Health, human rights and intervention

What is development?

The process of growth or changing from one condition to another.

How is development measured?

Economic → GDP, GDP per capita, shift from traditonal industries to services.

Social → health and education.

What is the happy planet index?

Measures:

• Life expectancy

• Life satisfaction → how satisifed people are.

• Ecologial footprint per capita → amount of land needed to sustain a country’s resource consumption.

What countries have the highest and lowest HPI ranking?

Highest: Vietnam, Costa Rica (balance life quality an environment)

Lowest: USA, Chad (wealthy but wasteful of very poor)

What is Sharia Law?

• Code of living for all muslims to adhere to.

• Focuse on the importance of human welfare.

• Legal system in UEA/Qatar.

• Life depends of fulfilment of necessities e.g. intellect.

• Must pray, fast and make charitable donations.

• Incompatable with UN humanright as in some forms, women can be beaten for disobeying.

What did Rosling feel was needed in future goals?

• Environmental quality

• Health and life expectancy of the poorest

• Human rights for marginalised groups

How did Rosling feel these goals could be met?

• Economic growth and stable governance.

• Leads to the investment in healthcare and education.

• This leads people to become economically successful.

• However, economic growth is frequently based on natural resource exploitation.

What is the importance of education?

• Increases human capital (socioeconomic/political/cultural skills within a country).

• Encourages economic and social development.

• UN International Bill of Human Rights recognises the right to free primary education.

• UNESCO estimates education is inaccessile to 60 million primary aged children worldwide.

What are the barriers to education?

Gender discrimination → 129 million girls worldwide without access to education due to early marriage/pregnancy/religion.

Extremism → prevent children (particularly girls) are often prevented e.g. Taliban in Afghanistan.

Cultural identity→ some states require gender seperation, with a lack of female teachers preventing education.

Poverty → some children are sent to work instead of school.

What and where are the highest and lowest life expectancies?

Japan → 85

Central African Republic → 53

Why are there variations if life expectancy?

Poor healthcare → lower GDP limits investment in vaccines etc.

Food insecurity → malnutrition leaves a population more susceptible to disease.

Access to potable water → exacerbated by inadequate sanitation and cholera.

How does lifestyle affect life expectancy and health?

Lifestyle choices → smoking/alcohol/sturated fats limit life expetancy and strain healthcare systems.

Deprivation → lacking in employment opportunities, decent housing and/or healthy diet.

Accessibility of healthcare → free healthcare systems mean access to healthcare regardless of wealth/private healthcare typically provides better quality.

How are there regional variations in life expectancy in the UK?

• 82.8 for women

• 79.1 for men

• Male North East 77

• Male South East 80

How are there regional variations in life expectancy in Australia?

• 79.7 for men

• 83.1 for women

• Aboriginal life expectancy is 10 years shorter.

• This is due to: poor housing, genocide, discrimination.

How do governments play a role in social development?

Economic development → infrastructure spending, tax breaks to encourage FDI.

Human development → spending on education, healthcare etc.

Environmental wellbeing → reducing pollution, improving sanitation.

What is the Social Progress Index?

Attempts to quantify how well governments provide for people by measuring:

• Human needs: nutrition, medical care, shelter, sanitation.

• Foundations of wellbeing: education, access to internet, life expectancy, pollution.

• Opportunity: personal rights, politcal freedom, equality.

What are IGOs?

International Government Organisations: made up of more than one national government.

World Bank → lends money to emerging/developing countries to encourage development

World Trade Organisation → promotes free trade.

International Monetary Fund → promotes global economic stability to reduce market crashes and economic recessions.

What is a neo-liberal economic approach?

Economic development is focused on:

• Free trade between countries, with no/little barriers such as import/export taxes.

• Privatisation of government-owned and run industries to maximise profits.

• Deregulation of capital markets.

What are the concerns surrounding the neo-liberal economic approach?

• Benefits businesses more than ordinary people, creating inequality.

• Focuses on industrialisation so rural areas miss out on economic growth.

• Profit and economic growth is at the expense of the environment.

How have recent IGO programmes prioritised social development?

Global Environmental Facility → funds environmental projects in developing countries.

Global Fund to Fight AIDs, Tuberculosis and Malaria → raised US$42 billion to disease in developing countries.

UNICEF’s education programme → reached 12.4million children providing material and training.

Fund for Global Human Rights → provided over US$100 million in grants to over 600 groups worldwide.

What are the Millenium Development Goals?

• Set by the UN in 2000, aiming to solve human rights, peace, and social development.

• Aimed to eradicate extreme poverty, universal primary education, reduce child and maternal mortality, combat HIV.

