ipieca.org), both of which were founded in 1974, are notable examples. Their memberships include private and state-owned petroleum companies, oil and gas associations, and upstream service companies. While these trade associations are providing valuable services, I believe that individual-member organizations such as SPE can also make major contributions. We can leverage our access to our almost 70,000 members worldwide. Just as for safety, where we have learned that knowledge and accountability are everyone's business, the other social responsibility issues must not be viewed as primarily the responsibility of experts. With social responsibility issues, liability extends far beyond the confines of our company facilities. The issues that host communities consider most urgent vary widely. We need everyone to serve as a sentinel, alert to the potential opportunities and threats associated with social responsibility concerns.

Addressing International Terrorism in Southeast Asia: A Matter of Strategic or Functional Approach?

Introduction The destruction of the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 resurrected America's penchant for international crusades and global activism. Shortly after, the United States called for a worldwide coalition to combat terrorism. US policy toward Southeast Asia underwent a radical transformation as earlier post-Cold War priorities, such as economic diplomacy, democratization and human rights, became secondary to the overriding agenda of countering terrorist groups and organizations wherever they might be. Washington began seeking levels of military and diplomatic cooperation with member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) not seen since the end of the Cold War. After more than a decade of relative disengagement from the region, American concerns over Islamic extremism and alleged Al-Qaeda connections in a number of Southeast Asian countries prompted Washington to re-examine its interests and posture in that part of the world, which in the 1990s were limited to economic objectives and general political support to ASEAN. The United States dangled financial, diplomatic and military assistance to attract allies and supporters in the region in its effort to mobilize these states in the global counter-terrorism campaign. Consequently, Washington's security ties with a number of Southeast Asian countries improved dramatically as the Bush administration provided military training, intelligence support and other resources to states fighting terrorist groups in their territories. A year after September 11, however, a number of Southeast Asian states began casting a wary eye on America's global campaign against terrorism. Washington's announcement of the September 2002 National Security Strategy created the impression in the region that America's global antiterrorism campaign relies primarily on military means and fails to address the very conditions that cause this security problem. Washington's new defence strategy directed against terrorists or states sponsoring terrorism also seemed to ignore the fact that Southeast Asian countries had battled homegrown terrorist groups long before September 11. Moreover, these countries cannot simply accept the idea that international terrorism is their most important security issue. America's decision to adopt a strategy of pre-emptive defence has also created an image of an unilateralist power bent on weakening the United Nations, defying international public opinion, and effecting regime changes in a number of smaller and weaker states. Some Southeast Asians are also apprehensive that Washington's enforcement or implementation of this new national security strategy will legitimize external intervention in the internal affairs of states deemed as harbouring or supporting terrorist groups. They also fear that America's predominantly offensive security strategy will render Southeast Asian security arrangements useless if regional priorities run counter to vital US interests and that some of the world's problems are too complex and deeply rooted for a superpower to resolve unilaterally. This article examines how America's war on global terrorism has been waged in Southeast Asia and how it has changed the regional security landscape. The article raises the following questions: How is the US conducting its anti-terror war in Southeast Asia? How are the states in the region responding to America's counter-terrorism campaign? And how is Washington's promulgation of a new national security strategy affecting its war on terror in the region and its relations with the Southeast Asian states? Counter-terrorism in a Global Society The destruction of the twin towers in New York and the attack on the Pentagon in Washington on September 11 highlighted the qualitative transformation of a security challenge in international affairs--terrorism. As a form of asymmetric conflict, terrorism refers to the use of force for political purposes such as to create fear, draw widespread attention to a political grievance, and/or provoke draconian or sustained response from the targeted state. …

Running as a Radical

The Code of Ethics of the NASW asserts that social workers have an ethical mandate to engage in social and political action in order to “ensure that all people have equal access to the resources, employment, services, and opportunities they require to meet their basic human needs and to develop fully” (NASW, p. 27). Though social work publications and educators remind social workers and students of this mandate to be politically active, few authors qualify which political goals and activities are worthwhile. Literature rarely focuses on the possibility that social workers could be running for office themselves, or for what purposes they might run. In the Maine State Elections of 2002, a social work student who had been introduced to social activism by a economic human rights group called the Portland Organization to Win Economic Rights (POWER) ran a radical left campaign geared toward the needs of low income, working class residents of southern Maine. In creating and publicizing a radical left candidacy, and representing a third party (the Maine Green Independent party), the campaign came up against many obstacles including political and cultural barriers, Democratic party interest groups, and the media's agenda setting. A case study of the campaign is presented and barriers and lessons are discussed.

Conocimiento, Organización Generizada del Trabajo, Politicas Públicas, y Desarrollo en el Marco de la Mundialización Regional Contemporánea: Reflexiones en Base a la experiencia automotriz argentina en el MERCOSUR de los 90s

AbstractThis essay explores the theoretical relationships posited between knowledge production and transfer, work organization, and socioeconomic development in the context of contemporary world-regional capitalism and tests their application in the automotive sector in Argentina (1990s-2000s). Given that the « virtuous circle » that would link knowledge, work organization, and development is not a spontaneous product but the outcome of public policies and private strategies necessary for its generation and sustainaibility, what are the lessons to be learned from this experience as a contribution to a renewed national and regional development agenda and to the defence of economic and social human rights for men and women workers inherent in the definition of development?

