Constructing
an International Financial, Trade and Development Architecture: the Human
Rights Dimension
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology:
17th Presidential Lecture,
by
Mary Robinson
United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights
Zurich, 1 July 1999
I am honoured to have been invited to deliver the 17th Presidential
Lecture in the series organised by the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology. It is always a pleasure to come to Zurich, the city I
associate with James Joyce, and to recall my visits to the James Joyce
House, to his grave, and to the point on the river where he used to stand
and think of Dublin.
The title of my address is "Constructing an International Financial,
Trade and Development Architecture: the Human Rights Dimension". This
may seem a rather long and complicated title to you - it certainly does to
me! Perhaps a simpler way to put it would be "Human Rights and the
International Economic Order". My aim is to show that human rights
are, indeed, inextricably linked with the international economic order and
that, if we hope to see human rights flourishing, it will only be in the
context of an equitable and sustainable economic order.
There are two trends happening in the world which are of crucial
importance to my topic tonight. The first is the growing determination of
the international community that human rights can and should play a
central role in the lives of all people and that the mechanisms to deliver
a strengthened set of human rights standards should work effectively. The
second trend I would mention is the fresh interest that is being taken in
improving international financial, trade and development instruments so
that they meet the needs of all of the people on the planet, including the
poorest.
Human Rights Take Centre Stage
Human rights as we understand them today are a relatively recent concept.
Of course, the urge to remove inequality in society is deep-rooted. Even
in ancient times there were voices calling for all to be treated fairly
and important victories were won over the years. But if one thinks of the
great issues of human rights - such as the right to a fair trial, to
freedom from slavery, torture, arbitrary execution, gender inequality - it
is clear that the most significant advances have been made over the last
two hundred years. Many of our ideas about human rights derive from the
period of the Enlightenment when the great thinkers of the day- including
Jean Jacques Rousseau - placed the rights of men and women at centre stage
and set out for the first time in a comprehensive way how those rights
might be secured.
A vital impetus for the strengthening of human rights came after the
Second World War. Out of the horrors of that conflict, came a
determination that a better way must be found to protect the individual
and to forestall a repetition of the terrible violations that had taken
place. The great achievement of that post-War period was the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, a seminal document, adopted in Paris in 1948.
Starting from the powerful statement that all human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights, the Universal Declaration sets out in its
thirty Articles the fundamental freedoms which all of us are entitled to,
simply by virtue of being human. The right to life, liberty and security
of person, to equal recognition before the law, to be presumed innocent
until proved guilty, to privacy, to freedom of movement and freedom of
religion - all of the basic rights are included in the Universal
Declaration.
Those who drew up the Declaration knew that it was only the first step and
that the process of defending human rights throughout the world would be
long and difficult. The work was carried forward through the adoption of
two International Covenants, one on Civil and Political Rights, the other
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These two Covenants spell out in
greater detail what the fundamental rights mean and how they are to be
applied. A whole body of human rights law flowed from these basic texts -
over 60 treaties addressing such issues as slavery, genocide, humanitarian
law, the administration of justice, religious tolerance, discrimination,
violence against women, the status of refugees and minorities.
During the past decade the emphasis has shifted from standard-setting to
improving the implementation of human rights. A strong push to the effort
was given with the holding of the World Conference on Human Rights in
Vienna in 1993. One of the decisions of that Conference was to create the
position which I now hold, that of High Commissioner for Human Rights, as
part of moves to strengthen human rights mechanisms within the United
Nations system. The mandate of the High Commissioner is to coordinate all
of the UN's human rights programmes and improve their impact and overall
efficiency.
A good deal of progress has been made in improving human rights
mechanisms. There are the two main review committees of the Commission on
Human Rights which monitor the performance of Governments on a regular
basis, identify shortcomings and recommend improvements. Special
Rapporteurs are appointed to investigate human rights situations in
particular countries. There are also Special Rapporteurs who pursue
thematic mandates such as torture, religious intolerance, summary
executions and violence against women. Two further valuable instruments at
my disposal are Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Programmes.
There is an increasing emphasis on preventive measures. For example, it
has been found that the setting up of effective National Human Rights
Institutions is a strong force for establishing a culture of human rights
in a country. My Office has helped many countries to put such Institutions
in place, some of them in countries with traditionally poor human rights
records.
