This paper uses Sen’s capability approach to explore whether there are inherent contradictions between human rights and development. Sen’s capability and human development approach provides a conceptual framework within which human rights principles can be incorporated into development...

This paper summarizes findings and conclusions from our application of the Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index developed by Fukuda-Parr, LawsonRemer and Randolph (2009) to the states of Brazil. The key features of this methodology in assessing economic and human rights fulfillment is...

Poverty is an important human rights concern. Human rights are claims that people have for social arrangements to guarantee their substantive freedoms; poverty reflects failures in these social arrangements and in the actions of duty bearers. It is the poorest people in society --- those with...

The current consensus objective of development aid in the international community is to reduce poverty in general and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular. In addition, the dominant view identifies economic growth as the principal means to this end. But the policy...

This paper addresses the debate about the use of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as performance measures in three ways. First we clarify the concept; like other global goals, the MDGs are benchmarks for gauging progress toward important objectives and should not be treated as planning...

MDGs are global goals and are powerful tools of international policy because they create a framework of accountability by going beyond stating general objectives and set quantitative, time bound targets against which performance can be measured. This paper challenges the methodology...

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between the quality of the budget process and human development outcomes. It looks in particular at at the relationship between the OBI and human development as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI) and a number of related human...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were introduced to monitor implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration which set out a vision for inclusive and sustainable globalization based on human rights principles. This paper critically assesses the MDG experience including their...

Until recently, qualititative methods have been dominant in human rights practice. Nonetheless, the field has not been immune from the global shift towards quantitative measurement and the community of human rights activists, professionals, officials and scholars has begun to explore ways in...