Rosalia
1. Introduction
2. Human Rights or the Importance of Being Earnest: A Personal Account
3. The Sixteen Groups of Human Rights
4. Human Rights Based Planning: The New Approach
5. What Does the New UN Human Rights Approach bring to the Struggle of the Poor? - I
6. What Does the New UN Human Rights Approach bring to the Struggle of the Poor? - II
7. What Does the New UN Human Rights Approach bring to the Struggle of the Poor? - III
8. What Does the New UN Human Rights Approach bring to the Struggle of the Poor? - IV
9. The Role of Human Rights in Politicizing Development Ethics, Development Assistance and Development Praxis - I
10. The Role of Human Rights in Politicizing Development Ethics, Development Assistance and Development Praxis - II
11. The Role of Human Rights in Politicizing Development Ethics, Development Assistance and Development Praxis - III
12. The Role of Human Rights in Politicizing Development Ethics, Development Assistance and Development Praxis - IV
13. On the Role of the State, the UN and Civil Society
14. Health, Human Rights and Donors
15. Arguments in Favor of an Empowering Community Capacity Building in Health
16. Short Discussion Topics
17. Elements for a Human Rights Activists Course and Curriculum
18. Some Pearls of Wisdom about Health Care Financing
19. Health Sector Reform and the Unmet Needs of the Poor: A Critique
20. On Development, the Real World, Power Games and the Ugly Faces of Greed
21. On Morality, Freedom, Choices, Justice and the Need for People’s Power
22. Variations on a Theme by the Chilean Writer Isabel Allende
23. On Statistics
24. Food for NGOs Thoughts
25. Food for Donors Thoughts
26. Caveat Emptor: A Participatory Approach is not a Human Rights Approach!
27. Development And Rights: The Undeniable Nexus
28. On the Role of the State, the UN and Civil Society
29. On Vulnerability, Access and Discrimination
30. Potpourri
31. Human Rights and South-South Cooperation
32. A Call for Substance and Networking
33. Human Rights are Very Much on the Agenda of Development Work
34. Rights are Guaranteed Entitlements: Right?
35. ‘Charity is Obscene from a Human Rights Perspective’
36. Perspectives on Human Rights: Furthering the Debate
37. Putting Equity and Human Rights in Health on the Agenda: The Role of NGOs - I
38. Putting Equity and Human Rights in Health on the Agenda: The Role of NGOs - II
39. Social Exclusion and Human Rights
40. Beyond Capacity Analysis: Additional Elements of a Human Rights-Based Development Strategy - I
41. Beyond Capacity Analysis: Additional Elements of a Human Rights-Based Development Strategy - II
42. On Capacity Building Needs: The Macro Issues in Human Rights
43. The Ideological Neutrality of Human Rights is its Greatest Strength, but its Proponents should not be Neutral in Engaging to Achieve them
44. An Introduction to Children’s Rights
45. Globalization, Health Rights and Health Sector Reform: Implication for Future Health Policy
46. Stepping into the New Age of the Right to Adequate Nutrition: Snail Pace Progress? - I
47. Stepping into the New Age of the Right to Adequate Nutrition: Snail Pace Progress? - II
48. A Case of Logic - The Human Rights Advocacy Syllogism
49. The Difference Between Project and Process is Ownership. Human Rights Cannot be Implemented as a Project
50. NGOs should not be Human Rights Blind and should be Judged by their Politics
51. The Need to Struggle is Actually a Built-In Principle of Human Rights Work
52. The Law is the Law...and Human Rights are not yet the Law
53. Human Rights are Universal, but the Risk of Having One’s Rights Violated Is Not
54. Some Well Known and Some Less Well Known Aspects of Human Rights Work
55. Human Rights Violations are Part of a Social Disease with Historical Roots. (Part 1 of 16)
56. Objectivity in the Analytical Stages of the Planning Process is Nothing but a Myth. (Part 2 of 16)
57. We Have to Learn to Look at Totalities, Rather Than at Fragments of Reality. (Part 3 of 16)
58. It is through Ideology that Society Ultimately Explains Itself. (Part 4 of 16)
59. Social and Economic Injustice are not an Accident. (Part 5 of 16)
60. As Human Rights Activists we are too often Committed to Stability as the Prerequisite for Justice...Rather than the other Way Around. (Part 6 of 16)
61. Projects Dreamed Up in a Social Vacuum Must Play Themselves out in the Real World of Injustice and Conflict. (Part 7 of 16)
62. The Political Imperative in Human Rights Work. (Part 8 of 16)
63. Many Among us Think that Politics is Dirty or not a Virtuous Activity. (Part 9 of 16)
64. Passivity Makes us Accomplices of the Status-Quo. Many of us, with an Academic Approach to Change, Should not Forget This. (Part 10 of 16)
65. So, What Have We Achieved in the Last Few Years? Have We Been Using the Appropriate Strategies, Tactics and Tools in the Battle Against Human Rights Violations? (Part 11 of 16)
66. A Dead-End Option (Part 12 of 16)
67. Why are We so often Conciliatory when We should be Confrontational? (Part 13 of 16)
68. Some Aspects of the Politics of Women’s Rights and the Politics of Empowerment. (Part 14 of 16)
69. A Basis to Develop a New Vision for the Future. (Part 15 of 16)
70. A Basis to Develop a New Praxis for the Future (Part 16 of 16)
71. Remember?: Rights Mean not only Having a Right to Something, but also Claiming that Right from Appropriate Duty-Bearers
72. The Poor and Marginalized themselves will have to Ultimately Address the Factors that Keep them Disempowered
73. Recapitulating: the Eight Major Differences between the Basic Needs and the Human Rights Approach to Development
74. Five Decades of Development Assistance have Cost the World over 1 Trillion USD: How Much in Improved Human Rights is there to Show for that?
75. More on Human Rights Workers as Activists
76. Why Power only Yields to Counter-Power
77. More on Leadership
78. We Have Declared War on Poverty and Poverty has Won. (President Lyndon Johnson, 1964)
79. Human Rights and the "Weapons of Mass Deception"
80. Asserting and Affirming Human Rights is as Conflict-Prone as it is Indispensable
81. On NGOs and the Rights of Winners and Losers
82. Trade, Governance and Human Rights
83. Human Rights and the Growing ‘GAP’
84. Development = Substantial and Steady Advancement in the Realization of all Rights
85. Activism, Profession, Compassion and Political Solidarity
86. Does Improving the Provision of Services Empower Poor People, or is it the Empowering of Poor People that Improves the Provision of Services?
87. Excuse the Redundancy, but the Poor are a Majority: How does this Make a Difference in our Strategies and our Everyday Work?
88. ‘Behind Human Rights are Freedoms and Needs so Fundamental that their Denial puts Human Dignity itself at Risk’. (Goldewijk & Fortman)
89. Unfortunately, Human (People’s) Rights Violations do not Call for Concrete International Sanctions
90. Human Rights Principles: What They Mean in Practice
91. The Human Rights Discourse in Health. (Part 1 of 2)
92. The Human Rights Discourse in Health. (Part 2 of 2)
93. The Rise of Rights
94. A Characterization of the Current Stage of Human Rights Work
95. Two non-actors in Human Rights
96. On the Human Rights discourse and ‘what one-is and is-not’
97. Succeed, We Ultimately Must! If Not, Human Rights will be Relegated to Simply being an Indicator of Violations Rather than an Essential Foundation of the New Development Paradigm
98. A Primer for a National Action Plan to Operationalise the Right to Health Care (within the broader framework of the Right to Health). Part 1 of 3
99. A Primer for a National Action Plan to Operationalise the Right to Health Care (within the broader framework of the Right to Health). Part 2 of 3
100. A Primer for a National Action Plan to Operationalise the Right to Health Care (within the broader framework of the Right to Health). Part 3 of 3
101. NGOs: A network of protagonists (and denouncers of the slow progress being made) in human rights work?
102. More on Poverty and Human Rights
103. People who file claims to secure their right to health and adequate nutrition cannot wait for a whole generation
104. How aggressively should governments be put under pressure in the struggle for Human Rights?
105. Is there such a thing as a fair and human-rights-sensitive (Capitalist) Globalization?
106. Feeling helpless or lost (or being used) in your work?: Adopt the Human Rights-based Approach to development!
107. Always check if the Government is ‘putting its money where its mouth is’: A guide to using budget analysis to advance human rights. Part 1 of 2
108. Always check if the Government is ‘putting its money where its mouth is’: A guide to using budget analysis to advance human rights. Part 2 of 2
109. Glossary of Human Rights Terms
110. If I accept the responsibility that I should act, and I have the authority that I may act, and I have the resources so I can act, I can indeed be held accountable for my actions (or non-actions)
111. Before I start this poem
112. The Sachs Macroeconomics and Health Report: Investing in health for economic development or increasing the size of the crumbs from the rich man's table? (Part 1 of 3)
112. The Sachs Macroeconomics and Health Report: Investing in health for economic development or increasing the size of the crumbs from the rich man's table? (Part 2 of 3)
112. The Sachs Macroeconomics and Health Report: Investing in health for economic development or increasing the size of the crumbs from the rich man's table? (Part 3 of 3)
112. The Human Rights Discourse in Health (19 key statements)
115. It will be via Poverty Alleviation Programs that Human Rights will be Fulfilled
116. Poverty does not persist solely because of incompetent, corrupt governments insensitive to the fate of their populations! No, it is at once the cause and the effect of the total or partial denial of human rights
117. It is on the basis of a broken social contract and of global injustice that we speak of poverty as a human rights violation
118. Would you consider yourself to be (at least part-time) a health and human rights activist?: A very informal and tentative quizz.
