Human Development Report 2016

In an integrated
world, human rights
require global justice
Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in
1948, has served as the foundation for global
and national human rights and moral calls
for action. 94 It has drawn attention to human
rights by influencing national constitutions
and prompting international treaties aimed at
protecting specific types of rights, including the
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Governments have been selective in recognizing
international treaties and vary in
adoption of mechanisms for greater accountability
(figure 4.5). Optional protocols have
been established to provide individuals with a
means to file complaints about rights violations
to international committees. These committees
are entrusted to conduct inquiries into serious
and systematic abuses.
Human development for all entails a full
commitment to human rights that, as measured
by ratifications of human rights treaties, has
yet to be made. It also requires strong national
human rights institutions with the capacity,
mandate and will to address discrimination
and ensure the protection of human rights
across multiple dimensions. Such institutions,
including human rights commissions and
ombudsmen, handle complaints about rights
abuses, educate civil society and states about
human rights and recommend legal reforms.
Treating development as a human right has
been instrumental in reducing deprivations in
some dimensions and contexts. For example,
under the Indian Constitution the state must
provide schools within a reasonable distance to
the communities they serve; after this provision
became a motive of public litigation against
the government in the Supreme Court, such
schools were provided.
Treating the full expansion of choices and
freedoms associated with human development
as human rights is a practical way of shifting
highly unequal power balances. Human rights
provide principles, vocabularies and tools for
defending the rights, help reshape political dynamics
and open space for social change.
In an integrated world, human rights require
global justice. The state-centred model of
accountability must be extended to the obligations
of nonstate actors and to the state’s obligations
beyond national borders. Human rights
cannot be realized universally without well
established domestic mechanisms and stronger
international action (see chapter 5).
Ensuring access to justice
Access to justice is the ability of people to seek
and obtain remedy through formal or informal
judicial institutions. The justice process has
qualitative dimensions and should be pursued
in accordance with human rights principles and
standards. A central feature of the rule of law
is the equality of all before the law — all people
have the right to the protection of their rights
by the state, particularly the judiciary. Therefore,
equal access to the courts and other institutions
of justice involved in enforcing the law is important.
Access to justice goes beyond access to the
formal structures of the courts and the legal system;
it is more than legal empowerment alone.
Poor and disadvantaged people face immense
obstacles, including their lack of awareness and
legal knowledge, compounded by structural and
personal alienation. Poor people have limited access
to public services, which are often expensive
and cumbersome and lack adequate resources,
personnel and facilities. Police stations and
courts may not be available in remote areas, and
poor people can rarely afford the cost of legal
processes, such as legal fees. Quasi-judicial mechanisms
may also be inaccessible or prejudicial.
Obstacles to justice for indigenous peoples
and for racial and ethnic minorities stem from
their historically subordinate status and from
sociopolitical systems that reinforce bias in the
legal framework and the justice system, which
may tend to criminalize the actions of and incarcerate
members of these minorities disproportionately.
This leads to a systemic reinforcement
of weaknesses and susceptibility to abuse by law
enforcement officials.
The political and legal marginalization of
historically oppressed or subordinate groups
can still be seen in these groups’ limited access
to justice. Ethnic minorities, poor rural people
and people displaced by conflict have traditionally
faced some of the largest barriers to justice.
Universal access to justice is particularly
important for marginalized groups. Legal empowerment
and knowledge are essential so that
people can claim their rights. The weakest in
society need them the most. The state-financed
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