Millennium development goal 8: Indicators for international human rights obligations?

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 28, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 966-997

  Fukuda Parr, Sakiko ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK; DEVELOPING WORLD; HUMAN RIGHTS; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL;

EID: 33751320883     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2006.0046     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. See Annex I. A recent working paper to the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights systematically reviewed documents the principle of international solidarity in the sources of international law
2. see also Rui Baltazar Dos Santos Alves, Human Rights and International Solidarity, Working Paper submitted to the Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, 56th Sess., U.N. Doc. ECOSOC E/CN.f/Sub.2/2004/43 (15 June 2004) (on file with author).
3. Dos Santos Alves, supra note 1.
4. See Annex 2.
5. The Declaration articulated the objectives reflected in the MDGs, while the list of goals, targets and indicators is contained in the following document: Road Map towards the Implementation of the Millennium Declaration, Report of the Secretary General, U.N. GAOR, 56th Sess., U.N. DOC. A/56/326 (6 Sept. 2001).
6. The 7 MDGs do not include all relevant priorities of right to development. There are several notable gaps when considering the substantive content of the right to development. First, they miss out several important development objectives. For example, only equality in schooling is mentioned as a relevant indicator of gender equality. This leaves out all other important areas such as employment and political participation. Second, the goals do not refer at all to the right to a process to development that is transparent, participatory, equitable, and in which the rule of law and good governance are practiced. Third, the MDGs miss the equity dimension of right to development. The targets and indicators all refer to national averages without attention to redressing discrimination that results in exclusion and inequalities. However, we should not interpret from this that MDGs have no relevance for human rights. The MDGs are benchmarks of progress and the seven goals do not necessarily claim to represent a comprehensive list of all important development objectives. Moreover, they are indicators of progress and are not intended to be a coherent development strategy nor a new development paradigm.
7. A list of Goals 1-7 is attached in Annex 2. Goal 8, its targets and indicators are listed in Annex 3.
8. See also Kate Raworth, Measuring Human Rights, 15 Ethics Int'l Aff. 111 (2001).
9. Progress cannot be assessed by a uniform standard internationally. What is important is for each country to make the maximum effort; to monitor these efforts requires setting realistic benchmarks.
10. See Rajeev Malhotra & Nicolas Fasel, Quantitative Human Rights Indicators-A Survey of Major Initiatives, Draft Working Paper (19 May 2005).
11. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2000 (2000).
12. Id. The work of Kate Raworth is acknowledged as a main author of chapter 5 of this report and developing the conceptual framework.
13. See also Raworth, supra note 7.
14. The Right of Everyone to Enjoy the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental health, Report of Paul Hunt, Special rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, U.N. GAOR, 58th Sess., Agenda Item 117c, U.N. Doc. A/58/427 (10 Oct. 2003).
15. The Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 20 Hum. Rts. Q. 691 (1998).
16. The intention here is to use these principles to develop a conceptual framework for identifying international obligation, not to make a legal argument.
17. Medicines under patent are expensive or in short supply compared to generics. While the TRIPS agreement requires WTO member countries to put in place a system of intellectual property, they also include provisions to ensure that patents do not stand in the way of public health and other critical issues of human well being. These provisions include in particular, compulsory licensing - allowing companies to produce without a license - the use of which has been hotly contested in recent years. For a discussion on human rights obligations related to TRIPS, see Addendum: Report on the Mission to the WTO by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Paul Hunt, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 60th Sess., Agenda Item 10, U.N. DOC. E/CN.4/2004/49/Add.1 (2004).
18. Note that in the current situation of potential emergency with the spread of avian flu, governments have been much more proactive in negotiating with the patent holder of tamiflu, the only known medicine, to ensure that enough supplies can be produced and made accessible to their national populations.
19. This includes 21.5 percent of population aged fifteen to forty-nine. The data is from United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2005: Internationl Cooperation at a Crossroads (2005).
20. The Right to Development, Dr. Arjun Sengupta, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 57 Sess., U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2000/WG.18/CRP.1 (2000).
21. Human Development Report 2000, supra note 10.
22. Report of the UN Conference on Financing for Development, U.N. GAOR, Conf. 198, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.198/11 (2002).
23. The text of Goal 8, with its seven targets and seventeen indicators, is listed in Annex 3.
24. Table 1 compares Goal 8 targets and indicators with the priorities over which there is broad consensus. These include the priorities that governments have committed to undertake in the Monterrey consensus, and additional commitments that are identified in policy studies.
25. United Nations, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (2005).
26. United Nations, World Economic and Social Survey (2005).
27. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2003: A Compact among Nations to End Human Poverty (2003).
28. Human Development Report 2005, supra note 17.
29. Id.
30. Id.
31. The "Tobin tax" was initially proposed by James Tobin in a 1972 lecture and later published as JAMES Tobin, The New Economics One Decade Older (1974). The proposal is to impose an international tax on foreign exchange transactions as a measure to reduce volatility of capital flows that would also provide a significant source of public funds.
32. World Economic and Social Survey, supra note 24.
33. Human Development Report 2003, supra note 25.
34. World Trade Organisation, General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), available at http://www.wto.int/english/tratop_e/serv_e/ gatsintr_e.htm.
35. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2 Mar. 2005), available at http:// www.oecd.org/dataoecd/11/41/34428351.pdf.
36. Target proposed in Human Development Report 2003, supra note 25.
37. Human Development Report 2005, supra note 17.
38. See Dos Santos Alves, supra note 1.