119. In human rights work, our legitimacy and authority are only as strong as they are strong in the weakest link of our own network
120. On foreign aid, corruption, democracy and development: implications for human rights
121. Human rights in the era of neoliberal global restructuring
122. Using the millennium agenda as a reference point implies side-lining the human rights-based approach!
122. A rights-based approach to the MDGS
123. People have rights even without any specific legislation saying so
124. Human rights and the World Trade Organization
125. Being a human rights activist is not an illusion one should lose at age 40
126. MDGs are to (eventually) end extreme poverty, not most poverty; so, where are human rights left?
127. Yesterday’s future has arrived: The Post-Washington consensus only has a pitiful vague orientation towards the eradication of poverty and ill-health as human rights priorities. (Part 1 of 2)
128. Yesterday’s future has arrived: The Post-Washington consensus only has a pitiful vague orientation towards the eradication of poverty and ill-health as human rights priorities. (Part 2 of 2)
129. The rights-based approach fundamentally changes the nature of state-society relations
130. How we, HR activists, are duped: just a few examples
131. Some questions with human rights implications that are seldom asked
132. If a state has ratified a treaty, it is legally bound to implement it: a reiteration. (part 1 of 2)
133. If a state has ratified a treaty, it is legally bound to implement it: a reiteration. (part 1 of 2)
134. Human rights and the corridors of power.
135. “bread and health for all before cake and circus for anyone”.
136. In human rights work, cliche thinking in terms of good and evil is not helpful at all.
137. The human rights-based approach: a distilled inventory of its essential attributes. (Part 1 of 2)
138. The human rights-based approach: a distilled inventory of its essential attributes. (Part 2 of 2)
139. Human rights questions i wish i had concise answers for.
140. Many still think human rights are about political prisoners and street demonstrations.
141. It is not an exaggeration to say that the human rights-based approach is in a different league than other approaches to development: it is the ‘make or break' issue of our time.
142. Human rights are no longer a-preoccupation-that-is-best-left-aside for ‘others' to worry about.
143. Power makes even the ugliest look handsome.
144. Programs for the poor most often are poor programs: reducing the income gap between the poor and the non-poor is the real challenge for human rights activists.
145. Working with the marginalized and the excluded, and attending to their human rights needs, requires time and passion.
146. Group rights and collective rights are not the sum of individual rights.
147. Because of their universality, sovereignty must sometimes come second to human rights.
148. From the human rights perspective, power imbalances underlie health inequities.
149. Moral progress does not exist; we are not more moral today than what we were a hundred or a thousand years ago.
150. Free trade agreements, millennium development goals, and human rights: working at cross-purposes?
151. Human rights have to be a core component of the promotion of democracy.
152. Jonsson's credo. (part 1 of 2)
153. Jonsson's credo. (part 2 of 2)
154. Human rights have to be transformative rather than just simply easing human suffering.
155. Public health brings a counterbalance to the individual-centered view of human rights.
156. The rich have power because of their money, and the poor have power because of their numbers and their potential for organizing around human rights principles.
157. Exploring a critical, systemic approach to health rights. (part 1 of 4)
158. Exploring a critical, systemic approach to health rights. (part 2 of 4)
159. Exploring a critical, systemic approach to health rights. (part 3 of 4)
160. Exploring a critical, systemic approach to health rights. (part 4 of 4)
161. Human rights obligations rich countries are not honoring.
162. Human rights and poverty alleviation.
163. Human rights have to go from the conceptual, to policy to action.
164. From a human rights perspective, public health stands at a crossroad.
165. Human rights activists are not social engineers; they are public mobilizers.
166. It is only when potential individual benefits are seen more clearly as being high that people are more willing to actively engage in work leading to the realization of their rights.
167. The recognition of human rights such as they are expressed in international instruments is not enough for their realization.
168. Do statistics serve the human rights cause well?
169. The lack of funding to carry out national or local human rights assessments should not delay us in launching them!
170. The respect of the right to health is a reflection of a society's commitment to equity and justice.
171. More iron laws that affect human rights: use them!
172. Physical capital wears out; social capital does not. The more it is used in exercising direct democracy, e.g., to combat human rights violations, the stronger it gets.
173. Human rights violations are no longer a private affair, because they now have a political dimension.
174. Gender equality is not just a women's issue, but a development and a human rights issue.
175. The human rights discourse is globalization-skeptic and IFIs*-skeptic.
176. The human rights discourse is also MDGs-skeptic.
177. In some cases, the human rights discourse is religion-skeptic.
178. Of claim holders, duty bearers and agents of accountability.
179. Why has there been no wider public debate on human rights?
180. Social progress has always depended on public pressure.
181. In the development debate, the perception of poor people as people in need rather than as people with legitimate rights puts them totally out of step with the rights-based framework.
182. We do not need more philanthropy and patriarchy; we need more emphasis on human rights.
183. Clarifying the responsibility of the different levels of government is at the center of the dialogue between claim holders and duty bearers.
184. In human rights work, we cannot wait for political will --we need to generate it!
185. When we stand naked before the unvarnished mirror of truth, what we see is what we really are. Often what we are is what we civilize ourselves to disguise (or what we choose not to be outspoken about).
186. International NGOs demand more funds from donors but, with those funds, they often do not address crucial problems such as those related to deplorable local human rights situations.
187. The purpose of freedom from want is to create it for others.
188. We hear endless appeals-to and laments-about the lack of political will to address human rights issues. An active engagement by civil society means we no longer have a need to resort to the concept of political will!
189. In human rights work, when you deal with symptoms you generate sympathy, when you deal with causes you create social change.
190. Corporate social responsibility does not revolve around human rights concerns or charitable intentions; it revolves around business interests.
191. Corporations need clear, binding human rights rules.
192. Human rights: while small success stories are certainly possible, needed global reforms are being hampered.
193. In this, its 60th anniversary, the universal declaration of human rights is still a kind of conscience of the world --or even more-- today it can be considered customary international law.
194. Keep in mind: in human rights work we are in a struggle not only for accountability, but also against impunity.
195. The human right to health care process revisited. (Part 1 of 2)
196. The human right to health care process revisited. (Part 2 of 2)
197. The human right to health and to adequate nutrition in a structurally unequal society.
198. To define yourself as a human rights activist means initially going against the current.
199. Human rights violations are not only ‘social regrettables'.
200. A human rights-based poverty line is possible: It is one that points to the income level at which human rights are fulfilled in practice in every particular context.
201. The human rights-based framework is here to put right avoidable wrongs worldwide.
202. In the spirit of the Paris declaration on development cooperation, the improvement of foreign aid is not seen purely as a technical matter of better harmonization, but as a political quest to more decisively focus development on human rights.
203. Something has gone terribly wrong with the promotion of democracy: our elected leaders are far from treating (and not only looking at) poverty as the most important underlying condition of human rights violations.
204. The preamble of who's constitution unequivocally states that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being: is who living up to its mandate?
205. Health sector reform measures: have they worked?... And where do we go from here? (Part 1 of 2)
206. Health sector reform measures: have they worked?... And where do we go from here? (Part 2 of 2)
207. Health care as a right: what you need to know. (Part 1 of 3)
208. Health care as a right: what you need to know. (Part 2 of 3)
209. Health care as a right: what you need to know. (Part 3 of 3)
210. Human rights are part of a never-ending human struggle to improve people's lives and to prevent reoccurrences of past abuse. (Part 1 of 2)
211. Human rights are part of a never-ending human struggle to improve people's lives and to prevent reoccurrences of past abuse. (Part 2 of 2)
CLAUDIO SCHUFTAN
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Readers in this volume are the result of my progressive involvement with the Human Rights-based approach to development. As I began reading extensively about the topic, I consistently underlined the most important concepts that I thought progressively brought clarity to my thinking. It did not take long to realize that what had brought clarity to me also would do so for others. That was the spark that started the idea of the Readers.
I knew that more and more materials would be coming, so I needed something that could be serialized on an informal basis and with no rigid time intervals: the Reader was the best response.
Moreover, as I read more and more, some of my own contributions to the field began to take shape resulting in a few more academic pieces I have written and published. After rereading those, it became clear that by cutting and editing them, they could also become part of the Reader.
The end result is that, in about a year and a half of off-and-on work on this, over fifty mostly short Readers have been distributed electronically to several list-servers and a growing mailing list of people I think are interested in these topics.
A large number of reference have been quoted in the text of various readers. Howerver, in some cases, I have quoted ideas from various authors, where the exact references were not available. In these situations only the names of the authors of these ideas are mentioned in italics.
Through the (appreciated) interest of CEHAT, the Readers are seeing the light as a publication. We have tried to put some order in the Readers, but they are mostly stand-alone pieces on different aspects of Human Rights work. They should be read as such...and should be shared (in paperback or electronically). As you will see, the running thread in the Readers is to mobilize more and more development workers to adopt the Human Rights-based approach. We want you to join. CEHAT, I am sure, wants to hear from you; we need to build growing coalitions.
This collection of Readers in Human Rights is ultimately intended as an eye-opener and as a mobilizer of its readers. From the very beginning, I have been an active protagonist in the formation and steady advance of the People’s Health Movement. It is the grassroots action-oriented philosophy of our movement that has pushed me to bring to a practical and understandable level the sometimes not so easy concepts of the human rights-based approach to development and to health. I dedicate this work to PHM, the organization through which I breathe. Those of you who learn something from these Readers and feel empathy with what still needs to be done should seriously consider joining PHM by contacting our Secretariat (phmsec@touchtelindia.net). More information can also be found at our website www.phmovement.org.
