PHA-Exchange> Food to transform apathy into an action-oriented thought

[Claudio]

Human Rights Reader 85

 

ACTIVISM, PROFESSION, COMPASSION AND POLITICAL SOLIDARITY.

 

1. In their work --and not that this is easy-- human rights (HR) activists ought to make practical experiences influence theory, as well as use theoretical considerations in their practice. The idea is that a progressive engagement in human (people's) rights work should lead to an activism in which profession, compassion and political solidarity become one and the same thing.

 

2. S/he-who-has-no-bearings just goes round in circles. This is why this Reader aims at persuading other people to spend more time and energy on HR work. We need to build up this capacity to motivate others so we all start from our 'new' selves. (At least one person who got influenced by the Reader is myself.)

 

3. Apathy can turn our work into stagnation. We need to transform-apathy-into-activism and to consolidate-negotiated-social-contracts between people (as claim-holders) and their representatives (or purported representatives) at all levels (as duty-bearers).

 

4. I think that visionaries who communicate their vision to others are the true realists of history.

 

5. We need to shift our attention from just reaching-the-poor-merely-as-an-extension-of-the-prevailing-paradigm to a-deeper-understanding-of-the-issues-of-poverty-and-inequality-and-their-underlying-processes.  What ultimately counts is our social and political accountability and our work in true partnership with the poor.

 

6. We also need to explicitly recognize that political-processes-and-issues-of-power determine the content, direction and implementation of HR policies and programs. Together with the marginalized and poor, as HR activists (and from within our respective professions), we can and should become strong political players instead of implicitly protecting narrow group interests through our work under the wings of governments, industry and international agencies that are most often unmindful of the real interests of the poor, despite their (and our) public statements to the contrary. (T. Narayan)

 

7. It is ultimately our networked power and strength that will achieve higher levels of emancipation and that will eventually reverse HR violations in all domains.  

 

8. [A word of caution about networking in our empowerment efforts:  The noisy kind of street democracy of protesters at World Bank/IMF, WTO and Davos-type gatherings has to get its act together. The cacophony of thousands of voices that may no-longer-hear-one-another risks squandering wonderful young energy if no coherent agenda for the future is put forward. Protesters (middle-class activists?) need now to develop or adhere to a whole set of new universal values in the name of which they propose new systems of governance; and this has to lead to agreement among the more committed sector of organized civil society; only thus will protesters make their reasoned collective case heard]. 

[But also note that, in our case, using the streets to spread and defend the principles of HR and to popularize our HR work is, I think, indeed legitimate].

 

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn

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Mostly taken from the German development journal D+C Vol 31, Jan 2004 and from Poverty, Health and Development, Health Cooperation Paper No.17, AIFO, Bologna, Italy, 2003.
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