Human rights and development policies. Some critical issues on the idea of ‘community rights’ in the development field

This paper takes into account the relationship between human rights and development policies focusing on how the development field deals with the idea of “community”. In particular, it aims at demonstrating how anthropological view can be useful for “deconstructing” and reflecting on some fixed categories – as the idea of community and of “community rights” – embedded in the development projects. It discusses the ambiguous concept of “communities participation” in protecting and promoting their own rights, taking into account how both human rights and development policies deal with a static and a-historical representations of “community’s rights”, claiming for the anthropological contribution to the understanding of both human rights and development policies.