Claudio Schuftan MD
Rosalia Sanchez has seven children,
twelve diseases, three abortions,
and a shanty and garbage for a sociologist's
fruition.
Rosalia is twenty seven years, one hundred years, five
thousand years old.
For fifty years, one hundred years, five hundred
years,
Rosalia has needed to eat.
Who wants to buy the eating machine of Rosalia?
Who wants to buy five hundred years, five hundred
Rosalias?
... not making a technical point about the
quinquenia?
Rosalia is a maid who once had a policeman, who once had a
share-cropper,
who once had a child, ... seven times a child.
Rosalia is made of bones, is made of flesh; the same as a cow,
the same as a hen,
but without a pasture, without a coup.
Hay for Rosalia! Maize for Rosalia! Rice for
Rosalia!
For five hundred, one thousand, twelve thousand years, since
the times of Ur and Uruk,
Rosalia has wanted a staple to eat.
When they were painting in the caves of Altamira,
Rosalia was twenty years old, had three children, and the moon
was shining...
Rosalia has always had three children,
twenty years of age, one abortion, and the moon was
shining...
Pregnant, Rosalia lives under a bridge.
I can see Rosalia. Rosalia is lucky to live in an organized
world!...
Rosalia fills forms to ask for a little house.
Rosalia stands in line in the Ministry of Public Health, lines
lasting five hours,
with a pissed child in her arms.
-The President says: "No citizen will..., etc."
Rosalia lives in an organized world indeed...
There is a Constitution, Human Rights, Prostitution, the
Church.
But, if Rosalia doesn't have enough to eat a
biscuit,
how can she understand the palpitations of a
refrigerator,
or to soak in milk an automobile,
or lying on a sofa switch-on a record player?
And this is Civilization, now that Rosalia cannot
squeeze,
at five o'clock, a jazz in tea?
Rosalia has to live in an organized world!
We have already gone to the moon:
"I'll drop you a line from the moon, love!"
Potatoes in photosynthesis, carnations in photosynthesis,
roses in photosynthesis.
Through a chemical orchard the insects will fly.
But Rosalia has seven children,
in midst of Civilization,
a metaphysical Civilization that cannot solve the problems of
Rosalia...
How many years is it that Rosalia has been going with her
children from dung to dung,
from Constitution to Constitution, from God to God!?
Rosalia is twenty seven years old, one hundred years old, five
thousand years old.
Rosalia has dung in her dreams,
Rosalia dreams about dung,
But dung is not herself.
By Orlando Leon, Venezuelan young poet of
the 1970s.
Translated from the Spanish by C. Schuftan
If we are really honest, we must recognize that, in our development work, we often offer simplistic and politically neutral solutions. High aspirations do not always translate into commensurate actions. We cannot rent ourselves a consciousness by just staying the course. Every one of us involved is sitting in a glass house. Those we proclaim to work for are watching.
The Readers in this volume convincingly argue that ignoring political and Human Rights issues will (continue to) result in non-viable development paths. That is why the ensuing pieces call for embarking in a veritable heroic struggle of ideas and actions against a host of powerful pro-status-quo special interests.
The rights-based approach we are calling for makes inclusion, Human Rights and equity real priorities.
Our public mission, then, is to re-center the development debate and to convincingly articulate the reasons for centering it around Human Rights. The Readers give you food for thought and for action for just that.
The Readers are neither systematically elaborated pieces nor do they launch new theories; they are rather true pamphlets whose provocative theses are meant to bring about real change. Get reading and form your own judgement. Only by using the concepts herein and articulating them convincingly will we begin to make headway towards desperately needed change.
I am a true convert. I do believe the Human Rights approach to development is the way to go forward.
Why Now?
As a freelancer working in public health for the last 2 years I am not involved in any long-term project on an ongoing basis. It is my being involved in different fronts of public health through my consulting that I have come to realize the time has come for a Human Rights-based approach. I have gotten very involved in it. But, so far, mostly as a critic of what we do in the Western Development approach and as a dreamer of what could be...(1, 2, 3, 4)
The failures and very partial successes I witness in my every day work have also made me an avid seeker of alternatives and a reader of the cutting edge literature. I come from a background (Chile) of those who look at development more from a holistic and political perspective. So it was a natural to jump into the nascent Human Rights literature. What I have read continues to reaffirm my own, and a growing number of others, prior belief: The bottlenecks to development are foremost of a political nature. (2, 4) So my adoption of this new approach came easy.
Why?
Because I think the Human Rights approach to development politicizes the discourse and puts rights/ claim holders more in the driver’s seat of the development process. (2) It also faces duty bearers with obligations they can no longer dodge. This, particularly because their obligations in this field are anchored in international law and draw their power from the official ratification of the various Human Rights covenants by most countries in the world. This is an important and powerful step forward: We are discovering that what so many of us in development work stand for, is not only ethically, but legally backed by the highest principles of international law. Moreover, the Human Rights-based approach to development overall has become the stated policy ahead for the whole United Nations System.
So I see it as my responsibility to link Human Rights to my work in health and nutrition. And I do get involved. I have seen myself become an activist in this cause. I have chronicled the slow start of this approach and how it is the result of a transition from earlier approaches to change the still prevailing Western development paradigm. (2, 5) And, in the process, I have often taken the position of an alter-ego or a devil’s advocate in the cause. (1, 2, 3)
Do I Feel I Have Been Rewarded By Taking This Course?
Yes indeed. I have recently started a periodic “Reader in Human Rights” which is now distributed through a few electronic list servers. It has ignited an interesting chain of responses from readers. This is my contribution to widen the dialogue on Human Rights. And it has come to a good start.
Are People Receptive?
So far, the UN agencies have; although all may not yet have a clear picture of how to steer the Secretary General’s mandate towards real actions in their respective upcoming work. (1) Otherwise, our peers using the electronic super highway have also been receptive; although I am perfectly clear that those are not the people that actually need the changes. But we are in the phase where the emerging messages also still need to be beamed to those among us who work in development, because they influence significant others. (The same is the leitmotiv of the publication where you are reading this piece). The involvement of the beneficiaries must be the next logical step in the process. What I am saying is that receptivity has to start with creating awareness in a wide range of actors in the development arena. And I have taken that responsibility face on.... starting at the upper end though, that is true, and that is my shortcoming.
Does the Human Rights Approach Help Me in My Work?
At this stage, I could not think of my work without continuing my engagement in the Human Rights approach. I have simply internalized it. I have added this perspective a bit to all I do and write. It has helped me tremendously in networking with, and hopefully, in mobilizing colleagues and students to build the new coalition that will devotedly work on the Human Right approach. A matter that I still consider pending is for YOU to join this movement.
References:
(1) Schuftan, C. (2000): Human Rights-based planning: The new approach, accepted for publication by SCN News, ACC/ SCN, Geneva, November.
(2) Schuftan, C. (2001): The role of Human Rights in politicizing development ethics, development assistance and development praxis, sent for consideration for publication to the Comm. Dev J., February.
(3) Schuftan, C. (2000): What does the new UN Human Rights-based approach bring to the struggle of the people? - sent for consideration for publication to Development, SID, Rome, February.
(4) Schuftan, C. (1983): De-Westernizing health planning and health care delivery: A political perspective, Chapter 15 in Third World Medicine and Social Change: A Reader in Social Science and Medicine, J.H. Morgan, Ed., Univ. Press of America, N.Y.
(5) Schuftan (1988): Multidisciplinarity, paradigms and ideology in national development work, Scand. J. of Dev. Alternatives, Vol.VII, Nos.2+3, pp.241-290.
The 16 groups of Human Rights as recognized in the articles of the two International Covenants of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) are:
ECONOMIC RIGHTS
1. The right to feed oneself
The right to be free from hunger2. Labor rights
The right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing
The right to work
The right to just and favorable working conditionsSOCIAL RIGHTS
The right to form and join trade unions
The right to strike
3. The right to social security
4. The rights of families, mothers and children
Protection of the family5. The right to physical and mental health
Freedom of marriage
Rights of the child
CULTURAL RIGHTS
6. The right to education
The right to compulsory primary education7. The right to take part in cultural life and the right to free scientific progress
8. The rights of minorities
CIVIL RIGHTS
9. The right of recognition and equality before the law
10. The rights of prisoners
Concerning capital punishment, right to life, prohibition of torture, slavery, and arbitrary arrest, basic principles of the penal system11. The right to a fair trial
Equality before a court, assumption of innocence, prohibition of ex-post-facto laws and of imprisonment for debt12. The right to liberty of movement
Protection of foreigners in case of expulsion13. The right to freedom of opinion
Protection of the individual’s sphere of freedom,POLITICAL RIGHTS
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
Right to free speech
Prohibition of war and discrimination propaganda
14. Freedom of peaceful assembly
15. Freedom of association
16. The right to participation in political life
1. All agencies of the UN regularly prepare long-term plans of action for approval by their respective boards. To arrive at them, these agencies go through detailed situation analyses that identify the most important causes of the problems each specialized agency deals with. As part of the latest UN reform process, the Secretary General of the United Nations has recently mandated that, starting in the year 2000, all agencies of the UN have to change the format of their upcoming plans and switch to what has been called Human Rights based plans of action. (1) Despite a rich literature on and a growing understanding of Human Rights in general, the Secretary General gave few explanations of what exactly this new approach to UN planning would entail.