Regional cooperation is another useful means to strengthen human rights,
enabling governments to build on the experience and best practice of the
countries in their region, to cooperate with neighbours and to maximise
the use of available resources. The Council of Europe's role in promoting
human rights through the European Convention and the European Court of
Human Rights is well known. Its remit has been extended since the end of
the Cold War by the accession of many Eastern European countries. What is
perhaps not so well known is that regional human rights organisations are
gaining ground in other parts of the world. In November I will travel to
Costa Rica to mark the 30th Anniversary of the Inter-American Covenant on
Human Rights and the 20th Anniversary of the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights. In Africa, I recently attended the first OAU Ministerial
Conference on Human Rights, held in Mauritius, and there I found a
readiness to embrace the concept of regional cooperation. I also have high
hopes of the Asia-Pacific Regional Forum which could be an important
instrument for change. Finally, I found the attitude of Arab States and
NGOs at a recent meeting in Cairo to be positive towards the idea of
greater cooperation in strengthening human rights among the Arab
countries.
If a culture of human rights is to be embedded, it is essential to have
effective enforcement so that gross violations of human rights do not go
unpunished. I am glad to note that progress is being made in this area
too. International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda are in
place and doing their vital work. I realise that to many the pace of such
Tribunals can appear slow and their capacity to track down those bearing
the heaviest responsibility still to be proved. The truth is that, as the
Chief Prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
Louise Arbour put it, "it takes a lot longer to bring the guilty to
justice than it does to commit the crime". But the process is
gathering pace. A breakthrough was achieved last year with the decision to
set up an International Criminal Court. I hope that States will ratify the
Rome Statute without delay so that the International Criminal Court can
get on with its vital task of establishing criminal responsibility for
gross violations of human rights.
I would like to be able to report that, following the strengthening of
human rights mechanisms and the increased attention of the international
community, the human rights situation around the world is in good shape.
Unfortunately, that is far from being the case. The goal that the framers
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights cherished - that the world
would turn away forever from such horrors as genocide - seems as far off
as ever, given what we have witnessed in the past decades in Cambodia and
Rwanda. Having just returned from a visit to Kosovo I can tell you that
the scenes there would quickly dent even the most optimistic person's
attitude. Last week I visited Sierra Leone, and saw at firsthand one of
the forgotten conflicts of the world which has cost thousands of lives and
seen appalling human rights violations. There must be a dozen such
unresolved conflicts taking place in Africa alone at present, not to
mention fraught situations such as that in East Timor. And these are just
some of the more glaring examples.
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
At least we get to know about some of the worst abuses of human rights
because they appear on our television screens. But there is another set of
rights, the abuse of which may not be as dramatic as scenes of conflict
and mass killing, but which can be extraordinarily destructive in the long
term. I refer to the economic, social and cultural rights which form part
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The cornerstone of these
rights is Article 22 which states that, as a member of society, everyone
is entitled to social security and to the realisation of the economic,
social and cultural rights which are indispensable for his or her dignity
and free and full personal development. The five Articles that follow
elaborate the rights necessary for the enjoyment of the fundamental right
to social security, including economic rights related to work, fair
remuneration and leisure, an adequate standard of living health,
well-being and education, and the right to participate in the cultural
life of the community.
Since being appointed High Commissioner I have sought to focus greater
attention on economic, social and cultural rights because I believe that
the achievement of these rights is every bit as important as securing
civil and political rights. As well as that, I have drawn attention to the
central importance of the right to development, recognised at the World
Conference in Vienna as an inalienable right and an integral part of
international human rights law.
What has been the record on the securing of economic, social and cultural
rights and the right to development? The answer, I fear, is that the
record is poor. In many parts of the world the right to basic living
conditions, to food, to basic health care and to education are denied on a
massive scale.
It should be emphasised that the intention was there from the start that
these rights would be secured. It is not by accident that the drafters of
the Universal Declaration incorporated economic, social and cultural
rights in their deliberations and in their final text. The post-war
efforts to build a better international architecture were not confined to
human rights and world government but also foresaw the need to set up
regulatory mechanisms to bring order to the international economic system.
