Justitia Omnibus

Cover_4mm_Correct 3/8/11 4:50 PM Page 1

Justitia OmNibus

“We are ordinary people from around the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect individuals wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.�

- Purpose of Amnesty International www.amnesty.org.uk

Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) is a student-run journal established by Amnesty International at the London School of Economics and Political Science Student Union that publishes original academic work addressing contemporary issues and debates in the field of human rights.

For its inaugural issue, Justitia Omnibus provides insight into the many dimensions of global poverty and human rights, one of the priority campaigns of Amnesty International UK. With the 2015 deadline for the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people in extreme poverty rapidly approaching, this journal seeks to develop a nuanced understanding of poverty in relation to many different fields of study, as well as its impact on specific human rights issues.

Vol. 1 No. 1

Justitia OmNibus Vol. 1 No. 1 Spring 2011

Vol. 1 No. 1 Spring 2011

Justitia OmNibus P overt y and Hum an R igh ts

Cover_4mm_Correct 3/8/11 4:50 PM Page 2

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 1

Justitia Omnibus P o v e r t y a n d Hu ma n R igh ts Inaugural Issue, Vol. 1 No. 1, Spring 2011

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 2

about the LsE su amnesty international society Since its creation more than a decade ago, the Amnesty International Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science Students' Union is now the most prominent campaigning group on campus. Through its journal, Justitia Omnibus, and by organising discussions, documentary screenings, lectures and London-wide campaigns, the Society seeks to expose and put a stop to human rights abuses wherever they occur. The Society, which has a membership of over three hundred, is led by a Committee of both undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, see: www.lsesu.com/activities/societies/society/amnesty.

Editor: Magda D. Fried Design and Layout: Katharina Neureiter, Eric Gade Planning and review committee: Hannah Darnton, Eric Gade, Katharina Neureiter, Daniela Schofield, Bhavna Tripathy, Troy White

Copyright for articles and photographs belongs to the respective author/photographer. All views expressed herein are those of the authors/photographers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Amnesty International, the editor, review committee, sponsors, and affiliated institutions or organizations. All other work, published in the journal, is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs Unported 3.0 License. All correspondences and complaints should be sent to: Justitia Omnibus Human Rights Journal LSE Amnesty International Society c/o LSE Students’ Union East Building. Houghton Street WC2A 2AE London, United Kingdom

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 3

Contents List of Images.................................................................. 4 About the Contributors.................................................... 5 Foreword.......................................................................... 8 Naomi McAuliffe, Poverty and Human Rights Campaign Manager, Amnesty International UK

Introduction..................................................................... 11 Magda D. Fried, Editor

1. Freedom From Poverty: A Fundamental Human Right?

17

Ellen Stott

2. The Dependency Paradigm: Explaining Global Inequalities with the Voice from the South

29

Iris Petsa

3. The Puzzle of Minorities: Between Human Rights and State Control

41

Andrea E. Pia

4. Progress for Women is Progress for All

53

Dieneke T. de Vos

5. Cuban Development in a Regimented Society

65

Adine Mitrani

Acknowledgments........................................................... 76

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

3

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 4

List Of images Sem Terra I, Maranhão, Brazil II. (Laura Portinaro)..................................... Cover Caption: The cover image, was taken in a Sem Terra settlement in Maranhão (NorthEast), the poorest part of Brazil. Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) is the largest social movement in Latin America and is peacefully fighting for land and land reform, and against injustice and social inequality. These pictures document the daily life of these families, rural workers, in their struggle to secure land and to develop a sustainable socio-economic model that offers a concrete alternative to today's globalization that puts profits before people and humanity.

Child in Wheelbarrow (Ellen Stott) ...................................................... Page 8 Caption: Manual labour is the most common source of income for many families in the poorest regions of Thailand. As there are no available affordable child minding services, many families take their children to work with them. Taken in rural Pakchong area, Thailand, January 2011.

San Roque (Sylvia Chant)..................................................................... Page 16 Caption: Slum housing hugging a tributary flowing into the Camotes Sea to the east cost of Cebu City, which forms part of the Philippines’ second largest metropolis, Metro Cebu. In the absence of water and sanitation facilities, this tributary is subject to multiple uses, and also, to multiple sources of contamination, with major impacts on people’s health. Photo taken in 2004.

Sem Terra II, Maranhão, Brazil II (Laura Portinaro)............................... Page 51 Caption: (same as Cover)

Bandipur (Katharina Neureiter) ........................................................... Page 52 Caption: A woman is preparing food. The photo was taken in August 2009 in a small hamlet in Nepal. The hamlet consisted of a few houses nestled amongst rice paddies in a valley near the village Bandipur, accessible only via a small footpath, a two hour walk away from the nearest shop.

Woman Washing (Ellen Stott) ............................................................. Page 75 Caption: This was taken early morning on New Year’s Day, in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Many people in Southeast Asia do not have access to washing facilities, and can be seen washing themselves, their clothes, and their cooking utensils in rivers and lakes.

Taken 1 January 2011.

4

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 5

about Contributors adine mitrani is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in International Relations with a minor in Anthropology. On campus, she serves on the editorial board for the Sigma Iota Rho Journal of International Relations.

Additionally, she conducts research for the Native American repatriation office at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. andrea Pia was awarded with a BA in Chinese Studies and an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Venice Ca'Foscari University.

He conducted fieldwork in rural China investigating water shortage and risk perception among farmers in Menotugou District, Beijing. He also attended the Beijing Foreign Languages University and Yunnan University. He holds an MSc in Law, Anthropology and Society from the LSE and is currently an MPhil student in Anthropology at the LSE. Dieneke t. de Vos holds a BA (Hons) in international law and international relations from University College Utrecht, and an LLM in Human Rights Law from the LSE. Her research interests include women’s rights and gender in international criminal law, transitional justice and human rights. At present, she is a legal intern with the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Ellen stott studied for an honours degree in Law (LLB) at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. After graduating in 2006 she spent two years working and travelling in North, South and Central America before returning to live in Belfast where received a masJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

5

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 6

ters in Law and Governance at Queen’s University. Upon completion she spent 9 months as a research and campaigns intern with Amnesty International before leaving in 2010 to teach with a small educational development organisation in rural Thailand. iris Petsa is an intern at the European Commission at the Cabinet of Commissioner Vassiliou, Education and Culture. Iris holds an MA International Relations from the department of War Studies at King’s College London and a BSc Sociology from London School of Economics. Iris comes from Cyprus and is the cofounder of the Cypriot bi-communal social media website, www.mahallas.com. magda Fried is the editor of the inaugural issue of Justitia Omnibus and is currently working towards her Masters’ degree (MSc) in Global Politics and Global Civil Society at the LSE. She received her Bachelors’ degree from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where she graduated with a double major in History and Peace & Conflict Studies. Her research interests include human rights, post-conflict development, and global civil society. naomi mcauliffe is the Poverty and Human Rights Campaign Manager for Amnesty International UK which includes our campaigns on the right to water, housing and health, Corporate Accountability and International Financial Institutions. Naomi formerly ran the Stop Violence Against Women campaign in Scotland and has a background in international health policy and environmental campaigning.

6

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 7

Photographers Ellen stott (see previous section) Katharina neureiter is studying for a MSc in History of International Relations at the LSE. After receiving her BA in European Culture History at the University of Augsburg, Germany, she travelled to Nepal, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East to pursue her passion for different cultures and photography.

Laura Portinaro has worked on social reportage projects in Morocco, Brazil and Kosovo and editorial projects for companies and publications such as 66 North, Women & Work, and East London Style. She received her BA and MA at the University of Turin where she studied International Relations and Human Rights and has begun her PhD at the LSE. She currently lives and works in London as a free lance photographer and leads travel photography workshops in Iceland, Morocco and Italy. sylvia Chant BA (Cantab), PhD (Lond) is Professor of Development Geography at the LSE. She has conducted research in Mexico, Costa Rica, Philippines and The Gambia. Her main interests are in gender and poverty, female employment, migration, housing, household livelihood strategies, female-headed households and lone parenthood. She has undertaken visiting professorships in Spain and Switzerland, and has engaged in consultancy and advisory work for numerous bilateral and multilateral agencies including the World Bank, ECLAC, ILO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNRISD, UN-DESA and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

7

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 8

FoREWoRD Naomi McAuliffe, Poverty and Human Rights Campaign Manager, Amnesty International UK

Poverty is an affront to human dignity and is a human rights crisis.

There has been a growing consensus globally that the definition of poverty goes beyond income or expenditure levels to encompass the lived experiences of discrimination, deprivation, insecurity, exclusion and the feeling of being ignored by those in power. These are human rights issues. Human rights abuses drive and deepen poverty, whether it’s a forced eviction from a slum which makes thousands of people homeless every week or discriminatory laws that bar women from owning land or property. They are abuses that trap people in poverty and prevent them from realising the rights that belong to all of us. Amnesty International launched a Poverty and Human Rights Programme back in 2009 which focuses on economic, social and cultural rights - such as the right to housing, health and water – but demonstrates the indivisibility of all human rights. Historically, Amnesty, and much of the human rights movement, has prioritised civil and political rights and perpetuated the arbitrary and incoherent distinction between these sets of rights. We are now working to redress this balance and contribute to global poverty

8

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 9

alleviation with our work enforcing international human rights law, policy and processes. A ‘human rights based approach’ to poverty alleviation involves not only addressing material deprivation but also inequality, discrimination and the distribution of power within society.

Amnesty’s work on poverty issues is about addressing the causes - not just the symptoms of poverty. Poverty is not natural or inevitable but the result of the decisions and behaviours of those in power. In other words, those in power including governments, companies and international institutions, can and must be held accountable for complying with international human rights standards. This includes ensuring that we have the legal mechanisms in place to enable marginalised people to access their economic and social rights such as the right to housing, health and water. Women, men and children will only escape poverty when they can actively participate in the decisions and processes that impact on them These new areas of work build on and compliment Amnesty’s ongoing work such as prisoners of conscience, women’s rights, the death penalty, illegal detention and disappearances. But it is important that we see the interconnectedness of all of these rights, particularly in the context of the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. This journal is very timely in exploring the hot issues in human rights today and I look forward to an exciting and dynamic discourse.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

9

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 10

Ellen Stott, Child in Wheelbarrow

10

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 11

INTRoDuCTIoN Magda D. Fried, Editor Reflecting the importance of this inaugural issue of Justitia Omnibus’ topic of human rights and poverty is the first section of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services” (United Nations General Assembly, 1948). Yet, according to the United Nations’ 2010 Report on the Millennium Development Goals, as of 2005, prior to the current global financial crisis, 1.4 billion people were deprived of such a right because they were living below the international poverty line, or on less than $1.25 a day (United Nations, 2010). Furthermore, the World Bank estimates that although the number of people living in extreme poverty will fall to 900 million by 2015, there will still be an additional 1.1 billion people living on less than $2 a day (World Bank, 2010). However, in an analysis of such “poverty headcounts,” Robert Wade explains that “it is quite likely that the Bank’s numbers substantially underestimate the true numbers of the world’s population living in extreme poverty” (2006: 301). Based on such a conclusion, it is likely that more than onesixth of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty. Yet, the effects of poverty of this one-sixth impact far more of the population.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

11

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 12

more than 1.4 billion: the Wider Effects Of Poverty Although explanations for the underlying factors that cause violent conflict and the atrocities committed during such conflicts are both diverse and controversial among scholars, many of the arguments point to the impact of poverty, albeit in different ways, on conflict. In his seminal greed and grievance argument that has influenced aid and development policies of international organizations, Paul Collier analyzes various factors related to greed and grievance that could increase the risk of conflict and asserts that “both poverty and economic decline increases risks [of conflict]” (1999: 12). Although Collier’s conclusions are contested by other scholars, poverty still emerges as an important factor in conflict even in studies very different from Collier’s.

