UN Research Institute for Social Development – Human Rights and Social Development: Toward Democratisation and Social Justice

This paper aims to assess progress toward the objectives of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development  and Programme of Action by using a human rights strategy. This strategy assumes that the norms and machinery of human rights would inform decisions on development policies; that rights would empower excluded social and economic groups; that human rights norms that require and support democracy would provide the basis of political and social stability; and that social and economic rights would eliminate the worst consequences of poverty.