The Right to Development and the Proliferation of Rights in International Law

• Author: Orla Sheehy
• Position: BA (Law and European Studies), University of Limerick; M.Litt, Trinity College Dublin
• Pages: 251-265

THE

RIGHT

TO

DEVELOPMENT

AND

THE

PROLIFERATION OF

RIGHTS

IN

INTERNATIONAL

LAW

ORLA

SHEEHY*

The

more

the

fight

for

human

rights gains

in

popularity.

the more

it

loses

any

concrete

content,

becoming

a

kind

of

universal

stance

of

everyone

towards

everything,

a kind

of

energy

that

turns

all

human

desires

into

rights.

The

world

has

become

man's

right

and

everything

in

it

has

become

a

right:

the

desire

for

love

a

right

to

love,

the

desire

for

rest

a

right

to

rest,

the

desire

for

friendship

a

right

to

friendship,

the

desire

to

exceed

the

speed

limit

the

right

to

exceed the

speed

limit,

the

desire

for

happiness

the

right

to

happiness,

the

desire

to

publish

a

book

the

right

to

publish

a

book, the

desire

to

shout

in

the

street

in

the

middle

of

the

night

the

right

to

shout

in

the

street.

1

The

Proliferation

of

Rights:

Real

Rights

or

Empty

Rhetoric?

In

recent

years,

there

has

been

a

proliferation

of

rights

in

political

discourse

and

in

international

law.

New

rights

have

been asserted

from

the

right

to

development,

peace,

and

a

healthy environment.

2

They

have

been

labelled

'third

generation

rights',

which

sets

them

apart

from 'first

generation'

human

rights, namely

civil

and

political rights

and

'second

generation

rights'

which

are

comprised

of

economic,

social

and

cultural

rights.

This

article

is

concerned

with

the

jurisprudence

and

politics

of

the

'right

to

development'.

Critical

rights

analysis

will

be

undertaken

in order

to

explore

the

origin

and

legality

of

the

right

to

development.

Due

to

conceptual

difficulties raised,

it

is

argued

that

the

effect

of

this

right

remains

'moral'

rather than legally

binding.

Despite

these theoretical

challenges,

empirical

research

demonstrates

that

many development

agencies

and international

agencies have

found

ways

to

use

the

normative

provisions

of

human

rights

law

as

a

framework

for

the operational

BA

(Law

and European

Studies),

University

of

Limerick;

M.Litt, Trinity

College

Dublin.

Kundera,

Immortality

(Faber

and

Faber,

199

1),

at

153.

2

Vasak,

"A 30

year

Struggle: The

Sustained

Efforts

to

give

Force

of

LaN%

to

the

Universal

Declaration

of

Human

Rights"

(1977)

UNESCO

Courier

29

©

2002

Orla

Sheehy and

Dublin

University

Law

Society