The human rights-based approach to development

RIGHTS AIPP AIPP Regional Capacity Building Program - Training Manual on the UNDRIP In short, economic growth based on massive and intensive exploitation of the earth and of human beings is unsustainable. It is this exploitation that has given rise to the environmental and social crises that have erupted worldwide since the last century. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, social and environmental scientists have been putting forward arguments for an alternative to this, and proposing variations on a common model of what has come to be called “sustainable development”. In its 1987 report, the UN World Commission on Environment and Development WCED chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland defined the term sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” UNWCED 1987: Chapter II: 1 Governments, multi-lateral institutions and transnational corporations have appropriated the term, making sustainable development appear possible without compromising their goals of endless economic growth and boundless profit. They make it seem like the problems of envi- ronmental degradation and poverty are simply the result of inefficient resource utilization and persistence in backward technology, and can be solved if developing countries were to adopt the more efficient methods and more advanced tools of production employed in developed coun- tries. Thus, upon the urgings of the IMF, the governments of many developing countries have adopted policies that favor the takeover of their extractive industries by transnational corpora- tions, saying these corporations command the capital and technology needed to make natural resource extraction more efficient and environment-friendly – more “sustainable”. This is the case in the Philippines and Indonesia, for example, in the field of mining. The original proponents of sustainable development, however, question the very need for continued extraction of huge amounts of certain resources – for example, metals, which can be reused or recycled from waste rather than mined; diamonds, which would not be in great de- mand were it not for the market for jewelry. The model of sustainable development is precisely a rejection of the aforementioned goals of endless economic growth and boundless profit. Its proponents espouse scaled-down production and consumption, sufficient only for meeting the genuine needs of the masses of humanity and not the artificial needs that have been induced by the market or the insatiable cravings of affluent elites. They believe that it is possible for all persons and peoples to have all their genuine needs met, and to live decent, productive and creative lives, if the earth’s remaining resources were to be utilized rationally and carefully – rather than greedily and wantonly – and the benefits from such utilization were to be shared equitably. This model of development resonates with the values that underpin indigenous peoples’ traditional relationships with nature and with each other – values that uphold the conservation of natural resources for future generations and equitable sharing of these resources among the members of communities. REFERENCES UN Development Programme. 2008. Human Development Indices: A Statistical Update. http:hdr.undp.org UN World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future. http:worldinbalance.netintagreements1987-brundtland.php. 122 Module-6