In one such study, which focuses on interviews with individual combatants and the aspect of grievance rather than greed, Mary Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern depict some of the reasons why soldiers commit atrocities such as rape and looting during conflict. Interviews with soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo show that while they know such atrocities are morally wrong, soldiers often end up committing such acts as a result of a their shame in not being able to provide for their families and their own suffering as a result of living in a life of impoverishment (Baaz and Stern, 2008). Therefore, poverty again emerges as an important factor in the cause of violence and conflict. While these two studies are by no means representative of all literature on the issue of the causes of conflicts, they are illustrative of how the effects of poverty are not limited to those living in poverty, but can ripple out to impact the human rights of others who might not be impoverished.

12

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 13

In more recent examples, poverty can be seen as having played a role in the ongoing uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that seem likely to spread elsewhere. In many of these countries, poverty combined with increases in food prices has led to outbursts of anger; however, the failure of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to end the uprising in Tunisa by promising to reduce the price of food illustrates that while poverty was an important factor in the uprising, it certainly was not the only factor (Popham, 2011). Yet, the rippling consequences of these uprisings affect more than those fighting against poverty and dictatorial rule. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned that ongoing unrest could lead to an immense wave of migration to Europe, the consequences of which are unknown (Rosemberg, 2011). Regardless of whether such a wave occurs and what consequences it brings with it, one thing is clear; in an increasingly inter-connected and globalized world, it is not possible to imagine the growing gap between rich and poor as a divide which isolates those who have from the effects of global poverty. beyond income: Developing a Wider understanding Of Poverty An important aspect in comprehending the wide-reaching effects of poverty is understanding the various dimensions that encompass poverty, for as Wade’s previously mentioned argument illustrates, even understandings of poverty in the context of income are varied. In a recent interview conducted prior to a lecture at the LSE, Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, discussed the Council’s definition of poverty as extending beyond that of finances. Pointing Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

13

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 14

to the important contribution of Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen in developing an understanding of poverty that includes the freedom of expression, Mr. Hammarberg stated that “poverty nowadays is not a standard of income, or lack of it, but the lack of power and powerlessness” (Hammarberg, 2010). This understanding helps to illustrate why poverty plays such an important role in the protection of human rights.

In their examinations of issues of poverty and human rights, the five authors in the following sections grapple with establishing a definition of poverty beyond the lack of finances. In the essay Freedom from Poverty: A Fundamental Human Right? Ellen Stott analyzes global poverty as a rights-based issue, while Iris Petsa examines the concept of poverty within the conceptualization of the dependency theory in The Dependency Paradigm: Explaining Global Inequalities with the Voice from the South. In their essays on under-represented groups and poverty, Andrea Pia focuses on the concept of ‘minority’ in human rights discourse and the impact on understandings of poverty in The Puzzle of Minorities: Between Human Rights and State Control, and Dieneke de Vos examines poverty and gender inequality in Progress for Women is Progress for All. Finally, in Cuban Development in a Regimented Society, Adine Mitrani applies the Human-Poverty Index approach to her analysis of development in Cuba.

Poverty, an Ongoing issue As one of Amnesty International’s priority campaigns and an area recognized as critically important by many state and civil society actors, the issues related to human rights and poverty, as depicted by the aforementioned authors, pose difficult challenges

14

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 15

for current and future generations. The rapid approach of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals’ 2015 deadline for halving the number of people living in extreme poverty and the hundreds of millions of people still living in extreme poverty indicates that poverty will continue to affect much of the world, whether directly or indirectly, for years to come.

References Baaz, M.E., and M. Stern (2008) Making Sense of Violence: Voices of Soldiers in the Congo (DRC). The Journal of Modern African Studies 46 (1), pp. 57-86.

Collier, P. (1999) Doing Well out of War, Paper prepared for Conference on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars, 26-27 April 1999. London. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ [Accessed 1 March 2011].

Hammarberg, T. (2010) Interview with Thomas Hammarberg for Justitia Omnibus.

[Interview] London School of Economics and Political Science with M. Fried and K. Neureiter. 9 December 2010.

Popham, P. (2011) The price of food is at the heart of this wave of revolutions: no one saw them coming, but their deeper cause isn’t hard to fathom.

The Independent. 27 February 2011. Available at www.independent.co.uk.

[Accessed 1 March 2011].

Rosemberg, C. (2011) Libya: EU calls crisis summit next week. AFP. 1 March 2011.

Available from Google News. [Accessed 1 March 2011].

United Nations General Assembly (1948) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml [Accessed on 1 March 2011].

United Nations (2010) The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ [Accessed on 1 March 2011].

Wade, R. (2007) Globalization, Poverty, and Inequality, in John Ravenhill (ed), Global Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition.

World Bank (2010) World Development Indicators, http://data.worldbank.org/datacatalog/world-development-indicators/ [Accessed 1 March 2011].

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

15

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 16

Sylvia Chant, San Roque

16

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 17

1 FREEDoM FRoM PoVERTy A Fundamental Human Right?

Ellen Stott In recent years there has been a significant shift in policy from viewing poverty as purely an issue relating to the field of international development, to viewing it as an issue concerned with the violation of some of the most basic of human entitlements and individual human rights. Despite there being much support of global poverty the recognition within the international human rights field, some dissidents have raised concerns over identifying global poverty as a rights-based issue. Taking such an approach to tackling poverty may hold a number of risks and these must be addressed when attempting to adapt a sufficient strategy to alleviate the poverty problem.

Global poverty remains the great embarrassment of our generation. Whilst much of the world witnessed unprecedented economic growth through the latter half of the 20th century, the remaining developing countries were left behind in a division that has contributed to the ‘West and the rest’ phenomenon. As the ‘global’ economy has developed, the vast expanse between rich and poor has simultaneously grown, creating a both harrowing and deplorable reality that permits 40% of the global population to survive on 5% of the global income, whilst the richest 20% of the population live comfortable or lavish lifestyles with 75% of this income (Shaw, 2010). As recent public disputes have arisen in much of the Western hemisphere over individuals receiving exJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

17

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 18

cessive bonuses and allowances in both the public and private sectors, billions of human beings remain condemned to a life of poverty and its accompanying abhorrent evils: low life expectancy, social exclusion, maternal mortality, ill health, illiteracy, dependency, and effective enslavement to name but a handful.

Unquestionably poverty as a state of social existence is one that must be challenged and solved but much of economic, social and political theory disputes how this should be done. The recent emergence of a more dominant global development and human rights agenda has created an extensive shift in theory from the traditional forums of purely economic theoretical analysis of the problems and solutions of global poverty to a more concentrated emphasis on its social, political and even cultural aspects. It is within this realm that the development of the human rights movement has grown to incorporate the fight against poverty as part of the stride towards a universally accepted and protected standardisation of human rights for individuals across the globe. The existence of poverty is a violation of the principles of human dignity, equality and equity, and for this reason many human rights advocates argue that it is an outright violation of the most basic and fundamental of rights.

At this point it is essential to note that the aforementioned approach to the problem of poverty is a contentious one. Several theorists maintain that despite the inequalities and social injustices created by poverty, this in itself does not constitute a violation of the identified and legally enforceable human rights. Much of the rhetoric of this debate has significantly concentrated on the arguments that define human rights and their violations, rotating around the theory that the human rights realm offers a clear dichotomy – either a human right is violated by an identifiable ‘vi-

18

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 19

olator’, or it is not. Within this line of reasoning some have concluded that poverty does not constitute a violation as such but is an arbitrary consequence caused by a series of factors and global events, varying in essence between nations, communities and individuals. As there is no identifiable violator, it may be logically argued that there is in return no identifiable route to seek a definitive redress, thus creating a rather fuzzy area of legality, legal obligations and remuneration that stands in stark contrast to the legitimised, legally binding realms of the already existing human rights arena (Roth, 2004).

The point of this article is not, however, to fully analyse whether or not severe poverty in itself constitutes any specific legally defined human rights violation as per the applicable legislation. It is instead the purpose here to adopt the approach of much of the developing human rights theories and assert the notion that poverty at varying levels undeniably constitutes a violation of some of the most basic of human entitlements. As a result of this assertion, this paper seeks to focus on assessing the impact of viewing this violation as a human rights issue and in turn calculating the consequences of taking a human rights-based approach to tackling the issue of global poverty. A key factor in this assessment will be to evaluate how such an approach may affect those experiencing the effects of poverty on a daily basis. The cornerstone of this discussion will be to divert away from the theoretical debates regarding the definition of poverty as a human right, to the practical application of taking an approach that assumes human rights violations and assessing whether this is really an approach that is beneficial to those suffering the gross injustices of severe poverty. In turn it shall be argued that despite an unfaltering support for the human rights movement’s acknowlJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

19

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 20

edgement of the tragedies that result from poverty, such an approach must be assumed tactfully because, if misapplied, it carries with it the potential to both greatly undermine and negatively affect the issues it seeks to help.

The requirements for such strict parameters to a rights-based approach are essentially two-fold: firstly utilising a human rights framework to embark upon a problem that primarily concerns developing nations is, in essence, attempting to use what many conceive as a Western notion of acceptable standards to solve a problem that is on a scale so vast and devastating that it transcends both Western borders and concepts of what severe poverty actually is and what it encompasses. In many regards this has the potential to substantially undermine the gravity of the issue by attempting to put extreme poverty into a comparable vacuum, when in reality there is no such analogous condition in Western states. Secondly, using a human rights based approach is, by its very nature, an approach that focuses on the individual rather than on a community or nation-based approach and thus may divert away from global attempts to solve poverty as an overarching crisis to an individual case-based matter concerned with individual rights rather than collective social injustices. These notions will be considered in assessing the benefits of taking such an approach to the global poverty conundrum.

Defining Poverty How we define poverty is critical to political, policy and academic debates and theories regarding the resolution of the global dilemma and must be understood as a social scientific act that entails value judgements (Hagenaars and Vos, 1988). The World

20

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 21

Bank stipulates that a person living in poverty is someone surviving below a $1.25 per day poverty line. Such a simple definition constitutes an easily distinguishable numerical measurement of poverty, but as a sole assessment indicator it is a fundamentally flawed means of evaluation. It is not however being suggested here that the World Bank used merely this definition of poverty; their economic standard is just being used as an example. Placing such an individualistic economic gauge on whether a person is impoverished or not takes no account of social or cultural dimensions that may contribute to a person living in poverty, nor does it consider country specific issues such as demographics, societal norms, the role of the state, the cost and standards of living, or the expected roles of certain groups of individuals within a particular culture. Indeed it is wholly plausible for an individual living above the World Bank’s stated income to be living in poverty by societal conceptions, and likewise for a person to be surviving below this amount whilst cultural and societal norms do not conceive them to be impoverished. This shall be discussed in much more detail below.

As international attention has focused more sharply on the cause, effects and eradication of poverty, the bewildering ambiguity of what the term ‘poverty’ means has developed rapidly and become evermore contentious. Poverty is thus no longer conceived as an entirely economic factor but instead one that is an objectionable issue related to an array of circumstances of a social nature. To avoid the complexities of debate regarding the definition of poverty, however, it will be accepted here that poverty constitutes more than a lack of income and extends far beyond these parameters to being a denial of choices and opportunities as well as a violation of human dignity. Poverty incorporates an array of Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

21

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 22

problems; the lack of capacity to participate effectively in society; social insecurities; powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities; a susceptibility to violence and living in marginal or fragile environments, to name but a few (Switzerland, United Nations 2004). It is through such a broad and more fluid concept of defining poverty that a human rightsbased approach shall be assessed here. the Human Rights based approach to Poverty The human rights framework of evaluation allows for a succinct and definitive assessment of a vast spectrum of problems. One of the most distinct features of such an approach to poverty reduction is that it is explicitly based upon the norms and values set out in the international law of human rights. (Switzerland, United Nations, 2004) As this is underpinned by universally recognised moral values and reinforced by legal obligations, the international human rights spectrum provides for a compelling normative framework for the formulation of poverty reduction strategies. It is within such a framework that advocates strive to create a long-term structure necessary to build effective and inclusive education, health and social protection systems and reduce endemic poverty.

