The Global South and global human rights: international responsibility for the right to development

Abstract

Human rights are typically understood as governing the behaviour of states towards the people within their borders. In this article, I argue that this domestic formulation of human rights is not universal, but came about through political bargaining and contestation. From at least the early twentieth century, a range of actors from the Global South developed an understanding of individual and collective rights that emphasised international responsibility, especially of wealthy, powerful states towards people in poorer, weaker states. I show that this foundational understanding served as an important basis for the how the Global South engaged with economic and social rights within the United Nations before, during and after the adoption of the Universal Bill of Rights. It eventually manifested in the campaign for the human right to development. Through an exploration of the drafting history of the Declaration on the Right to Development, I show how international responsibility was kept out of the declaration by the Western states that stood to be held responsible. Examining this alternative understanding of human rights recovers a forgotten contribution of the Global South, while shedding light on obstacles to contemporary political projects like the campaign for international slavery reparations.

Keywords:

• Human rights
• international development
• international norms
• Global South
• right to development
• norm contestation

Acknowledgements

For their thoughtful comments and feedback, I thank the participants at the 2021 meeting of the International Studies Association and the IR/CP Working Group at the University of California, Berkeley. I give special thanks to Ryan Brutger, Aila Matanock, Michaela Mattes, Susan Hyde, Jennie Barker, Tara Chandra, Tim Marple and Oren Samet.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

2 For an overview of similar debates on humanitarianism, see Barnett (2011).

3 These included the Cuban Revolutionary Party, Partido Socialista de Chile, Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana in Peru, the Judicialista in Argentina, Partido de la Revolución Mexicana in Mexico and Partido Acción Revolucionaria in Guatemala.

4 The report is titled The International Dimensions of the Right to Development as a Human Right in Relation with other Human Rights Based on International Co-operation, Including the Right to Peace, Taking into Account the Requirements of the New International Economic Order and the Fundamental Human Needs.

5 See also UN General Assembly (1986d, 57) and UN Commission on Human Rights (1987, quoted in Alston 1988123).

6 No reference to international reparations could be found on the websites of Amnesty International, the Center for Economic and Social Rights, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, or the International Federation for Human Rights. Human Rights Watch is an exception, having released two commentaries related to international reparations.

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Katherine M. Beall

Katherine M. Beall is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley and an incoming fellow at the Niehaus Center for Globalization of Governance at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Her research focuses on self-determination and international authority, the expansion of regionalism in the Global South, and North–South contestation over norms of non-interference, human rights and development. She holds an MA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Kansas. She has worked at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Stockholm Policy Group, and the US Embassy in Croatia.