PHM-Exch> Food for an un-opposable thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 290



*THERE IS A WRONG USE OF VERBS WHEN REFERRING TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS
FRAMEWORK. WE DO NOT SAY ‘ENCOURAGE’, ‘LOBBY’, ‘DISCUSS’ OR ‘UNDERTAKE
EFFORTS TO’; WE SAY ‘DEMAND’ --AND FOR THAT WE EMPOWER.*





To start with, let us recap: The value of human rights (HR) lies in their
ability to provide us:

·      with a conceptual armature that connects health, nutrition and other
social conditions with broad governance principles;

·      with an instrument for turning diffuse social demands into focused
legal and political claims; and

·      with a set of criteria by which to evaluate the performance of
political authorities in promoting people’s wellbeing and creating
conditions for the equitable enjoyment of the fruits of development.
(WHO *Commission
on the Social Determinants of Health Report*)


Further recapitulating, HR give us a clear mandate on how to influence
change to achieve equity and sustainability. This, by telling us:

·      to redouble our work on grassroots participation;

·      to engage more with activism, especially working with new emerging
forces (think Arab Spring Revolution, Occupy Movement, Via Campesina, for
example);

·      to look at the world more holistically;

·      to partner-with and empower our local partners;

·      to get actively involved in improving governance and accountability;

·      to increase the accountability of donors, of international NGOs and
of local civil society organizations; as well as to develop our own HR and
development talents *and* to use more of these talents in the
countries/localities we work-in.

To read the full Reader go to

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

Claudio
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