A View from the Bottom: Poor People and Their Allies Respond to Welfare Reform

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) is construed as simply affecting or attacking "welfare moms." The authors see welfare recipients as only the first and most visible targets of this and related welfare reform measures. The ultimate objective, the authors argue, is a downsized standard of living for the majority of Americans, justified by a restricted vision of human rights. Like the 1857 Dred Scott decision and the abolition of slavery, the PRWORA is a clarion call about the necessity of building a powerful movement to abolish poverty once and for all. Such a movement must be grounded in the unity, leadership, and widespread organization of the poor and guided by an unrestricted vision of economic human rights for all. This article describes the authors' approach to building this new movement.

Human Rights in Asia: A Selective Review of Problems and Responses

ABSTRACT Asia, despite its financial crisis, continues to be a region of significant economic potential. Unfortunately, ongoing frictions with Western nations over human rights issues in Asia have clouded East-West commercial relations. In this paper, distinctions are drawn between economic and political human rights and these are examined within the contexts of four Asian countries: China, India, Burma/Myanmar and Indonesia. These nations' human rights records are reviewed within their wider political and economic contexts and with respect to Western reactions to them. International companies emerge as key players in monitoring economic rights within individual countries. Political rights are more complex and are best dealt with at national and supranational levels. Most countries are placing increasing emphases on constructive engagement policies.

Crimes Against Humanity - Revisited: Is There a Role for Economic and Social Rights?

The article examines the possibility of including economic and social human rights into the concept of crimes against humanity. The article analyses the various definitions of crimes against humanity and genocide contained in international instruments adopted from 1945 up to the Statutes of the ICC of 1998, and addresses the circumstances in which atrocities need to have occurred in order to fulfil requirements of the various instruments. The conclusion reached is that the definition of crimes against humanity is open-ended enough to include economic and social rights, and that the concept does not require an international conflict, but rather systematic and large scale abuse for it to be triggered. Further, the article discusses possible violations of economic and social human rights that are sufficiently severe to merit an inclusion into the crimes against humanity concept, such as deliberate starvation, or forced evictions. The author is not advocating that the concept of crimes against humanity should be applied to less severe human rights abuses, but argues that focusing on civil and political rights only is an arbitrary distinction for the victims of atrocities.

The New Water Legislation of Zimbabwe and South Africa – Comparison of Legal and Institutional Reform

Recently, several new pieces of water legislation have been promulgated in both Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa. The new acts are an attempt to correct injustices of a colonial past and to trigger development towards effective, equitable and efficient integrated water resources management influenced by the policy decisions in Agenda 21 and the need to respect economic and social human rights. This article aims at identifying and describing factors of prime importance in the process of legal and institutional reform. Major factors are earmarked and derived from the proceedings in Zimbabwe and are compared with the situation in South Africa. Thorough analysis by the author of proceedings, preambles, memoranda, legislation and addenda has induced roughly 5 major reform issues: • The call for equitable water distribution based on a widely consented water resources management strategy; • The need for effective and efficient integrated water resources management conducive to stakeholder participation through decentralisation processes; • The redressing of legal shortcomings in former water legislation with the emphasis on the introduction of integrated approaches; • The introduction of instruments of cost recovery for water resources management; • The need to develop human resources capacity and institutional strength within the implementing agencies. For both Southern African states, these issues appear to be of comparable importance as major triggers for legal and institutional reform, although not always in the same sense.The resulting most important legal and institutional changes are presented, discussed and compared. Finally, prospects for and constraints on implementation of the new water legislation in these countries are compared.

America's Role for Peace on the Korean Peninsula

Abstract The US did not manage well some of its strategic relations with East Asia and Russia in the 1990s, thus, particularly at this pivotal turning point, must exercise considerable caution as well as wisdom in Korea. The paper examines US foreign policy and finds a pattern of perceptions by other nations that the US has become increasingly self-interested now that it no longer confronts the Soviet Union. US policies in East Asia (e.g., the Asian financial crisis) and Russia suggest that a neomercantilist impulse rather than crusade for global economic development, democracy and human rights has dominated US foreign and trade policy. Moreover, NATO expansion and the drive for national missile defense run the risk of further alienating Russia and China and upsetting the strategic balance. It is suggested that a corruption of American's original sense of national interest has occurred, most clearly evident in post-Cold War policies. The author underscores that the US cannot effectively lead devoid of a s...

The International Significance of Human Rights

A comparative examination of four alternative ways of understanding what human rights are supports an institutional understanding as suggested by Article 28 of the Universal Declaration: Human rights are weighty moral claims on any coercively imposed institutional order, national or international (as Article 28 confirms). Any such order must afford the persons on whom it is imposed secure access to the objects of their human rights. This understanding of human rights is broadly sharable across cultures and narrows the philosophical and practical differences between the friends of civil and political and the champions of social, economic, and cultural human rights. When applied to the global institutional order, it provides a new argument for conceiving human rights as universal - and a new basis for criticizing this order as too encouraging of oppression, corruption, and poverty in the developing countries: We have a negative duty not to cooperate in the imposition of this global order if feasible reforms of it would significantly improve the realization of human rights.

