PHA-Exchange> Food for a pro-democracy thought

[Claudio]

Human Rights Reader 151

 

HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE TO BE A CORE COMPONENT OF THE PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY.

 

1. Today, too much emphasis is placed on representative rather than direct democracy. 

 

2. We forget that the beginnings of democratic development in Europe were not marked by elections, but by struggle for rights and influence, along with institution building. (V. Perthes) Since then, there has been a progressive shift from ideological debates to the discussion of technical mechanisms of democracy and of development. 

 

3. Especially but not only in fragile states, elections seldom mean more democracy. In those states, elections bring about 'legitimacy' only from the international community's perspective, but not from the perspective of the people who live there. More often than not, the-democracy-fostered-or-brokered-by-countries-in-the-North does not correspond to the demands of population majorities in the 'assisted' countries in the South. When fostering such 'democratization' --to succeed-- Northern countries mostly focus and rely on partner (often free-market-sympathetic) organizations attuned to Western standards. 

 

4. Furthermore, Northern countries also push the nebulous concept of 'good governance' which aims more at calming foreign investors than to protect the economic, social and cultural rights of the people who live there. The goal should be to promote justice and human rights (HR), not to assuage the concerns of potential investors. (A. Traore) 

 

5. If such a promotion of democracy is not geared towards the needs and the participation of the largest possible section of the population, one can safely say it is no more than an imported product, i.e., highly suspicious of being imperialism and colonialism in disguise.  Western-style democracy has simply time and again failed to improve people's lives in those countries. It has been unable/unwilling to understand that it is not enough to invest more money in the social sectors, because it is utterly unrealistic to think that this will bring about the needed radical institutional changes or the needed fundamental political reorientation of governments to bring about a shift towards a HR-based framework. 

 

6. The implications of this are that we simply cannot continue to believe that development is value-neutral and that development indicators are not socially determined. (M. Rao) We thus have to get rid of what has been called 'biased development expertocracy'.

 

7. In sum, this type of democracy many of us accept as a given does not protect the have-nots from predation by the powerful or from governments exerting their authority to the benefit of elites.  Mechanisms to replace it therefore do fall within the realm of the human rights framework.  

 

8. Human rights activists have been wrongly accused of denouncing the neoliberal ideology behind this drive towards Western-style democratization as a central cause of HR violations.  Such insinuations are uncalled for and show a rather naïve understanding of what HR are all about. 

 

9. Without a HR focus, remedies devised through democracies installed as above will, at best, yield solutions that are long and drawn-out in coming, i.e., justice will be rendered too late --and that is no justice. (CETIM)

 

10. As decades of failed top-down planning have taught us, Western-style democracy with its excessive segmentation, sectorialization and specialization in development work has been a true barrier to connecting the dots for progress in HR.

 

11. So, HR violations have reached alarming dimensions as ('democracy-sanctioned') immunity for those committing violations has become commonplace (and intolerable). Therefore, not adopting HR monitoring and enforcement protocols --in the spirit of direct democracy-- is tantamount to calling into question the very principles of HR .and of democracy!  

 

12. In the same spirit, we thus say: Let not us 'plan' for HRs. start by exposing the respective flagrant violations. Listen to people more closely and work with them to make it possible for them to claim their rights from the bottom up.

 

13. For this to happen, development agencies and human rights organizations that are active in different political and social environments still need to change much, as well as to work on harmonizing their practices. As of now, it is the way these two groups of organizations construct the reality that differs --not the reality itself. (U. Jonsson)   



14. A good start would be to focus on HR training within these organizations specifically targeting long-term social transformations. While so doing, the training has to tackle values, avenues for change and reform, as well as the role and function of elites, of international rules and of the global power constellation (or the power geometry, as some have called it). 

 

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

claudio at hcmc.netnam,vn

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Adapted from D+C, Vol. 33, No.4, April 2006; F+D Vol. 43, No.1, March 2006; D+C, Vol. 33 No.7, July 2006; D+C, Vol. 33, No.8/9, August/September 2006; J. of Health and Development Vol. 2, Nos.1&2, Jan-June 2006, and CETIM, The case for a protocol to the ICESCR!, Geneva, February 2006.
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