That was the rationale behind the establishment of the Bretton Woods
institutions which were designed to provide stability in international
finances and to assist the poorest countries to put their economies on a
par with those in the developed world. Seeking an orderly, stable system
was also part of the rationale behind the efforts to open up world trade,
through the Uruguay Round and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
and, more recently, through the activities of the World Trade
Organisation.
The richer countries have certainly benefited over the past fifty years
from the role played by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank
and the WTO. Increases in trade and capital flows have led to very
significant growth in productivity and jobs in Western countries. This has
been accompanied by strong improvements in the indicators of human
well-being such as life expectancy, education and nutrition. At the same
time some middle income countries have seen their wealth and human
development indicators draw closer to those of industrialised countries,
as have a small number of developing countries.
Then there are the rest. There are the marginalized developing countries
which, far from sharing in the growth of wealth, have been bypassed along
the way. The growth in real per-capita income in the countries of
sub-Saharan Africa from 1960 to 1995 was only $28. The overall gap between
the richest 20% of humanity and the poorest 20% doubled between 1940 and
1990. To give just one example: in 1976 Switzerland was 52 times richer
than Mozambique; in 1997, it was 508 times richer. Three billion people
live on less than $2 a day, 1.3 billion do not have clean water and 40,000
children die every day because of hunger related diseases. There has been
a dramatic decline in life expectancy in places such as sub-Saharan Africa
and Russia.
To put a human face on these statistics, during the course of my talk to
you this evening, some 1,200 children will have died needlessly.
If the gap between rich and poor countries is growing, so too is the
phenomenon of poverty and exclusion within societies. In many developing
countries, even those experiencing some increase in net national wealth,
the gap between the poorest in society and the richest has been growing
dramatically. This trend has been accentuated by the 1997-98 financial
crisis which spread from Asia to Russia and Latin America, throwing
further millions of people back into poverty and creating social
dislocations of great proportions.
Nor is the trend confined to developing countries. Here in Switzerland,
despite increasing wealth overall, statistics show that the gap between
rich and poor is growing. Income distribution figures indicate that in
1982 the poorest 20% of the Swiss population received 7.4% of all income
while the richest 20% received 43.5%. In 1994, the poorest households
accounted for only 5.2% of income whereas the richest got 44.6% of total
income.
A recent study classified half a million Swiss citizens as living below
the poverty line. Switzerland's report to the Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, the UN body which monitors implementation of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, noted
that the persons most affected by poverty in this country are the elderly,
divorced women, women bringing up children alone, unemployed people who
have exhausted their benefit entitlement and people with social
integration problems.
I was interested to learn that in October, 1995, the Swiss Federal
Tribunal acknowledged the existence of an unwritten constitutional and
legal right to basic means of subsistence as an essential component of
democracy and the rule of law. That right was applicable to Swiss
nationals and foreigners, irrespective of their status. This jurisprudence
was reflected in Article 12 of the new Federal Constitution recently
approved by the people of Switzerland which provides for the right to
assistance in situations of distress.
Looking around the world we are right to ask: how, in the presence of so
much wealth and growth, can we see such levels of poverty and economic
insecurity? I think the answer lies in the segmented approach we have
adopted in facing economic, social, financial and human rights problems.
Role of the International Economic Mechanisms
The design of the post-War international financial system was based on the
idea, which Peter Sutherland refers to as the "logic of 1945",
that, in return for economic liberalization on the international level,
national governments would provide for the social welfare needs of their
citizens. For a long time the separation of the rules for international
economic transactions, whether financial or in the area of trade, from the
welfare of the individual was carefully maintained. But in recent years
concern has been growing at the negative human impact of some economic
policies and of structural adjustment programmes in particular. These
concerns have been reinforced by the recent financial crisis and have led
many to urge that the human impact of policies and actions be considered
as an integral part of policy formulation and implementation.