Such a structural intervention is guided, however, by the multilateral and bilateral institutions at the core of the human rights movement, specifically that of the United Nations. This has therefore ensured that within attempting to establish a human rightsbased approach to poverty reduction, the overarching principles of the UN have become interwoven into contingency plans to tackle the problem at hand (Chiba, 2008). The fundamental and

22

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 23

perhaps grossly underrated problem at the centre of this issue is that the UN and the formation of a standardised set of human rights is, in fact, the result of a specific political, cultural and historical situation with particularly dominating Western liberal roots.

So although human rights are ideally universal, attempting to apply them to non-Western, non-liberal countries that were not excessively affected by the atrocities of two world wars, becomes a very delicate process (Kennedy, 2002). It is not, however, being stated here that human rights are not applicable to certain nations, but it is being noted that the application of these rights must be done for the correct reasons; to build towards a shared concept of humanity rather than towards any standard ‘Westernising’ of the world. This is an issue that lies at the centre of many opponents’ objections to a universal application of human rights, and thus advocates of a human rights-based approach to poverty must ensure that their attempts to tackle poverty in such a manner are being done with regards to a universal humanitarian standard rather than a Western notion of these standards (Sen, 1998).

A problem further highlighted by the rights-based approach is the wariness of many advocates to diverge from any single principle enshrined in legislation and, in turn, to generally accept only a direct application in unison with ensuring individual rights without compromise (Switzerland, United Nations 2004). Such institutional and political hegemony of a rights-based agenda allows for no divergence from standards as they apply an identical assessment strategy across vastly diverse nations. For example, a rights-based approach to poverty may in essence assess housing, health and education standards in a European city as the same as in a small tribal village in South East Asia. So how is it Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

23

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 24

possible to make two diversely opposing scenarios comparable?

Is it possible for human rights violations regarding poverty to occur in an economically sound and politically stable country but not happen in a country considered to be a developing or ‘thirdworld’ nation with a turbulent political and economic state? The answers to these questions remain unclear in much of the currently available human rights and poverty literature, and thus it becomes necessary to reiterate that the rights-based approach must not be instigated with Western notions and ideals at the helm, assessing what poverty is and what standards nations should seek to achieve. Instead such an approach must be embarked upon with a degree of variance – allowances must be made for communities that for an array of reasons (religion, tribal beliefs and roles, education, socio-economic factors, political scenarios) possess practices that may be perceived to be human rights violations. Such an approach must be adopted gradually and rights must be prioritised and occasionally compromised.

For example, at times it may be necessary to concentrate resources into abolishing slums and improving health standards before embarking upon any sort of education programme to challenge issues relating to discrimination of varying degrees. Attempting to tackle poverty in a case-by-case manner regarding individual rights violations would undoubtedly divide efforts and resources, resulting in a poorly executed and vastly inefficient strategy.

Interrelated to the latter point is the additional argument that a human rights-based approach often favours the adherence of broad principles over making specific and often difficult policy decisions (Switzerland, International Council on Human Rights Policy, 2010). As mentioned above, it is often necessary to pri-

24

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 25

oritise and choose a hierarchy of rights, a fact that is notable when applying human rights to a global poverty scenario. In order to avoid undermining efforts to eradicate the existence of extreme poverty, resources and efforts must be concentrated on devising specific policies that target fundamental rights violations whilst derogating from some of the broad, yet less fundamental, principles of the human rights agenda.

Following on from the need to create a hierarchy of rights is another problem — it is not sufficient to merely highlight individual violations of economic and social rights as a means of tackling poverty. Analysis of the problem of global poverty needs to question the underlying structures and relationships that have identifiable contributing factors whilst also acknowledging collective responsibility of States in perpetuating them (Switzerland, International Council on Human Rights Policy, 2010). Human rights can be said to offer a solution-based approach in terms of establishing routes of empowerment to the previously disempowered, but in doing this the factors that have led to the present situation must not be disregarded as further solutions may also lie in rectifying them. This issue becomes particularly important when analysing communities impoverished by wars or political strife as the rectification of these situations may prove to lead to an enhancement of standards for those affected.

A final point and perhaps most fundamental warning of taking a human rights-based approach to eradicating poverty is that of its magnetism towards becoming an individual rather than collective remedy. Human rights, by their very definition, are about the individual: the rights affected of any one person. Does this then detract from attempts to improve the living standards of the Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

25

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 26

impoverished as a whole? Do rights in their legal standing lead to a separation of the collective, and more fundamentally, result in a natural segregation of the more empowered as they seek the avenues of legal redress, whilst the less empowered, most often females and minorities, are left behind? Will this in turn actually lead to a resolution of many of the issues of poverty or will it exacerbate the situation? It is, in fact, being suggested here that such an approach to poverty does hold the potential to greatly undermine and lead to such an individualistic concentration. For this reason it is essential that the human rights approach evolves to become one of a community policy-based strategy rather an individual case-by-case remedy. Such a result is plausible, however, a well-monitored and adequately adapted interpretation of a rights-based framework could equally hold the potential to greatly empower an entire community. It is for this reason that human rights advocates must ensure that they adopt such a strategy with both a pragmatic and reflective manner, and ultimately guarantee that they utilise it as a powerful tool for the greater good.

Conclusion It is unquestionable that poverty violates the fundamental basic entitlement of an individual’s right to live in dignity. It is advocated here that the human rights movement’s continual advances towards acknowledging poverty as an infringement of this right is a welcomed and long overdue move. It is however essential to greet this move with both diligence and adequate discipline to prevent a well-intentioned movement from undermining and damaging the immense global efforts that have already been made to alleviate the plague that is poverty. It must always be re-

26

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 27

membered that human rights principles are not always necessarily neutral and when applied inappropriately they may do little good and much harm (Switzerland, International Council on Human Rights Policy 2010).

In order to ensure the positive nature of a human rights-based approach, it is important for poverty policy formulation to be more pragmatic rather than based purely on a set of overarching principles. Further, specific policy methods must be sought to address particular problems regarding a wide range of communities, regions and nations rather than attempting to use a ‘one size fits all’ approach warned of by many human rights sceptics.

Poverty can be both alleviated and eradicated, but for this to happen there must be a sufficient mix of aid, advice, sound institutions, sensible macroeconomics and evidence-based policy (Chibba, 2008). Such an eclectic fusion of methodologies can provide for a strong and effective strategy formulation and it is for this reason that the incorporation of human rights into the strategy allows for a potential bolstering of the fight against global poverty.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

27

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 28

References Chiba, M (2008) Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries: No Consensus but Plenty of Solutions. World Economics 9 (1) p. 197 – 200.

Hagenaars, A & De Vos, K (1988) The Definition and Measurement of Poverty. The Jour nal of Human Resources 23 (2) p. 211 – 221.

Kennedy, D (2002) The International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?

Harvard Human Rights Journal [Online] 15 (2) p. 101 - 124. Available from: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss15/kennedy.shtml [ Accessed 03/12/2010].

Roth, K (2004) Defending Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Practical Issues Faced by the International Human Rights Organizations. Human Rights Quarterly 26 p. 63 - 73.

Sen, A (1998) Human Rights and the Westernising Illusion. Harvard International Review 20(3) p. 40 – 43.

Shah, A (2010) Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All [Online]. Available from: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats [Accessed 4th January 2011].

Switzerland, United Nations (2000) Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly: United Nations Millennium Declaration. Geneva: UN Switzerland, United Nations (2004) Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework. Geneva: OHCHR .

Switzerland, International Council on Human Rights Policy. (2010) Human Rights in the Global Economy: Report From a Colloquium. Geneva: ISBN.

28

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 29

2 THE DEPENDENCy PARADIGM Explaining Global Inequalities with the Voice from the South Iris Petsa The continuing growth in the gap between North and South is the key focus of this article, which aims to analyse the issue through the dependency theory paradigm (DTP). Originating from Latin America and representing one of the very few voices in development theory coming from the South, DTP argues that within the contemporary capitalist context, the role of multinationals is draining local economies, fostering inequalities, exploitation and poverty, often leads to severe violations of human rights. First, the article will examine how the theory perceives the international political economy and global inequalities and then it will demonstrate the theory’s contribution to counter-geopolitical epistemologies that assist the stimulation of highly relevant debates, and most distinctly, that of development and the Third World. “...the large corporation produces the same effect in an underdeveloped economy as large exotic trees introduced into an unfamiliar region: they drain all the water, dry up the land, and disturb the balance of flora and fauna” (Furtado, 1969:72)

The Dependency Theory Paradigm (DTP), originating in Latin America, is the first real non-Western contribution made in mainstream international relations theory. Emerging in the 1960s the paradigm tried to appeal to matters of global significance, such as global inequalities, that come from a non-Western perspective.

The DTP’s contribution and status has been deeply neglected and is hardly ever mentioned. Unearthing the DTP serves to examine ‘the presence and the absence of agents of knowledge (Slater, 2004:25-26). It will be demonstrated how some aspects Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

29

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 30

of DTP are still relevant in the growth of global capitalism and how the paradigm initiated a new perception of North-South relations in forming an ‘alternative geopolitical memory’ against that of Western philosophy (Slater, 2004:28).

The origins of the dependency paradigm have roots in the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) based in Santiago, Chile. Raul Prebisch, the director of ECLA, released a study in 1949 on The Economic Development of Latin America and its Principal Problems, which included what is now known as the Singer-Prebisch thesis. The thesis argued that the underdeveloped nations must employ some degree of protectionism in trade if they were to enter a self-sustaining development path, since their terms of trade with developed countries indicated deterioration; underdeveloped countries were able to purchase fewer manufactured goods from the developed countries in exchange for their raw material exports. This ground-breaking paper inspired and initiated the dependistas movement — a proponent of Prebisch’s thesis, which was divided between a more radical and a more liberal version of ECLA that questioned the role of multinationals in draining local economies. It was not a homogenous group but the ideas originating from Prebisch are found within the same dependency paradigm.

The zenith of the dependistas movement took place between the 1960s and 1970s and expanded from Latin America to places like West Africa where theory became praxis and governments were trying to ‘delink’ themselves from the core a term used by Samir Amin (1997) for the peripheries trying to break away from the centre and to depend on their own production of goods in

30

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 31

order to escape the disparities reproduced through international trade in the capitalist system. Importantly, the dependistas were a project built against the theory of modernization that was dominant before the 1960s in Western development theory. The dependistas were ‘a vital project of counter-representation’ coming from the non-West itself, answering the proclamation of a linear progression against the Western example of development (Slater, 2004:119). The movement was developing parallel to an increased penetration of Latin American economies by US corporations, creating an atmosphere of unrest, which was fertile for radical thought to grow, by 1965, US capital represented as much as 75% of all foreign investment in Latin America, compared to 20% in 1914. It was also revolutionary in that it challenged the assumptions made by the West in international trade theory on the principle of comparative advantage. However, before assessing the significance and relevance of the dependency paradigm in today’s world, it is essential to outline the arguments of the theory.

Firstly, to talk of a concrete DTP would be to unjustly classify multiple scholars from diverse backgrounds and assumptions under one category. To avoid such a mistreatment, this paper will refer to dependency theorists existing within a common paradigm without necessarily agreeing to everything. The following outline is one that compiles the basic contributions that are shared by the most dominant dependency thinkers and which gives an understanding of the theoretical paradigm (Blomstrom and Hettne, 1984; Ghosh,2001; Slater,2004; Rist,1997; Larrain,1989; Kay,1989; Brewer,1990).