How successful were the MDGs?

• Considerable progress has been made worldwide, but was uneven across regions.

• Often fell short for the poorest and disadvantaged by gender etc.

• 20 million deaths were prevented.

• Infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa has fallen by 53%.

What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

• Replaced the MDGs in 2015, to be acheived by 2030.

• Call for action from 193 countries, despite their development.

• Aim to end poverty and hunger, improve sanitation; economic growth and renewable energy usage.

What are human rights?

The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled to regardless of their:

• Nationality

• Gender

• Age

• Ethnic origin

• Religion

• Race

Range from fundamental - right to life, to those which make life worth living - food, education, health.

What is the Universal Decleration of Human Rights?

• Created in 1948.

• Statement of intent rather than legally binding.

• Sets out 30 universal rights e.g. everyone is born free and equal, everyone has the right to an opinion and freedom to express it.

• All 193 member states recognise the rights, though not all agreements have been adopted.

• US has not adopted the 1990 Convention on Child Rights.

• South Africa did not agree originally in 1948, due to apartheid.

What is the European Convention on Human Rights?

• Created by the Council of Europe in 1953.

• In response to human rights violations in WW2 and Communism.

• Contains 59 rights e.g. right to not be punished for something legal, right for a privte family life.

• Protected by the European Court of Humna Rights, of 700 million people.

• Russia was expelled in 2022.

What is the UK Human Rights Act?

• 1998.

• Sets out rights and freedoms everyone in the UK is entitled to.

• Incorporated ECHR rights into domestic British law.

• Has three main acts

  • Justice can be seeked in british Court if rights have been breached

  • Public bodies must respect and protect human rights

  • Parliament ensures new laws are compatible with the ECHR.

What is the Geneva convention?

• Set of international rules established in 1949 to regulate war.

• Aims to protect people’s rights during conflict e.g. PoW, medical staff, civilians.

• 196 countries signed the convention including Russia/Iraq.

• International Crime Court holds trials for people accused of war crimes and genocide.

How do countries have different priorities surrounding human rights?

UK prioritises human rights:

• Passed the Global HUman Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020, which allows it t impose sanctions on countries that abuse the human rights of citizens.

Singapore prioritises economic development:

• Has one of the highest global GDP per capita.

• Limits political and civil rights.

• Death penalty is still enforced and has one of the highest execution rates per capita.

How do China and India differ as an authoritarian and democratic system?

China:

• Authoritarian, with no general elections

• Limited internet and media freedom

• China accounts for ¾ of global executions.

• Religous freedom but violence is common

India:

• Democratic, over 18s can vote

• Freedom of speech and expression is written into their constituion

• Made significant progress however concerns remain over sexual abuse and violence against women

• Buddhism and Islam are supressed, Christianity is barely tolerated.

What are the different levels of democracy?

Full democracy → civil liberties and political freedoms.

Flawed democracy → civil liberties are protected to an extent, fair elections.

Hybrid regimes → unfair/free elections, widespread corruption.

Authoritarian regimes → dictatorship/false elections, civil liberties abuse.

How does the Global Corruption Index measure corruption?

• Scored on a 0 (low) to 100 (high) risk of corruption.

• Norway has the lowest risk of corruption die to high GDP per capita, low inequality and high literacy rates.

• Syria is the most corrupt, suffering from political instability, weak law enforcement and low income.

• North Korea is 2nd highest, with a widely believed corrupt public sector.

How can political corruption hinder socioeconomic development?

• 5% of global GDP is spent corruptly.

• Limits growth in healthcare/education/infrastructure.

• Politicians may exploit people or businesses bribe the government.

• Growing inequalities betwen those the government favour and the rest of the population.

How do human rights vary in post-colonial states?

• Colonial governance is often authoritarian and excludes indigenous people.

• Post-colonial poverty led to a focus on economic growth rather than human rights.

• Colonial borders did not recognise the importance of traditional ethnic and religous borders.

How are human rights differences reflected in US indigenous?

• 2% of the USA population is Native American.

• Are the most impoverished ethnic group in the US.

• 14% less likely to graduate high school.

• Live 6 years less on average.

How is there gender inequality in Afghanistan?

• Controlled by the Taliban between 1992 and 2001, and post-2021.

• IGOs have provided 4.3 million women with life-saving sevices e.g. medical care.

How is there ethnic inequality in Austalia?

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people have campaigned for human rights.

• Land rights were only granted in 1976.

• Was only allowed to vote in 1967.

• Australian government has taken action to improve education, with 20% increase in high school finishers.

What are the types of geopolitical intervention?

Development aid → aid given to developing countries to promote human rights, UN asked countries to commit 0.7% of their GNI a year to this.

