The Demands of Global Justice

What do rich countries owe to poorer countries? One response is that the rich have the duty not only to avoid depriving the poor of the basic means of subsistence but also the duty to protect them from such deprivation and the duty to assist them when they are so deprived (see Shue, 1980). There is, on this view, a humanitarian duty—the duty to provide aid to the poor—to help people meet their basic needs. But what is the basis of this humanitarian duty, and what is its moral status with resp..