PHA-Exchange> Food for a thought with real teeth

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 167



*THE RECOGNITION OF HUMAN RIGHTS SUCH AS THEY ARE EXPRESSED IN INTERNATIONAL
INSTRUMENTS IS NOT ENOUGH FOR THEIR REALIZATION. *



Human rights are timeless and are the expressions of fundamental
entitlements of human beings.



Unless poor people are accorded their rights, their lives will inevitably be
short, desperate and unfree. (P. Farmer).



1. No one suggests that greater attention to human rights (HR) will move
issues of marginal strategic interest for the rich countries to the center
of the global agenda. The question is: Can the HR framework move forward
when the rich see no immediate threat to their economic interests? (M.
Robinson)



2. Take, for example, the problem of worldwide hunger: There are no
scientific mysteries about how to end hunger as a HR violation; people need
food, education, and fair opportunities to do productive work. The challenge
is to devise ways to assure that everyone always has these things.



3. There have been many plans for responding to the hunger problem, but they
have consistently only worked around the edges of the problem, not to end
it.  In this context, chronically malnourished children or hungry slum
dwellers have claims not only against their own country, but claims against
the entire world. [Note: Slums are not places, they are people…].



4. Not only moral considerations, but also a fair and more proactive
interpretation of existing HR laws*, covenants and principles are a must for
such plans to succeed; they ultimately have to be woven into a global
strategy and eventually into a global plan of action with 'real teeth'.

*(G. Kent)_______________­­­­­­­­­­__*

*: Keep in mind that justice and the respect for HR are *social* processes,
not merely legal processes; they are arrived-at through formal, as well as
informal mechanisms. Most often, poor claim-holders have valid claims on
less poor and much more powerful duty-bearers. The human rights-based
framework offers protection from abuse of power, and can be used to
challenge power, reject impunity, expose corruption and ensure access to
justice much more effectively than any other development approach. (U.
Jonsson)



5. The problem often overlooked is that only where awareness AND interests
coincide can effective international responses be possible; so, being aware
is not enough!



6. The unfinished task thus is to work out the nature and the depth of
global obligations and to come up with a set of ensuing concerted global
actions. (G. Kent)



7. Clearly, the HR framework cannot provide all the answers or make
difficult choices easier. But what *other* framework offers any such
guidance?

Let's face it: The HR framework is the closest thing we have to a shared
value system for the world! (M. Robinson)



8. If all was well on this planet, HR work might be considered as just
another harmless pastime like collecting stamps. But not all is well…



9. HR violations do not simply show-up-in-our-daily-work.  HR violations are
the result of a collapse of the social contract between the haves and the
have-nots. Therefore, fundamental change is not possible without conflict
with the powers-that-be; and that requires using both legal and extra-legal
means. (And, as we have said before, the respect for other cultures must not
have priority over the universality of HR).



10. On closer scrutiny, we face at least two situations in which HR are
being violated by states: Situations in which we find specific, isolated
violations, and situations characterized by a pattern of systematic
violations (or permanent violations of scale).



11. So, each society will have to establish specific procedures and
institutions that correspond not only to its specific situation and needs,
but that will comply with the standards defined by international HR treaties
and agreements.



12. But, as also said before, wider recognition/awareness of HR principles
in each society does not easily translate into the required political
reforms.



13. A part of it is due to the fact that many of our colleagues disagree
about what the flaws of the present, HR-violating system are and put forward
a confusing array of alternative reform ideas.



14. Another part is due to the current international practice of recognizing
any person or group holding effective de-facto power in a country that, not
only violates people's   rights, but also uses state revenues to fund the
internal repression of legitimate and vocal claim-holders. This  is
particularly worrisome. The effects of this accepted international practice
on the world's poor are devastating.



15. No ruler (legitimate and democratically representative or not) has the
moral standing to waive the inalienable HR of his/her subjects. Period!



16. The central claim here is that any institutional order is unjust if its
imposition produces an avoidable massive HR deficit. The current
international institutional order is severely unjust by this standard
(because poverty-related harms are causally related to the current global
institutional order).



17. To this effect, for instance, it is undeniable that existing trade
barriers contribute substantially to the under-fulfillment of HR worldwide.
Moreover, the TRIPS regime is also severely unjust and its imposition,
per-se, a HR violation given the avoidable morbidity and mortality it
produces.



18. Ergo (as members of civil society**), by helping to maintain (or being
indifferent towards) the present global institutional order we are
participants *in the largest HR violation in human history. (T. Pogge)*

**: Note that civil society is a concept that rarely includes labor unions,
popular movements and political parties. But the human rights that some of
us enjoy today were actually conquered by direct political actions, be they
by unions, by political organizations, or by popular movements --oftentimes
fought in the streets. They are all thus our natural partners in the
struggle for HR today. (CETIM)



19. In short, as Mahbub Ul Haq said about the largest HR violation in human
history: The neoliberal ideology behind the prevailing institutional order
balances the macro-economy and unbalances people's lives.



Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

cschuftan at phmovement.org <schuftan at gmail.com>    NEW ADDRESS

[All Readers can be found in www.humaninfo.org/aviva under No.69]

Adapted from The Right to Health, CETIM booklet, Geneva, May 2006,  La sante
pour tous! Se reappropier Alma Ata. PubliCetim Nos. 27-29, CETIM/PHM,
Geneve, janvier 2007, and J. of Health and Development, 1:4,
October-December, 2005.
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