• UK dedicated a £100 million to Ukraine in 2022.

Trade embargos → ban that restricts trade and encourages countries to change their actions, typically in response to international security threats.

• EU imposed an arms embargo on Russia in 2022.

Military aid → money/weapons/training are provided to victims of HR abuses/freedom fighters.

• US trained Syrian victims (and undercover ISIS) against Asad.

Indirect military action → equipment/advisors are sent.

Direct military action → conflict engaged in.

• USA and UK invasion of Iraq to capture Saddam Hussein.

How are interventions promoted by IGOs and NGOs?

IGO intervention:

• Conditions on or witholding of aid

• Trade embargoes

• Expressing disapproval

NGO intervention:

• Campaigning for protection of HRs

• Encouraging IGOs and governments to intervene.

Why is there a lack of consensus about the level of intervention?

• Players have different aims

• UN has no military force

• Risk of wider conflict

• Cutting off aid can impact civilians

How do Western states condemn human rights violations?

• Offer aid with attahed conditions

• Negotiation of trade agreements

• Military intervention

What are the forms of developmental aid?

Charitable gifts → funded by public donations to NGOs and national governments.

• Bilateral id is when money is given directly from governments to projects in LICs and NEEs.

Loans → provided by IGOs e.g. World Bank.

• World Bank loaned US$37.7 billion in 2022 to poor countries.

What are the successes of developmental aid?

Malaria:

• Developmental aid has almost eradicated diseases such as polio.

• 90% of malaria cases are in sub-saharan Africa.

• International Aid programmes (e.g. Nets for Life), led to the global death rate falling by 25% between 2000 and 2020.

What are the concerns of developmental aid?

• Loans are now not recommended due to increasing debt and lack of longevity in comparison to skills training etc.

• Countries can become aid dependent and rely on aid to perform basic government functions.

• Can be used by the politcally elite to remain in power.

• Can be lost to corruption.

Oil in the Niger Delta

• 40 million litres of oil are spilled every year across the Delta.

• 70% of people live in poverty.

• Water and food quality is limited due to oil pollution.

• 1,000 native Nigerians were killed after conflict surrounding extraction.

Military intervention in Iraq

• US and UK led invasion to find Saddam Hussein and his ‘weapons of mass destruction’.

• Weapons were never found and the conflict and HR abuses following could be worse than before.

• Potentially motivated by oil.

Is military aid justified?

For:

• Helps enforce human rights

• Stopping aid could threaten national interests (oil) or harm civilians

Against:

• Weapons may be used in further HR abuses (Syria)

• Supporting government represses its people

• Ignoring violations condones them

How are military interventions becoming wars against terrorism?

• Bush declared a war on terror after 9/11 against Islamic extremism.

• Justified sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq due to terrorism.

How is military intervention compromised by torture?

• US soldier tortured Iraqi prisoners.

• Illegal in the UDHR.

How can the success of military intervention be measured?

• Health

• Life expectancy

• Education levels

• Gender equality

• Freedom of speech

• Management of refugees

• GDP per capita

How is strength measured in economic growth?

Singapore:

• Once received US aid is now one of the wealthiest global states and an important US trading partner.

Bangladesh:

• GDP growth rate was -14%, currently is 8%.

• Life expectancy has increased by 7 years.

• Secondary school enrolment has increased from 21% to 72%.

How is there a complex relationship between intervention and success?

• Outcome does not match input due to corruption/lack of effective distribution.

• Often used as pretige projects (HEDs) with little benefit to poorest people.

• Donor countries can decide how to spend aid.

Haiti and lack of success

• Received over US$13 billion in aid over the last decade, it remains one of the poorest countries.

• Government is corrupt and weak.

• Has become dependent on aid, limiting its eoonomic progress.

How does inequality impact human development?

• Poor health indicators

• Lack of healthcare

• Less economically productive due to poor health

How can aid be used as an extension of superpowers’ foreign policy?

• Secure access to resources.

• Formation of alliances.

• Sphere of influence.

Impacts of the Iraqi invasion

• US intervention undermined Iraqi authority

• US created an interim government

• US funded vaccination programme lowered infant mortality by 75%

• US withdre in 2011 leaving Iraq vulnerable

• Islamic state extremist group took over

UN peacekeeping missions

• Princples: consent of all parties, impartiality, no force except self-defence.

• Shares cost among members, draws on global troops, integrate civilians into forces.

Consequences of a lack of action in Zimbabwe

• Zimbabwe (former British colony) suffers from extreme poverty.

• 43% live below the poverty line

• Rural poverty increased from 9% to 52%

• Corrupt governance