Abstract
This chapter explores the nexus of the Right to Development (RTD) as an inalienable human right within a rapidly changing global order. Originally, the RTD has been at the forefront of the developing world’s agenda, particularly for its emancipatory potential. The RTD has struggled with diverse understandings regarding what the right entails and how to secure it. Its international dimensions, in terms of its collective and individual emancipatory potential for the developing world, are frequently overlooked. This paper explores this dimension by interrogating the conceptual dynamism of the RTD and aligning it within a reconfigured world order. It argues that current reconfiguration(s) provide an opportunity to harness to fulfil all dimensions, particularly the international dimensions, of this right, taking the example of Sino-African relations as an increasingly prominent configuration.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Transformation’ in this sense refers to social transformation in which there is an equal distribution of opportunity regarding the factors of production (this includes not only traditional economic production but additionally the production of knowledge, and so on).
- 2.
Critique of the RTD has related to its necessity, and thus the potential redundancy of the right vis-à-vis existing first- and second-generation rights, its justiciability, referring to debate over whether or not the right should be regarded as a positive or negative right, and to its scope, and thus the boundaries of the right. In her inaugural lecture, Olajumoke Oduwole highlights these critiques, emphasising the scepticism of both the practical and legal efficacy of the right. See Oduwole 2014.
- 3.
It is my position that the issues of corruption , clientelism and patronage are rife and problematic for development; the persistence of these issues lies in an intricate web of factors inherent in the post-colonial state.
- 4.
This imbalance is not only in the form of political power, but also with regards to the flow of information—usually from North to South—and its monopolisation, which Filipe Gomez Isa describes. Isa warns against such ‘cultural and informational monopoly’, stating that it ‘could end up seriously endangering political, social and ideological pluralism’ (Isa 2005: 26).
- 5.
This was adopted despite controversy regarding the scope, limitations and implications of the right, as vocalised by several member states.
- 6.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, was a direct result of the Northern experiences of the atrocities of the Second World War and drew extensively on the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution (1791). See Rich 2002, ‘Solidarity Rights Give Way Solidifying Rights,’ Dialogue, 21(3): 25.
- 7.
Just as there are pitfalls in absolute individual rights, so too are there cautions against absolute group rights. It is necessary to understand the balance and trade-offs of both sets of rights, as well as the conditions under which they can be legitimately invoked.
- 8.
Examples include the redress of systemic inequality along racial lines through affirmative action, or quota systems as is highlighted in the UN document ‘Realizing the Right to Development’: 60.
- 9.
- 10.
The idea of ‘non-human rights’ strategies requires further interrogation and is related to a broader problem concerning what a ‘human rights’-centred strategy looks like or entails. The characterisation of East Asian models as having eschewed human rights concerns stems from a particular school of thought within Northern academia that places the emphasis on civil and political rights. It can, however, be equally and legitimately argued that the East Asian model in fact considered socio-economic and cultural rights as the driving force behind their development process. But this difference in emphasis on a particular set of human rights does not negate the East Asian experience as being non-compliant with international human rights standards.
- 11.
State-led macroeconomic planning, of which one characteristic is scepticism of neoliberalism and the centrality of ‘good governance’ , as defined by the Washington Consensus.
- 12.
Such as sustainable development, equality and the environment.
- 13.
This chapter does, however, focus on the international dimension, as it is frequently overlooked.
- 14.
The parameters of the RTD are closely connected to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In its famous General Comment no. 3, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states as follows: “The Committee notes that the undertaking…neither requires nor precludes any particular form of government or economic system…in terms of political and economic systems, the Covenant is neutral and its principles cannot accurately be described as being predicated exclusively upon the need for, or the desirability of a socialist or a capitalist system, or a mixed, centrally planned, or laissez-faire economy.” UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 3: The Nature of States Parties’ Obligations (Art. 2, Para. 1, of the Covenant), 14 December 1990, E/1991/23, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838e10.html [accessed 21 January 2016].
- 15.
As previously mentioned, the report of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner (2013) echoes that there are no particular dictates on the political, social or economic systems required to achieve development (p. 60).
- 16.
The example of Chinese marketisation of the 1970s allowed for many to be brought out of poverty (Moyn 2015: 17).
