Mariecris B.

Gumiran

BSA - 1B

MODULE 2

LESSON 4

Motivation( wala pa sagot)

Exercise 1

1. What is human rights-based approach to science, technology, and development?

- Human rights-based approach to science, technology, and development highlights the needed
ethics and rights to protect people from harm, if there is. It also sets the parameters for the
appraisal of how science, technology and development promote human well-being. As so, this
issue must be put above others, human rights are a call to every technological advancement
that emerges. As quoted by Mukherjee, “this approach can form the very heart of sustainable
futures.”

2. How do the documents and their key principles presented in Table 2, i.e., Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers, and
UNESCO Declaration on the Use of Scientific Knowledge, position human rights in the
intersection of technology and humanity?

- This Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all
peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this
Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for
these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure
their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member
States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

3. Why should human rights be at the core of scientific and technological advancements?

- By now we are well accustomed to viewing education and health care as public goods, to be
publicly supported and made available for the benefit of all. The right to science encourages us
to approach science and technology in a similar way. Technology has a great capacity to save
 and improve lives, when it is directed to those ends. Beyond the utilitarian value of technology,
participation in the collective process of scientific and technological development has an
intrinsic value – as an opportunity to give expression to our human nature, cultivate the human
personality, and build international understanding.

4. What is the danger of using human rights as ‘merely decorative moral dimensions’ of scientific
and technological policy?

- Many threats to human rights from advances in science, which were identified in the past as
potential, have become real today, such as invasion of privacy from electronic recording,
deprivation of health and livelihood as a result of climate change, or control over individual
autonomy through advances in genetics and neuroscience. This comment concludes by urging
greater engagement of scientists and engineers, in partnership with human rights specialists, in
translating normative pronouncements into defining policy and planning interventions.

5. Do you agree with Mukherjee’s assertion that a human rights-based approach to science,
technology, and development ‘can form the very heat of sustainable futures? Explain your
answer.

- Yes. Science and technology have enormous impact upon the whole fabric of our lives. Second,
innovative science and technology require the preservation of certain intellectual rights such as
freedom to communicate and exchange ideas. Third, scientists are dedicated to questioning
conventional assumptions about the physical world and social condition.

Exercise 2

THE DECLARATION OF DAKAR 2007

1. The High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development took place on 23 and 24 October 2007 in
New York. On this occasion, the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies to Fund Development met
and decided to reaffirm its commitment to new sources of financing for development.
2.