Legal Empowerment and Poverty Reduction

This week the Center for American Progress and Georgetown Law Center organized an event titled “The future of Human Rights.” In general, the theme of the conference was on the importance of “soft power” to improve the credibility of United States and creating a better world. There was a consensus among most of the participants and the presenters that more attention should be given to development assistance, particularly to secure human rights, improve education and provide assistance to prevent and help those affected by diseases in disadvantaged and underprivileged areas and groups.

The event was filled with high profile presenters and speakers including former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. It was my first time seeing her in person and I found her speech compelling. Her speech started with similar tone with what was reflected in the opening video which reflects how United States favorability rating have declined in the past decade and how it can be changed. Additionally, she outlined what the next president should do in order to restore the credibility of the United States, boycotting the Olympics was not among her recommendations. She did offer more presence and higher level involvement in the international development is key for United States to increase its credibility. She also outlined the three access of evil as ignorance, poverty and disease.

In response to a question from the audience, I found her observations about the need to empower the poor with legal rights to be very interesting. She indicated that legal rights are basis for development and poverty reduction. Development is made far more challenging in a world where two-thirds of the poor lack legal protection; including the right to sell and won property. Albright also noted that development initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals can benefit from legal rights. Specifically, she highlighted her UNDP work with Hernando de Soto and Naresh Singh under the commission of legal empowerment of the poor. She indicated that development of poor countries will be challenging in a world where two-thirds of the poor lack legal protection; including the right to sell and won property.

Albright’s remarks underscore a point made repeatedly in de Soto’s writings. I have read his book the Mystery of Capital, where he outlines how the poor lack the control of their asset as they are not allowed to sell or use it to obtain funding because they are not protected by law. I find his argument that the “poor are not the problem but the poor is the solution” to be quite compelling. You can listen to de Soto’s view on the “power of the poor” here. According to Hernando de Soto “The law is not something that you invent in a university – the law is something that you discover. Poor people already have agreements among themselves, social contracts, and what you have to do is professionally standardize these contracts to create one legal system that everybody recognizes and obeys”.

It is also important to note that legal rights will not solve all the problems of the poor but I agree with those who believe that it is the underlying condition for sustainable development and inclusive economic growth. Legal empowerment is very important for poverty reduction.