The fundamental assumption of the dependency paradigm is that underdevelopment cannot be considered as the original condiJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

31

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 32

tion in an evolutionary process, contrary to the modernization theory. For the former, development and underdevelopment are different aspects of the same universal process, a process in which underdevelopment is intimately connected with the expansion of the industrialized capitalist countries. Metropolitan capitalism is imposed on the periphery where surplus is extracted.

The trade relations between developed countries (DCs) and less developed countries (LDCs) are unequal, favouring the DCs and discriminating against the LDCs. However for most theorists within the paradigm, dependency is not only an external phenomenon but is also manifested in different ways in the internal (social, ideological and political) structure. In order for LDCs to develop, the tie with metropolitan capitalism should be terminated, socialism is regarded, by most but not all theorists, as the best alternative for achieving rapid economic development with social justice and equity.

Slater identifies five concepts that are analyzed and discussed within the paradigm (2004:120). Firstly, he talks about the critical view of the developmental role of foreign investment in the Third World. The external dominance in LDCs created limits on autonomous economic development due to the penetration and control of foreign capital, resulting in detrimental consequences for the national economy and repatriation of profits. Slater argues that this interpretation could possibly offer an interesting insight for today’s globalized and interconnected world. Second, dependence drew attention to marginality analysis, which deals with research on how the poor make a living and how capitalism (as with Marx’s original analysis) created urban marginality in relation to the dynamic of capital accumulation. Slater points out that while this is an important contribution in research, it is nevertheless important to avoid economism and keep in mind the impact

32

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 33

of broader social and political conditions that could have an effect on the Third World, beyond employment structures (2004: 121).

Third, what made the dependency paradigm distinct in its own time and context was its break from modernization theory which was dominant at the time. The dependistas were able to dissolve the modern and traditional society dichotomy that was promoted by modernization theory and they proposed that neither of those categories was broad enough to include all existing social situations or specific enough to identify the structures of different societies (Cardoso and Faletto, 1979:31). This critique points out the significance of the historical specificity of dependistas, contradicting the criticism by other scholars on the paradigm’s economic essentialism and dualism deriving from its inability to break free from Western binary categorization.

Similar to postcolonial theory, DTP was one of the first real contributions of non-Western scholars who tried to reclaim the historical specificity of the South. Most importantly, Cardoso and Faletto (1979) provided research for the historical existence of different types of social and economic structures beyond that of Western capitalism. In a sense this research was reclaiming the history of the South; a history that did not have its origins in the colonization of Latin America but prior to it. DTP further reclaims the ‘politics of difference’ (Slater, 2004:126). Though a contested point, Slater argues that ‘a significant and persistent undercurrent of all the writing that may be placed under the dependency rubric concerns the right to recognition and independent identity, whether it be couched in more specific socio-economic terms or more broadly expressed in the arena of politics and philosophy’ (2004:126). Dependency demands that the South goes against Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

33

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 34

past imperial representations and redefine itself in the search for an authentic sovereignty.

Why the Dependency Paradigm is still Relevant In the context of today’s growing global capitalism, and in the spirit of a neo-liberal zeitgeist, DTP seems to be more relevant now than in any other period. Deriving from its Marxist origins, the paradigm has provided few scholars, the most famous Immanuel Wallerstein, Andre Gunder Frank, Samir Amin and Giovanni Arrighi, who bluntly dealt with issues covering structures of power, systemic patterns of inequality practices and ontologies of dependence (Darby, 1997:112). It is no secret that global capitalism defines the dominant condition of our time. According to those scholars, ‘structural dependency’ is a term that conditions a subjection within the dominant pattern of social practices and institutional frameworks. It is a structure that is becoming so well ingrained in our relations that possible alternatives to the capitalist way of life that once would have been considered, are now seen as illusion, even for the people of the South. Thinking in Foucauldian terms of power, the capitalist structure manages to (re)produce itself constantly, within material constraints which are in effect translated in our everyday realities. ‘Power must be understood...as the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organization: as the process which, through ceaseless struggle and confrontations, transforms, strengthens, or even reverses them; as the support which these force relations find in one another, thus forming a chain or a system...’ (Foucault, 1998:92-93).

One of the most important contributions of the DTP is the world systems analysis, presented by theorists such as Immanuel

34

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 35

Wallerstein, AndrĂŠ Gunder Frank and Samir Amin. On the basis of the assumptions of DTP, the world system approach denotes the social whole called a capitalist world economy, which came into existence in the 16th century and has since expanded historically from its European origins to cover the globe. The world economy, on the other hand, is a historical process in which global accumulation of capital gradually incorporates parts around the world into a world system. It has managed to consolidate itself as the global reality. It explains the world system as a social system, and while it can be criticized denying real autonomy in the parts of the system, at the same time, the ‘alternatives available’ can alter the framework of the whole if they manage to break the constraints of the whole.

The continuing growth in the gap between North and South, the growing marginality, inequality and poverty have not lost their relevance even after more than 40 years since the rise of the dependistas movement. Examples of countries with rich oil resources such as Sudan and most countries of the Middle East are case studies in which development becomes impossible in the peripheral economies due to their dependence on the central economies through foreign investment. Any resources flowing into the state through foreign investment are mainly benefiting elite classes in the developing state, which form alliances with foreign capital. Major human rights violations take place and are triggered by the need to maintain favourable conditions for the operations of multinational corporations, and this takes place either by imposing legislation or force. The dependency theory empowers local interests and shows how these interestes come to be protected against the interests of multinational corporations (Sornarajah, 2010:53). The recent events in North Africa and Middle East could be perceived as a revolution against these alJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

35

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 36

liances that consolidate the violation of human rights in the name of elite classes and foreign capital.

The most significant type of dependency that is still relevant is that of foreign capital and aid. Contemporary strands of DTP often speak of the major world reconstruction that occurred under the Bretton Woods agreement, which created the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. This institutional structure was one of the milestones in the creation of the world economy. Samir Amin argues that these institutions were designed to provide the United States with the complete control over its interventions at the end of the Second World War (1997:18). IMF conditionalities are often the target of criticism since they provide loans to LDCs in return that they can impose structural adjustments to the given economy. Despite this logic, the IMF has never been able to compel the great capitalist powers (especially the US), to force structural adjustments as harsh as the ones it imposes on LDCs. The most dominant example of this discrimination is found in the face of the economic failure originating in the US and resulting in the financial crisis of 2007. In a sense, it could be argued that the IMF and the institutions of Bretton Woods have no real authority to define objectives that could bring economic growth to developing countries, especially if they are not part of the executive strategies defined by the G8. Not only does the IMF fail to control the debt of LDCs but most importantly, any efforts to give large loans to an economy most often results in creating a dependency towards it that does not allow the local economy to grow on its own and build its own antibodies against possible financial crises originating from DCs.

36

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 37

Beyond its contribution to a Western alternative, DTP was a contribution that built the confidence of local Southern researchers that they can be detached from Western social sciences. This initial confidence was the stepping stone for change. That is, there has been evidence of growth in research institutes and organizations of cooperation with a more or less militant Third World perspective (Hettne,1981 in Blomstrom & Hettne 1984:127).

These research institutes still exist in the South and take up independent research. One example is that of Samir Amin’s Third World Forum in Dakar, which deals with intellectuals from the South for the South (Third World Forum has been active for almost 30 years, during which it has been functioning as a network of intellectuals of three continents - Asia, Africa and Latin America - engaged in debates on various aspects of the “challenge to the development” of the peoples concerned). It has been so effective as to create a paradigm shift in development studies and to some extent, since it was the first time the Southern voice was heard and expanded within academic and policy-making circles. In its relationship with postcolonial theory, it led the beginning of a project that considered autonomous intellectual identities for the people of the South, even though this was to be further improved with the work of postcolonial thinkers with the deconstruction of the remnants of colonial identities in the minds of the people.

The dependistas simultaneously uncovered the world of social sciences as one that is deeply conducted by the hegemonic power of the United States. It was within such structure that the ‘alternative’ possibilities of DTP voiced their disagreement. A structure, especially during the Cold War, where the power of the United States had the ability to override national sovereignty for reasons of its own making — for example the illegal embargo of Cuba, the invasion of Panama in 1989 and air-strikes against Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

37

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 38

Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan (Slater, 2004:135). Blaney makes a strong argument on the contribution of DTP in that it considers the ethics of international encounters in world affairs (1996:32).

It has provided the policy-making circles with a way of studying the problems of underdevelopment from a global perspective and a critical analysis of the capitalist structure that has been, and is dominating international relations, not only from an economic respect, and was able to view the political, social and cultural implications of this hegemony.

Pressures for increased self-reliance, even though they led to unsuccessful policies in the context of 1970s, led to a great deal of the rhetoric around the demands for a new economic order. This has added ideological fuel to the international struggle for domestic control over resources and better terms of trade. In the words of Slater, ‘dependency played its part in the construction of an alternative geopolitical memory, contesting the governing representations and ruling memory of Western metropolitan theory’ (2004:138).

Beyond its non-Western perspective, DTP was largely built upon the basis of Marxist thought. No analysis of independent states can be made without placing them in the context of the capitalist world economy. Indeed, it is impossible to consider the contemporary international arena without taking into account the implications of the prevailing economic structure of the world, as it has an impact on political, social and cultural affairs, and defines the strategies of international actors. Moreover, when dealing with topics that concern the Third World, capitalism is an even more significant variable for analysis since it is in these areas that it demonstrates its dominating effects (It is in the outskirts of the world...that the system reveals its true face’ [Eduardo Galeano,

38

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 39

1983 as referenced in Slater, 2004:20]). It is these areas that have offered the alternative for so many years and now need to be converted through political, social and cultural procedures in the name of the capitalist system. In this way, DTP offers the most revealing account and is one of the very few existing theories that dare to take up such a topic.

Despite the inefficiencies of its ontology and epistemology, DTP is able to imagine alternative understandings by connecting local experiences to international affairs. Representing such theoretical perspectives, even years after they have been deemed dead and buried, allows the unearthing of the effects of global capitalism on aggravating global inequalities. DTP has been successful in conceptualizing the multiple forms of dependency of the periphery on the core, and how, by trying to delink DCs from the core, such dependency will be resolved. This still retains its relevance today although other forms of dependency exist that move beyond economics or technology. Dependencies on issues of representation and reconstruction of basic modes of thought have been embedded in the system since colonial times. Postcolonial theory can strengthen the DTP’s argument in this respect.

In conclusion, I have tried to provide an overview of the DTP, to extract strands of the paradigm that still retain their relevance in contemporary international relations. This overview first examined how the theory deals with issues in international political economy and global inequalities, and secondly turned to the theory’s contribution to new epistemological ways of research and international affairs. The DTP offers counter-geopolitical epistemologies that assist the stimulation of highly relevant debates, most distinctly that of development and the Third World.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

39

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 40

References Amin, S. (1997) Capitalism in the Age of Globalization, London: Zed Books.

Blaney, D.L. (1996) ‘Reconceptualizing Autonomy: The Difference Dependency Theory Makes’, Review of International Political Economy, Vol.3, No.3, p.459-497.

Blomstrom, M. & Hettne, B. (1984), Development Theory in Transition: the Dependency Debate and Beyond: Third World Responses, London: Zed. Brewer, A. (1980) Marxist Theories of Imperialism: a Critical Survey, London: Routledge & Kegan Pau. Cardoso, F.H. & Faletto, E. (1979) Dependency and Development in Latin America London: University of California Press.

Darby, P. (1997) At the Edge of International Relations: Postcolonialism, Gender, and Dependency (London: Pinter).

Foucault, M. (1998) The history of Sexuality, London: Penguin.

Furtado, C. (1969) Economic Development of Latin America – A Survey from Colonial Times to the Cuban Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ghosh, B. N. (2001) Dependency Theory Revisited, Aldershot: Ashgate.

