PHA-Exch> Food for a pro-poor yet not pro-human rights thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 203



*SOMETHING HAS GONE TERRIBLY WRONG WITH THE PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY: OUR
ELECTED LEADERS ARE FAR FROM TREATING (AND NOT ONLY LOOKING AT) POVERTY AS
THE MOST IMPORTANT UNDERLYING CONDITION OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. *

* *

Poverty is a form of exile, of being cut off from the larger society --and
this is a human rights issue.

* *

1. Other than the World Bank's and perhaps the OECD's, studies keep showing
us that the poor are getting worse off. So, who are the ones, then, we
expect to change things around? Well, I have news for you: not you and me.



2. Common sense would dictate that the experience of poor and marginalized
groups of being socially excluded for so long should be the starting point
and the trigger from which they ought to more proactively get organized to
challenge elite-defined notions of development and of poverty reduction *.
Although marginalized groups may periodically complain about their
condition, complaining has shown not to be enough; for decades it has led
them nowhere; organized-and-coalescing-protests that allow these groups not
only to convey-their-claims, but also to gain-them-actual-influence are what
is needed.

________

*: Historically, across the world, it is popular movements for democracy and
for independence that have invoked universal human rights (HR) in their
struggles….and they often reaffirmed this commitment when they succeeded and
adopted new constitutions.



3. But on the duty-bearers' side, solgans are incessantly repeated that the
best policies to stimulate human development and to alleviate poverty are
those that reduce the role of the state in the economic and social lives of
citizens. This, of course, fits like a glove with a) policies of
privatization of public services and of public enterprises, b) the
deregulation of the mobility of capital and less-so of labor, c) the
elimination of protectionism and d) with the reduction of public social
protection mechanisms. In short, this is the core of the neoliberal ideology
that has guided the globalization of economic activities and has become the
conventional wisdom in, we can say, most international agencies and
institutions. Regrettably, these policies are widely accepted (or are
imposed) as the only ones possible and advisable. (V. Navarro) **

___________________

**: Facetiously and cynically, the enthusiastic backers of neoliberal
globalization seem to be telling us that being exploited is a good thing,
because you are not excluded and at least you have a job…



4. To confound and to blur things even more, beware that the over-sold,
so-called 'pro-poor strategies' in government programs are most of the time
not pro-human rights!*** Why? Because governments confer privileged
decision-making position to those interest groups whose cooperation it
considers important to bring about the implementation of policies that are
in the government's interest….which are not positions that consider human
rights..! (T. Reed)

_______________

***: About this, never forget to point out that, for those not involved in
HR work, the move from *many* to *everyone* may seem a small semantic shift,
but for us, in our struggle for HR, it is a shift with extraordinarily
radical consequences. (Hardt and Negri)



5. So, the citizens are deceived and governments keep asking for stronger
'inter-sectoral coordination' as a classical delaying tactic to avoid
dealing with the very real economic, social and political determinants of
poverty****. The question is: Falling for this pro-poor 'verborrhea' of
pretty-much empty promises, are we playing into the hands of governments
without the political will to heed human rights obligations that they are
signatories of? [Or put otherwise: Have we, to some degree, naively mistaken
the difference between HR activists shaking the hand of a head of state, and
actually having a check written to them? Or have we taken the power of
'(hard-hitting) data' as a panacea --overlooking the fact that
decision-makers follow their own political priorities and will only
*react*to such data to avoid an acute crisis?].

__________

****: *Not* being facetious here, and from a HR perspective,
government-sponsored initiatives may be compared to a government-arranged
stage tragedy --with a poor script, dismal directorship and untalented
actors. (G. Enste)



6. In the context of HR, I always like to remember two great thinkers:
Immanuel Kant urged us to act treating humanity in every case as an end,  and
never as a means. Rabindranath Tagore reminded us that development drags us
towards progress, but never tells us progress towards what and progress for
whom; …could it be a path to collective self-destruction?, he asked. (K.
Hossain)



7. Since something has gone terribly wrong with the promotion of democracy,
and our elected leaders are far from treating poverty as the most important
umbrella condition of human rights violations, among other, we have to use
our vote, our moral authority and our purchasing power to remove from
positions of authority those who insist on blocking HR and condone
ecologically destructive policies only to serve short-term interests of an
elite. The challenge is not new; it involves ridding the electoral process
and key decision-making institutions of the control of powerful elites.



8. So, you see? to change things around, not you and me will change things
around: it is coalescing popular movements that eventually will.



Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

cschuftan at phmovement.org

[All Readers can be found in www.humaninfo.org/aviva  under
No.69<http://www.humaninfo.org/aviva%20%20under%20No.69>
]

_______________

Parts adapted from D+C, 34:12, December 2007 and HAI News No.143, Oct-Dec
2007.
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