[ Interview with Anna Würth,
German Institute for Human Rights ]

“Human rights are an interdisciplinary task”

Ms. Würth, how do you view the relationship between human rights and development?
Human rights are both a precondition for and a result of development. One cannot be played off against the other.

China is an example of development taking place although human rights are not observed closely. . .
The question, however, is whether China would also develop economically if the government held a greater regard for human rights. Putting one’s trust in “Wandel durch Handel” (change through trade) is not sufficient – human rights have to be promoted systematically.

Will the BMZ human rights action plan have political impact?
In the end, the German government adapts to an international development. Other European donors, for example Britain, the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland have already devised similar plans. Coherence with other departments is of utmost importance if the plan is to have political impact. The question, therefore, is whether foreign, economic, financial and domestic policies give priority to human rights. Furthermore, the plan has to be accompanied by advanced training in human rights’ issues and there must also be support with the planning and implementation of projects that want to be human rights-oriented. This is in fact one of the measures that the action plan outlines.

How do you rate the contents of the plan? Have the main issues been given the right priority?
That is not really the question. The plan marks both the end of an internal consultation process at the German Development Ministry and the beginning of a path leading we are not quite sure where. The individual measures sound plausible. What is crucial, however, is whether the plan contributes to establishing the promotion of human rights as an interdisciplinary task.

Do you find anything lacking in the plan?
Ways in which human rights can be integrated into development cooperation should have been worked out in greater depth. This is not necessary for measures such as supporting the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights. On the other hand, it remains unclear how human rights can be put into operation as an interdisciplinary task. It is not enough to build a school and to say that we are fulfilling the human right to education. Rather, human rights themselves have to be promoted through education, perhaps by incorporating the topics into the curricula.

The action plan strongly stresses economic, social and cultural rights. Do the political rights get the short end of the stick?
I don’t think so. The economic and social rights just happen to be the classic departments of development cooperation, even if topics such as good governance and administrative reform gain in importance. Both categories of rights have to be interconnected and promoted simultaneously in the projects.

There is generally a wider understanding of human rights in the discussion on development policy than in the legal profession. Is this stretching the idea of human rights?
The majority of the legal profession recognise how to legislate the economic, social and cultural rights, while collective rights continue to be controversial. It seems to me that in development policy, human rights are frequently understood above all as values, and their legal nature is often neglected. Human rights contain both: values but also binding obligations. For example, if you describe poverty as a violation of human rights, you also have to take this one step further and say who is accountable. The answer to this question again has to be considered in the planning and execution of projects. After all, development cooperation has instruments which can help strengthen human rights, which the legal profession does not have at its disposal.

Questions by Tillmann Elliesen.

On the Internet:
German Development Ministry (BMZ) action plan on human rights 2004-2007:
http://www.bmz.de/de/service/infothek/fach/konzepte/