Kay, C. (1989) Latin American Theories of Development and Underdevelopment, London: Routledge.

Larrain (1989) Theories of Development: Capitalism, Colonialism and Dependency Cambridge: Polity.

Rist, G. (2002) The history of Development: from Western Origins to Global Faith, London: Zed Books.

Slater, D. (2004) Geopolitics and the post-colonial: Rethinking North-South Relations, Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Sornarajah, M. (2010) The International Law on Foreign Investment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

40

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 41

3 THE PuzzlE oF MINoRITIES Between Human Rights and State Control Andrea E. Pia Since the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, 1965), social exclusion is deemed to target specific groups. This paper deals specifically with one of this group: ethnic minorities.

It argues that the deploying of the concept of “minority” into the human rights discourse has failed to recognise the pivotal role played by the market and the State in drifting away minorities’ identities. To do this, relevant cases coming from Australia and China are brought forward. Further, by using Antonio Gramsci's and Karl Marx's insights on what a State is and on how, as a concept, it has emerged historically, it questions the claim that minorities' rights are there to empower socially excluded groups. On the contrary, the concept seems rather prone to neglect the requests to equal treatment and social justice coming from many minority group associations.

Poverty and social exclusion are increasingly seen as intertwined phenomena. Indeed, social exclusion, which refers to the inability to participate effectively in economic, political and cultural life, is usually thought of as a broader concept than poverty itself. As a process, it is produced in society through the interplay of numerous factors which target specific groups of people on the basis of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation and descent.

People working with human rights have long since addressed this form of inequality and worked towards its solution (Duffy, 1995; Banda & Chinkin, 2004).

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

41

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 42

Starting with The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, 1965), socially excluded groups (i.e. minorities) have been described as subject to a structural and historically rooted form of discrimination which could lead to material impoverishment. Although “minority” and “discrimination” are both concepts complex enough to deserve a closer look, this paper focuses only on the former, and deals specifically with ethnic minorities. It argues that the deployment of the concept of “minority” into the human rights discourse has failed to fully acknowledge the vast spectrum of social implications that such a concept entails.

A brief review of the process that led to the institutionalisation of the “national minorities” in post-liberation communist China and to the introduction of the native titles in post-Mabo Australia, allows this paper to focus on the state-subaltern groups relation (Gramsci, 2007 [1948]) as the most important vector in the construction of “minority” as a productive legal concept. Furthermore, by suggesting that this relation is mainly mediated by the market rather than by rights, it identifies the social constraints that have so far hindered the adoption of a more negotiated definition of the “minority” concept. To this end, the paper concludes, an approach based entirely on human rights could end up deadening the requests for social justice coming from the very groups the “minority” notion is there to empower.

Conventional knowledge The first article of ICERD defines “discrimination” as any kind of “distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference” which is intended to prevent specific categories of individuals from the ex-

42

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 43

ercise of their rights. In this sense, categories are defined as mutually exclusive monocriterial classes. That is, individuals are seen as coming from a “race, colour, descent, national or ethnic” origin and therefore easily compartmentalisable. Even though ICERD does not introduce the term “minority”, and its main concern is the protection of civil and political rights (i.e. not directly relevant to material poverty), due to its implementation in human rights law, societies are now viewed as composed of different groups entertaining asymmetrical relations between one another.

Following ICERD, institutions working with human rights have tried to strengthen the protection granted to discriminated groups by narrowing down categories and adding criteria to the definition of minority. The notion of culture, for instance, has been widely used to define more precisely the groups in need of protection (Brown 1998). With instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (ICEDAW, 1979) and the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992, hereafter DRM), the concept of “minority” has been fairly expanded, thus abandoning the previous monocriterial classifications in favor of a manifolded version, which also encompasses economic life (Banda & Chinkin 2004). Likewise, a notable attempt to problematise the concept of “minority” came form the indigenous people’s rights presented for the first time in the International Labour Organisation 169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (1989). The convention introduces a multi-layered dimension to “minorities” by referring also to gender and economic conditions (Coombe, 2003).

Arguably, while the notion of “minority” was being defined, it was Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

43

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 44

influenced by the technical and ideological features of the human rights discourse. Given the Universal Declaration's attribution of the right-addressee's role to the State and of the right-holder's to individuals, the idea that certain groups could be deprived of their rights by the State, was fairly enough self-established. The notion of “minority” was inextricably tied with the role of the State and hence, minority came to signify groups that for different historical (i.e. colonialism) and social (i.e. power asymmetries) reasons live in a deprived condition under the state.

Yet, the State itself could also be historicised. That is, it could also be interpreted as the result of the juxtaposition of a series of historical trajectories rather than as a neutral model designed for the government of society. As Antonio Gramsci states, “the State is the sum of the practices and theories whereby the ruling class not only justifies and maintains its sovereignty but also obtains the consent of the governed” (2007[1948]: 1765). Gramsci suggests that it is within the State that the techniques for the creation of political legitimacy and the construction of the idea of the status quo are to be found (ibid., 1548). As we shall see later in the paper’s analysis, the distinction between majority and minority which premises the human rights discourse is ultimately related to the techniques of government whereby the nation-state has come to the fore in the history of the modern world. In Gramscian terms then, we could ask ourselves whether human rights are capable of redressing the impoverishment of particular marginal groups by opposing them to the State.

44

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 45

ubi major, minor Permanet The relation maintained between the idea of the state and the one of the minority is framed by competing historical and political factors. That is to say that “minorities”, being generated to some degree by the State, are hardly already there. A closer look at two different cases can better explain this type of mutual relation. In post-liberation China, a massive governmental project was carried out in order to identify all the different “minorities” (minzu) located in the territories that had been recently seized by the Communist Party (Mullaney 2004). The project's main function was to extend the Communist Party control over various impervious localities in the southwest, which were instrumental in drawing more favorable borders with the neighboring states. Previously during the 30s, a self-assessment survey listed 400 different ethnic groups dwelling in the area. Later, the result of the minorities identification survey which had been the principal product of the Communist Party's project reduced this number to less than 50, thus easing the administration of the area. To this end, the (procustean) project has been aptly described by Mullaney as an “inventive process of social engineering” (2004:207).

The Chinese “invention” of minorities could thus be described as a successful attempt by the Party-State to reshape the social body towards a more functional arrangement. Here, the “minority” concept worked as the trigger for internal changes in the state's administration and as such it carried out political intentions that were not directly related to rights and social justice. Of course, it can be contested that the way in which the “minority” category works in the UN conventions cannot be conflated with what happened in China fifty years ago. However, my point here Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

45

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 46

is that when the UN and the human rights activists started thinking about how to protect these discriminated groups, they were working with a fairly controversial object which, moreover, was loaded with history.

What happened in Australia almost two decades ago, namely The Mabo vs Queensland case, is emblematic in this sense.

Povinelli tells us that in the 1992 ruling “the High Court […] acknowledged the validity of the native title but demanded, as the condition of its recognition, that claimants establish their descent from the original inhabitant of the land under claim, the nature of the customary law for that land, their continued allegiance to that customary law, and their continued occupation of that land” (Povinelli, 2002:157). By conferring the native title to land (i.e. the formal ownership over the land they had been inhabiting up to the day of the sentence) to the Aboriginal minority, the sentence bounded them to a form of culture that is, first of all, defined by the “majority” and, secondly, deprived of the possibility to change. Unable to wipe away in one single ruling the poverty, dispossession and inequality that the colonial enterprise had unleashed upon the Aboriginal people, the Court concerned itself with updating the Australian common law and with dispelling feelings of regret. The “alterity” represented by the natives was left unquestioned (ibid.,181).

In the cases presented here, what we see is the importance that minorities have had in the construction of the legitimacy of two modern states. In this paper's view, minorities epitomise the internal reconfiguration that the Chinese and Australian populace underwent at the moment of the creation of the state. Belonging to a minority group means being a minority by comparison with

46

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 47

a majority. What it has neglected is the possibility for minorities to represent themselves in their own terms.

Human Rights in minor Key Despite the contentious history just exposed, the “borrowing” of the term “minority” into the human rights law has allowed many to take advantage of the newly open legal space and recast the suffering caused by social exclusion in terms of rights violations.

In human rights law, the “minority” concept is used, in practice, to gather a bundle of different claims and voice them in a publicly recognised language. What the concept is enabling is the naturalisation of the particular history that has produced the form of discrimination that the “minority” concept employs as one of its defining traits. In this light, the rights of minorities enshrined in the DRM have been conceived to empower minorities only as part of the broader society in which they are unfavourably situated.

The circularity of these provisions is evident: minorities are on one hand motivated to mobilize the law to claim their rights visà-vis the state; on the other, they are prohibited to use those rights to advocate for independence and self-determination (UN Working Group on Minorities,2005:5). Moreover, minorities are prescriptively protected “against activities by third parties which have an assimilatory effect” (ibid.,6). Conversely however, the market, as the principal force affecting the cultural identity of these groups, is regulated and enhanced by the law (e.g. individual ownership versus collective ownership supported by minorities' associations), rather than being fought back. In this regard Parthasarathy has noted that “commercialisation and changes in Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

47

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 48

property law go together, and it is not only individual land holders who can deny traditional rights, but the state as well” (2002:19).

The commodification of natural resources traditionally owned by minorities (e.g. parcels of land, types of crop, etc.) is induced by the expansion of a market that finds in the state a precious ally for the spreading of its credo.

The argument of this paper recalls Karl Marx' s critique of Bruno Bauer’s ‘The Jewish Question’. In this widely known paper, Marx turns on its head Bauer's argument for the political emancipation of the Jewish people. Bauer maintains that for the Jews to achieve it, Judaism had first to be forsaken and replaced by the secular belief in the State. Thus for the Jews, Marx comments, emancipation entails the acceptance of the State as the ultimate guarantor of people's freedom. Therefore, political emancipation through legal rights amounts to a reduction of man, in the holistic sense, to the right-bearer subject. Marx's idea is that to forsake Judaism - that is for Jews to renounce their own “alterity”- means to accept the deprived status assigned to them by the (bourgeois) state. It also means to accept that once a claim (e.g. political emancipation) is framed in the natural rights discourse (in this case the right to citizenship), it is bound to be depoliticised.

As Marx concluded: “the social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism” (2008 [1844]: 27). The “minority” concept, insofar as it imposes the state as the prerequisite for any possible fulfillment of its correlative rights, could actually prevent minorities from setting forth political claims in relation to issues such as land dispossession, resource management, and the moral goals of economic development.

Conclusion

48

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 49

This paper has argued that the umbrella concept of “minority” has emerged in human rights law in relation to disempowered and impoverished groups to provide a set of rights capable of addressing a wide range of different social problems. However, the colonial history that lies behind many western countries, as well as the classificatory enterprise and the rearrangement of the society which are part of he nation-state building process, have seriously undermined its potential. The resulting concept is flawed in its capacity to address the causes of poverty and of social exclusion. What is more, the “minority” concept appears to be riddled with blind spots in its ultimate scope, namely redressing inequality. Chinese and Australian cases wherein the “minority” concept was instrumentally deployed to strengthen the State and reshape its law, have been used to describe this features. Ultimately, the circularity of the reasoning upon “minorities” has been put forward. The State, insofar as it fails to recognise the pivotal role played by the market in the loss of minorities' identities and in bypassing their political claims, is avoiding accounting for the requests to equal treatment and social justice coming from many minority group associations.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

49

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 50

References Banda F. & Chinkin C. (2004) Gender, Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. Minority Rights Group International. [Online]. <http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=115> [Accessed 24 December 2010].

Brown M. (1998) Can Culture be Copyrighted? Current Anthropology, 39 (2), pp. 193-222.

