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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Human Rights Reader 115</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">IT WILL BE VIA POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMS
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">THAT HUMAN RIGHTS WILL BE
FULFILLED.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 2.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 2.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">To deny people their rights is, by definition, a way to
keep them poor.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">1. Human Rights (HR) are not just obligations to be
complied with; they are an intrinsic dimension of development. That is why when
they are denied --even if not deliberately violated-- the full potential of
development cannot be realized. Therefore, an absence of respect of human
(people’s) rights means social exclusion and marginalization invariably persist.
This, in turn, often means little or no access by the excluded and marginalized
to productive assets.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">2. As obvious as this is, suggesting rights-based
solutions to this problem always meets a high degree of resistance. This, mainly
because sustainable development is inseparable from a rights-based empowering
development.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">3. Sustainable development is the distributional
dimension of the benefits accruing from the process of physical, financial,
human, natural, institutional and cultural capital accumulation… and the
economic growth paradigm pushed by the Establishment is basically a process of
capital accumulation. Only the empowerment of the right-less can break the
economic growth paradigm.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">4. This is why, <B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Human Rights values and principles must be
regarded as, precisely, another form of capital!
<o:p></o:p></B></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">5. In order to escape poverty, HR are <U>the</U> form of
capital endowment that the poor need to accumulate (within the context of all
the forms of capital listed above). This key principle offers a common framework
to assess how violations of HR become major determinants of entrenched poverty,
because they directly limit the ability of the poor to accumulate HR capital, as
well as indirectly limit their access to other forms of
capital.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">6. Any process to achieve collective welfare is thus
permeated by issues of HR. This means that any policy prescription in welfare
economics rests on the application of HR principles.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is why HR are more than just laws,
rules and regulations to be enforced and complied with. HR must be understood as
an integral part of any initial endowment that the poor can draw upon to
allocate, use, manage and control all other forms of
capital.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">7. In that way, HR contribute crucially to the efficient
andfair ‘allocation of HR and all other forms of capital’. The
state-of-HR-capital of the people is the most powerful explanation of how
resources are allocated. This makes the mainstreaming of HR a must, so much so
that this is to become the key element of development
work.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">8. HR are thus to be seen as a significant
modifier-of-the-enabling-factors-needed-for-development. Exclusion from any form
of HR capital explains underdevelopment and poverty. Precisely because they are
uncoupled from issues of human capital and rights, infrastructure development
projects have not attained effectiveness and have actually been of marginal
benefit to the poor.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">9. HR, as an initial capital endowment, imply a number of
things in regards to equity, social justice and poverty alleviation, e.g., wage
levels depend on whether HR are effectively realized or
not.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">10. For people-who-are-rich-in-all-forms-of-capital, HR
(as another form of capital) may not be important. For the poor it is essential.
This is why HR capital is so important in addressing the challenges of poverty
and inclusion.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">In addition, HR as capital is important in relation to
the ways in which governments and societies define anti-poverty policies. The
proactive acquisition of HR capital is an essential component of any serious
empowerment strategy. This, because empowerment leads to a societal
re-distribution of rights and obligations; empowerment ultimately affects how
all forms of capital are allocated and used in society. This is why HR must be
seen as a key dimension of development rather than as a residual factor in
economic and financial decisions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>To disregard the importance of HR is tantamount to keeping people in
poverty.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Claudio Schuftan,
</SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Ho Chi Minh City</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV
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<P class=MsoNormal
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><A href="mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Mostly
adapted from International Social Science Journal, No.180, UNESCO, 2004: A Sfeir
Younis, Violations of HR as determinants of
poverty.</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>