PHA-Exchange> Food for hammering out a new thought

[Claudio]

Human Rights Reader 154

 

HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE TO BE TRANSFORMATIVE RATHER THAN JUST SIMPLY EASING HUMAN SUFFERING.  (L. London)

 

Underdevelopment, with its flagrant violations of human rights, can and does persist with the full connivance of the exploited and of those who purport to work on their behalf.

 

1. As we live in a world: 

·        where markets are clearly a political idea that matters on a global scale,

·         where markets reflect highly unequal bargaining power, 

·        where pro-market reforms have a dark side for the poor, (R.Labonte)

·        where free trade has irretrievably lost its innocence, ( P. Krugman)

·        where the individual predominates over the social, the psychological over the sociological, and  intentionally directed communications over political conscientization, 

·        where values and bigger cosmo-visions matter less to people,

·        where social inequalities are tolerated as facts-of-life, 

·        where firm convictions are disappearing,

·        where s/he who has weak thoughts is tolerant beyond what is ethically acceptable,

·        where a loss of faith in the existence of an ideology that explains the social processes in their totality is the rule,

·        where the ruling paradigm obbeys contradictory rules and avoids deep compromises,

·        where pessimism is becoming widespread so that little is actually done, and

·        where soothing ideas and a philosophy-of-the-status-quo prevail, (A. Gomez)

we have to ask ourselves what has gone wrong. We have already criticized politicians, leaders, national, and international bureaucrats and official organizations, as well as the market forces ad-nauseam.  We now ask: Have we put perhaps too much hope in existing civil society organizations being able to redress some of these trends?

 

2. Civil society is understood as a constituent part of society, alongside the political sphere and the market. Civil society organizations most often get involved in promoting democratization and development by way of gradualist reform; when they do so, they fail to offer any approach capable to serve as a counterweight to a democracy-eroding, human rights-violating and globalized capitalist system. This, because they are often merely single-issue driven and/or are working well within the prevailing development paradigm. (We have repeatedly covered this in previous Readers).

 

3. NGOs --as one type of civil society-- do have the potential to raise hard and even awkward questions though; they can skip hierarchies, establish difficult connections that can prompt truly new insights and can help negotiate new social contracts that include mandatory rights and responsibilities for all involved. In other words, development NGOs can and should probe from inside the system. Because they are uniquely placed, remissioned NGOs need to make themselves available to mediate in case of difficulties or of conflict. Their business needs to include creating trust and balancing interests by getting decision-makers and administrators (duty bearers), other NGOs and representatives of the poor people (claim holders) around one table to thrash out both practicable, on-the-ground solutions, as well as hammering out concessions to structural constraints. (adapted from V. Voigt) 

 

4. [Keep in mind here that genuine participation involves a give-and-take discourse among all interested groups concerned. The challenge is to ensure that exploited citizens' preferences are made to really matter in decision-making].



5. For this to work, it will be crucial to endogenize international NGOs in their national branches, as well as to train their staff (and the staff of local NGOs) on the human rights-based framework. This is needed so they can de-facto help draw public attention to the often-neglected, even down-played issue of human rights (HR) violations and thus contribute to push people's rights into the political agenda.




6. In this context, also remember: 

·        that HR are a product of development struggles (in which NGOs should take a leading role),

·        that HR are the products of contestation of power, locally, nationally and internationally,

·        that HR challenge power imbalances, e.g., those that underlie inequities in the social sector, and foremost

·        that when the language of rights becomes denuded of power, it is turned into a technical exercise of compliance with existing norms! (L. London)

 

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn 

_________________

Partly adapted from D+C Vol.33, No.8/9, August/September, 2006.  
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