Coombe R. (2003) Works in Progress: Indigenous Knowledge, Biological Diversity and Intellectual Property in a Neoliberal Era. In: R.W. Perry and B. Maurer, eds.

Globalization Under Construction: Governmentality, Law and Identity.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 273-314.

Duffy, K. (1995) Social Exclusion and Human Dignity: Background Report for the Proposed Initiative by the Council of Europe. CDPS (95) 1 Rev., Steering Committee on Social Policy (CDPS), Activity II1b on human dignity and social exclusion, Council of Europe, Strasbourg.

Gramsci A. (2007) Quaderni del Carcere. Ed.Critica. Torino: Einaudi.

Marx K. (2008) [1843]. On the Jewish Question. Works of Karl Marx 1844. [Online]. <http://www.marxists.org/.../marx/works/1844/jewish-question/index.htm> [Accessed 24 December 2010].

Mullaney T. (2004) Ethnic Classification Writ Large: The 1954 Yunnan Province Ethnic Classification Project and its Foundations in the Republican-Era Taxonomic Thought. In: China Information 18 (2), pp. 207-241.

Parthasarathy D. (2002) Law, property rights, and social exclusion: A capabilities and entitlements approach to legal pluralism. XIIIth International Congress of the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism, 7-10 April 2002, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Povinelli E. (2002) The Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian Multiculturalism. Durham:Duke University Press.

UN Working Group on Minorities. (2005) Commentary of the Working Group on Minorities to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Geneve. (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/2). [Online]. <http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,UNSUBCOM,,,43f30ac80,0.html> [Accessed 24 December 2010].

50

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 51

Laura Portinaro, Sem Terra II

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

51

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 52

Katharina Neureiter, Bandipur

52

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 53

4 PRoGRESS FoR WoMEN is Progress for All Dieneke T. de Vos Over the course of the years, the answer to the question ‘what is poverty’ has changed significantly. Poverty is now seen as a multi-dimensional denial of human rights. Women living in poverty suffer doubly from a denial of human rights: once because of gender inequality, once on account of poverty. Poverty eradication strategies are now being formulated increasingly in terms of empowerment – the ability to exercise choice and agency, advanced through a language of ‘human rights’. In line with this school of thought, this paper argues that legal empowerment of women is the first crucial step towards achieving gender equality and eradicating poverty. This is illustrated by a critical evaluation of the United Nations Development Programme’s approach to women’s empowerment in the context of its poverty eradication strategy. It is ultimately the UNDP’s focus on legal empowerment, through which social change is affected, that gives this approach its validity.

Over time the answer to the question ‘what is poverty?’ has changed significantly. Although traditionally poverty has been defined in terms of the deprivation of basic needs, scholars of both development and human rights have increasingly come to recognise that poverty is a cross-cutting issue encompassing many aspects beyond deprivation (Uvin, 2004; UNHCHR, 2008). This cross-cutting school of thought is generally referred to as the ‘human rights-based approach to development’ (hereinafter ‘HRBA’). HRBA recognises that poverty is not simply a lack of Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

53

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 54

material resources; it is a much broader concept, encompassing issues such as social inferiority, isolation, lack of organisational capacity, and humiliation (Uvin, 2004: 123; UNHCHR, 2008: 7).

Thus, poverty is a question of disempowerment: it is a multi-dimensional denial of human rights (World Bank, 2000/2001; UNHCHR, 2008: 2; Lukas, 2007: 322; CESCR, 2001). As a result of this re-conceptualisation of the meaning of ‘poverty’, poverty eradication strategies are increasingly being formulated in terms of advancing human rights, in particular through the language of empowerment.

Essentially, ‘empowerment’ is concerned with the ability to exercise choice and agency. By giving people power over their own lives, empowerment strategies aim to attack the roots of poverty rather than mask its symptoms. Following Kabeer, ‘empowerment entails a process of change’ (emphasis in original): it is the change from disempowerment – the inability to make choices about one’s life – to empowerment – the ability to exercise meaningful choice, which ‘necessarily implies […] the ability to have chosen otherwise’ (1999: 437). As such, empowerment is about the kinds of choices people make and how these choices are embedded in and influenced by rules, norms and practices (Razavi 1999: 419).

Those advocating for strengthening the position of women in development have taken up the concept of empowerment as their primary strategy. This paper follows in that tradition. Arguing that empowerment of women is the first, crucial step towards achieving gender equality and eradicating poverty, this paper sets out to critically evaluate the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) approach to women’s empowerment. In doing

54

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 55

so, this section will first outline the theoretical framework of women, poverty and empowerment. It is through this lens that section II will test the UNDP’s approach against the benchmarks set out in the first section of this paper. At the outset of this paper, it must be noted that it is the institutional conceptualisation of UNDP’s empowerment strategy that is analysed. This paper does not aim to analyse problems encountered at the implementation stage, primarily because those problems will be country and situation specific.

Women, Poverty and Empowerment The specific focus on women in poverty eradication strategies is warranted for three reasons. Firstly, despite the affirmation of the equality of men and women in numerous international human rights instruments (e.g. the UN Charter, 1945; the UDHR, 1948; and CEDAW, 1979), the unequal position of women is a pressing issue world-wide. Women continue to suffer from discrimination on the basis of sex in all aspects of life. This is especially acute for women living in poverty, because, as Moghadam states, ‘[if] poverty is to be seen as a denial of human rights, it should be recognized that the women among the poor suffer doubly from the denial of their human rights – first on account of gender inequality, second on account of poverty’ (2005: 2).

Secondly, women suffer disproportionately from conditions of poverty. Women are often postulated as “the poorest of the poor” because ‘[they] bear a disproportionate and growing burden of poverty on a global scale’ (Chant, 2003: 3). According to UNDP, of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty over 70 percent are women (UNDP, 1995: 4; UN Millennium Campaign). This phenomenon is also known as the “feminisation of poverty”. StrateJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

55

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 56

gies specifically aimed at empowering women have a potentially greater impact than general empowerment strategies. The latter often, though unintended, bypass women because of indirect discrimination or a deeply constraining social context.

Lastly, to quote Kofi Annan: ‘there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women’ (Annan, 2005).

Research has shown that women, when empowered, tend to make decisions that positively affect not only themselves, but also their families and communities (Annan, 2007:56). In fact, Grown et al. found that ‘the well-being and survival of poor households depends disproportionately on the productive and reproductive contributions of their female members’ (2005: 34).

Empowerment of women will lead to indirect positive results for those around them. Hence, empowerment of women is the first, crucial step towards poverty eradication.

However, ‘[f]ocusing on women in isolation from their social relationships does little to address the power imbalances rooted in these social relations that lead to women’s greater vulnerability to poverty’ (Bridge, 2001: 5). Communal norms and values, and societal rules and expectations are of great impact on women’s lives and their empowerment. Accordingly, in devising poverty eradication strategies we must take note of the reality of inequality that women face. As Gita Sen illustrates, the reality of subordination of women manifests itself in two ways (1999: 689). The first is related to the sexual division of labour and the concurrent distribution of and access to resources, which are embedded in customary norms, practises and societal attitudes about the gendered role division in society. Traditionally, the role of women is constructed as a nurturing role. Conversely, men are seen as the provider, the breadwinner and/or the head of the family. The pos-

56

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 57

sibility to transcend such a (gendered) role division is especially difficult in societies and communities that adhere to customary rules and traditions. If women are not expected to make important decisions about their lives – indeed there is a pressing social expectation against the exercise of such choice and agency – this creates a deeply constraining context in which empowerment strategies are enacted.

The subordination of women further manifests itself in the nonrecognition of the informal or ‘care’ economy culminating in the manifestation of a stringent public/private dichotomy. Women’s lives are perceived to be mainly within the private domain, within the home and the family. Conversely, men’s lives extend into the public domain. The state, the law, decision-making processes and the economy pertain to men. Work and income generating activities are also perceived in these ‘public’ terms. The importance of the caretaking responsibilities that generally fall on women is neglected. Therefore, as Sen has argued, ‘[a]ntipoverty strategies that focus ostensibly on women may be ineffective if they do not take the labour and resource needs of the “care economy” sufficiently into account’ (1999: 689).

Overarching both these manifestations of inequality is the difference between formal and substantive equality. While empowerment strategies may rightly aim at specific manifestations of poverty and gender inequality in the economic, political or legal realm and change these manifestations accordingly. Yet, this may, in fact, not lead to equality if social norms inhibit their implementation. Hence, indicators of women’s empowerment must take note of the social context of women’s lives. They have to be ‘sensitive to the ways in which context will shape processes of Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

57

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 58

empowerment’ (Kabeer, 1999: 460). It is only when accompanied by social or attitudinal change that empowerment of individual women will truly change their position in life and they will be given the means to exercise agency and lift themselves (and those around them) out of poverty. It is with these benchmarks for empowerment of women in mind that the following section will analyse the UNDP’s approach to women’s empowerment.

Women’s Empowerment according to the unDP The UNDP strategy for the empowerment of women is conceptualised through the broader framework of its Gender Equality Strategy 2008-2011 (hereafter ‘UNDP GES’). According to the UNDP GES (71): … the core of empowerment lies in the ability of a woman to control her own destiny. This implies that to be empowered women must not only have equal capabilities […] and equal access to resources and opportunities […], they must also have the agency to use those rights, capabilities, resources and opportunities to make strategic choices and decisions […].

This vision is clearly permeated by a human rights-based approach to development. Indeed, the work of UNDP emanates from the guiding vision that ‘empowering women to claim their internationally agreed rights in every development sphere, and supporting governments to be both proactive and responsive in advancing the realization of these rights’ is crucial for achieving its goals (UNDP GES, 2008-2011: 2). The overall strategy pursued by the UNDP for the empowerment of women is thus a strategy of legal empowerment (as opposed to economic or participatory empowerment).

58

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 59

Following the interdisciplinary discussion on the meaning of ‘poverty’, the concept of legal empowerment over time has developed into a broader framework of rights. As postulated by Brøther, the concept of legal empowerment is now understood to be ‘a balanced framework of protection and rights in combination, [which] aims to promote overall socio-economic development in poor countries of the world’ (2008: 47). Accordingly, the UNDP defines legal empowerment as the ‘process of systematic change through which the poor and excluded become able to use the law, the legal system and legal services to protect and advance their rights and interests as citizens and economic actors’ (UNDP, 2008: 3). The legal empowerment strategy essentially aims at giving the poor voice and identity, through which they are given the means to hold rights (UNDP, 2008: 27). Following Chiweza, ‘[t]he idea of legal empowerment differs from other forms of empowerment in its explicit and implicit use of the law as a critical mechanism that facilitates recognition of rights and enables disadvantaged populations to increase control over their lives […]’ (2008: 201).

The UNDP’s legal empowerment strategy finds its normative basis in international human rights standards (UNDP, 2008: 29) and is comprised of four essential pillars: (i) labour rights; (ii) property rights and tenure security; (iii) business rights, or rights to livelihood and entrepreneurship; and (iv) access to justice and the rule of law. These four areas are particularly crucial for women’s independence and security, and thus their empowerment. Accordingly, with regard to poverty eradication, four key points of empowerment of women can be identified in the UNDP GES: Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

59

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 60

(i) the recognition of the informal economy and caretaking responsibilities of women (UNDP GES, 20082011:51 (B)(a)); (ii)

a focus on women’s entrepreneurship and employment, fair and equitable wages, job standards and work conditions (UNDP GES, 2008-2011:55);

(iii)

particular attention to the constrained economic and social rights and opportunities of women (UNDP GES, 2008-2011:51(D)(b)); and

(iv)

the promotion of women’s inheritance and property rights (UNDP GES, 2008-2011:59).