Engendering the United Nations

The unprecedented expression of concern by the UN over the oppression of women in Afghanistan in October 1996, and the apparent subsequent retreat of the organization in May 1998, exemplify both the higher visibility of gender issues in international relations, and the inherent constraints in putting the new policies into practice. The article analyzes how the conceptual evolution of UN approaches to social and economic development and human rights has led to recognition of the centrality of women's empowerment for the achievement of global objectives and hence to a consensus on the need to mainstream a gender perspective in all areas of international activity. It traces this evolution through the world conferences that since the early 1990s have defined international approaches to the challenges of the post-Cold War world in different fields. It also maps out the institutional mechanisms and procedures that have been established to carry out those decisions, and which provide a multiplicity of new avenues for action by women. The article provides a preliminary assessment of the extent to which the new gender-oriented concepts and policies have actually been understood and translated into practice; indicates the obstacles faced; and points out the need for targeted input in a variety of sectors of the international system beyond those traditionally utilized by women.

Human Rights and the Global Economy: A Response to Meyer

Human Rights and the Global Economy: A Response to Meyer * Jackie Smith (bio), Melissa Bolyard (bio), and Anna Ippolito (bio) While few scholars and officials today believe the simplistic notion that economic progress automatically brings about political and civil freedom, many think that such progress will automatically enlarge the social welfare of all citizens. This theory, which is widely held in the West, is an obstacle to the development of national or international social welfare law since it denies the need for rights to social welfare. 1 I. Introduction In his 1996 article in the Human Rights Quarterly, William Meyer examined the relationship between the presence of transnational corporations (TNCs) [End Page 207] and human rights practices within developing countries. 2 The evidence he examined supported his claim that direct foreign investment in a country is positively associated with favorable civil, political, social, and economic human rights practices. Meyer’s analysis used a sample of approximately fifty developing countries to examine correlations between transnational corporate presence and measures of both first- and second-generation human rights practices. While Meyer’s statistical findings showed consistent, positive relationships between levels of direct foreign investment (DFI) and human rights, there is reason to examine additional evidence in order to further test this relationship. Although the predominant economic logic would anticipate the findings Meyer showed, it would be dangerous to conclude that there is a necessary association between transnational corporate investment and human rights if no such relationship exists. This conclusion would contribute to even greater complacency among policymakers who seem all too eager to enter into international trade agreements, thereby facilitating the free flow of capital at the expense of state authority to mitigate the negative social and environmental effects of economic development. Even a cursory overview of recent major events related to transnational corporate activity and human rights suggests that any relationship between these two would be negative, or nonexistent at best. For instance, uprisings in Nigeria’s Ogoniland protesting environmental destruction by Shell Oil, a British TNC, have led to widespread and violent repression of the Ogoni minority and to the execution of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. 3 Not only has Shell failed to use its economic leverage to put pressure on Nigeria’s military government to reverse the coup and restore Nigeria’s democratically elected leaders, but it has also provided economic and military assistance to this antidemocratic government, thus enabling the government to maintain its repressive policies. Another example is the ongoing case in US courts between Texaco, the US-based oil transnational, and indigenous peoples in Ecuador. This case centers around Texaco’s alleged responsibility for polluting indigenous land and poisoning water sources during its years of operation there between 1967 and 1990. 4 Finally, other TNCs like Nike have only moved to adopt minimalist labor rights standards after consumer groups have drawn attention to abuses such as child labor, low wages, and [End Page 208] unhealthy labor practices. 5 The fact that these cases exist suggests that TNCs are not always beneficial to human rights. Therefore, further exploration of the relationship between TNCs and rights becomes necessary. 6 II. Theories of TNCs and Human Rights Meyer reviewed two antithetical approaches to thinking about the relationship between TNCs and human rights. The “engines of development thesis” dates back to the post WWII-era belief that economic development automatically would generate improved human rights practice. 7 An alternative approach, the “Hymer thesis,” 8 argues that the very structure of TNCs will contribute necessarily to widespread impoverishment and to human rights violations. The division of labor within the transnational firm leads to uneven development concentrating management activities in major, industrialized cities. As a result, poverty becomes concentrated in the areas removed from these urban centers where the firm’s productive activities take place. This dual track necessitates repressive policies to control potentially explosive populations. Thus, TNCs encourage repressive government policies to suppress labor demands and promote stability. 9 Along similar lines, Pauline Herrmann asserts that there is a conflict of interest in state-TNC relationships. 10 This conflict of interest results from the fact that governments have the dual responsibilities of protecting and insuring quality lives for their citizens...

Secrets and Lies: Economic Globalisation and Women's Human Rights

Secrets and Lies: Economic Globalisation and Women's Human Rights

Economic Development and Human Rights

Economic Development and Human Rights