PHA-Exch> Food for a memory-refreshing thought (2)

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 211



*HUMAN RIGHTS ARE PART OF A NEVER-ENDING HUMAN STRUGGLE TO IMPROVE PEOPLE’S
LIVES AND TO PREVENT REOCCURRENCES OF PAST ABUSE.  *(part 2 of 2)



4. *Human Rights Iron Laws on Advocacy:*

* *

-The public advocacy we promote in HR work draws on five major sources: The
power of people, direct grassroots experiences, popular information and
knowledge, constitutional guarantees and moral and political convictions.



·        Advocacy that is concerned with empowerment is different from that
that only focuses on policy reform. (Venekasen and Miller 2002) [Empowerment
is conflictive since it requires questioning established power relations].
It has to be said though that too many advocacy actions we engage-in do
little to change power structures or power dynamics; instead, they focus on
policy reforms which too often do not challenge elite groups maneuvering the
national and international corridors of power; by going that route, one
loses touch with the grassroots and, worse, one leaves the marginalized as
politically excluded as they were before. [Therefore, advocacy that targets
the legal and judicial systems that control unjust laws and policies is
necessary, but still not sufficient. Work in other arenas closer to the
grassroots is necessary as much or more if we want policy gains to empower
and to be sustained*]. Without progress on all fronts, gains achieved in
only one or more *arenas will remain vulnerable to ever changing power
dynamics and eventually to being lost again*.

*: We need to be cautious though that advocacy work does not undermine local
organizations or place people unduly at risk of repression.



·        As a corollary, local activists with an adequate level of expertise
*and* popular support have proven to be better advocates than professional
experts (like us).

·        Work on policy advocacy is, no doubt, seductive, because it
requires interaction with powerful players and it can make HR activists feel
like they are doing something significant and worthwhile that will reap
significant benefits.

·        The caveat here is that the assumption that the political system is
relatively open and democratic and that the HR policy concerns can be met
through lobbyists backed-up by solid information, data and arguments is
flawed. This ignores the realities of power and how change works --and has
little effect on holding institutions accountable over the long run.



5.* Human Rights Iron Laws on Power:*



-Justice and power must be brought together so that whatever is just may be
powerful and whatever is powerful may be just. (Blaise Pascal)

-Gains in human rights cannot be sustained without transforming power
relations.

-As a matter of fact, the rights-based framework means little if it has no
potential to change power relations.



·        In its workings in development, the HR-based framework, applied as
it should be, does take into consideration power relations, social struggle
and a vision of a better future society as key factors; it opposes a
depoliticized interpretation of development which portrays problems to be
‘purely technical-matters-that-can-be-resolved-outside-the-political-arena’.


·        In all truth, HR cannot be realized if we do not change *who* makes
the decisions,  *whose* voices are ultimately heard and heeded, and
*what*topics are seen as legitimate for discussion --this explains why
power
analyses are central to HR work.

·        Why? Because the ideas generated by dominant economic and political
interests shape people’s understanding of what is considered acceptable and
proper.

·        Poverty and the denial of people’s rights are directly linked with
unequal power relations. [Many development organizations claiming to adopt
the HR-based framework actually ignore the question of power in their
analyses, except at a very superficial level; but power is simply
everywhere]. Power is always relational (from interpersonal to global).
Power is unevenly concentrated and wielded (not necessarily in an overt
way). And power is dynamic and multidimensional. [This changing dynamics of
power results in occasional cracks in oppressive systems; these cracks can
be widened and used as entry points for HR action. What we call ‘power of
resistance’ allows activists to search out the right openings and
opportunities to widen those cracks].

·        In the prevailing system, having power has involved taking it from
someone else (the disempowered) and now preventing those ‘someone others’
from gaining it back.

·        Some people speak of three types of power: *Power with* (finding
the common good, building collective strength); *power to* (shape one’s life
*and the world); and power within (sense of self-growth and self-confidence)
***.

**: This Reader is not sure this classification is too helpful.

·        We are all more aware of the visible-forms-of-power (coming from
the executive and legislative branches of government, from laws, from
existing policies…). But there are invisible-mechanisms-of-power that shape
what is acceptable and who is worthy in society; these mechanisms operate at
a deeply psychological level --and we have to be aware of them.

·        For people at all levels, critical thinking focused on power and
change is a vital skill required for HR work.

·        Local organizing, alliance building and networking are key
strategies for changing power relations. For this, work with existing and
new social movements is a top priority.

·        Building relations among poor people and the excluded helps create
solidarity and the collective force necessary for countering powerful
opponents.

·        [If you are skeptical about this portrayal of the power scene, why
not probing how power operates in your own organization? Top-down decisions?
Gender imbalances? Maternity leave?...].



6.* Some risks to be aware-of in HR work:*

·        There is an inherent risk in viewing HR work in very narrow
technical terms and not placing it in the overall context of social change
and power relations.

·        Out of context, multiple isolated responses (including
‘multi-disciplinary’ ones…) risk becoming ineffectual in promoting long-term
change, i.e., narrow, technical  interpretations (even if
‘multi-disciplinary’) can and do result in negative impacts.

·        By starting with a de-politicized notion of HR, one risks ending-up
not relating to how people experience the world --and thus failing to build
empowered constituencies. (We simply have to start from people’s daily
problems).

·        We thus cannot allow HR work to lose legitimacy and support from
established social movements organized by poor communities and by
discriminated groups.

·        There is also the danger of seeing the HR-based framework as the
sole approach to address the problems of poverty. Other fronts need to be
covered, such as leadership development (strengthening of their skills) and
the active exploration and design of viable alternatives to the current
neoliberal paradigm, now so mortally wounded.

·        Another risk we HR activists face is not finding a balance between
promoting the claims and voice of the marginalized we are all for, and
actually (as we often do) speaking-on-their-behalf.

·        There is, lastly, the danger mentioned earlier, namely us equating
our work for a human rights-based approach with an approach to only achieve
policy reform through advocacy; this is not all that is needed to solve the
problems of poverty and exclusion….



7. *Epilogue:*



No matter how we look at it, challenging the dominance of the current
development paradigm and creating space for alternatives is what our
struggle as HR activists is ultimately all about; we are called to bring-in
new thinking and going all-out for alternative visions. (The People’s Health
Movement is doing just that in the area of health www.phmovement.org ).
[Just keep in mind that activism runs the risk of a set of urban elites (us)
taking over the voice of the marginalized themselves].



The above Iron Laws are *not* purely theoretical; they come from experience.
We are beginning to see some encouraging results as groups organize to
identify and claim their human rights, and to forcefully represent
themselves and their communities in the different arenas of public (but not
yet private) decision-making.



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%20under%20No.%2069>]
Note that the website was updated in March 2009

______________________________________

Adapted from Right-Based Development: The Challenge of Change and Power,
Working Paper 2, ActionAid, Nov. 2005.
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