Development And Human Rights

While it is questionable whether commitments made at the UN conferences have been acted on systematically by governments, they do provide ammunition for human rights advocates and they sometimes have unexpected impacts on policies. The Copenhagen Declaration states

We heads of State and Government are committed to a political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development that is based on human dignity, human rights, equality, respect, peace, democracy, mutual responsibility and cooperation, and full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of people. Accordingly, we will give the highest priority in national, regional and international policies and actions to the promotion of social progress, justice and the betterment of the human condition, based on full participation by all.

Not longer after the World Summit for Social Development, the President of the World Bank in a widely-publicized speech stated that social development was the other side of the coin from economic development and one could not come about without the other, a statement that could not have been imaginable only a few years earlier.

former World Bank president,
James Wolfensohn

The mandatory inclusion of human rights in all of these conferences has facilitated a new way of thinking about development; it has facilitated the evolution of a human rights approach to development.