Promoting economic development has, of course, been high on the
international agenda. However, as Joseph Stiglitz, of the World Bank
stated some time ago in a thoughtful speech:
the experience of the past fifty years has demonstrated that development
is possible, but not inevitable. While a few countries have succeeded in
rapid economic growth, narrowing the gap between themselves and the more
advanced countries, and bringing millions of their citizens out of
poverty, many more countries have actually seen that gap grow and
poverty increase. Strategies of the past, even when they have been
assiduously followed, have not guaranteed success. Furthermore, many of
the most successful countries (representing the largest part of growth
within the low income countries) have not actually followed the
"recommended" strategies, but have carved out paths of their
own."
In Stiglitz's view, past development strategies failed because they
focussed only on one part of the problem and failed to take into account
the broader context. Most focussed narrowly on economics, aiming at
increasing GDP per capita and confusing means with ends and cause with
effect. They dealt with technical problems and proposed technical
solutions: better planning, better trade and pricing polices, better
macro-economic frameworks. They dealt with "means" - in other
words, low inflation - but did not focus on "ends" - that is,
the human welfare of those concerned.
It is heartening that the World Bank should be looking objectively at its
development experience in this way. I believe that this careful scrutiny
is fully justified, given that 50 years of expenditure on development has,
in many cases, failed to produce the desired results, and for reasons that
cannot be simply attributed to external factors such as natural or
man-made disasters or economic mismanagement. Regional development banks
should also be re-evaluating their role, and I am glad to note, for
example, that the Asian Development Bank is making moves in that
direction.
The role played by the International Monetary Fund is coming under
scrutiny too. The IMF has earned respect for maintaining orderly exchange
rates over the years but it has also been criticised for lack of openness
and, perhaps more important, for not paying sufficient attention to the
disadvantage at which very poor countries are placed in the world economy.
As with the World Bank, I am encouraged by signs of a greater readiness on
the part of the Fund to think hard about its own role - to "examine
its conscience" as it were. The IMF should listen to civil society,
and to the non-governmental organisations in particular, who have valid
arguments to make about the human impact of strict fiscal policies on poor
countries.
Finally it is appropriate to mention that the regulation of world trade is
far from being weighted in favour of developing countries. The States of
sub-Saharan Africa account for less than 1% of total world trade. We
should ask ourselves if developed countries have really played fair in
trade negotiations with the developing countries or have, rather, used
economic muscle to impose an order that suits them and protects their
interests .
What can be done to remedy the situation?
It is not beyond the capacity of the international community to devise
strategies to help to secure economic, social and cultural rights for all
and to honour the often repeated pledges to support the right to
development. I would like to suggest five ways in which progress can be
made if there is a willingness and open-mindedness on the part of the
international community.
(i) Development
A new strategy of development should be adopted which would seek to
achieve, not just GDP growth, but society-wide change. The strategy should
foster participation and ownership and should embrace the public and
private sectors, the community, families and the individual. This approach
would place the human person at the centre of the development paradigm.
The basis for this approach would be an emphasis on the human rights
objectives of development.
Human rights bring to the development discussion a unifying set of
standards - a common reference for setting objectives and assessing the
impact of actions taken. The 1986 United Nations Declaration on the Right
to Development was a major step forward in defining development from a
human rights perspective. The Declaration notes that "the human being
is the central subject of development and should be the active participant
and beneficiary of the right to development." It also recognises that
"development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and
political process which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being
of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their
active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair
distribution of benefits resulting therefrom..."
That, I believe, is the context in which all development should be
approached. It is the framework in which my Office approaches development
issues. We are working towards this end with our partner agencies in the
UN system . The United Nations Development Assistance Framework has been
established to overcome fragmentation and overlap in development efforts
at the country level.
We are also working with our partners at the UN Development Programme on a
new joint initiative - the Human Rights Strengthening Programme - better
known within the system as "HURIST". HURIST is intended to
identify best practices and learning opportunities in the development of
national capacity for the promotion and protection of human rights and to
apply a human rights approach to development programming at the country
level.
Some continue to argue that development is technical in nature and that
the effectiveness of policies would be weakened if supposedly outside
considerations were to be introduced. But economic policies, such as those
relating to budget deficits, inflation, unemployment and trade policies
have real and measurable impacts on the enjoyment of human rights, and
those impacts must be taken into account.