This human rights-based approach to development and poverty eradication certainly has its strengths. Most importantly, to advance goals in terms of rights brings such goals and strategies within the well-established realm of the law and thus adds legal specificity and force, and establishes accountability (Alston, 1998: 105-106; Salomon et al, 2007; UNDP, 2000: 21). Furthermore, to advance empowerment of women from a legal perspective firmly grounds women’s issues in an area that is generally considered a ‘male’ or public domain and as such may go a long way towards blurring the public/private dichotomy that continues to plague the thorough penetration of women’s rights into the legal framework. These factors all contribute to an environment conducive to systematic change, because human rights give weight and direction to the fight against underlying structures, power inequalities and inherent discriminations (Lukas, 2007: 324, 330; UNHCHR, 2008: 11; Uvin, 2004).

However, as outlined above, empowering women does not stop at giving them the rights to empower themselves. It is not legal empowerment alone that will give women the ability to exercise

60

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 61

agency in development. Specifically, as Patel illustrates, ‘[t]o the extent that […] contexts/frameworks exclude women’s individual interests and place them in a subordinate position, legal guarantees are limited as a means of empowerment’ (2002: 148). For instance, when women’s right to own or inherit property has been fully incorporated in the legal system, women might be expressly disinherited because of the persistence of customary rules against the exercise of rights by women. It must be recognised that the potential of legal reforms to effectuate women’s empowerment depends, ultimately, ‘on the local and community-level dynamics and institutions through which policy intentions work themselves out […]’ (Razavi, 1999:429). The biggest danger of relying too heavily on the value of legal reforms is that these societal forces are being overlooked.

The strength of UNDP’s approach particularly relates to this incorporation of societal elements in its legal empowerment framework. Though UNDP’s approach to women’s empowerment is clearly informed by and constituted upon the legal, rights-based framework, its operational strategy aims higher; it identifies the rights that are crucial for women’s empowerment but subsequently formulates policies that transcend this strict rights-based approach. It acknowledges that poverty is a multi-dimensional denial of the human rights of women, and as such, warrants a multi-dimensional solution. To that effect, UNDP incorporates in its policy formulation the broader framework of social, political, economic and cultural barriers to women’s empowerment. The UNDP’s approach encourages governments to recognise the caretaking and social responsibilities that fall on women through improving systems of social security and investing in research to identify the policy and social changes necessary to reduce and Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

61

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 62

redistribute care work. The UNDP approach also advocates for the incorporation of women’s rights into national laws and emphasises the involvement of women in the formulation of such laws (UNDP GES, 2008-2011: 22). Finally the UNDP tasks microcredit organisations to combine ‘financial services with awareness raising of women’s rights and efforts to build women’s confidence and skills base’ (UNDP & Government of Denmark, 2008: 47). As such, the UNDP’s institutional approach to the empowerment of women combines the force of the law with the effectiveness of social incorporation.

Conclusion Empowerment of women is becoming a well-grounded aspect in poverty eradication strategies, particularly in the strategy of the UNDP. The UNDP approaches empowerment of women from a legal perspective, focusing on four essential pillars: (i) labour rights; (ii) property rights; (iii) business rights; and (iv) access to justice and the rule of law. By advancing women’s empowerment from this human rights-based perspective, the UNDP adds legal force and specificity to its goals. Furthermore, it brings its work within the well-established realm of the law. However, even though it finds considerable force in this legal foundation, it is the combination with social change and social empowerment that gives the UNDP’s approach its strength. As the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (2005-2008) observed, it is the incorporation of women’s rights in the national legal framework together with the setting in motion of a change in cultural, social, economic and political realities that can lead to a tangible change, both nationally as well as at the level of communities and families. In advancing poverty eradication through the (legal) em-

62

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 63

powerment of women the UNDP’s strategy has great potential to actually implement change.

References Annan, K. (2005). Speech, Commission on the Status of Women marking Beijing +10, 28 February 2005. <http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sgsm9738.doc.htm>.

Annan, K. (2007). “Women and Development”. Report of the Secretary General to UNDAW, Doc. No. A/62/187, 3 August 2007.

Alston, P. (1998). “What’s in a Name: Does it really Matter if Development Policies Refer to Goals, Ideals or Human Rights?” In: H. Helmich (ed.) Human Rights in Development Cooperation. SIM Special No 22, Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, Utrecht.

Asian Development Bank (2009). Legal Empowerment for Women and Disadvantaged Groups. Mandaluyong City, Philippines: Asian Development Bank.

Banik, D. (2008). “Rights, Legal Empowerment and Proverty: An Overview of the Issues”. In: D. Banik, (Ed.) Rights and Legal Empowerment in Eradicating Poverty. Farham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, pp. 11-30.

BRIDGE (2001). Briefing Paper on the ‘Feminisation of Poverty’.

Brøther, M.E. (2008). “Legal Empowerment as a New Concept in Development: Translating Good Ideas into Action”. In D. Banik, (Ed.) Rights and Legal Empowerment in Eradicating Poverty.

Farham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, pp. 47-65.

CESCR (2001). “Statement on Poverty and the [ICESCR]” UN Doc. E/C.12/2001/10.

Chant, S. (2003). “Female Household Headship and the Feminisation of Poverty: Facts, Fictions and Forward Strategies”. New Working Paper Series, Issue 9, Gender Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. Chiweza, A.L. (2008). “The Challenges of Promoting Legal Empowerment in Developing Countries: Women’s Land Ownership and Inheritance Rights in Malawi”. In D. Banik, (Ed.) Rights and Legal Empowerment in Eradicating Poverty, Farham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, pp. 201-216.

Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (2005-2008). “Putting Empowerment into Practise – Overall Recommendations”. Grass Roots Participation to the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

63

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 64

Grown, C., G.R. Gupta & A. Kes. (2005). Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women: UN Millennium Project. Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. London: Earthscan.

Kabeer, N. (1999). “Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment” Development and Change 30 (3).

Lukas, K. (2007). “A Human Rights-Based Approach to Poverty Reduction in Macedonia”. In: M.A. Salomon, A. Tostensen and W. Vandenhole (eds.)

Casting the Net Wider: Human Rights, Development and New Duty-Bearers.

Oxford: Intersentia, pp. 313-330.

Moghadam, V.M. (2005). “The ‘Feminisation of Poverty’ and Women’s Human Rights” UNESCO SHS Paper’s in Women’s Studies/Gender Research, No. 2.

Patel, R. (2002). “Gender, Production and Access to Land: the Case for Female Peasants in India”. In: J.L. Parpart, S.M. Rai & K. Staudt (Eds.) Rethinking Empowerment: Gender and Development in a Global/Local World. London: Routledge, pp. 147-162.

Razavi, S. (1999). “Gendered Poverty and Well-being: Introduction”. Development and Change 30 (3).

Salomon, M.E., A. Tostensen and W. Vandenhole. (2007) “Human Rights, Development and New-Duty Bearers”. In: M.A. Salomon, A. Tostensen and W. Vandenhole (eds.) Casting the Net Wider: Human Rights, Development and New DutyBearers. Oxford: Intersentia, pp. 3-24.

Sen, G. (1999) “Engendering Poverty Alleviation: Challenges and Opportunities” Development and Change 30 (3).

UNDP (1995). Human Development Report 1995.

UNDP (2000). Human Development Report 2000.

UNDP (2008). “Making the Law Work for Everyone”. Report of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, Vol. I. UNDP (2008-2011). “Empowered and Equal”. Gender Equality Strategy 2008-2011.

UNDP & Government of Denmark (2008). “Innovative Approaches to Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment”. Paper for the Partnership Event: MDG3 – Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women – a Prerequisite for Achieving all MDGs by 2015, New York.

UNHCHR (2008). “Claiming the Millennium Development Goals: A Human Rights Approach”.

UN Millennium Campaign. “End Poverty 2015”. <http://www.endpoverty2015.org/goals/gender-equity>. Last visited on 15 Feb 2011.

Uvin, P. (2004). Human Rights and Development, Kumarian Press, Inc, 2004.

World Bank (2000/2001). “World Development Report 2000/2001”.

64

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 65

5 CuBAN DEVEloPMENT in a Regimented Society Adine Mitrani This paper will examine Cuba’s development trajectory in relation to the Human Poverty Index (HPI), arguing that the island demonstrates high levels of human development in a regimented society. Although modernization theorists would argue that Cuba remains largely undeveloped, the indicators of the HPI reveal certain facets of human development that prove otherwise.

Specifically Cuba’s egalitarian practices, spearheaded by the Communist revolution in the 1960s, have resulted in high levels of life expectancy, literacy rates, and standards of living. In terms of the HPI, Cubans are not as ‘poor’, or deprived of basic freedoms, as their relatively low GDP per capita may reflect. However, although the HPI effectively illustrates this unique component of Cuban society, it would be appropriate to include human rights violations as another criterion to determine development.

In the modern arena of international development, past conceptions on which economic indicators engender development are no longer agreed upon. Yet, a common theme in contemporary literature highlights the supposed need to create a universal measure of poverty reduction to determine development. As seen in the first notable framework of international development in the 1960s, modernization theory oversimplified the determinants of development with Westernized standards of modernity and income levels. Consequently, modernization efforts that became politically salient in some developing countries failed in Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

65

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 66

others. The theory was subsequently rejected on the basis that its Rostowian notion of linear development was not universally applicable. Different countries simply progressed in different ways. By downplaying a linear model and an income-based approach, a school of theorists in the 1980s emphasized a key concept of development that philosophers have valued for years: human well-being. Specifically, these theorists developed the capabilities approach, which underscores peoples’ substantive freedoms – their freedom to further themselves as valuable citizens and to engage in civic actions. The quantitative argument of this paradigm is best exemplified though the Human-Poverty Index (HPI), which was introduced in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 1997 report. By employing Cuba as a case study, this essay will argue that the HPI reveals certain dimensions of development, that are often overlooked in a country stigmatized with labels of “authoritarian” and “backwards.” Although modernization theories would argue that Cuba remains largely undeveloped as growth is more of a result of traditions than economic processes (qualifying the country as fitting in Walt Rostow’s second stage of development, “preconditions to takeoff”), the figures presented in the HPI prove otherwise. This paper will contend that the island demonstrates high levels of human development in a regimented society.

During the 1990s, the international community broadened the definition of development, thus signifying the interplay between substantive freedoms and growth. In his book ‘Development as Freedom’, Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen illustrates that freedoms are not solely an end to development, but also function “among its principle means” (Sen, 1999:10). Given that development requires an expansion of freedoms, the UNDP defines

66

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 67

poverty as a state in which “opportunities and choices most basic to human development are denied (UNDP, 2009). Due to its multidimensional character, poverty cannot be measured using income criterion alone, as income-based data does not represent many of the deprivations involved with the term. The UNDP addresses three primary types of deprivations associated with poverty – survival, education, and economic provisioning – all of which determine the HPI. Since a central tenet of the capabilities approach is that the wealth of a country lies within its people, their freedoms serve as both a driving force and final objective of development.

Despite various denigrations concerning former Cuban President Fidel Castro’s authoritarian rule, Cuban citizens experience numerous freedoms that qualify the country as one with “high human development,” according to the a UNDP report (UNDP, 2009). Cuba ranked as 17 out of 135 countries with a 4.6% HPI1 value (UNDP, 2009). At the same time, though, various reports, such as those published by Human Rights Watch, continuously assail Cuba as a government with “draconian laws and sham trials” (Carroll, 2009: 1). Furthermore, Freedom House, an American-based institution that monitors personal freedom in the international community, ranks Cuba as one of the 17 countries among the “world's most repressive regimes” (Freedom House, 2007: 1). In terms of human capabilities, though, Cuban citizens enjoy a wide array of freedoms associated with high levels of life expectancy, education, and standard of living.

