IV. DANISH DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES AND PRACTICE
In relation to current Danish assistance, one of the key questions is whether
activities within the socio-economic sphere are considered part of a human
rights effort. Certain changes are evident here. In 1993, in the so-called
democracy package, the group Danida took perspectives for human rights
and democracy into consideration for the first time.33 Danida emphasized
political and civil rights as a prerequisite for economic and social development,
whereas it did not give much weight to economic, social, and cultural
rights. In the recent midway evaluation of its present strategy, the current
attitude, however, is expressed thus:
It is a basic Danish viewpoint that civil and political rights are closely
connected with economic and social rights and that they mutually support each
other. Progress in one area can never justify or legitimize regression in another.
A guarantee of economic and social rights for as many people as possible forms
the basis of Danish development aid’s poverty orientation.34
These formulations link for the first time Danida’s major goal of poverty
orientation with economic, social, and cultural human rights.