Dumbing down development

The recent Oxfam International paper on Climate Wrongs and Human Rights is a classic example of how an apparently ambitious approach to development has curtailed ambitions. It looks at climate change as violating basic human rights such as the right to life and security, the right to food, the right to subsistence and the right to health. In effect what it is doing is redefining development as survival. It uses the term “rights” in a promiscuous way to mean basic needs. I suspect that also, by introducing the threat of litigation in relation to climate change, it will increase anxiety about pursuing economic growth.