A good illustration is the effect on children. This year we commemorate
the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of
the Child. Studies on the relationship between macro-economic policies and
the enjoyment by children of their rights show that economic growth is
important for child rights, but in fact, it is not enough. Just as
important are the policies behind that growth.
In the case of developing countries, if we compare their GDP per capita
with measures of child welfare such as child mortality, education and
nutrition, we see countries with similar income levels producing very
different results in the three areas. Those countries which achieve little
in relation to their per capita GDP are generally characterized by
inequalities in distribution of income, and very likely unequal access to
resources. As one economist has put it "Growth without equity
perpetuates poverty".
With the right policies, even low income countries can achieve significant
progress in child rights. An example is the State of Kerala in India.
Although Kerala has a per capita income below the Indian average, its
performance in such areas as under-five and infant mortality rates,
maternal mortality and girls attending school is significantly higher than
the average for India. And, though poor, Kerala has an appreciatively
higher rate of economic growth than India as a whole, which underlines the
importance of human development to economic growth.
I saw the same pattern when I visited Saratov in Russia a fortnight ago.
An enlightened approach, based on respect for human rights, combined with
the strategic deployment of available resources can make an enormous
difference.
(ii) Role of International Financial, Economic and Trade Institutions
Human rights must permeate macro-economic policies, embracing fiscal
policies, monetary policies, exchange rate policies, and trade policies.
To take the example of children again, one economist has noted that "
Trade and exchange rate policies may have a larger impact on children's
development than the relative size of the budget allocated to health and
education. An incompetent Central Bank can be more harmful to children
than an incompetent Ministry of Education."
The international economic institutions should lead the way. They must
take greater account of the human dimension of their activities and the
huge impact which economic policies can have on local economies,
especially in our increasingly globalized world. I noted that the Managing
Director of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, urged recently that more must be
done to develop policies that will promote growth, sustainable development
and poverty reduction. He called as well for a reduction in military
spending, for higher spending on social welfare and for increased aid
flows. That amounts to just the type of rights-based approach which I
favour. The proof will be when organisations such as the World Bank and
the IMF - and I include the developmental agencies of the United Nations
too - implement on the ground policies that are really designed in such a
way as to secure economic, social and cultural rights and the right to
development.
(iii) Debt
More and more attention is focussed these days on the crushing burden of
debt faced by the poorest countries, a huge obstacle to their meeting
economic challenges and, hence, strengthening the human rights of their
citizens. I welcome this. Initiatives to date aimed at providing relief to
highly indebted poor countries have been painfully slow. That is in spite
of the clear evidence that public opinion supports debt relief, as
evidenced by the activities of the many religious and humanitarian groups
which have come together in the Jubilee 2000 Coalition.
A fortnight ago the G-8 nations agreed to what is being called "the
Cologne Initiative", a package of measures designed to reduce the
debt burden of the 33 poorest countries of the world. These countries
collectively owe $127 billion to industrialised countries and institutions
such as the IMF and the World Bank. Sceptics of debt relief have argued
that previous measures did not filter through to ordinary citizens as the
savings made were often diverted to wasteful or corrupt purposes. The
Cologne Initiative would require debtor nations to show that they are
using the benefits primarily for expenditure on education and health.
Properly structured debt relief initiatives could bring tremendous
benefits to countries gripped by poverty but committed to economic and
political reform. In virtually all of the countries I visit, I encounter a
willingness to embrace modern economic practices but I am constantly told
of the strangling effect which debt repayments have on governments trying
to put their economies on a sound footing. In Mozambique, to quote just
one of the most critical examples, 30% of all revenue goes on debt
servicing. And this is one of the poorest countries in the world. If debt
payments were relieved resources could be freed to restore the health and
education systems which are in a dire state.
(iv) The Private Sector
Undoubtedly, the most powerful player in international economic relations
is the private sector. In fact, a great deal of international activity, be
it via the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund, is
aimed at providing a stable environment for international economic
exchanges. On an international level, corporations are indeed important.
The largest 100 companies have combined annual revenues that exceed the
GDP of half of the world's nations.
