PHM-Exch> Food for a ratified yet non-realized thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 245



*HAVING RIGHTS DOES NOT PRESUPPOSE A SIMULTANEOUS ABILITY TO CLAIM THEM.*

 -There is a clear difference between having a right and having a right
realized. Slaves in the US had the right to freedom before President Lincoln
and native Africans in South Africa had the right to freedom before
Apartheid was abolished.

-If a country (state party) has ratified a treaty, individuals move from
being just *right-holders* to being *claim-holders* --with valid claims on
others, i.e., the *correlative duty-bearers.* This forms a ‘claim-duty
pattern’ in society, in which the state, most often, is the *ultimate
duty-bearer*.



Ratification is a binding act in international law. The extent to which
human rights (HR) can be enforced through litigation acknowledges that: they
must indeed be taken seriously. But we are all aware that court verdicts are
not self-executing; popular mobilization is still essential to overcome
state resistance to implement such judgments. Implementing entities
responsible for the adoption and actual implementation of HR policies indeed
too often enjoy unwarranted impunity.

We are also aware that most countries cannot change decades-long situations
of HR violations overnight. The answer is to come up with indicators that
tell us a country’s readiness to accelerate action on the *progressive
realization* of specific HR. We can then classify countries according to
this readiness after a HR impact assessment is carried out.  This readiness
should be measured as a function of both the government’s *commitment* and
its *capacity*. Commitment corresponds to willingness to act at scale (with
commensurate allocation of resources). Capacity corresponds to a country’s
ability to act at scale.

YOU CAN FIND THE FULL READER AT

http://wp.me/plAxa-1aD

 Claudio
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