Democracy, Human Rights, and Human Development

1. Democracy,Human Rights, and Human Development Paul Bacon SILS Spring 2010

2. What we have done so far • We studied two types of human rights, both mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights • Civil and political rights • Also specified in International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights • Social and economic rights • Also specified in International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

3. What next? • We have used the Freedom House survey to measure and study respect and abuse of civil and political rights. • We now turn to economic and social rights. • To do so, we will look at the Human Development Report 2002. • http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2002/en/

4. What is the Human Development Report (HDR)? • Published annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) • Very reliable source of information on economic and social rights. • We use the 2002 report because it examines connections between democracy and development.

5. Review of UDHR • Economic and social rights mentioned in UDHR: • 16. The right to marry, and found a family. • 16. The protection and assistance of families. • 22. The right to social security, and the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. • 23. The right to work. • 23. The right to just and favorable conditions of work. • 25. The right to an adequate standard of living for self and family, including food, housing, clothing and medical care. • 26. The right to education.

6. Review of Covenant • In addition to those in UDHR, three other rights are mentioned in International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. • The protection of and assistance to children. • Freedom from hunger. • Compulsory primary education.

7. Contents of HDR 2002 • Chapter I of the report offers a comprehensive survey of the state and progress of human development. • It first looks at global trends in political participation and democracy. • It then considers the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). • Finally the chapter assesses progress towards these goals.

8. What are the MDGs? • Eights goals to be achieved by 2015. • Adopted by UN General Assembly in 2000 in the form of the United Nations Millennium Declaration • heads of state and government recognized ‘their collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level’.

9. The Eight Millennium Goals • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. • Achieve universal primary education. • Achieve gender equality and empower women. • Reduce child mortality. • Improve maternal health. • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. • Ensure environmental sustainability. • Develop a global partnership for development. • We examine 1-6 today.

10. Features of the MDGs • MDGs set quantifiable targets for each goal (except goal 8 – Global Partnership) • HDR 2002 shows progress towards the goals for each country. Countries are divided into three categories; • Achieved the goal, or on track. • Lagging far behind, or slipping back. • No data (which often implicitly means lagging behind). • MDGs only apply to non-OECD countries, in other words, they apply to developing (or poor) countries.

11. Progress towards MDGs • The progress towards MDGs is not very positive. • The promotion of economic and social rights is less successful than the promotion of civil and political rights. • Many countries made substantial progress towards the goals, but many are also unlikely to achieve the goals.

12. Progress towards MDGs • 55 countries are on track to achieve three quarters of the MDGs or more. • 31 countries are on track to achieve one half to three-quarters of the MDGs. • 33 countries are on track to achieve less than half of the MDGs.

13. Goal 1 - Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger Target 1a: halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day. • In 1999, • 2.8 billion people lived on less than $2 each day. • 1.2 billion people lived on less than $1 each day. • This also means: • 45% of the global population lived on less than ¥216 each day. • Roughly 1 in 5 people in the world lived on less than ¥108 each day.

14. Goal 1 - Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger • The % of people living on less than $1 per day: • 29% (1990) to 22.7% (1999). • Significantly decline in percentage terms • Actual number of people in this situation • 1,276 million to 1,151 million • Did not decline much, due to rapid population growth • In Sub-Saharan Africa, • 242 million to 300 million • The number increased! Sub-Saharan Africa >>

15. Goal 1 - Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger Per capita income and income distribution • Between 1975 and 2000, all but two regions experienced an increase in per capita income. • East Asia/Pacific and the OECD countries experienced the most growth. • The per capita income of Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Eastern Europe and CIS actually fell between 1975 and 2000.

16. Goal 1 - Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger Income Inequality • In 73 countries where data is available, income inequality within the country: • increased in 48 countries. • did not change in 16 countries. • fell in 9 countries.

17. Goal 1 - Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger • Target 1b: Halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger. • In 1997-99, there were an estimated 815 million undernourished people in the world. • 57 countries have halved hunger, or are on track to do so by 2015. • However, progress is not even. • 24 countries are far behind the target. • The situation got worse in 15 countries. Six of these countries were from Sub-Saharan Africa. • At this rate, it would take 60-70 years to halve the number of malnourished people in the world.

18. Goal 2 – Achieving Primary Universal Education Target 2a: Ensure that children everywhere – boys and girls alike – complete a full course of education. • Primary school enrolments rose from 80% (1990) to 84% (1998) • 113 million of 680 million children are not in school. • 51 countries have achieved the goal or are on track, 93 countries have no data. • Sub-Saharan Africa contains 14 countries which are behind the target, or slipping back. • Enrolment and completion of primary education are very different concepts.

19. Goal 2 – Achieving Primary Universal Education Literacy • Substantial improvement in all regions. • 10% to 20 % of the population of OECD countries are estimated to be functionally illiterate.

20. Goal 3 – Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women Target 3a: Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education by 2015. • There is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality. • 64% of illiterate adults are women. • 60% of children not enrolled in primary school are women.

21. Goal 3 – Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women • 90 countries achieved the goal or on track for gender equality in primary education. • 81 countries achieved this goal in secondary education.

22. Other Types of Sex Discrimination • Womens average wages are only 75% of those which men earn. • Domestic violence against women is common. • Female infants are much more likely to be killed or aborted. • There are 100 million “missing” women. • 50 million are missing from India. • A study found that 7999 of 8000 aborted kids at Bombay clinic were female. • In 43 countries, gender disparity in literacy rates is wider than 15%.

23. Goal 4 – Reducing Child Mortality Target 4a: Reduce infant and under-five mortality rates by two-thirds. • 11 million children die from preventable causes each year (or 30,000 children per day). • By 2006, this figure had dropped to 9.7 million (26,500 children per day) • Lack of nutrition, sanitation, maternal health and education are major causes.

24. All regions reduced their mortality rate. • 85 countries are on track. • In Sub-Saharan Africa, 34 of 44 countries are far behind or slipping back.

25. Goal 4 – Reducing Child Mortality • Immunization rates increased significantly in the 1980s, and leveled off in the 1990s at around 75%. • Recently, the percentage of children immunized in Sub-Saharan Africa has fallen below 50%. • A girl born in Japan has a 50% chance of seeing the 22nd century, but a child born in Afghanistan has a 1 in 4 chance of dying before the age of 5.

26. Goal 5 – Improving Maternal Health Target 5a: reduce maternal mortality rates by three-quarters. • More than 500,000 women die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth each year. - 1 in 13 in Sub-Saharan Africa - 1 in 4085 in OECD countries By 2005, these figures were: - 1 in 22 for Sub-Saharan Africa - 1 in 7,300 in OECD countries - (1 in 7 in Niger) - 1 in 17,400 in Sweden

27. Goal 5 – Improving maternal health • Only 29% of births are attended by skilled personnel in South Asia • 37% in Sub-Saharan Africa. • There is not enough data on this issue to assess progress towards goal 5a.

28. Goal 6 – Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases Target 6a: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. • By the end of the year 2000 almost 22 million people had died of AIDS. More than 40 million people are living with AIDS, 75% of whom are living in Sub-Saharan Africa. • Anti-retroviral drugs are too expensive. They cost $300 each year, which is well over half of the GDP per capita of Sub-Saharan Africa.

29. Botswana is the country worst affected by HIV/AIDS. • More than 1/3 of adults are affected by HIV/AIDS • Life expectancy is 36 years

30. Goal 6 – Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases Target 6b: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. • 300 million people are infected with malaria (90% of them Sub-Saharan Africa), and 1 million die each year. • 60 million people are infected with tuberculosis (TB), and 2 million die each year.