2. UNICEF has taken a lead in defining in a bit more detail what Human Rights Based Planning means and entails for them. (2) What follows is a bare bones explanation of what this new concept is all about:
3. All actions in development projects/programs have to be based on a solid situation analysis.
The latter has to be based on an Assessment and an Analysis of the existing situation that will then lead to decisions being made for Action; this has been called a triple A (AAA) process.
But the assessment and the analysis cannot be done in a vacuum --without previously having worked on a Conceptual Framework of the causes of the problems that are to be solved.
This means that one has to have an in depth understanding of how those problems come about - what their determinants are - before one can decide what the best options are to do something about them. In other words, "One finds what one looks for"(...based on a conceptual framework). (3)
4. In the case of advocating for better children’s health and nutrition, the first concept that has to be agreed upon is that poor children’s excess mortality, excess ill-health and malnutrition are actually Outcomes in the conceptual framework. The three are determined by a series of Immediate Causes that include inadequate food intake and high prevalence of preventable diseases. The latter two, are themselves the result of yet another level of causality, Underlying Causes, that include household food and fuel insecurity, inadequate maternal and child care, low water and sanitation levels and inadequate access to (or utilization of) health care services, particularly by the poor. This whole pyramid of causes has at its base a series of Basic Causes represented by limited access to education (particularly for girls) and insufficient community control (power) over the resources (human, financial/material and organizational) poor people need to solve their problems at each causal level. (3)
5. The essence of a good situation analysis, then, is to carry out a Causal Analysis based on a preexisting Conceptual Framework and to base all decisions for action to be taken on this analysis. Therefore, appropriate interventions for the main causes at each causal level have to be found.
Addressing each cause is necessary, but not sufficient to change the outcome (i.e. ill-health, malnutrition and excess deaths). Communities need to act at all levels of determinants at the same time. This is why so many “selective PHC interventions” have failed in the past.
6. The above, basically summarizes what professionals in the field were expected to be doing up to now when trying to solve poor children’s health and nutrition problems. But the upcoming Human Rights Based Approach to Planning brings with it a new perspective to our work.
7. The essence of the Human Rights based approach is that it tells us that, additionally, we now need to carry out what is called a Capacity Analysis (or accountability analysis). (2)
What is a Capacity Analysis?
8. To analyze any Human Rights situation it is essential to identify two main groups of actors: Claim Holders and Duty Bearers. (4)
9. Claim Holders are the groups whose universally recognized entitlements are or are not being catered for by the societies they live in, and whose rights are thus being upheld or violated.
10. Duty Bearers are those individuals or institutions that are supposed to uphold the specific right related to each entitlement.
11. For example, in the case of a child as a claim holder, the first-line duty bearer is the mother; next are the father and other family members. But --forming a veritable pattern-- there also are duty bearers for children's rights further up the ladder: community leaders, district and provincial authorities, national and international leaders and institutions. (2)
12. To recap, the end result of a good causal/situation analysis is a list of locally specific immediate, underlying and basic causes that determine the problems being addressed. The participatory AAA process that identifies all those causes then also comes up with the suggested solutions for each cause identified.
13. It is here --when potential solutions have been collectively identified-- where Capacity Analysis comes in.
14. Capacity Analysis takes what is being proposed to be done for each determinant at each causal level and looks at what is already being done or not being done (and why) for that problem. It then looks at who should be doing something about it [individual and/or institution(s) who is (are) the corresponding duty bearer(s)] and attaches the name of that (those) person(s) or institution(s) to each proposed solution. This results in a list of the most crucial persons/institutions that have to be approached to push them to get the proposed solution(s) for each cause implemented. Note that, often, a particular duty bearer cannot meet her/his obligations because some of her/his rights are being violated by a duty bearer higher up (parents without resources to pay school fees cannot be blamed...). (2)
15. In a very simplified way, the end result of a good Capacity Analysis is a four or five columns table:
· the first column lists the causes listed from immediate to basic;16. This table thus becomes an action plan to get the various Human Rights deemed to be violated redressed for each specific group of claim holders.· the second column lists the respective right(s) being violated, for which group of claim holders (for example, children) for each cause (e.g. the right to food, the right to healthcare, etc);
· the third column identifies the gaps between what is being done and what still needs to be done (i.e. the actions needed --and one action may push duty bearers to finally carry out several previously neglected duties);
· the fourth column --to be realistic-- identifies the most critical respective duty bearer(s) by name (individuals and/or institutions responsible, often at more than one level);
· a fifth column may be added to specify who is going to approach those duty bearers and by when.
17. What this new Human Rights Approach to Planning does, then, is to couple the causal and the capacity analyses. At first glance, this may not mean much to readers being introduced to this new concept. But it is a powerful combination.
18. The coupling not only identifies what needs to be done, and at what level, but it also targets the person or institution that has to be lobbied/pressured, because they are legally responsible to do something about it under the Covenants of International Human Rights officially signed and ratified by almost all countries in the world.
19. The Human Rights approach, therefore, gives advocates of children’s welfare new powers: When appropriate, as advocates we can now approach duty bearers as ‘guilty of not doing what they are legally (and not only ethically) supposed to do’. The Human Rights covenants currently in force are very explicit about this. (5) We just have not sufficiently used this added power in our work so far.
20. Duty bearers have to be approached using the Human Rights violation justification, and have to be made accountable to comply! (6, 7) Alleging a “lack of resources” is not a good enough justification by duty bearers not to uphold the rights being violated. They have to convincingly demonstrate to us that resources available (even if meager) are not being used for other less essential functions. (7)
21. If we all do follow this new approach, we may set a growing precedent that will further the cause of those claim holders (children, for example) whose basic Human Rights are being violated worldwide.
22. Issues are a bit more intricate than here reflected, but this is a good introduction.
References:
(1) Annan, K. (1997): UN Secretary-General Reform Program, UN, N.Y.
(2) Jonsson, U. (2000): An approach to Human Rights based programming in (UNICEF ESARO), SCN News No. 20, July, pp.6-6, ACC/SCN, Geneva, and UNICEF ESARO, Human Rights-based planning guidelines, mimeo, Nairobi, January 2000.
(3) UNICEF (1990): Nutrition Policy, UNICEF N.Y.
(4) Jonsson, U. (1996): Nutrition and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, Food Policy, 21:1, pp. 41-55. (5) (1989): Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN, N.Y.
(6) Dandan, V.B. (1999): Monitoring, supervision and dialogue in the Human Rights system, SCN News, No.18, July, pp.34-38.
(7) UNHCR (1999): Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 20th session, Agenda item 7, Geneva, 26/4 to 14/5, (as quoted in SCN News No.18, July 1999, pp.41-45).
We Live in a New Age of Rights
1. Why does our commitment to a Human Rights approach in health, nutrition and development work overall need to change?
I would argue it is a fundamental reaction to the additive negative impacts of Globalization because Globalization is creating and is accelerating poverty, disparity, exclusion, unemployment, marginalization, alienation, environmental degradation, exploitation, corruption, violence and conflict.
2. In short, people who are being marginalized by Globalization today are really being pushed to the limit and they do need action. In real terms, beneficiaries of top-down social services (mostly the poor) have no active claim to ensure their needs will be met. So the Human Rights approach comes to introduce the missing element of de-facto accountability; and this is its added value in development work. (1, 2)
3. Because the rights-based approach takes the entitlements of those being marginalized as its starting point, a preliminary consensus needs to be reached that development, to be sustainable, must be based on equity. (3, 4)
4. The rights-based approach does strive for equity and sustainability; it focuses on the basic and structural (macroeconomic) causes of poverty, ill-health and malnutrition; it further highlights the strategic importance the formation of social capital plays in the development process. (5)
5. Historically, there has been much circularity in the discussion of Human Rights. Now, more concrete actions need to be identified. There is still a segment of the Human Rights community that thinks that one can settle world order issues while the power issues are still against the majority of the marginalized. But, as just said, this is almost a contradiction. Worldwide development will simply not take place through the benevolence of the Global Free Market and of those who, through their power, control it. (3)
6. During the process of relentless Capitalist accumulation, serious social cleavages have eventually occurred. One would think these did sober us. But we are now living in yet another utopia, one that extols the ultimate benefit of Globalization. This utopia is made of a similar, but dangerous mythical belief that ultimately the free market will make everybody happy. (6)
7. The Human Rights approach is here to set limits to the vicissitudes and sways of the (socially insensitive) market. (7)
The Challenge: What Changes?
8. Because of the fatal flaws of Globalization as the latest stage of Capitalist development, more humane global governance is now needed more than ever. (8)
9. It is a fallacy to focus on whether Globalization or bad governments are the most important cause of Human Rights violations. The Human Rights approach shows us what states should do or not do. When they fail the test, many governments actually use the Globalization argument (of being victims of a global process) as an excuse for not implementing their obligations. (8a)
10. In fact, one more often finds considerable softness in the approach of governments to rights and to their implementation. Often, a rights-based approach is not even on their radar screens. So both the individual duty bearers, as well as the system are to blame and to be held accountable. (3)
11. The United States, for example, has regarded the socio-economic rights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a wishful “letter to Santa Claus” (Jean Kirkpatrick, former US ambassador to the UN). The US has little sympathy for Social and Economic Rights, in contrast to its vociferous and selective support of Civil and Political Rights.
