Rethinking Macro Economic Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective (Why MES with Human Rights II)
The current global economic crisis is evidence that the neo-liberal economic policies that have been followed for almost three decades have not worked. The devastation that the crisis has already wrought on the most vulnerable households in the Global North and Global South is a reminder that the formulation of economic policy and the realization of human rights (economic and social rights, as well as political, civil and cultural rights) have, for too long, been divorced from one another. Over the past three decades, economic policy has been geared toward achieving economic growth, underwritten by assumptions about the virtues of the market. Efficiency rather than ethics has been the focus of concern. When attention has been paid to human rights, economic policy making has proceeded with the assertion that economic growth, no matter how skewed in favor of a few, will ultimately benefit all by providing resources for the realization of human rights. Yet, the means adopted to achieve economic growth have been responsible for undermining goals in the domain of human rights. It is clearly time to assess economic policy using the ethical lens of the human rights standards that all governments have agreed upon. This project has piloted a process of analysis that can help rethink macro-economic strategies from a human rights perspective, with a focus on economic and social rights. Such a process requires the bringing together of two groups that are seldom in communication with each other: progressive economists and human rights advocates.
No Related Publications available