Big corporations have the power to bring great benefits to poor
communities - but they can cause great damage too: through degradation of
the environment, exploitation of economically weak communities , the use
of child labour. In recent years there has been an increasing awareness on
the part of business that it must face up to its responsibilities in the
human rights field. Corporations and business associations contact my
office asking for information and guidance. Human rights in business is
taking root, through internal ethical statements, corporate codes of
conduct, sectoral agreements on issues such as child labour in the
clothing industry, or wider codes such as Social Accountability 8000, the
International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business and the new Sullivan
principles.
United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, proposed to the world
business leaders assembled in Davos last January a global compact of
shared values and principles, to give a human face to the global market.
To underpin the global economy, he called on business leaders, through
individual firms and through business associations, to embrace, support
and enact a set of core values in three areas: human rights, labour
standards and the environment.
The immediate goal in implementing the compact is to challenge the
international business community to incorporate universal values into
their mission statements and to change management practices to achieve
these goals. I have been acutely aware of the positive business response
to this challenge. Business and human rights is an area in which it seems
to me that real progress can be made.
(v) Sharing the Information Revolution
Those of you listening tonight may wonder what role you can play to help.
In some of the areas I have already mentioned you can play your part. For
example, through your contacts with the business world you can urge
greater observance of ethical practices in business. You can also support
the movement for debt relief and efforts to redesign development models so
as to make them people-centred and supportive of human rights.
There is a further role you can play, and that is to seek ways of sharing
the benefits of the information revolution. As you well know, a great part
of recent world economic expansion has been centred on new technologies.
The future is one where technologies, and information technologies in
particular, will be the key to success. That is precisely where those of
you who are engineers and scientists can and should lead the way. It will
require your creativity and knowledge to devise means of ensuring that
technologies are accessible to everyone, rather than people in some parts
of the world being left out of this rapid transformation.
This is not just a question of doing the right thing: it makes sound
commercial sense. Without new markets, sustained growth is far from sure.
More emphasis should be placed on developing products and services that
are specifically intended to help local economies find growth and
development opportunities. As Bo Ekman, a leading businessman who is now a
consultant for the United Nations, has said, "We need to speed up
access to information technology. We need new educational methods. We need
innovation for physical distribution of food and energy. We badly need
innovation for means of transportation, building materials and, of course,
distributed healthcare."
Some of you will have read the story in the newspapers recently about two
entrepreneurs in Guinea Bissau who managed, against a background of one of
the least developed telecommunications systems in Africa, to create a
computer training centre, an Internet Cafe and a marketing business for
local residents. Just imagine the impact which new information
technologies can have in that kind of context - the employment
opportunities, access to knowledge, the chance for people to tell their
stories and hence influence their political, economic and social
circumstances; in short, to improve their human rights.
There is a challenge there to you and your colleagues to come up with
ideas on how to extend the benefits of new technologies to everyone on the
planet.
Conclusion
I am convinced that the tide is running in favour of embedding a strong
culture of human rights in the world. That will not come about without
considerable effort and goodwill on the part of all of the actors involved
but it seems to me that the chances of it happening are better today than
they have ever been.
I am also convinced that human rights will not be properly realised unless
the economic dimension is at the centre of the picture. Our starting point
should be that enjoyment of the essential things of life is not a
privilege for the lucky few but an entitlement which should be open to
all. As Franklin Roosevelt put it in 1944 :"True individual freedom
cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men
are not free men."
I have mentioned the economic actors who have important roles to play. We
must not forget the responsibilities which governments are called on to
discharge. There is a particular onus on governments to lead by example.
The developed states should halt the downward slide in funding devoted to
Official Development Assistance and make genuine moves to allow free
access to their markets. The developing countries, for their part, should
make sure that funds are not squandered on unproductive or wasteful
projects.
Denial of the right to development puts all other rights at risk. By
seeking to achieve economic, social and cultural rights for all the
peoples of the world, as well as their civil and political rights, we will
be striking a blow for the cause of universal human rights.
The human dimension of all this was brought home to me recently when I was
asked to write a foreword for a publication called " A Map of
Hope". It contains women's writings on human rights - women's voices
and women's visions. They are summed up in a quotation from Virginia
Woolf:
" We can best help you prevent war, not by repeating your words and
repeating your methods, but by finding new words and creating new
methods".
Similarly, we need to find a new language linking human rights and
development to achieve true human sustainable development.
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United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.