Page 227 - El État de los derechos humanos en el desarrollo sostenible

EL ETAT DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE

appropriate and tinged with different colours depending on the involved parties interests,
economics, social climate and environment.

The discourse on sustainable development has its followers and its critics. The professor

Wolfgang Sachs, known for being one of the biggest critics of this discourse, resents the
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predominance of the economic aspect of the concept of sustainable development . It
highlights that given that the predominant element of this idea is ‘development’ the concept

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of “sustainable” becomes only a mere accessory . Otherwise, in his article “No Sustainability
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Without Development” , professor Sachs confirms the lack of content on the word
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development: “The tragic greatness of ‘development’ consists in its monumental emptiness.”
Economic growth being one of the principal objectives of ‘development”, the indispensable

nature of the elements to make this possible is an object of controversy between the states.
Paradoxically, the nature becomes at the same time the primary object of ‘development’ and

a variable in the green approach of ‘sustainable development’, which should rather aid in its

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protection . In summary, the contradictions are intrinsic and difficult to reconcile.
Certainly, sustainable development seems to put a brake on the course towards growth, but

this course continues. For certain people, the approach of sustainable development would

only present new techniques for the future, including social and environmental variables.

268 Wolfgang SACHS, Development Dictionary, Londres et New York, 12e ed., Witwatersrand University Press,
2007.
269 Wolfgang SACHS, « No Sustainability without Development », (1997) Aisling Magazine, en ligne:
st
<http://www.aislingmagazine.com/aislingmagazine/articles/TAM21/Sustainability.html> (consulted the 1
october 2017).
270 Id.
271 Id.
272 Julien VANHULST y Adrian E. BELING, « Buen vivir et développement durable : rupture ou continuité? »,
(2013) 46 Écologie & Politique 41, 41.

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