PHM-Exch> Food for a negotiated thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 246



*HUMAN RIGHTS ARE ABOUT PEOPLE BEING IN CONTROL OF THEIR  CHOICES.* (A.
Yamin)



-Ultimately, by using the human rights-based framework, we strive to
negotiate a new social contract or class compromise from a position of
strength and power.

(T. Schrecker)



The process of globalization with its progressive accumulation of economic
and political capital sees human rights (HR) as a threat, because the
HR-based approach (HRBA) emerges as an alternative to neoliberalism by
focusing on divergent and rival imperatives and justifications.  Conversely,
the HRBA sees neoliberalism as a threat, as an economic system out of
control, as bringing uncertainty, as dependency-creating, as excluding. It
sees it bringing about fear, aggression, fundamentalism, as well as creating
ever-expanding spaces for private interests. Despite all these self-serving
attributes, neoliberalism survives as the dominant way of thinking in
development. Its economists push more for individual rights (e.g.,
property), for limited state activity and for a free-wheeling market; they
say the poor are responsible for their own poverty. (Development in
Practice)  Put another way, hidden in the unacceptable current social
differences and social injustices is the neoliberal economic model with much
money, much poverty, much silence, much omission, much disdain, much
disillusion.


To read the full Reader, go to:


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


Claudio
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