Human Rights Facts (50): Poverty and Economic Growth

(source)
Economic growth is the increase in value of the goods and services produced by an economy or a country. It is the percent rate of increase from one year to the next in gross domestic product or GDP of an economy or a country. In order to correct for the population sizes of different economies [...]

Human Rights Quote (82): African Americans

(source)
President Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage and an insult in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the nomination of an African-American to be [...]

Human Rights Facts (49): Poverty Trap

(source)
A poverty trap occurs when poverty has effects which act as causes of poverty, creating a vicious circle in which poverty engenders more poverty, a circle of cumulative causation leading to a downward spiral of ever more extreme poverty.
Poverty traps or poverty circles can be of different kinds: individual, social, national, international…
1. Individual poverty traps
A [...]

Human Rights Quote (63): Rights Ideology

“Human rights is the only ideology that deserves to survive.” Simon Wiesenthal
(art by http://www.arteanima.com/index.htm)
What I understand from this quote is that human rights are not a science or a truth. They are moral convictions, for which you can have good arguments but no proof or certainty. They are mere proposals and attempts. One cannot pretend [...]

Which Human Rights Do We Have?

From the different international declarations and treaties (see here) we can extract this summary list of internationally recognized human rights:
1. Civil Rights or Freedom Rights:

Equality of rights without discrimination
Life
Security and integrity of the person
Protection against slavery, torture and cruel or inhuman punishment (humane treatment when detained)
Protection against arbitrary arrest or detention (arrest or detention only [...]

Human Rights Quote (52): Muslim Source

There can be no government without an army. No army without money. No money without prosperity. And no prosperity without justice and good administration. Ibn Qutaybah, Muslim scholar from the 9th century.
(The picture shows the phrase “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” in Arabic).

What is Democracy? (20): Democracy is Peace, Continued

In a previous post, I discussed the democratic peace theory. This is a follow up.
Tyrannies, compared to democracies, are more likely to cause wars. Tyrannies violate human rights and these violations make it very difficult to maintain the rule of law (different human rights institute the rule of law, and the indivisibility of human rights [...]

Human Rights Facts (17): Conditional Development Aid

In the previous post, I cited some numbers on development aid. Many donors have started to attach conditions to the aid they give (much like the conditions that are often attached to loans, see this post on foreign debt). Some of these conditions are respect for human rights, democratic government and good governance.
Indeed, development is [...]

Human Rights Facts (15): Foreign Debt

Together with aid, fair and free trade and good governance (including democratic government, respect for human rights, curbing corruption etc.), debt relief is the answer to the development problems of third world countries, especially in Africa.
Much of the foreign or external debt of these countries is unpayable, and exacts a heavy toll. Cancellation of debt [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (84): Double Standards

(copyright unknown)
Some countries use economic sensibilities to escape condemnation of their human rights record. China is a notorious example of a country with such an appealing market that export countries dare not insult the Chinese government. This government knows all too well that a mere hint of economic consequences is enough to silence most criticism. [...]