Overall, Cubans are reported to have incredibly high life expectancy levels that rival many developed countries. In marginalizing the income-based approach and other modernization Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

67

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 68

theories, Sen explains how human longevity serves as critical indicator to development: “life expectancy variations relate to a variety of social opportunities that are central to development (including epidemiological policies, health care, educational facilities, and so on)” (Sen, 1999:46-47). The UNDP defines life expectancy as the probability of not surviving to age 40 for the HPI index (UNDP 2009). Cuban citizens have a 2.6% chance of dying before 40, ranking 13th out of 135 countries. This figure is considerably lower than other Latin American countries, such as Guatemala, where citizens have an 11.2% chance of dying before the age of 40 (UNDP, 2009). Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights Cubans’ longevity, stating that in 2005 Cubans normally lived longer than 77 years, while in the early 1900s the average life expectancy was 44 years (WHO, 2009:1). In Cuba’s Country Brief, the WHO asserts that the island’s remarkable increase in life expectancy “is a faithful reflection of the country’s significant reduction in mortality” (WHO, 2009:1). With a socialist system implemented in the 1960s, Cubans were guaranteed basic health and social functions that effectively contributed to their longevity.

Cuba’s socialist ideals are reflected in their educational system, which reaches out to the lowest income and marginalized groups of society. The country’s objective is outlined in the Socialist Constitution of 1976, wherein the Cuban government centralized control of the market, while providing its citizens – at no cost – access to education and health care. Additionally, the constitution, which remains in effect today, specified that the State controlled the majority of the island’s institutions, including all media outlets. By enacting egalitarian educational policies, the island is able to demonstrate an impressive literacy figure, as the UNDP

68

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 69

ranks Cuba second out of 151 countries with a .2% adult (ages 15 and above) illiteracy rate (UNDP 2009). The World Bank advocates the idea that, “education is central to development,” with proven benefits that reach beyond the individual: from improving personal health to advancing a “nations’ economic health by laying the foundation for sustained economic growth. For individuals and nations, it is key to creating, applying, and spreading knowledge—and thus to the development of dynamic, globally competitive economies.” (World Bank, 2010). Specifically, Sen examines how education standards result in societal change, in terms of reduction of mortality rates and a decrease in adolescents drug abusers (1999: 129). Paralleling the Communists in the Soviet Union, Cuban officials deliberated educational decisions in a top-down approach, stemming from Party leaders and then successfully launching them islandwide. One of the Party’s first acts was to implement a “massive literary system that mobilized university students and was tied into the politics of incorporation,” as it reached all Cuban citizens (Carnoy, 2007: 29).

During the decades following the Cuban Revolution, the Communists drafted new innovative reforms, such as placing secondary school dropouts in the military and reducing class sizes to 20 students in primary schools and 15 students in lower secondary schools (Carnoy, 2007:29). Most notably, Cuba partook in a substantial effort to equalize educational opportunities for both of its urban and rural sectors. In the 1970s, Cuba enacted a program called escuelas en el campo (schools to the country side), which built intensive boarding schools alongside agricultural fields – reflecting classic Marxist thought of integrating education and production (Cogan, 1978:30-32). Cuba’s egalitarian policies directly resulted in educational advancement, and thus contributed to the island’s remarkable level of human development.

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

69

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 70

By bureaucratically enacting educational policies, Cuba’s standard of education and literacy rates have surpassed those of its counterparts. Although the Cuban government is considered highly undemocratic by American institutions, it is committed to educating its citizens regardless of class or income. In the late 1990s, Cuba’s labor population had a degree of education that rivaled many countries with emerging economies, such as Taiwan and Chile, both of which have considerably higher GDP per capita (Brundenius 2002: 142). In his book Cuba’s Academic Advantage: Why Students in Cuba Do Better in School, Martin Carnoy empirically proves how an impoverished Cuba outperforms other Latin American countries with similar conditions, particularly Chile and Brazil (2007: 5-17). With a political system dedicated to instituting widespread educational reforms, Cubans are able to score significantly higher on UNESCO’s Latin America Laboratory of Educational Evaluation (Carnoy, 2007). Thus, the HPI reveals this facet of Cuban development that would be significantly downplayed when using a modernization framework.

Even though their social and economic choices may be limited and their political freedoms stifled, Cubans are able to gain the freedoms inherent in a quality education.

In a regimented society, Cubans have access to an array of economic provisioning: food, education, land, and health care, among others. According to the HPI, these factors all directly contribute to a country’s development level. Sen argues that programs of social service, such as universal health care, can significantly raise the quality of life even in societal contexts where income levels are low (1999: 49). The UNDP (2009) defines quality of life in relation to economic provisioning, using an unweighted average of people without access to improved water sources as

70

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 71

well as the proportion of underweight children (under five). Cuba is reported to have a 9% rate for the former measurement - 64th out of 150 countries - and a 4% rate for the latter - 22nd out of 138 countries (UNDP, 2009). Moreover, Cuba’s universal healthcare and other social benefits are highly indicative of their level of human development. When Cuba depended on more capitalistic nations, most notably Spain and the United States, it “failed to bring both democratization and a sound economy capable of effectively distributing its resources. Instead, Cuba was plagued with poverty, political corruption, and economic exploitation.”

(Ruffin, 1990: 186). Since the Revolution, WHO reports that the Cuban government successfully allocates in resources while maintaining equitable standards, thus resulting in “ a high level of health and satisfaction” among its people (2009:1).

Cuba has remained committed to the socialist ideal of egalitarianism, and continuously provides its citizens with social benefits even amidst times of economic recession. During the Cold War era, though, the Cuban government was able to successfully provide its citizens with relatively high standards of living, due to the enormous sums of money pumped in by the Soviet Union and the facilitation of Soviet-Cuban trade (Ruffin, 1990: 127-133).

Since the demise of the USSR in the 1980s, Cuba has continued to finance universal social benefits, even during the economic crisis of 1990-1993 (Brundenius, 2002: 137-157). Rebecca Burwell’s field study explores how struggling mothers effectively employ the state’s assistance to survive during economic hardships.

Burwell recounts a story of a Cuban single mother name Paula who is able to send her daughter to a semi-internado (an afterschool program with two small meals included) for a nominal fee (2004: 89). Other state-provided support includes extended medJustitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

71

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 72

ical hours for mothers, a paid maternity license, and appropriate rations of milk, eggs, and meat for families with a child under 8 years old (Burwell 2004: 89-90). The Cuban government provides such amenities in order to guarantee all of its citizens a decent standard of living, even at the expense of furthering economic growth.

Dedicated to socialist ideals, the Cuban government ensures its citizens food, education, housing, child support, and medical services. Carnoy suggests that “in Cuban political interpretation this right to health, security, and knowledge represents what they would call the ‘true’ definition of human freedom” (2007: 43). Although the government controls many facets of Cuban life, it guarantees its citizens basic freedoms central to the Human Poverty approach. The Guardian recently published a brief editorial analyzing how Cuba, with its economy in shambles, is ranked as one of the top 20 countries progressing successfully towards the UN Millennium Development Goals (Glennie, 2010: 1). In a response to the editorial, a Cuban economist wrote that 50 years of “political will” is what motivates Cubans to invest heavily in health and education sectors, while economic development is lagging behind (Glennie, 2010: 1). Hence, his response echoes the points established in the human poverty approach, as it emphasizes removing various forms of poverty.

With a heavily involved political structure, Cuban citizens are able to enjoy the three freedoms associated with the human-poverty approach: longevity of life, education, and a decent standard of living. For a over half a century Cuba has embodied socialism and as such, has still not implemented the neo-liberal economic reforms put in place by other Latin American countries in the late

72

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 73

20th century. In terms of the HPI, Cubans are not as ‘poor’, or deprived of basic freedoms, as their relatively low GDP per capita may reflect, because its society has surpassed its counterparts in life expectancy, health systems, and educational standards.

However, although Cuba is noted to have extremely high development in those three critical areas, the Cuban government continues to commit grave human rights violations as noted by the Freedom House and Human Rights Watch. Thus, the dichotomy of Cuba as a highly developed country and a repressive one can perhaps be settled if the human-poverty approach could integrate a method of measuring human rights violations as a fourth criterion. Given that development requires an expansion of freedoms, it remains important to remove human rights violations, a fundamental “unfreedom.”

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

73

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 74

References Brundenius, C. (2002) Industrial Upgrading and Human Capital in Cuba, Monreal, P (ed.)

Development Prospects in Cuba: An Agenda in the Making. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, pp. 137-157.

Burwell, R. (2004) Dónde Están los Huevos? Surviving in times of Economic Hardship: Cuban Mothers, the State and Making Ends Meet, Kilty, K. M. and Segal, E. A., (eds.). Poverty and Inequality in the Latin American - U.S. Borderlands: Implications of U.S. Interventions. Philadelphia, PA: Haworth Press, pp. 75-96.

Carnoy, M. (2007) Cuba’s Academic Advantage: Why Students Do Better in School.

Standford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Carroll, R. (2008) Cuban repression has continued under Raúl Castro, says watchdog, The Guardian [online] 18 Nov. [Accessed 26 Oct. 2010].

Cogan, J. J. (1978) Cuba's Schools in the Countryside: A Model for the Developing World?’ Phi Delta Kappa International Sept. 60(1), pp.30-32 [online]. [Accessed 26 Oct. 2010].

Comim, F., Qizilbash, M. and Alkire, S. (eds) (2008) Introduction, The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

DePalma, A. (2007) Sicko, Castro and the 120 Years Club, The New York Times 27 May. [Online, accessed 30 Oct. 2010].

Glennie, J. (2010) Why we should applaud Cuba’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, The Guardian [online] 30 Sept. [Accessed 22 Oct. 2010].

Freedom House (2007) World's Most Repressive Regimes Resistant to Change. [press release] 7 May. [Accessed 29 Oct. 2010].

Markham, C. R. (1912) The Incas of Peru. 2nd ed. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Ruffin, P. (1990) Capitalism and Socialism in Cuba: A Study of Dependency Development and Underdevelopment. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd. Sen, A. (1999) Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

United Nations Development Program (2009). Human Development Report: Cuba [online]. [Accessed 22 Oct. 2010].

World Health Organization (2009). Country Cooperation Strategy at a Glance: Cuba [online] Apr. [Accessed 29 Oct. 2010].

74

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 75

Ellen Stott, Woman Washing

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

75

MAIN_Main Facing Pages 3/9/11 12:31 AM Page 76

Acknowledgements Special thanks to the LSE Annual Fund, without the support of which the publication of this journal would not have been possible. additional thanks to: Amnesty International UK Education and Student Team; LSE Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Union, especially Anthony Crowther; Committee of the LSE SU Amnesty International Society, especially co-chairs Oliver Sidorczuk and Noemie Adam and treasurers Daniela Schofield and Jenny McEneaney The editor would also like to thank Hannah Darnton, Eric Gade, Katharina Neureiter, Daniela Schofield, Bhavna Tripathy, and Troy White for all their hard work and dedication.

76

Justitia Omnibus Vol. 1 No. 1

Cover_4mm_Correct 3/8/11 4:50 PM Page 2

Cover_4mm_Correct 3/8/11 4:50 PM Page 1

Justitia OmNibus

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are ordinary people from around the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect individuals wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.â&#x20AC;?

- Purpose of Amnesty International www.amnesty.org.uk

Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) is a student-run journal established by Amnesty International at the London School of Economics and Political Science Student Union that publishes original academic work addressing contemporary issues and debates in the field of human rights.

For its inaugural issue, Justitia Omnibus provides insight into the many dimensions of global poverty and human rights, one of the priority campaigns of Amnesty International UK. With the 2015 deadline for the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people in extreme poverty rapidly approaching, this journal seeks to develop a nuanced understanding of poverty in relation to many different fields of study, as well as its impact on specific human rights issues.

Vol. 1 No. 1

Justitia OmNibus Vol. 1 No. 1 Spring 2011

Vol. 1 No. 1 Spring 2011

Justitia OmNibus P overt y and Hum an R igh ts