By Prof. Tomer Broude* and Bruck Teshome** Hebrew University in Jerusalem Faculty of Law, Minerva Centre for Human Rights Jerusalem, Israel

Transcription

1 Integrating the Right to Development in the University Teaching of Human Rights, Development and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem By Prof. Tomer Broude* and Bruck Teshome** Hebrew University in Jerusalem Faculty of Law, Minerva Centre for Human Rights Jerusalem, Israel Questions 1. Is the right to development (R2D), as elaborated in the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development (DR2D), a component of any course in your university or research? If yes, please provide details. 2. How do you see the role of the right to development in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (hereafter 2030 Agenda) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and conversely, the role of the new agenda and goals in realizing the right to development? 3. We welcome your thoughts if any, on how the right to development can be better integrated in university teaching of human rights, development and related courses as well as in academic research. Please let us know if you wish to be included in our mailing lists for future right to development activities and information. *Prof. Tomer Broude is the Sylvan M. Cohen Chair in Law, and the Vice Dean at the Faculty of Law and an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the academic director of a Joint Interdisciplinary Programme with the Freie University of Berlin entitled Human Rights Under Pressure (HR-UP) at the Minerva Center for Human Rights. Contact: tomerbroude@gmail.com **Bruck Teshome is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law, where he is writing his PhD thesis as a HR-UP Doctoral Fellow at the Minerva Centre for Human Rights. His PhD thesis is on the Right to Development, and the role of the Democratic Developmental State in realising the Right. Contact: bruckefe@gmail.com 1

2 I. Courses and Research Relevant to the Right to Development (R2D) In recent years the R2D has been integrated in several courses and programs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, primarily at the Department of International Relations and the Faculty of Law. a. Developing Countries in the International Economic System A seminar taught by Prof. Tomer Broude at the Faculty of Law and at the Department of International Relations. The interdisciplinary seminar devotes several sessions to exploring the relevance of the R2D in the general economic and social debates on international development. b. The Right to Development in the Bedouin Communities in the Negev In the context of a joint summer school with McGill Law Faculty on economic and social rights, an intensive course on the Right to Development was taught by Prof. Tomer Broude and Prof. Rene Provost, with subsequent research conducted by students from Israel and Canada regarding the application of the R2D and its several components to the development problems of the Bedouin communities in the south of Israel. c. The Law Faculty s International Human Rights Law Clinic The clinic, directed by Prof. Tomer Broude and Av. Bana Shougry-Badarne involves applied legal advocacy informed with rigorous legal research. The R2D has been incorporated as an academic theme in several of the clinic s projects. d. Glocal Community Development Studies MA program This is a development focused MA program at the Faculty of Social Sciences, under the direction of Prof. Guy Harpaz. Some of the courses and projects touch on the concept of the R2D. The right to Development is addressed in the course on introduction to development (a compulsory course), Seminar on international development (a compulsory course), Development and economics (a compulsory course) and development and international relations (an elective course). Although, the analysis of R2D has been very limited so far in the program, there is an intention to deepen the analysis in the coming year, mainly in the introductory course on Development. e. Doctoral Research Bruck Teshome, HR-UP Doctoral Fellow s Research Realising the Right to Development in the Age of Globalisation: The Developmental State in Context The R2D is one of the rights that HR-UP programme is looking at through the research topic of Bruck Teshome. All participants of the HR-UP programme, are expected to present their research periodically, and that means that within the auspices of the programme, participants have the opportunity to learn about each other s research. As 2

3 such, we surmise that the HR-UP programme to be one of the programmes where the R2D is discussed and examined by the HR-UP doctoral researchers. II. Right to Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals R2D and its content is still highly debated and its status as a human right is disputed by some, it nevertheless offers a potentially strong and holistic normative framework for the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, in how it approaches the role of the state, the international community and the centrality of the human person in the process of development. Despite the controversies surrounding R2D, the concepts included in the R2D are useful in informing the domestic and international development programmes of countries. 1 Similarly, it is likely to prove useful in integrating the SDGs into the national and international development programmes of states as well as programmes for the implementation of human rights. The launch of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda may reduce the gaps between the understanding of development in the field of human rights and the policies of leading multilateral and international development agencies as well as major donor countries. The inclusion of new goals relating to industrialisation, infrastructure, natural resources, sustainability and climate change marks a departure from the focus on poverty alleviation and the amelioration of social economic conditions that characterised the predecessor development goals i.e. the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The SDGs are far more reaching in the inclusion of different socio-economic development targets and are closely aligned to a number of economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. The SDGs are also aligned and complementary to the components of the R2D, which emphasises the obligation of the state to implement the right, the responsibility of international community of states and the centrality of the human person in the process of development. Most of the focus in academia has been on the role that the international community should play. However, what the role of the state is in implementing the R2D has not received enough scholarly attention within the human rights field, outside of the development compact suggested by the (deceased) previous Independent Expert on the R2D, Arjun Sengupta, and the subsequent adoption of the Rights Based Approach to Development. There is a dearth of scholarly scrutiny of how R2D should approach traditional understandings of development such as industrialisation, infrastructure and achieving economic growth and creation of jobs. The doctoral research of Bruck Teshome, mentioned above, explores this further by looking at the democratic developmental state and exploring how the delivery of industrialisation and infrastructure could be seen as implementing the R2D, and how we should understand the role of the state to be in accordance with the DR2D. The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs offer a platform on how the universal implementation of the R2D could look like under the auspices of the UN by illustrating the role of the state and the role of 1 Marks, Stephen P. 2004, The Human Right to Development: Between Rhetoric and Reality, Harvard Human Rights Journal, 17,

