On Human Rights and Economic Development
speech by Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Recipient for 2003
Dr. Ebadi is an Iranian advocate of human rights. In her speech to a World Bank audience she said that protecting human rights and promoting development are intricately linked. For the Bank to implement its development agenda successfully, she suggested it should focus its resources on helping fledgling democracies rather than stabilizing existing dictatorships. Dictatorships, that come to power and rule without giving a voice to its citizens, cannot enact sustainable development policies. Respecting human rights should be a prerequisite for the development institutions when administering loans.
Dr. Ebadi said that under appropriate interpretations, one could be a Muslim and support democracy. She suggested that the rights of women are upheld only in democracies. On the issue of the rights of women in Iran, Dr. Ebadi said women have significantly less rights in Iranian society than men. She acknowledged that current Islamic regimes are repressive of human rights, including Iran's, but questioned whether such repression represented true Islamic faith.