The political economy of dignity: monitoring the advancement of socio-economic human rights in a globalized economy

The dichotomy between political and socio-economic rights has been subject to criticism ever since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, almost sixty years ago. The declaration itself leaves little doubt regarding the interconnectedness between both types of human rights. The first article speaks of human beings "born free and equal in dignity and rights".Article 22 of the declaration lists the economic, social and cultural rights of man as being 'indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality'. On closer examination maintaining this separation based on the notions of 'negative' and 'positive' rights is not sustainable. The claim that there is a trade-off between socio-economic development and compliance with human rights has been disproved on many occasions in the past. In this paper, ideas regarding the link between national income and adherence to socio-economic human rights are presented, accompanied by anecdotal evidence from the Cingranelli and Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset.