Introduction

There is a growing consensus that greater respect for certain human rights leads to economic development that benefits a broader section of society. In this chapter, we explore the logic behind this argument and discuss the relevant findings from previous research. Based on this logic and empirical findings, we conclude that the Bank and the Fund ought to be pursuing a human rights-based approach to economic development in less developed countries. In Chapter 11, we explicitly define what such an approach would look like. For now, let us simply define a human rights-based approach to economic development as one that explicitly seeks to improve the human rights practices of the governments of developing countries as a method to improve levels of economic development.

We begin by defining economic development. Economic development that includes economic growth accompanied by a relatively high level of respect for economic and social rights has been described as “equitable economic development” (Sen 1999). It is also sometimes called “high-quality economic growth,” “pro-poor economic growth,” or “equitable economic growth,” the term we will use. This type of growth we believe is the appropriate measure to decide whether economic development is taking place within a society. This is also the standard that we believe should be used to evaluate the economic outcomes of structural adjustment programs.