Keeping Up with the Fashion: Human Rights and Global Public Goods

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
Malcolm Langford

AbstractThe strategic genius of some recent development discourses lies in their appropriation or reappropriation of hegemonic ideas and practices. However, the choice of a conservative framework for progressive goals may mean that the compromise may be more than symbolic. The global public goods movement seeks to resuscitate earlier economic ideas about the economic utility of the public provision of certain goods but in this case at a supranational level. The book Towards New Global Strategies: Public Goods and Human Rights attempts to engage with the idea from a human rights perspective. While there are some notable contributions, much of the book founders on a failure to understand the different, and sometimes confused, strands of the global public goods thinking and properly engage with them from a human rights perspective. This article tries to tease out what appears to be the two diffent schools of thought of global public goods and the human rights questions that should be posed to them. Given the dominance of the economics discourse and the enduring nationalism in much international development cooperation, instrumental arguments for the utility of human rights and development should be cautiously welcomed but also carefully critiqued.

2014 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Krisch

The consensual structure of the international legal order, with its strong emphasis on the sovereign equality of states, has always been somewhat precarious. In different waves over the centuries, it has been attacked for its incongruence with the realities of inequality in international politics, for its tension with ideals of democracy and human rights, and for standing in the way of more effective problem solving in the international community. While surprisingly resilient in the face of such challenges, the consensual structure has seen renewed attacks in recent years. In the 1990s, those attacks were mainly “moral” in character. They were related to the liberal turn in international law, and some of them, under the banner of human rights, aimed at weakening principles of nonintervention and immunity. Others, starting from the idea of an emerging “international community,” questioned the prevailing contractual models of international law and emphasized the rise of norms and processes reflecting community values rather than individual state interests. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the focus has shifted, and attacks are more often framed in terms of effectiveness or global public goods. Classical international law is regarded as increasingly incapable of providing much-needed solutions for the challenges of a globalized world; as countries become ever more interdependent and vulnerable to global challenges, an order that safeguards states’ freedoms at the cost of common policies is often seen as anachronistic. According to this view, what is needed—and what we are likely to see—is a turn to nonconsensual lawmaking mechanisms, especially through powerful international institutions with majoritarian voting rules.


Author(s):  
Marta Estrada Guillén ◽  
Diego Monferrer Tirado ◽  
Juan Carlos Fandos

ABSTRACTThe subjects of Management (Bachelor of Business Administration) and Promotion (Bachelor of Advertising and Public Relations) perform charity market promotional campaign organized by the students of nursery and primary public school in Castellón (Spain). The objetives and competences defined in the project were successfully achieved, improving teamwork, communication, critical capacity and social awareness of the university. The cooperative methodology significantly increased motivation to effectively manage the transmission of knowledge from classroon to society.RESUMENLas asignaturas dirección comercial (licenciatura de administración y dirección de empresas) y promoción comercial (licenciatura de publicidad y relaciones públicas) realizan la campaña promocional del mercadillo solidario organizado por los alumnos de infantil y primaria de un colegio público en la localidad de Castellón (España). los objetivos y competencias definidas en este proyecto fueron alcanzados de forma satisfactoria, mejorando el trabajo en grupo, la comunicación, la capacidad critica y la concienciación social de los universitarios. la metodología cooperativa incrementó notablemente la motivación al aconseguir gestionar de manera eficaz la transmisión del conocimiento de las aulas a la sociedad.


Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hemel

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 1684-1707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saif Shahin ◽  
Zehui Dai

This study develops a technosocial framework for assessing the efficacy of global aid agencies’ use of Twitter’s algorithmic affordances for participatory social change. We combine computational and interpretive methods to examine tweets posted by three global aid agencies—U.S. Agency for International Development, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the International Committee of the Red Cross—as well as public tweets that mention these agencies ( N = ~100,000). Results indicate that when an agency (a) replies to or retweets public tweeters, (b) includes publicly oriented hashtags and hyperlinks in its tweets, and (c) tweets about topics that the public is also interested in and tweeting about, the social network that develops around the agency is more interconnected, decentralized, and reciprocal. Our framework can help development institutions build more participatory social networks, with multiple voices helping determine collective goals and strategies of collective action for sustainable social change. We also discuss the theoretical implications and methodological significance of our approach.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Tengnäs

The global competition for African land is at a historical peak. Local effects of large-scale land acquisitions depend on multiple factors, but women's rights and livelihoods are generally very fragile due to historical and contemporary injustices. Good land governance is important for turning the land acquisitions into equal and equitable development opportunities. The human rights-based approach promotes good governance by adding strength and legal substance to the principles of participation and inclusion, openness and transparency, accountability and the rule of law, and equality and nondiscrimination. By empowering rights-holders and enhancing duty-bearers' capacity, international development cooperation can lead to wider and more gender-balanced inclusion of civil society in negotiations of large-scale land acquisitions and greater adherence of duty-bearers to the rule of law. This is especially important in African countries with large amounts of land and weak legal and institutional frameworks to protect rights, especially those of women.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iffat Idris

This review looks at the extent to which LGBT rights are provided for under law in a range of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and the record on implementation/enforcement, as well as approaches to promote LGBT rights and inclusion. SIDS covered are those in the Caribbean, Pacific, and Atlantic-Indian Ocean-South China Sea (AIS) regions. The review draws on a mixture of grey literature (largely from international development agencies/NGOs), academic literature, and media reports. While the information on the legal situation of LGBT people in SIDS was readily available, there was far less evidence on approaches/programmes to promote LGBT rights/inclusion in these countries. However, the review did find a number of reports with recommendations for international development cooperation generally on LGBT issues. Denial of LGBT rights and discrimination against LGBT people is found to varying extents in all parts of the world. It is important that LGBT people have protection in law, in particular the right to have same-sex sexual relations; protection from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation; and the right to gender identity/expression. Such rights are also provided for under international human rights conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while the Sustainable Development Goals are based on the principle of ‘leave no one behind'.


Author(s):  
Ian Mitchell

AbstractCountries and governments are divided on the fora and mechanisms for agreeing on effective development cooperation. But progress can be made on measuring what countries are doing in different areas of cooperation. This chapter looks at how we can assess the quality of development cooperation. It sets out a framework for measuring development cooperation across three areas: development finance; country policies affecting the exchange of goods, people, ideas, and capital; and global public goods. It considers the availability of measures against that framework and concludes on how these measures can be developed, or where new measures are needed, to provide a holistic assessment of development cooperation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 05 (04) ◽  
pp. 533-555
Author(s):  
Jiang Lu ◽  
Wu Zetao

In the 21st century, the traditional model of official development assistance (ODA) promoted by developed countries is faced with many challenges. One of them is the emergence of the “public-private partnership (PPP)” model for international development cooperation (IDC), which has become increasingly popular among developed countries and international organizations over the past decade. This article explores the origin, meaning, and mechanism of the PPP model, and discusses the major obstacles it encounters in practice. The article also compares PPP with China’s “development package” model, and puts forward some policy recommendations on China’s participation in IDC. Although China is a pioneer in carrying out public-private cooperation in international development, it needs to fully reflect on its experience, so as to formulate clearer guiding principles and management rules on public-private cooperation. It is also imperative for the country to set up relevant institutions and mechanisms to promote PPP practices.


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