UNDP Links Human Rights to Economic and Social Development

  
In its recently released annual report, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) discusses human rights and development as inseparable. Human rights are considered an integral part of development, and development a means to achieve human rights. Unfortunately, Latin America comes up short on both counts. Despite some notable advances in the reduction of poverty in the last decade, many people in the region continue to live in miserable conditions.

According to the UNDP, persistent discrimination, injustice and fear have limited the development potential of Latin America's citizens. Health, nutrition and education are pressing needs in a region where approximately one-third of children under five are malnourished, the report notes.

The UNDP acknowledges that some countries have made progress in combating discrimination. An example it gives is Guatemala, which implemented programs for indigenous populations as part of the national development framework. The infant mortality rate among the country's Maya population fell from 94 per 1000 to 79 between 1995 and 1999.

On the negative side, Colombia is cited as an example of the continuing problems of violence and fear in the region. The murder rate in Colombia is more than 80 for every 100,000 inhabitants, the report finds, reflecting the deterioration of basic rights and liberties. No other consideration is as vital for human beings as "safety from exposure to physical violence," the report concludes.

The outlook isn't much better for the state of justice in Latin America. In Panama, the report finds, 157 of every 100,000 inhabitants is awaiting trial or sentencing, and in Mexico the waiting period for a trial can be as long as 60 weeks.

According to the UN's Human Development Index, which measures such variables as health, education and income levels, Argentina led Latin America at number 35 of 174 countries studied. Cuba rose two places to number 56, immediately following Mexico (number 55). Venezuela, which ranked 48th in 1999, fell to 65th place due to an economic crisis and resulting drop in GDP. In terms of life expectancy, Costa Rica led the pack with an average life span of 76.2 years. Overall, Costa Rica ranked second on the Human Poverty Index among all developing countries.

The UNDP takes the position that democracy and basic freedoms are as important to reducing poverty and promoting human development as are economic growth and access to basic services. UNDP Director Mark Malloch-Brown argues that "the problem of poverty will never be resolved until the poor can participate in decision making." As an example the report points to Brazil, where the actions of landless rural workers resulted in 250,000 families obtaining property titles to more than 15 million acres of land.

Malloch-Brown notes that human rights and development remain abstract concepts for most of the world's poor. "Human rights are not, as has sometimes been argued, a reward of development," he says. "Rather, they are critical to achieving it. In the past decade, the proportion of the world's population living in democracies has surged from little more than a fifth to two-thirds today," he continued. "That wave of democratization has carried in its wake new demands from citizens everywhere for honest, accountable, democratic institutions that honor and protect their rights and dignity."