- 17.
See, for example, Stiglitz (2015) on the opportunities offered by the AIIB. While relevant, the issue of a different intellectual framework is not addressed in this chapter due to limitations on length.
- 18.
Mushwana, T. 2015 for example, notes the alternative principles upon which South-South cooperation are founded as opposed to traditional North-South development cooperation.
- 19.
Self-determination refers to ‘the right of a people to determine its own destiny. In particular, the principle allows a people to choose its own political status and to determine its own form of economic, cultural and social development…the importance lies in the right of choice’ (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Conference 1993: 6). However, it is notable that self-determination ‘is recognised in international law as a right of process (and not of outcome) belonging to peoples and not to states or governments’ (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Conference 1993: 6). The line of argumentation of this chapter, however, assumes interdependence between peoples, their chosen governments (in a variety of forms as long as legitimacy is conferred on the process and/or government via popular sovereignty ) and thus states.
- 20.
Proclamation of Teheran, Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights, 22 April–13 May 1968. For the text of the Proclamation, see Boutros-Ghali (1995: 247).
- 21.
- 22.
For an illustration of how international relations theory in particular obfuscates alternate conceptualisations and the necessity to open up scholarship to these alternatives, see for example, Langlois (2015).
- 23.
Principles of solidarity have been used in various arguments particularly vis-à-vis social, cultural and economic rights. Such arguments, however, are underpinned by particular moral or normative convictions that are often illusory in an anarchical international system. Note that ‘solidarity’ here does not refer to the idea of solidarity rights as group rights, but rather to solidarity in the form of integrated international cooperation.
- 24.
See, for example, the Zambian mining incident on Deborah Brautigam’s blog. ‘Human Rights Watch Report on Chinese-Owned Mines in Zambia’, China in Africa: The Real Story. November 11, 2011. Available online at: http://www.chinaafricarealstory.com/2011/11/human-rights-watch-report-on-chinese.html
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
As is noted in Stiglitz’s piece on the AIIB, ‘China itself is a testament to the extent to which infrastructure investment can contribute to development’ (2015).
- 27.
- 28.
Mutual benefit is frequently invoked in ‘South–South’ discourses, but is often read purely as political rhetoric in the guise of ‘friendship’. There is a general denial of genuine collaboration for optimal gains for all parties within academic discourses. However, such negation ignores shared histories, values and experiences as valid foundations of engagement. Thus, the categories and concepts used in traditional Western scholarship to explain international relations are inadequate and problematic in their representativeness for the host of factors to be considered. This in turn limits our understanding of international relations to the categories given by dominant scholarship.
- 29.
Here, other aspects refer to an assumed lack of African agency in dealings with China. These assumptions are often bolstered by a notion of corrupt and colluding African state elites and a particular understanding of the Chinese state as necessarily ‘authoritarian’. Arguments made from this perspective, while in some cases accurate on certain accounts, are generally uninformed as to the nature and character or Chinese society, government and history. Often these analyses are complicit in reproducing problematic narratives of China, Africa and international relations. See, for example, Asumah (2014).
- 30.
While the scope of this chapter does not allow for an in-depth analysis of the issue of rhetoric, the same accusation of ‘rhetoric’ could be levelled against Northern development initiatives using a particular rhetoric of ‘altruism’ and ‘aid’. Such arguments therefore do not hold much weight or insight into the fundamental issues that drive international cooperation.
- 31.
‘Crossing the river by feeling the stones’ is a saying coined by Deng Xiaoping and denotes the experience of pioneering particularly economically in ‘unchartered’ terrain with no set roadmap. It is an experimental and piecemeal way of developing or moving forward. Thus, one traverses the unknown way of development by a process of gradual and circumstantial learning, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all linear approach. Crossing the river while feeling the stones thus allows for learning along the way, moving a few steps forward and perhaps a few to the side or back, in order to progressively cross the river in the most ‘careful’ or deliberate, cautious, diligent and/or prudent way.
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Links, S. (2018). The Right to Development in a Reconfigured Global Order: Conceptual Dynamism and South–South Cooperation. In: Adeniran, A., Ikuteyijo, L. (eds) Africa Now! . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62443-3_2
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