PHA-Exch> Food for a no longer private thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 173



*HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS ARE NO LONGER A PRIVATE AFFAIR, BECAUSE THEY NOW
HAVE A POLITICAL DIMENSION.*



Human rights violations are a long running saga and a straightjacket for
sustainable development. (CETIM)



1. To understand them comprehensively, human rights violations have to be
put in the context of bad development (or mal-development), i.e., a
violation of the UN-sanctioned Right to Development (1986).



2. The intensity of the debate on human rights violations now arising all
over, has been curiously out of step with reality. Reality has been
manipulated to become broadly the base of current popular beliefs --mainly
instilled by explicit or subliminal propaganda.



3. This is important, because, attitudes towards human rights (HR) begin in
people's minds. People must be able to feel (and live) the imperative of HR
being respected --and act accordingly. A precondition for this thus is a) to
topple widespread academic and politically biased beliefs, and b) to
dismantle a whole range of prejudices, stereotypes and misguided perceptions
and myths about HR.



4. Therefore, the challenge is to build a HR culture in the face of the
long-established, let's call it,  'charity-based' system. As many times said
in these Readers, this  will require transforming rights holders into active
and effective claimants, as well as strengthening their local organizations.




5.  In the process, one needs to check which civil society actors are
willing, capable and respected enough to --with us-- promote  and
(literally) struggle for HR in the long run.



6. [It is to be noted here that the HR framework does *not* aim at splitting
the debate along government and civil society lines, as often happens in
other contexts; it rather calls for closing ranks between claim-holders and
duty-bearers. That may sound like a truism, but is by no means generally
accepted yet].



7. In an optimistic mood, I see all this, not as a hurdle or bottleneck ,
but rather as an opportunity and a way forward to develop a better HR-based
political model.



Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

cschuftan at phmovement.org



[All Readers can be found in www.humaninfo.org/aviva under No.69]
Partly adapted from D+C, 33:12, December 2006, and SCN News, WHO,  No. 31,
late 2005-early 2006.
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