Human Rights for Development and Peace
IN FOCUS, 3 Nov 2025
Surya Nath Prasad – TRANSCEND Media Service
Let us start with peace. The mother of peace is justice which is yet to be born. Let the mother of peace i.e. justice take birth, peace will naturally come out. But we see everywhere there is injustice, exploitation, oppression and violation of human rights.
Development and Violence
Indeed, there can be no lasting peace without respect and protection of human rights. But one of the greatest barriers in the achievement of peace is development. It is inimical to all peace individual, national and global. Development makes a few affluents and the rest maximum poor.
The United Nations itself had made great efforts to secure development in the backward areas all through the years 1960-70, the decade was declared by the United Nations as the Development Decade. But, in fact, it has been the finding of the Development decade that the gains of growth have, all over the Third World, been eaten up by a few well-to-do. The theory of development has failed also in the North World. The O.E.C.D. Report 1969 and several evaluation reports of the development decade e.g. Pearson Report, Jackson Report etc. have revealed that development has made some countries of the developing world richer and more powerful than the rest. It has also made in each nation some regions, some ethnic groups and ultimately a few families powerful and wealthy, leaving a great many to languish behind. Development increased also poverty of the masses and created much violence in the pocket of growth.
Adam Curle, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, who had been involved in the Third World Development for some time, also realized that the sort of projects which they had been working on were either projects which were, in fact, of indirect benefit to rich countries rather than poor ones or, even if they were helping the poor countries in which they were involved, where in jeopardy from violence which was constantly breaking out. Some of this violence was a direct result of the inequalities and oppressions which were so rife.
Poverty is the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. A World Bank Sources told, “The studies they are conducting for their next report on poverty and development indicate that the tendency in almost all the Third World countries is towards and social increased poverty marginalization.” The Report titled Labour in the World 1992 revealed, “In the past two years poverty has increased by 30 per cent in Cote D’Ivoire, 6 per cent in Argentina, 4 per cent in Brazil and 3 per cent in Mexico, while the percentage of Ghanaians under the poverty line has jumped from 37.3 to 59 in the same period.”
Thus, development promotes exploitation and oppression of majority weak by the minority rich. Gandhi considered exploitation as supreme form of violence. Because every development process has a violent content in it, as any plan for development emphasizes production and does not keep the principles of distributive justice in mind.
Human Rights and Development
Unless proper measures are adopted by the international community to promote international equity, efforts to ensure the realization of human rights in developing countries will be to little avail. True development can not he attained in the absence of respect for human rights. The Third World should attach to the need to relate human rights to its pre-eminent concern, development. A positive duty for rich states is to make regular transfers of financial and other resources to those states that are at present unable to ensure the satisfaction of the fundamental human rights of their citizens and also rich people of the nation must share their resources with the poor masses in fulfillment of their basic human rights. Hence development in the North must reduce the consumption of raw materials, most of which are imported from the South And development in the South, must work towards bringing an end to the poverty. Besides this rich people of North and South both must be free from greed, must minimize their desires and set their lives based on basic human needs to protect and fulfill the human rights of needy people of both the regions for true development of poor and rich both. Because one man’s or a few men’s freedom from hunger and want is not a true development until all men are free from hunger and want. Hunger knows no nationality. Peace is secure only if the people of the world are free from hunger. And if there is poverty in any region of the nation or any part of the world, it is danger to prosperity everywhere. This is why in Veda it is prayed for the welfare of all:
Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina, May all be happy
Sarve Santu Niramaya. May all be free from diseases
Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu, May all perceive welfare
Maa Kashchid Dukh Bhag Bhavet. May none be in grief.
A great Indian Post Shri Jayashankar Prasad also advised all human beings:
Auro Ko Hansate Dekho Manu,
Hanso Aur Sukh Pao.
Apne Sukh Ko Vistrit Karlo,
Sab Ko Sukhi Banao.
O Man, see laughing others,
Laugh and be happy.
To expand your happiness,
Keep all happy.
Therefore, if development may be of any use for bringing global peace, it must be linked with the protection of human rights all over the world. And when development, which will give emphasis equally on production and principles of distributive justice both, is attached with human rights protection, which has equity content in it, then there will be no development of a few rich, but limitation of wants in affluents, in lowering down of standard of living of the few rich and powerful, and thus liberation of rich and poor both for attainment of global peace.
Human Rights Teaching and IAEWP
Peace-individual, national and global – will be a far reaching dream unless the human rights are duly protected by every institution within the nation including the State, and by the national governments between nations of the world. For this human rights teaching should be developed at all levels from school through university to out-of-school education, in order that they may become accessible as part of a true system of life-long education to all men and women in all countries, whatever their legal, social or political status.
Human Rights education is a branch of Peace Education discipline, which is aimed, inter alia, at eliminating intolerance and discriminatory behaviour and at promoting positive peace and interpersonal, social and international understanding, and cooperation.
Awareness about human rights makes both – violates of these rights and those whose rights are violated free from and being committing exploitation exploited. And this job of making conscientization to the citizens and peoples of different nations about their rights is being done very successfully by the IAEWP
One of the objectives of International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) is to help implement Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hence IAEWP is closely involved in activities linked to the promotion and protection of human rights since its inception in 1969 through its Chapters in over 58 countries around the world extending its programmes of teaching of and conducting research on human rights, disseminating information about human rights, holding conferences on the topic of human rights and publishing journals and books on the theme of human rights for development for global peace.
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The paper is based on the Presidential Speech delivered at the IAEWP Fifth Indian National Convention at South Gujarat University, KRIBHCO, Surat, India on 24 July 1992, and published in Peace Progress – A Journal of IAEWP, Vol. V, No. 1 & 2, 1991-92.
Dr. Surya Nath Prasad, Former President, Executive Vice President & Secretary-General of the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP); associate professor of education emeritus, the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea. Founder and editor-in-chief of Peace Education: An International Journal. dr_suryanathprasad@yahoo.co.in
Tags: Development, Exploitation, Human Rights, Justice, Peace
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 3 Nov 2025.
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