12. In the case of all governments, how much of their general budgets they devote to health, to food, to education and to poverty alleviation is of substantive Human Rights concern. One should thus look at how the various expenditures are distributed among the various population groups. Governments do violate Human Rights when they fail to offer adequate services to certain segments of society. To take a very real and current issue, should, for example, the provision of such services be privately organized, governments still remain responsible for the egalitarian and adequate provision of the same. But, are they? They are often not; one just needs to look at the existing evidence to see that. Civil society watchdog groups should be monitoring these developments. (9)
13. A Human Rights-focused analysis of statistical data should examine the extent to which various expenditures in social and other services are distributed among the diverse population groups according to need. Beneficiaries’ watchdog groups have to scrutinize these actions to make sure they ‘respect, protect and fulfill’ Human Rights, and protest if they fail to do so. In so doing, they will actually address the whole gamut of government Human Rights violations. (9)
(In all candor, the very way in which statistics are now organized and presented by government agencies may be one of such violations already.) (8)
14. But are governments the sole holders of Human Rights duties? The answer is no. Who are the other duty holders then? The example of children as right holders helps us illustrate this point: The duty bearers of children’s rights are, first and foremost, the immediate care-givers, followed by the family/ household members, the community and neighbors, local, sub-national, national and international institutions -all linked in a web of complementary duties.
15. This is the theory. But what we have real problems with right now is to convert these concepts into working programs, people’s claims into rights, so as to implement a rights-based development model in all its components. (10)
16. Although the recognition of the fundamental rights of all members of the human family is the basis of an overall ethical and political approach to development, really understanding these rights has largely, so far, been confined to Human Rights institutions, especially the UN agencies. How much should/can one rely on these agencies then to shift the focus of current and upcoming development programs to a Human Rights focus? For the time being, perhaps quite a bit. (2)
17. Their first challenge will be to create a common language with governments and NGOs, a language primarily based on social commitments to Human Rights and on raising the level of responsibility of the different actors -both as claim holders and as duty bearers. (5)
The second challenge is to make the Human Rights approach concrete and give it substance. (11, 12)
[We desperately need more rights-based programming approaches. It would be good to have concrete examples of such programming. But, for now, we don’t. (13, 12)]
Thereafter, UN agencies will have to build a more structured political constituency for Human Rights. (14)
18. But for now, most governments fear that the recognition of these rights would interfere with their policy choices. They will have to be made to understand that certain aspects of the rights approach may be subject to progressive (gradual) realization. On the other hand, poorer states will have fewer resources available. But there is a minimum core of rights that they all have to uphold! States have to guarantee the respect of those rights under any circumstance, irrespective of the resources available to them. (9)
19. What this means is that progressively, Human Rights objectives need to be better defined and refined to more explicitly establish universal Human Rights goals. Human Rights have yet to acquire a more operational meaning for people, and that is a major political responsibility we all have to deal with now.
Put another way, in operational terms, effectively mainstreaming Human Rights in all development activities remains a challenge of enormous dimensions --and the challenge is a political one. (2, 4, 15)
20. The main challenge here is to achieve consensus among development actors on such operationalization -and that is unthinkable outside an ideological framework which will bring us right back to the left/right, capitalism/socialism divide of “to all according to their needs regardless of their means”.
21. What will become central in this debate is for all of us to understand that Human Rights means the right to demand a whole series of things. Among them:
· that economic and physical access to basic services is equally guaranteed, especially for girls, women, the elderly, minorities and the marginalized,22. If the above demands are met, the added value of the rights-based approach will accrue in a way that:· that steps be taken to progressively achieve all Human Rights,
· that expeditious and verifiable moves be undertaken towards realizing those rights,
· that accountability, compliance and institutional responsibility be required in all processes,
· that administrative decisions are in compliance with Human Rights obligations,
· that unwillingness be differentiated from inability to comply,
· that states prove that there are reasons beyond their control to fulfill their obligations,
· that the private business sector (national and transnational) also complies with Human Rights dispositions,
· that national strategies on Human Rights be adopted that define clear benchmarks,
· that the implementation of national strategies is transparent, decentralized, includes people’s participation and moves towards eliminating poverty,
· that new legislation be developed involving civil society representation in its preparation, enforcement and monitoring. (16)
· beneficiaries become active claimants,23. It is in this light that the Human Rights approach enhances the scope and effectiveness of social and economic remedial measures by directly referencing them to close to universally accepted obligations to be found in the related UN Covenants. (16)· the process underlines the legal obligations of states,
· Human Rights provide the principled framework used to make decisions,
· the process moves the debate from charity/compassion (where there is already fatigue) to the language of rights and duties (accountable to the international community with compliance that can be monitored),
· the respective imperatives can be made more forcefully (making governments effectively liable). (17)
These obligations, let us be reminded, are either passive, negative or positive (depending on the specific Human Rights circumstance) and they are in competition with obligations stemming from other rights, especially when resources are scarce. (18)
24. One must nevertheless keep in mind that the duty to fulfill Human Rights does not depend on an economic justification and does not disappear because it can be shown that tackling some other problems is more cost-effective. (19)
25. The practical consequences of adopting a Human Rights approach then is that one realizes that all major currently active or passive social/political forces have the same obligations towards these rights; the challenge is to make them compliant with the fact that the responsibility must be shared. (5)
26. To put things in a historical perspective, in the Basic Human Needs-based approach, beneficiaries had no active claim to their needs being met. The ‘value-added’ flowing from the Human Rights-based approach is the legitimization of such claims giving them a politico-legal thrust.
27. Going back to the example of the child, in the Basic Needs approach, the child was seen as an object with needs (and needs do not necessarily imply duties or obligations, but promises). In the rights-based approach, the child is seen as a subject with legitimate entitlements and claims (and rights always imply and are associated with duties and obligations).
The Human Rights Approach: Some Iron Laws
28. As the new era of Human Rights-based planning in development work gets under way, there are a number of iron laws that begin to gain acceptance. Among them, and in no particular order, I would say, are the following:
· The struggle for Human Rights is more than a struggle to defend legitimate immediate interests, but is a struggle for universal justice. (20)29. The question we are left with when looking at these iron laws collectively is: Will our new delineation of a new Human Rights approach be any more capable of solving pending fundamental development issues? This question is pertinent at this point since it is the same fundamental issues, which have been and are the central constraints that have limited progress and sustainability in prior development efforts. We are talking about the political constraints.· A right is a right only when it is universal; otherwise it is a privilege.
· Human Rights have already been accepted by almost all countries as universal, indivisible principles. No further discussions are necessary. The burden of compliance is now on the world’s state parties.
· Human Rights cannot be departmentalized and are obligatory, not optional for states. They require governments to undertake active and effective steps in this direction. Therefore, Human Rights begin at home. (8, 4)
· Human Rights cannot be prioritized either. But actions to end their violation can. (2a)
· The Human Rights approach places development work within an internationally recognized and legally binding normative framework (a significant foundation that is currently absent from prevailing development approaches and activities). (4, 21)
· Rights can be usefully seen as the codification of needs, reformulating them as ethico-legal norms and thus implying a duty on the part of those in power. (22)
· The notions of duty and justice (...and merely not social responsibility or compassion!) give rights their cutting edge. (23)
· Justice is supposed to be the source of state power. Challenging states on the basis of justice as related to Human Rights challenges their legitimacy. This is a very powerful challenge. (20)
· Human Rights are inseparable from social justice. But to be effective, they require the adoption of appropriate policies and legislation at national and international level.
·(Ergo,) To ensure that the values of Human Rights are respected, they have to be underpinned by international Human Rights law, and at the same time incorporated into national laws.
· A lack of Human Rights means multiple denials. Therefore, poverty is the main obstacle to the attainment of Human Rights. (11, 4)
· At the beginning of the 21st century, the implementation of the fundamental legal rights enshrined in the different Human Rights UN Covenants represents the right political approach to development, particularly because it allows us to identify and actively challenge the prevailing oppression of the poor and powerless in society.
· Implementing a rights-based approach redirects the efforts in a way that optimizes the satisfaction of poor people’s basic and other needs in a sustainable way. (24)
· All unmet basic needs represent violations of rights. (2a)
· Up until a specific right is realized, this right is to be considered violated. (2a)
· There is a big difference between having basic needs and having universal rights: the latter can be legitimately claimed. (As opposed to rights, charity is given when convenient). (4)
· The health sector and other social sectors are often left to deal with the results of Human Rights abuses. (4)
· In Human Rights work, taking the first steps is the most important; it is better to concentrate on a few practical issues and strive for an incremental progress in them. (11, 3)
· In the national context, the best approach is to start using the Human Rights approach, not worrying about getting it perfect the first time around. (11)
· One strategy can often be used to address the violation of several different rights. (2a)
· Society produces endless ‘justifications’ for Human Rights violations which are often even accepted by the oppressed themselves. Human Rights work debunks these justifications. It liberates minds and mobilizes people. (20)
· The ongoing feminization of poverty is a violation of Women's Rights. The time has come to call these realities what they truly are: Human Rights violations. New Human Rights legislation has, therefore, to incorporate a gender perspective. (21, 5)
· The invisible hand of the market has no capacity to create a decent Human Rights-based society for all. (22)
· Human Rights facilitate the building of alliances --the joining of hands with millions of others--since appeals for justice generate worldwide support for widely shared moral reasons.
· A sub-set of iron laws pertains to the issue of power in society as it relates to enforcing Human Rights. They are as follows: (23)
Rights holders cannot only be passive beneficiaries of the duties of others.
