Human Rights and Development: Towards Mutual Reinforcement

For several decades after the UN Charter insisted that the promotion of development and human rights were central to post-World War II conceptions of world order, the two fields remained in virtual isolation from one another. Only in the past 15 years or so, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the realization that freedom and economic well-being are empirically linked, have the professional communities dealing with development and human rights issues really begun to communicate effectively. But too much of the dialogue has been confined to an abstract or theoretical level. This volume addresses highly specific but crucial aspects of the human rights and development interface, including the economics of social rights; land rights and women's empowerment; child labour and access to education; reform of legal and judicial systems; the human rights role of the private sector; and building human rights into development planning, especially the Poverty Reduction Strategy process. Contributors include lawyers, economists, and both scholarly and practitioner perspectives are presented. Several chapters are written by Senior World Bank officials, including the Bank's President and the head of the International Finance Corporation. Contributors to this volume - Philip Alston is Professor of Law at New York University Law School and Faculty Director of its Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Gordon Betcherman is a Senior Economist in the Social Protection Team at the World Bank working on areas including industrial relations, core labor standards, labor law, active labor market policies, and support for unemployed workers. Nehal Bhuta was educated at the University of Melbourne and holds graduate degrees from NYU School of Law and the New School for Social Research, New York. He is currently working for Human Rights Watch in New York. Christina Biebesheimer is Principal Specialist in the State, Governance and Civil Society Division of the Sustainable Development Department of the Inter-American Development Bank. Helene M. Carlsson is a Gender Specialist in the World Bank's Gender & Development Group where she is involved in an array of issues associated with mainstreaming gender into the World Bank. Jean Dreze is Professor at the Centre for Development Economics, at the Delhi School of Economics. Jean Fares is an economist in the Labor Markets group of the World Bank's Social Protection Team. He previously taught at the American University of Beirut. Varun Gauri is an Economist in the Development Research Group (Public Services Team) at the World Bank. Elizabeth D. Gibbons is Chief of Global Policy at UNICEF, working on human rights approaches to poverty reduction, and analytical tools and advocacy strategies for placing children at the centre of social, economic and juridical policies. Stephen Golub teaches International Development and Law at Boalt Hall Law School of the University of California at Berkeley; serves as External Advisor to the UK Department for International Development on the portion of its governance website concerning Safety, Security and Accessible Justice; and consults for foundations, bilateral donors, multilateral agencies, and NGOs. Friedrich Huebler works for the Strategic Information Section of UNICEF's Division of Policy and Planning. He specializes in the areas of education and child labor, with an emphasis on the analysis of data from household surveys. Lindsay Judge is Consultant on PRSPs, Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM), at the World Bank. Daniel Kaufmann is the Director of Global Governance at the World Bank Institute (WBI). Edilberto Loaiza is a programme officer in the Strategic Information Section of the Division of Policy and Planning at UNICEF, New York. His work is mainly focused on education, child protection, and child mortality. Amy Luinstra is a member of the Social Protection Team at the World Bank and specializes in labour issues. Karen O. Mason is Director of Gender and Development of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) at the World Bank and is the Bank's senior spokesperson on gender and development issues. Gobind Nankani is Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM), at the World Bank. John Page is Director of the Poverty Reduction Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM), at the World Bank. Mark W. Plant is Assistant Director, Policy Development and Review Department, at the International Monetary Fund. Robert Prouty is a member of the Social Protection Team at the World Bank and specializes in education issues. Kerry Rittich is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and the Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. Mary Robinson founded Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative in 2002. Previously she was President of Ireland (1990-97), and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). Olivier de Schutter is Director of the Research Unit on Fundamental Rights (CRIDHO) at the Centre for Philosophy of Law, and Professor at the Law Faculty, at the Catholic University of Louvain. Frances Stewart is Professor of Development Economics and Director, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity at the International Development Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University. Janet Walsh is deputy director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Previously she practised law at several international law firms and in The Legal Office of the United Nations in New York. Michael Wang teaches in the Department of Economics at Oxford University. Peter Woicke is the Executive Vice President of the International Finance Corporation and a Managing Director of the World Bank Group. James D. Wolfensohn has been President of the World Bank since June 1995.