4 international cooperation between states in tackling national development challenges and the role the international community of states has in tackling global challenges such as climate change, maintaining of global goods such as the environment, and establishing and upholding international institutions for the maintenance of peace, justice and accountability in the international stage. In conclusion, it is possible to envision that the consensus achieved around the SDGs could invigorate interest on R2D and guide scholarly debate on the content and implementation of the right towards convergence. A reading of R2D with SDGs might enrich the general understanding of the human right to development, by bringing the practical aspects of development and international cooperation between states as the international community seeks to realise the complete eradication of poverty. III. Integrating the Right to Development in university teaching of human rights, development and related courses as well as in academic research Generations of rights A Harmful Misnomer In the teaching of human rights, R2D suffers from the consideration that it is a so-called third generation right. This characterisation of R2D often diverts much needed academic research and scholarly scrutiny away from this right, complacent with its alleged abstraction. The generational classification of human rights thus does an injustice to a set of rights, such as R2D, and even economic and social rights that are considered a second generation right. Avoiding the hierarchical division of human rights could further the integration of the study of R2D in the human rights field and in academic research. Historical Origins of R2D R2D is often associated with an anti-colonial movement and suffers from the view that it is a vestige of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) movement and not relevant to the current age of Globalisation that came about shortly after the Declaration was passed at the United Nations. This view has dogged the understanding of R2D as an international human right, despite its potential to enrich the debate on international economic development. It is important to identify the sources of R2D beyond the immediate historical events that led to the DR2D in Thus, the historical association of nascent forms of R2D as contemplated during the drafting of Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2, could serve to highlight a less politicised origins for R2D. Perhaps, the anniversary of the DR2D is a great opportunity to revisit the antecedents of R2D within the development of international human rights. 2 Eleanor Roosevelt, is said to have considered the inclusion of a Right to Development during the drafting stage of the UDHR, as mentioned in Sengupta, A., The Right to Development as a Human Right, Economics and Political Weekly, 2001 p. 2527, who quotes Johnson, Glen M. The Contributions of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt to the Development of the International Protections for Human Rights Human Rights Quarterly 9.1 pp

5 Learning from Parallel Developments in other fields Academic research on R2D could benefit greatly from a study of the parallel developments in the fields of international trade, international relations and international development economics. Since the declaration on R2D, there have been important developments in international development economics, with the rise and decline of the Washington consensus and the advent of the World Trade Organisation that governs some of the issues that were raised in the Declaration on R2D. A critical study of these parallel developments could greatly enrich academic research into R2D. Include us in your mailing list for future right to development activities and information - We welcome any feedback on the comments included above. Latest Publications of Prof. Tomer Broude Selective Subsidiarity and Dialectic Deference In the World Trade Organization, Law and Contemporary Problems (forthcoming, 2016). From Chianti to Kimchi: Geographical Indications, Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Their Unsettled Relationship with Cultural Diversity, in Irene Calboli & Ng-Loy Wee Loon (eds.), Geographical Indications at the Crossroads of Trade, Development, and Culture: Perspectives from Asia Pacific (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016 Forthcoming) על המישפוטשל תרבות האוכל הגלובאלית: היש למשפט הבינלאומי תפקיד בהגנה על?מסורות קולינאריות (The Legalization of Global Food Culture: Can International Law Play a Role in the ובקידומן Protection and Promotion of Culinary Traditions?), in Aeyal Gross and Yofi Tirosh (eds.), Law and Food (Tel Aviv University Press, forthcoming, 2016). Latest research work of Bruck Teshome Competing Understandings of the Right to Development in International Law and International Human Rights Law: The Ethiopian Developmental State in Context, Presented at the Human Rights in Ethiopia Conference, at the London School of Economics, May 9-11,