The politics of it all
Politics is nothing more than the ability to resolve, time and again, conflicts of interest.
30. Because we need to be concerned with what happens to people now, what we do now will affect the next generation. That makes Human Rights eminently an issue in the contemporary political discourse. (8)
31. Human Rights ultimately give direction and boundaries to political and economic choices; some economic choices simply are not permissible, even if they promise a good return. Just like the limits of a national Constitution, there are things politicians can simply not do, and other things they have to do. That is how we should conceptualize Human Rights.(8)
32. With such an overwhelming mandate, most of us just feel helpless. But it is partly due to that feeling of helplessness that normative approaches are finding fertile ground, and that development thinking is no longer accepting utilitarian approaches. I thus see this as the beginning of a political movement; one that aims to develop and implement a non-ethnocentric global ethics (and, for now, we have to recognize that the United Nations is the organization that is set to lead that movement). (2)
33. In reality, there is a need for a political solution in conjunction with humanitarian efforts. But in the last instance, only politics will determine the speed with which the ultimate achievement of Human Rights will be realized. (25, 13)
34. I contend that it is by using a combination of the Human Rights instruments that we can become more political in our work. Furthermore, given their moral standing, people’s organizations should begin to speak more with one voice on these issues. (4)
35. On the other hand, political leaders do understand that change is more inevitable when communities demand their rights. Development agencies need to do likewise. (26)
36. Human Rights language raises social commitment. It is a very politically powerful language. As our social commitment increases, our level of political responsibility also increases. (5)
37. But it is more, we also need to focus on the politico-legal links in Human Rights work. (4)
38. The Human Rights framework is becoming a guidance and a directive in the area of global governance. It must now be used in a politically deliberate and systematic way to ensure its ultimate achievement, ergo the realization of Human Rights. (8)
39. The question, of course, here is: Are we all likely to have the strength and the political will to use Human Rights effectively as our supposedly new weapon against global violations of the Right to Development? Or put otherwise, will the explicit inclusion of Human Rights into the politics of, for instance, malnutrition make any difference to the many millions whose lives are blighted by this problem? (27)
40. One can be skeptical. Not much has really changed so far. This, because of the political sensitivities involved in resolving these issues. They have never really been addressed in depth. But these sensitivities are now under siege: We are at a point where you cannot but take sides! Get prepared for a fair struggle.
The Participation Factor in Human Rights
41. Getting Human Rights implemented means not only engaging development agencies, but also the government. For the latter to happen, the people (those whose Human Rights are being violated every day) will have to be mobilized, and that is a political decision.
42. While there is a fair spectrum of policies, legislation, structures and programs pertaining to the realization of Human Rights already out there, there are still many people who do not receive these basic rights. Human Rights are not yet being applied for many. We thus need social mobilization efforts of a more aggressive type to fight for the enforcement of such rights. (28)
43. Under the existing Human Rights Covenants, it is one of the state’s obligations to actually facilitate the mobilization of civil society, to make them powerful actors in the process. But we all know the difference between doing and paying lip service...
44. Therefore, fostering a viable civil society is key for pressuring governments into doing what they solemnly signed and are supposed to do in the first place.
45. In the process, capacity building alone is not enough. We need to empower people along the lines of their rights being upheld.
46. All this, because only when those living in poverty are understood by all to be the most effective analysts of their own problems and agents of their own solutions is it possible to formulate effective and sustainable interventions. (19)
47. In short, to succeed, we need citizens action in a broad two-way consultative process aimed at enforcing Human Rights. (5)
The Use of Indicators in Human Rights Work
48. Tools need to be developed to assess the impact of Human Rights.
49. Under te new paradigm, activists in every country must demand verifiable benchmarks be set to monitor the evolving status of people’s rights; and they also will have to struggle for the adoption of a framework law to be used as a major instrument to implement the national Human Rights strategy. (16)
50. On the other hand, a responsible research community also has much to offer, particularly in terms of collecting information on rights violations and feeding the same back to communities directly. (11)
51. They also need to again reanalyze all the information stored in official data banks of routine data collection systems to try to reinterpret that information from a Human Rights perspective, i.e. disaggregating it by gender, socio-economic group and other pertinent parameters that can uncover flagrant or hidden inequities and Human Rights violations.
52. An example can illustrate this need for reinterpretation: We can no longer celebrate growths in GNP/capita while nutritional status is not improving -- and using that to argue that malnutrition is not significantly a poverty (or income) related issue... As it turns out, child malnutrition can and should be used as a prime indicator to monitor Human Rights violations. Stunting is a good poverty indicator as is the percentage of household income spent on food. (29, 30)
The World Bank, or A Position Full of Contradictions on How to Look at The Human Rights Approach
[For your judgment, I am here quoting from the intervention of James Christopher Lovelace, WB vice-president, in the ACC/SCN Symposium on ‘The substance and politics of a Human Rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programs’, Geneva, April 1999. (13) (Emphases are mine)]
53. ”The WB recognizes that the Human Rights approach is an important new narrative (...?) of the international development discourse...
(Granted,) Sustainable Development is impossible without Human Right. (But)This realization does not imply the World Bank’s lending and non-lending decisions will always be governed by Human Rights considerations...
For the WB, the measure of its commitment on ethical, political or rights issues does not lie in its pronouncements, but on how its resources have been applied. Its loans have helped turn rights into realities (...?)...
(On the other hand,) The Bank’s Articles of Agreement clearly state that in all its decisions, only economic considerations shall be relevant.(WB, 1996). This criterion has, at times, been applied in too narrow a fashion, sometimes with negative consequences...
The question (then) is whether the limited mandate of the WB would preclude it from adequately confronting the issue of Human Rights...
(No matter what,) The Human Rights framework still leaves us with the practical challenge to make choices...
(I think) The principles of Human Rights must exert an abiding influence on the design of the operational details of WB projects...
(Actually,) We need a division of labor: advocacy for respect of Human Rights should be the task of the UN agencies, bilateral donors and NGOs; providing resources for scaling up projects that fulfill Human Rights should be the role of the International Financial Institutions...
The WB’s specific role and contribution will (thus) continue to be to bring to the debate a measure of economic rigor required to systematically weigh alternative means towards fulfilling the states’ obligations towards Human Rights”...
54. One critic of Mr Lovelace’s portrayal of the Bank’s stance countered that the World Bank had been instrumental in making it very difficult for governments to respect, protect, facilitate and fulfill their Human Rights obligations. It had repeatedly created constraints such that people in many countries had not had their rights fulfilled. As a matter of fact, he said, Structural Adjustment constantly creates difficulties and constraints for Human Rights. (2)
55. To this, Mr Lovelace replied: “I would agree that structural adjustment hasn't always considered the human dimension, and in some cases has clearly worked against it”. (13)
[The above is not presented as an exposee or a mockery; it just is to show how the Human Rights approach also forces institutions to take sides: and they are not always well prepared to do so. I am confident the Bank will find some astute way out (or in) on this issue as well].
Human Rights from the United Nations’ and the NGOs’ Perspective
56. As is well known to most readers, in his 1997 Reform Proposal, the Secretary General of the UN called for all UN agencies to mainstream Human Rights in all their activities. (2)
57. UN agencies are considered to be duty bearers particularly in terms of monitoring and publishing indicators of Human Rights worldwide. (11)
58. It is also the UN’s role to hold states accountable for non-compliance with their specific Human Rights obligations. In such a function, UN agencies act as political mediators. UNDAF, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, is a new tool set up by the organization at country level to strengthen inter-agency cooperation and coordination in this mediation. (9, 8)
59. Moreover, since the Covenants already delineate both state and societal obligations, civil society, NGOs, the private sector and others in the national and international community also are bona-fide duty bearers. (5)
60. So, the more society is organized as a myriad of institutions that respect, protect and fulfill Human Rights and that act locally to assure the realization of these rights, the more we can expect progress in the future. (5).
61. The role of civil society groups is to, among other, act as pressure groups. Therefore, to guarantee gains, civil society will have to continue its strong sociopolitical mobilization effort in a bid to hold national and international institutions with obligations in the realization of Human Rights accountable. (8)
62. This, because development cooperation (ODA) does not automatically contribute to the respect of Human Rights. Civil society will thus have to oppose development activities that are ill-conceived and even counterproductive in Human Rights terms. Ergo, development agencies will need to fix their sights more on the Human Rights dimension of their work and civil society will have to create and sustain the pressure for this to happen. (31)
63. The NGO community can indeed play a major role in this. Among other, they will have to:
· keep asking the right questions that seek information on violations/fulfillment of Human Rights,64. Ideally, all development agencies should, in the near future, develop internal mechanisms to ensure that their own policies and programs de-facto execute Human Rights obligations.(2)· submit written statements (plus photo and video documentation when appropriate) to authorities and to watchdog groups on their assessments and findings,
· follow up on corrective measures taken (or not taken),
· detect bad faith in the implementation of Human Rights obligations, and publicly denounce this fact.
65. In the meantime, the danger exists that organizations use Human Rights language as non-committal rhetoric just to feel good and ‘move with the tide’.
66. Finally here, we still need to clarify the role of the for-profit private sector in the Human Rights discourse. Historically, small local enterprises have not been a threat to Human Rights; Transnational Corporations have. Now they need to be held accountable.
Little has been written on this topic so far. (6, 18)
Some breakthrough will be needed here. I declare my incompetence on this issue.
