Human Rights, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Future of Development Cooperation

SummaryThis paper examines the distinct approaches to poverty contained in the human rights movement and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). MDG advocates and many in the human rights community assert that the goals are consistent with, and indeed a means of operationalizing, human rights standards and principles. This paper finds fundamental differences in the two initiatives’ conceptual approaches to poverty reduction, in the policy recommendations they support on key social policy issues, and in the social actors they have been able to mobilize. The research is based on documentary research, and on an examination of 40 development NGOs and social movements.