Human Rights and Development. The Discourse in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract

The aim of this study is to review central debates on human rights within the social sciences and humanities with a view to enumerating the present state of knowledge about human rights and development. The central topics discussed in the report are: The development of human rights norms; cultural relativism versus universal human rights; human rights and economic development trade-offs; conflicts between different categories of rights, relations between human rights and political development; ethical and practical aspects of monitoring and reporting on human rights respect; election monitoring, aid conditionality and the linkage of human rights and development. The new challenges facing the field of human rights research in the post-cold war era are concerns figuring centrally in the discussions. The report contains a bibliography.