Writing Human Rights into Law
67. In all honesty, many governments (if not most) continue to take a soft approach to the implementation of Human Rights. Human Rights actually require a people-oriented state -- a fact that superficially may seem obvious, but of course isn’t. (3, 32)
68. There are at least two challenges in this front to which they are not living up to. On the one hand, we need to adopt corrective legislation and take administrative measures to amend and abolish dispositions that are now contrary to Human Rights. On the other hand, new legislation needs to be put in place.
69. The new national legislation on Human Rights will have to contain specific targets and corresponding time frames/deadlines which can be monitored. (33)
70. In an ideal situation, the mere reference to Human Rights should create legal pressures towards the implementation of those rights. But, being very realistic, Human Rights enforcement and accountability still are key remaining unanswered questions in this struggle. (11, 20)
71. Because of the acute current monitoring needs, it is important to establish national Human Rights Commissions whose funding is independent of government bodies. When laws are then promulgated, states will simply have to respect the work of these Human Rights advocates and other watchdog groups -- including the work of non-nationals involved in taking steps to foster the respect of universal Human Rights; there should be no fear of harassment or persecution for them. (11. 16)
72. Very early drafts of proposed legislation must be forwarded to civil society movements, labor unions, academic and scientific associations, private sector representatives, relevant government bodies and international organizations for review. (5)
73. Later on, a powerful measure that could be implemented is for victims of Human Rights violations to be entitled to adequate reparation. For this, one could conceive of nationally respected ombudsmen or national Human Rights Commissions being put in charge of holding hearings for victims of poverty and Human Rights violations. (16, 28)
74. In their reporting on Human Rights to the UN, Party States have to acknowledge: implementation problems, existing relevant national legislation and rules, regularity of monitoring (open to public scrutiny), priorities established and how the administration makes sure these rights have been implemented, how progress is being evaluated and the specific measures taken to achieve the realization of each of the rights.
This is already written into state obligations. Civil society now just has to sign off on these reports to keep them truthful.
75. Adding another perspective, it is not a well known fact that the right to ensure international fair trade between nations is also explicitly mentioned in the Human Rights legal documentation. The latter calls for no restrictions in the access to markets and no trade embargoes which may jeopardize a state’s population. It clearly emphasizes fair trade over free trade. This, of course, is another vast area begging for more worldwide activism. (9, 2)
76. In sum here, let us agree that without enshrining civil and political rights into explicit legislation, there is no guarantee that other rights, even when inscribed in laws and constitutions, can be made effective. The absence of powers to make governments accountable and responsible to their citizen on these fundamental rights is one of the greatest obstacles to rights-based agendas.
Training in Human Rights
77. Having a Human Rights framework does not automatically change the way managers working in the development sector think about benefits. Only through a long process of incorporation of these politico-legal and other principles into everyday norms and directives and into service training programs will it be possible to progressively change deeply rooted Human Rights-neutral or Human Rights-opposed attitudes. (5)
78. Nobody suggests that we begin each day by reciting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights! National and international development and social services delivery staff should be appropriately trained and be challenged to, by themselves, explore the effective use of Human Rights in their everyday work. For sure not a small task, but one we need to tackle with a sense of urgency. (4)
79. Human Rights standards have thus to be incorporated into personnel training, because by using these standards they will gain an additional degree of authority and power, at the same time becoming more accountable. (31)
Some Conclusions
Betting on the invisible hand and ignoring the rights of the socially excluded is immoral; it is the issue of a deliberate collective social exclusion that we are out to combat. (22)
80. Borrowing a term from sub-comandante Marcos of Chiapas fame, the first challenge we face in Human Rights work is to bring the Human Rights issue to a level of “impertinent consciousness” where it bothers us not to get involved.
81. In the strategy of imposing the new Human Rights paradigm over the old and obsolete development paradigm, we have to get involved in a long haul capacity building, advocacy, social mobilization and people’s empowerment effort so as to influence short, medium and long term outcomes.
82. We are ultimately fighting for a development that is anchored in the dyad Human Rights-Human Needs. And because to succeed in this field we need to change current realities in a socially and politically relevant manner, our actions will have to be based on a very strong political discourse. (22, 5)
83. Normatively, this means we need to go from declarations (UN Declaration of Human Rights, Convention of the Rights of the Child, Convention on Eliminating Discrimination Against Women) to national plans of action, and to national legislation on these rights.
Operationally, it means we actually need to go from people articulating their needs into specific claims and then targeting them to specific duty bearers who already have clearly stipulated obligations. These claims have to then become enshrined in laws that are enforceable in practice; in the enforcing of these laws, we need to make full use of existing facilitating factors and join hands with all strategic allies to tackle all possible obstacles and face all strategic enemies. (34, 12)
84. We all know that it is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them (Alfred Adler 1875-1937).
At every step of the fight you commit yourself to embark on, just keep in mind that the actual issues you will be fighting for together with the people, are important, but not crucial: The process is!
More impact does not require just more inputs... It is not about doing the things right; it is about doing the right things and accessing the right leverage points that will make the big difference.
85. The Human Rights approach thus brings to the forefront the point many activists have been making for over 30 years ... Previous development initiatives had good intentions in them; we could have gone further with the Basic Human Needs approach or with Primary Health Care, for example... But we did not. Basically, because the political resolve was not there.
86. A lot will have to be deconstructed before we can start to set up this new Human Rights approach. What may look destructive from outside is a necessary precondition. Resolving the principal contradiction in each country will require identifying the main opponents of the new approach, as well as the right tactics and strategies to forward the noble cause of Human Rights.
References:
(1) Ngongi, N. (1999): The practical challenges of overcoming hunger, SCN News, No. 18, "Adequate Food: A Human Right", July, pp.30-32 + 80, UN ACC/SCN).
(2) Jonsson, U. Historical summary: Nutrition ethics and Human Rights, SCN News, op.cit., pp.47-49 +73-83.
(2a) Jonsson, U. (1997): Realization of children s rights: Charity or solidarity?, mimeo, UNICEF ROSA, Kathmandu, December 3.
(3) Ramcharan, B. Invited remarks SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., pp.16 + 73-83.
(4) Brundtland, G. H. Nutrition, health and Human Rights, SCN News, op.cit., pp.19-21+73-83.
(5) Costa Coitinho, D. Understanding Human Rights approaches: Food and nutrition security in Brazil, SCN News, op.cit., pp.50-53 + 59-62.
(6) George, S. (1999): The Lugano Report: On preserving Capitalism in the 21st century, Pluto Press, London.
(7) Jolly, R. Opening remarks SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., p.11.
(8) Eide, A. Studying the rights to food and nutrition, SCN News, op.cit., pp.45-47 + 73-83.
(8a) Windfuhr, M. Comment, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., p.80.
(9) Toebes, B. Human Rights, health and nutrition, SCN News, op.cit., pp.63-70.
(10) Matlon, P. Comment, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., p.83.
(11) Haddad, L. Synopsis, overview and synthesis, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., pp.12-15 + 73-83.
(12) Schuftan, C. (2000): Human Rights based planning: The new approach, accepted for publication by SCN News, September.
(13) Lovelace, J.C. Will rights cure malnutrition?, SCN News, op.cit., p.p.25-28 + 73-83.
(14) Kennedy, E. Discussion of country cases, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., p.59.
(15) Schuftan, C. (2000): The role of Human Rights in politicizing our ethics and praxis in health, submitted for publication to Development and Change, August.
(16) UNHCR, Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, General comment 12, The right to adequate food, Art. 11, SCN News, op.cit., pp.41-45.
(17) Jenssen-Petersen, S. Food as an integral part of international protection, SCN News, op.cit., pp.32-33.
(18) Barth-Eide, W. and Kracht, U. Towards a definition of the right to food and nutrition, SCN News, op.cit., pp.39-40.
(19) Lewis, S. Malnutrition as a Human Rights violation, SCN News, op.cit., pp.22-25.
(20) FIAN, (1998): Hungry for what is right, Newsletter No.13, August.
(21) Whelan, D. A Human Rights approach for women in development, SCN News, op.cit., p.90.
(22) (2000): UNRISD News, No.22, Spring/Summer.
(23) Sumner, L. W. The Moral Foundations of Rights.
(24) Robinson, M. Keynote address, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., pp.17-18.
(25) Salama, P. Mainstreaming the Human Rights approach in humanitarian interventions, SCN News, op.cit., pp.87-88.
(26) Uauy, R. Comment, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., p.74.
(27) Pellett, P. A Human Rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programs, SCN News, op.cit., pp.84-86.
(28) Thipanyane, T. A national framework for the promotion and protection of the rights to food security and nutrition: South Africa, SCN News, op.cit., pp.53-56 + 59-62.
(29) Clay, W. Comments, SCN 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., pp.77+82.
(30) Schuftan, C. (1998): Malnutrition and income: Are we being misled? (A dissenting view), Ecol. of Food and Nutr., 37(2), pp.101-121.
(31) Dandan, V. B. Monitoring, supervision and dialogue in the Human Right system, SCN News, op.cit., pp.34-38.
(32) Stavenhagen, R. (2000): UNRISD News, No.22, Spring/Summer, pp.1-4.
(33) De Haen, H. Summary of statement, 26th session, SCN News, op.cit., pp.28-29 + 73-83.
(34) Schuftan, C. (1999): Sustainable development beyond ethical pronouncements: the role of civil society and networking, Comm. Dev. J., 34(3), July, pp.232-239.
“The vast majority of humanity just has the right to see, to hear... and to remain silent.”
