A Human Rights Based Approach To Development In India

Over the last twenty years, India has enacted legislation to turn development goals such as food security, primary education, and employment into legal rights for its citizens. But enacting laws is different from implementing them. A Human Rights Based Approach to Development in India examines a diverse range of human development issues over a period of rapid economic growth in India. Demonstrating why institutional and economic development are synonymous, this volume details the many obstacles hindering development. The contributors ultimately ask whether India’s approach to development is working and whether its right to develop is at odds with its international commitments.

* Comprehensive summary and case studies of major of rights-based approach to development * Arranged in point/counterpoint format The associations between human rights and the work of development activists didn’t receive widespread attention from international development agencies until the mid to late 1990s. The most visible sign that attitudes were changing occurred when the UN held its World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995. From that point on, rights became a stated objective of most agencies, regardless of the level of effort they actually spent in incorporating these ideas into their activities. Now, over a decade after that crucial turning point, Rights-Based Approaches to Development reflects on the effect of the development community’s major shift in focus from market-based frameworks to a rights-based one. Contributors, both academics and practitioners, reflect on their experience with rights-based development activities. They draw out the current debates, theoretical and practical concerns and achievements, and larger implications about poverty and the relationship between citizens and the state. With powerful insights into where the development community has been and where it needs to go, Rights-Based Approaches to Development is critical to understanding the role of social justice in the context of development.

In 2003, the United Nations adopted a common rights-based approach to development in their efforts to promote an international standard of human rights throughout the world. The approach emphasizes economic, social, and cultural rights, but plays down the role of civil and political rights in development. Intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies operate only at the invitation and sufferance of their hosts, and states retain full sovereignty and control over their territory; and the direct promotion of civil and political rights by foreign organizations has seemed beyond the ability of multilateral development agencies. But as Development and Human Rights shows, UN agencies have begun to take on a remarkable set of development priorities that, while carefully circumscribed and defined, constitute greater involvement in a state's internal affairs than anyone would have considered in the past. In this book, Joel E. Oestreich presents the first full-length study of how international agencies evaluate the rights situation in a single country, and the first study to look at both the good and the bad in a rights-based approach. It looks particularly at the human rights challenges faced in India, considering the work of five UN agencies: UNICEF, the UN Development Programme, the World Bank, the UN Fund for Population Activities, and UN Women. Over the course of the book, Oestreich summarizes how the UN navigates this difficult political terrain, and how effectively these policies are being implemented. Development and Human Rights ultimately considers how rights-based approaches fit in the traditional discourse on human rights, and the ability of these agencies to initiate meaningful change on state behavior in the rights arena.

The Right to Development (RTD), a concept that emerged in the 1970s, is one of the most debated and contentious issues in international relations. RTD builds on the rights based approach to development, seeking to integrate the norms and principles of human rights with policies and plans to promote development. Despite its importance for the world’s poor and dispossessed, a great deal of definitional confusion still surrounds the concept./-//-/This primer introduces the concept of RTD as well as discusses its practical application in the Indian setting. It is divided accordingly into two sections, the first of which traces the origins and the evolution of the idea of RTD. This section identifies the defining parameters and content of RTD and focuses especially on the three rights—the rights to food, education and health—that have been identified as a ‘good starting point’ for the implementation of RTD. The last chapter in this section underscores the importance of women’s rights in order to emphasise the need to focus on safeguarding and promoting the human rights of vulnerable groups./-//-/Part II covers substantially the Indian situation relating to RTD. The first chapter in this section provides an overview of the legal and institutional mechanism in India for the protection of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular. The next chapter examines the implementation of the rights to food, health and education. The last chapter in this section details the functioning of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) —which has emerged in recent years as an important mechanism for securing social justice—and the challenges and limitations of this mechanism.

Outlines a human rights-based approach to carbon finance, a framework for mainstreaming human rights into carbon project implementation.

Despite advancements in technological and engineering fields, there is still a digital gender divide in the adoption, use, and development of information communication technology (ICT) services. This divide is also evident in educational environments and careers, specifically in the STEM fields. In order to mitigate this divide, policy approaches must be addressed and improved in order to encourage the inclusion of women in ICT disciplines. Gender Gaps and the Social Inclusion Movement in ICT provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of gender and policy from developed and developing country perspectives and its applications within ICT through various forms of research including case studies. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as digital identity, human rights, and social inclusion, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, academicians, researchers, students, and technology developers seeking current research on gender inequality in ICT environments.