Rights, Empowerment and Poverty: From Appealing Rhetoric to Implementable Policy?

The urgency of reducing world poverty requires innovative and practical thinking and the Human Rights-Based Approach to Development (HRBA) and the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP) are increasingly being considered by various organisations to be viable alternatives to conventional development strategies. The discourse on HRBA and LEP, however, appears to be characterised by rhetorical appeal than an emphasis on practical implementation and integration with existing development initiatives. Given the inc reasing popularity of the HRBA and LEP, particularly among UN organisations, this study critically examines the major conceptual foundations of the two approaches. And based on four case studies (South Africa, Malawi, India and Bangladesh), the project id entifies a set of challenges in operationalising a global theory to national, regional and local practice. Specifically, how can specific economic, social and cultural rights (e.g., right to food, water and health) be more forcefully incorporated in the n ational discourse on empowerment and rights? What motivates political, economic and social actors involved in demanding/resisting the implementation of socio-economic rights as part of the legal and policy landscape? To what extent do the poor demand poli tical accountability and recur to the legal system to see their rights enforced and what are the means, options and resources (including information) available to the poor for such purposes? Finally, what is the nature of legal (including judicial) and ad ministrative activity in the areas of anti-poverty policy? The study will hence re-examine the notion of access to justice in developing countries in order to better understand both the limits and the advantages of law and the legal system in influencing policy design and action related to poverty.