- Eduardo Galeano
A Touch of History
1. The newly emerging Human Rights framework in development work comes as a reivindication to old time radicals who have been advocating and fighting for a more political approach to the ‘maldevelopment’ the second half of the 20th century has witnessed.
2. Gone are the heydays of Latin American revolutionary fervor and of African Socialism, of President Allende’s Unidad Popular and of President Nyerere’s Arusha Declaration and Ujamaa. But the role of an avant-garde remains the same: to cause fermentation. (1)
3. Historically, countries in the South first saw the arrival of Northern-led infrastructure/public works builders who attempted to set up the backbone of Third World economies. Then, in the 1970's, came basic human needs backers who attempted to provide people with their bare bones necessities for survival. Now, we have the greens reminding us of the environmental limits of development. But, so far, these approaches only weakly touched the political dimension, failing to tackle it as the principal stumbling block to genuine people’s development.
4. I have personally been a witness to this snail-paced process of politicization of development work; I have seen it evolve in slow, incremental steps over a period of roughly 25 years. My experience has mostly been in the field of nutrition.
5. My journey started with the rise and fall of the ‘Food and Nutrition Planning’ era from 1974 on. At the time, many of us critiqued that newfound panacea to solve the problems of malnutrition in the world. (2, 2a)
It eventually died a quiet death. Systems analysis techniques and models, devoid of a political vision/ perspective, simply led to a dead end alley. It took us years to figure that out.
6. Furthering the fight for a more genuine grassroots development, a second breakthrough, to me, came in 1984. At that time, the first steps were taken in coming up with what later became the ‘Conceptual Framework of the Causes of Malnutrition’ with its different levels of causality. (3) The accompanying AAA approach (assessment/analysis/action) came as a consequent companion to such a causal analysis.
It called for the entire AAA process to be carried out by the beneficiaries themselves. (The AAA approach contended that only when those living in poverty are understood to be the most effective analysts of their own problems and agents of their own solutions, is it possible to formulate effective and sustainable interventions. (4).
7. As is now well known, the Conceptual Framework’s basic causes focus more proactively on the people's access-to and control-over the resources they need to develop and on the structural underpinnings of underdevelopment. The Conceptual Framework/AAA approach thus represents the acceptance of a dialectical approach that looks at the major and minor contradictions in society that result in worldwide ill-health and malnutrition of women and children as an outcome. The adoption of this approach was, therefore, a step towards further politicization of the development paradigm.
It called for a dialectical unity of knowledge and action. (5)
8. In 1990, the Conceptual Framework/AAA approach actually became UNICEF’s flagship approach to solving the problems of malnutrition the world over. For a long period thereafter, the international public nutrition community got side-tracked and concentrated mostly on acting on the underlying causes of malnutrition insisting though that each of them (food, health and care) was necessary, but not sufficient. Not surprisingly, such a shortcut approach ended up being “too timid and too narrow”. (4) Again, it took us years to figure that out.
In a way, this was a comparable phenomenon to that which, a decade earlier chose reductionistic approaches to PHC such as GOBI or GOBI/FF (growth monitoring, oral rehydration salts, breastfeeding, immunizations, food security and family planning) that led us only half-way to ‘Health For All 2000’. (Moreover, a sizable portion of the world’s nutrition community got more heavily involved in the micronutrients field -and away from the Protein-Energy Malnutrition field-- which also de-emphasized the political aspects of combating malnutrition.) (6).
9. Roughly ten years after the Conceptual Framework/AAA approach was launched, came the (complementary) ‘Human Rights Approach’ encompassing:
· a revival of the role of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in development work,The New Discourse· a drive to explicit ‘poverty redressal objectives’ in development work making it paramount that we need to work with the poor as protagonists, and
· a further bid to more concretely operationalize the newly approved rights such as those enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), the Right to Food, and the (upcoming) Right to Development.
10. The main areas of concern of this Human Rights approach are eight:
· Populationa and Gender,11. Because Human Rights derive from the dignity and worth inherent in the human person, when deprived of rights, a wo/man does not represent the human person whom the Universal Declaration regards as the ideal of a free wo/man. (7)
· Mortality and Fertility,
· Health,
· Education,
· Income and Employment,
· Habitat and Infrastructure,
· The Environment,
· Human Security, and
· Social Justice.
What I am focusing on hereunder -let me clarify-- is not (directly) on the need for the overall Political Rights of people to be universally upheld. I am rather interested here in the politics of enforcing (all) Human Rights using a people-centered AAA process. This, since, for me, Human Rights are the resurrection-of or the return-to a greater focus and action on the basic causes of the Conceptual Framework which still remain unaddressed at the base of the causality pyramid.
12. The Human Right approach reiterates, in no uncertain terms, that a relationship exists between Human Rights and economic and social development. And within a Human Rights-based development, it is the politics of equity that ultimately counts.
13. Orthodoxy aside, politicization is here meant to be a process that transforms anguish into anger and into the search for being ultimately relevant --keeping in mind that a political climate is something one creates, not something that is found out there.
14. In that same sense, Human Rights is about breaking the silence of powerlessness that keeps the needs and desires of the poor from being part of national political agendas. For the disempowered to get voice is not enough; Human Rights is about getting them influence, and about the processes that lead from having voice to having influence.
15. In sum, the added value of Human Rights is that they cannot be relegated to a mere social aspiration: they are rights; even if, at present, some of them are not enforced (or enforceable).
When A Little is Not Enough
“What you push is what you change.“
16. I would like you to agree with me that taking, what I call, a ‘minimalist stand towards Human Rights’ will do no harm, but neither will it do much good.
17. This, because Western Development has led to:
· adopting what has been called an ‘exclusion fallacy’, where what we choose not to discuss (most often the politics of it all) is assumed to have no bearing on the issues, and led to18. Moreover, such exclusions and the choice of patch solutions make impact their primary goal, not equity, not Human Rights. The stark reality is that there is no escape from politics, no way to represent the social world free of ideology.· consistently adopting soft solutions when faced with hard choices (e.g. ‘safety nets’ that are nothing but a part of a strategy to manage poverty so as to attenuate social unrest and keep it at a minimum cost).
Commitment to change coming from ethical imperatives alone does not fuel great social movements anymore. It is not enough to encourage the articulation of a shared moral vision, because it leaves us unable to consolidate this vision into moral outrage and that outrage into political power to change an unfair state of affairs impinging on the most basic rights of people.
19. Society is said to evolve as a (bloody) pendulum: a conservative cycle/a liberal cycle; action and reaction, always taking a toll of death. As long as we are trapped in this cycle and do not proactively try to break its passive successions, we cannot expect much in the way of Human Rights (in this context meaning ‘liberation’ to many). As a matter of fact, we cannot even expect any fundamental change, except that of the awful slow variety where each step takes two generations or more. (8)
20. Actually, both soft (ethically-motivated) and hard (politically-motivated) approaches to Human Rights are necessary. But the former alone is simply not sufficient! Both call for a militant commitment.
21. The bottom line is that there will be no more business as usual (or even business being more focused or interventions more targeted, as the present mood seems to call for). This is thus a key time for reflection and soul searching. (9)
22. We need moral advocates to influence perceptions. Granted. We need mobilization agents and social activists to influence action. Granted. But we also need political advocates to raise political consciousness and provide leadership. The latter cannot be left for later. Therefore -since working on a common set of values is politics-- agreeing on the politics of Human Rights --beyond ethical pronouncements-- is the real challenge.
23. But orthodoxy (the right doctrine) is not enough either. Orthopraxis (the right acting) is ultimately more important. (A. Gramsci). The challenge is to move the process from orthodoxy to orthopraxis and from minimal to full steam.
The Human Rights Paradigm
24. The use of the Human Rights discourse in development work undoubtedly constitutes a paradigm break. But so far, this break has only been conceptual, not yet operational. In this day and age, there is a social need for commitment beyond ethics. What I am convinced of is that, in its operationalization, the new Human Rights paradigm will have to become more overtly and explicitly political with the creation of well organized pressure groups amongst those whose Human Rights are being violated. And to transcend minimalism, these groups will further have to rapidly coalesce into major movements --a challenge, among other, for the Internet.
25. Fighting for Human Rights is combating the surplus powerlessness of the have-nots by creating a movement that helps build committed, multi-level action networks.
26. We need to explode the myth that things are just fine; they are not. For this, our strategy, of necessity, must become more political; that is an imperative set by how the world ticks. Power politics cannot simply be ignored; we cannot look the other way; we have to deal with it.
27. It is not enough to go from People's Needs, to their Entitlements, and from there to their Rights, and then Passing Laws, hoping the latter are Enforced.
This is considered to be a soft approach in the new paradigm.
28. We need to start from the People’s Felt Needs, translate those into Concrete and Effective Demands, that foster People’s Organizations, to start Exercising (growing de-facto) Power, and then Consolidating (their newly acquired) Power with that of other like-minded similar organizations.
29. The latter delineates the needed hard approach and path, because what is needed is to counter a host of complex social and political issues that are preventing people from improving their own wellbeing -and these are mostly related to control processes in society.
Has Science Helped People’s Development?
30. In the latter part of the twentieth century, Science was not deliberately at the service of people's rights and development. The mainstream sciences --both basic and social-- simply failed to raise the level of the political discourse in development work.
31. Science does provide us with all the knowledge we need to implement Human Rights. But without the ethical and political imperatives to apply its principles to human development it remains toothless and idle, and overwhelmingly serves the interests of the ‘haves’.
(SCROLL ON: CONTINUED UP TO READER No. 211, MARCH 2009)
