ABSTRACT
The human rights crusade has trumped all other moral dialogue and is the standard way to express moral claims and many legal entitlements. Yet existence remains harsh for those members of half the world’s population who struggle to live on less than $2.50 per day – their experience of human rights is mainly at the conversational and aspirational level. This is not because of a lack of resources. There is enough grain alone to make every person on the planet fat. There is a disturbing paradox behind the mantra that is the human rights industry: human rights have not fostered a demonstrable improvement to human prosperity.
