Title

An Analysis of the Duties and Obligations of the International Legal Community to the Eradication of Poverty and Growth of Sustainable Development in Light of the Jus Cogens Nature of the Declaration of the Right to Development

Abstract

This paper examines the copious problem of world poverty affecting half of the world’s population in the South and assesses the international legal obligations of the international legal community, viz., developed states, transnational corporations and the international financial institutions of the IMF, World Bank and WTO to the eradication of poverty and the growth of sustainable development, in view of the inviolability and peremptory nature of the Charter of the UN, and the international human rights provisions arising therefrom. To this extent, we examine the 1986 General Assembly Declaration on the Right to Development, along with the other International Bill of Human Rights, arguing that its normative and prescriptive value derived from the UN Charter, espouses a legal obligation to the international society to ensure each person has a right to the eradication of poverty and sustainable development by equitable national and international efforts.

We then address the history of developing States as proof of inequitable and unjust developed States practices, and furthermore, using the examples of the actions by developed States, transnational corporations and the trade and financial laws of the international financial institutions, we argue that they violate the jus cogens of the Right to Development.

In conclusion, we advocate the cancellation of debilitating third world debts, while espousing Good Governance at the National and International arenas as essential to true and equitable state growth, and ultimately, the focus of the Right to Development; the right to a good standard of living for all peoples.

Disciplines

Agriculture Law | Antitrust and Trade Regulation | Banking and Finance Law | Economics | Human Rights Law | Intellectual Property Law | International Law | International Trade Law | Law and Economics | Law and Politics | Legal Writing and Research

Date of this Version

August 2005