A Rights-Based Critique of Poverty Production and its Impact on Human Security in the Less Industrialised World
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2007
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Abstract
The paper adopts a rights-based approach to analyse poverty and development in the less industrialised world. This approach links up with the poverty production debate (as opposed to poverty reduction) which contends that the proper framework for analysing poverty is to understand that agents, not institutions or processes, are responsible for generating poverty. The link between poverty production and human rights is established by the fact that the process or means adopted to produce poverty and the end-result of the process both lead to violations of human rights. The process takes place and thrives in the absence of an existing human rights framework or within the context of a weak or weakened human rights regime. Therefore, it is contended that the starting point for the analysis of the relationship between human rights and poverty production is to understand the socio-political environment in which poverty production thrives. A related facet of the debate is the impact of poverty production on human security. A weakened rights framework sidelines the ordinary people in policy-formulation as to what the needs of the community are or should be. This situation consequently threatens the very basis of human security
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human survival, fundamental freedoms and the ability of a people to utilise their potentials to develop themselves and their community. This rights-based analysis of poverty production is used to contend that mere institutionalization of democratic structures and the adoption of the poverty reduction approach on their own are not necessarily effective means to fighting poverty. The kind of democracy that prescribed for implementation in Africa and proposed as the means to fight poverty only meets the nominal standards. It does not offer space for a robust enjoyment of rights which will enable ordinary individuals to form effective civil society and community- based organizations with the goal of, among others, exposing the forces that engender poverty and fighting against these agents of poverty production. The poor and marginalized remain deprived of the means to contribute to their self- and community-development and to share in the benefits of development on an egalitarian basis. In light of this, the paper recommends, among others, that the existing rights framework found in the constitutions of countries coming out of non-democratic to liberal democratic regimes be re-examined and reforms made to enable the establishment of a people-centred and indigenised approach to rights exercise. This way, the role played by poverty and marginalization in denying access to participation in development by ordinary sectors of the society will be addressed. While different poverty production factors are identified, the focus of this paper is on corruption.