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Human Rights Reader 36

PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS: FURTHERING THE DEBATE.

On power and Human Rights:

1.To be a fully empowered claim holder is to have the ability to compel the
performance of some obligation; before being empowered, people are unable to
compel important others to perform their obligations.

2.This, because in our societies, having a right means having the power to
command respect, to make claims and to have them heard and acted upon. Put
another way, to have a right is to have a power; to have to obtain a right
is to be powerless.

3.That in these same societies some are powerful, dialectically suggests
that others are powerless. So, any coherent notion of rights must,
therefore, recognize this connection between power, respect and inequality
in our societies.

4.Seen from such an angle, our performance in the Human Rights (HR) arena is
still largely inadequate, because so far, it has failed to reverse the
powerlessness of the poor. This failure of ours is coupled to our continued
choice of rather paternalistic interventions. (How many of us are aware
that, in our work, rather than empowering the poor, we may be empowering
ourselves to intervene in their lives?).

5.Power and powerlessness are fundamental dialectical opposites in society;
they regulate the interactions between individuals, the state, and its
citizen. It is inconceivable to imagine a world without power --and utopian
to believe that such a world might exist.
(A rights theory which envisions what should be, rather than what is, lacks
the force and persuasiveness to effect true change): Rights must be tied to
the notion of power and powerlessness.

6.What this means is that a HR-based approach will indeed challenge patterns
of authority and power. Placing claims does not grant equality per-se, but
merely grants equality of attention; it is a first step in challenging
existing hierarchies; placing claims is part of a slow historical process
that will eventually lead to a better life for the poor.

7.But a caveat is called for: Rights arguments are also increasingly being
used to justify particular sets of policies imposed on the poor. HR
arguments may actually be used against them.

8.HR can contribute (positively or negatively) to the power struggles of the
poor: they can be used as much in defense of privileges and the powerful in
society, as they can be used to advance the interests of the poor and
marginalized. Economic rights of the haves (e.g., to property) are often
used against the interests of the deprived majorities, as much as legitimate
rights of people (e.g., to information, to assembly) are not infrequently
contested in litigation or simply trampled using brutal repression.

9.If HR-based interventions prioritize the needs of the poor and
marginalized, rights can become powerful tools to advance democracy provided
they do not ignore the power imbalances that exist between and within
countries. This, because rights are easily co-opted to serve those who
already benefit from inequity and imbalances of power.

10.So, how do rights-based interventions put the poor first?
An active pro-poor civil society has a key role to play here. Their social
mobilization activities have to aim for the structural changes needed for
meaningful and sustainable changes that will discriminate in favor of the
poor. In some countries, Human Rights Commissions have been put in place,
but are no panacea if they ignore tying rights to the notion of power and
powerlessness in the country.

11.While Western preoccupation with good governance makes a misnomer of what
good governance should be, it is only active grassroots everyday public
participation (and not 'democratic', often rigged, elections in which only a
minority votes) that can really influence governments. Using a HR approach
to foster such an active participation is paramount --remembering that
individual rights and group rights are naturally compatible.

12.The success of the  HR approach should thus be judged by its capacity to
strengthen the least powerful in society to act in their own interest,
individually and collectively (indirectly leading to better governance).

13.We have to better understand HR and the role they can play in the context
in which each of us works and in which these HR are to be applied; therein
lies the immediate challenge.

[Mostly taken from L. London, email, Univ. of Cape Town, Oct.5, 2002, and
from K.H. Federle, Rights flow downhill, The Intl J of Children's Rights, 2:
343-368, 1994].

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
aviva at netnam.vn