PHM-Exch> Food for staging a thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 266



*THE REAL POTENTIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS LIES IN ITS ABILITY TO CHANGE THE WAY
PEOPLE PERCEIVE THEMSELVES VIS-A-VIS THE GOVERNMENT.*



Human rights are intrinsic values that give all human beings dignity.



Human rights (HR) are a foundation of the UN. Therefore, the UN has a core
mandate to institute international HR mechanisms worldwide. “*HR are foreign
to no culture and native to all nations*”. (Kofi Annan)  HR are legally
guaranteed by HR law. Governments are thus obliged to do certain things and
prevented from doing other. Yes, but are they faring well at this?



In 2000, the Millennium Development Declaration was signed by 189 member
states. But the MDGs that came from it, stripping it to the bone, do not
underscore HR sufficiently thus absconding from one of the main purposes of
the United Nations. Since *HR* and the *MDGs* both clearly confer
obligations on governments --but do not fully succeed in it yet-- they are
to be considered two sets of interdependent and mutually reinforcing
commitments: I wish I could say they were.

You can read the rest of this Reader at

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

Claudio
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