Abstract

The relationship between development aid and human rights has been frequently examined, in a belief that giving more aid to countries with better human rights can motivate their further improvement. Most researchers agree that the ‘established’ donors reward recipient’s democracy and human rights at least to some extent, either at the ‘aid eligibility’ or at the ‘level’ stage. However, worries have been raised about the rising importance of ‘new’ aid, which is seen as less disciplined and feared to disrupt the existing aid partnerships with developing countries. In this paper, I examine the evidence underlying these fears, by investigating whether human rights, democracy, and governance play any role in the aid-giving decisions of new EU member states, rising Asian donors, and Arab countries. I focus on two donors from each group – the Czech Republic and Poland, Turkey and Thailand, and Kuwait and the UAE - and analyse their aid flows using panel-data analysis for 1995-2011. I find that all the donors examined but Poland pay heed to recipients’ democracy, human rights, or governance records at some point in the aid decision-making process. These results insinuate that the fears raised vis-a-vis the nature of ‘new’ aid might be unfounded, particularly regarding the ‘new’ donors’ respect for human rights, democracy, and good governance.