The aim of this volume is to explore the relationship between human rights and capabilities in order to enhance the understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, as public policy frameworks and as approaches to development. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

Diane Elson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK. She has been Visiting Professor at Carleton, Ruhr and Rutgers Universities. She is a former Vice-President of the International Association for Feminist Economics, and has published widely on gender and development.

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York, USA. She was Director of UNDP Human Development Reports 1995-2004 and has published widely on human development and human rights.

Polly Vizard is Research Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), London School of Economics, UK. Her research interests include poverty, equality and inequality, human rights and the capability approach. Her recent work includes commissioned research for the British Equality and Human Rights Commission, and research on public attitudes towards rights.

Foreword Amartya Sen Chapter 1. Introduction: The Capability approach and human rights Polly Vizard, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Diane Elson Chapter 2. Capabilities, Entitlements, Rights: Supplementation and Critique Martha Nussbaum Chapter 3. Responsible Pluralism, Capabilities and Human Rights Jay Drydyck Chapter 4. Economics and Human Rights: A Non-Conversation Sanjay Reddy Chapter 5. The Metrics of Human Rights:Complementarities of the Human Development and Capabilities Approach Sakiko Fukuda-Parr Chapter 6. 'Operationalising' the capability approach as a basis for equality and human rights monitoring in 21st century Britain Tania Burchardt and Polly Vizard Chapter 7. Millennium Development Goals and human rights: Far away, so close? Simone Cecchini and Francesco Notti Chapter 8. Right to information and local governance institutions: An exploration P.B. Anand Chapter 9. Financial Regulation, Capabilities and human Rights in the US Financial Crisis: the Case of Housing Radhika Balakrishnan, Diane Elson, and James Heintz Chapter 10. Towards a Human Rights Accountability Index Philip Alston Chapter 11. Poverty and Human Rights: Building on the Capability Approach Siddiqur Rahman Osmani