COMBATE À POBREZA E O DESENVOLVIMENTO DO ESTADO: UMA ANÁLISE DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS À LUZ DOS ENSINAMENTOS DE A. SEN

Abstract

The present final thesis approaches from the fields of Human Rights and International Development Law, as well as from the ethical and economic formulations of the Indian economist, Amartya Sen. This work was based on theoretical research, with a bibliographical survey, using the deductive method. Starting with a multidimensional definition of poverty, different elements of the concept of poverty are highlighted so that theories that aim to define poverty as a violation of human rights can be properly discussed and correlated to the multiple sources of International Human Rights Law about this subject matter. Following this discussion, the work focuses on the creation and growth of International Development Law, indicating how the historic process of its recognition by the international community is related to the different lenses through which the concept of development has been viewed throughout the last century. It then indicates how the theoretical tools of International Development Law can be used to fight poverty within Brasil’s own legal system, as well as it’s importance in the fight against poverty worldwide. Finally, the paper situates the works of Amartya Sen in the fields of the ethical and economical discussions, aiming to elucidate two key concepts of his bibliography, the two being: (I) the capability approach, and; (II) development as freedom, bringing attention to how have these two concepts affected the international community’s view of development and poverty. At last, a brief comment is made on the use of socioeconomic indicators and its contributions to the fight against poverty and the promotion of human rights. This way, it can be observed that the works of Amartya Sen can be adequately related to different norms of international human rights law, serving as a theoretical bridge between law and economy. The relations transdisciplinarily crossed allow for a call to the importance of defense and amplification of fundamental freedoms to the construction of a development process focused on the materialization of human rights.