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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Human Rights Reader 117<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">IT IS ON THE BASIS OF A BROKEN SOCIAL CONTRACT
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">AND OF GLOBAL INJUSTICE <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">THAT WE SPEAK <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">OF POVERTY <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">AS A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">1. The critical evaluation of human rights (HR) in a
country addresses generally disagreeable issues, such as abuse of power, tyranny
by those in positions of political responsibility, disrespect for<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>the law, corruption, misappropriation of
wealth, inappropriate use of public funds and other
offenses.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">2. The promotion of independent institutions such as
unions, chambers of commerce, professional associations, universities, the press
and NGOs can institutionalize controls over government by civil society who can
(with the needed passion, sense of responsibility and sound judgment) formulate
concise political demands that keep the processes and outcomes of state
activities in check. In this work, it has to be kept clear that strategic and
tactical considerations are a means and not an end to achieve the respect of HR.
The end is to build a lasting democratic political culture of actively and
consistently claiming human rights…and the nobler the end, the more shameful it
is to remain indifferent to the means being used by HR activists in their work
to pursue their ultimate end. For example, when the means of international
development cooperation are used against the interests of the poor or their HR
are abused by foreign aid, any further such cooperation must be stopped and any
resumption made conditional upon very clear criteria being
met.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">3. Those who keep silent about HR violations --only
because these violations are committed in countries with whose political leaders
for whatever reason they enjoy harmonious relations-- have to face up to the
fact that the honesty of their commitment will be open to question. So, when HR
advocacy serves only to lend legitimacy to lip-service or to a feeble and
dwindling commitment to equitable development, this can be devastating to the HR
movement.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">4. As this Reader has said before, part of the reason
that people do less than they might is that while they feel ‘charitable urges’
towards the world’s poor, they feel no duties. Therefore, the developed world
has a growing store of unfulfilled duties towards the poor people in the
developing world…and<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">these duties have been growing in the era of capitalist
globalization. Certainly, the modern world is not organized in a way that
safeguards the rights of most of its people. The link between rights and duties
can only exist within a moral community that has the political will to enforce
HR duties --and, mind you, capitalist globalization has been expanding the moral
community that we live in worldwide and is thus importantly affecting our and
others’ rights and duties.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">5. To help others is morally good; yet, at the same time,
we more often than not deny that we have duties in that respect. Knowledge of
the dire situation of the poor, by itself, brings about duties! We are literally
“debtors of duties”.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">6. The capitalist view, on the other hand, proclaims that
market relations --based on ‘legitimate’ transactions-- do not entail any duties
to those who lose out through the market. We counter this view by saying that if
we know that the market inherently creates losers, that knowledge alone imposes
duties on us to help the losers to claim their legitimate
rights.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">7. Ultimately, our protection and promotion of HR is
related to the protection and promotion of individual freedoms --not because
those rights lead to freedom, but because those rights are defined in terms of
that freedom. Freedom is seen as the absence of imposed constraints; increased
poverty conceptually entails a loss of freedom…and, let us not forget, money
serves to remove some of the important constraints. What is being said here is
that levels of poverty affect levels of freedom…and since the level of freedom
enjoyed determines the existence or non-existence of rights, poverty does indeed
affect the rights that people can be said to enjoy or not to enjoy. Ergo, as
said many times, poverty reduction can be defended in terms of the respect of
what we know are inalienable rights. It must also be noted that levels of
freedom can be redistributed without anybody suffering an actual loss of
rights!<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">8. Cynics, of course, say that the poor themselves are to
be held responsible for their poverty and hence for their un-freedom. This leads
to the accusatory finger being pointed at the actions of the poverty-stricken
themselves.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">9. The growth-mediated fight
against poverty imposed on governments in the </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix =
st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Third
World</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> by neoliberalism generates
harmful effects. The very system that enriches some requires the maintaining and
deepening of the poverty of large numbers of others. In other words, the
neoliberal system has a structural need for poverty. [Keep patently in mind that
redistribution to the poor is NOT achieved by securing them social services as
health, nutrition and education plus the matching infrastructures; “the
eradication of poverty is not achieved by providing social services, Mr World
Bank (and Mr Sachs)!”). The eradication of poverty is not feasible from within
the very same economic system whose deep logic requires the perpetuation of
poverty; that is why we talk about embarking in the struggle for
the-right-to-be-free-of-poverty.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">10. So, the question we are left with is: Why do we still
need even discuss formulating a conceptual basis for an approach that views
poverty as a violation of human rights?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>By now, it should be clear to all of us that, sooner or later, the
prevailing global political and economic system will enter into collision with
the HR-based approach to poverty alleviation; so, we better be prepared for
this. There will always be tension; the absence of tension is not a value in
itself. (But danger acknowledged means danger
averted…).<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">11. The question of poverty has always been considered a
local problem in which other societies can be occasionally involved in the name
of solidarity or cooperation, but not in the name of fulfilling a legal
obligation.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">12. Now, there seems to be a perceived global obligation
for the international community to root out poverty in all societies in the
world so that the presence of poverty can be considered as a dereliction of duty
and thus a violation of the right to non-poverty in the world. If what is said
here is genuine, we would be on the right track. But, so far, the international
community has failed to organize a credible system of global re-distribution, so
it can be objectively regarded as a violator of the right to non-poverty
--despite all the PRSPs and MDGs jargon and talk (and charade?). The idea of
solidarity as a duty serves as a foundation for the associated duty to make
poverty a global problem to be duly solved.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">13. This begs yet another couple of questions: Are Rich
countries responsible for poverty in poor countries? Is their responsibility
situated upstream --in the sense that rich countries have, from the beginning,
hampered the process of development in poor countries?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or is it downstream --in the sense that
the rich are guilty of leaving the poor in their misfortune?
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">I will leave <B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">you</B> to respond to these closing
questions.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Claudio Schuftan,
</SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Ho Chi Minh
City</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1.5pt solid">
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><A href="mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Mostly adapted from
International Social Science Journal, No.180, UNESCO,
2004:<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><U><FONT
face="Times New Roman">K. Leisinger, Overcoming poverty and respecting HR: 10
points for serious consideration; K. Dowding and M van Hees,<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Poverty and the local contingency of
universal rights; E-M. Mbonda, Poverty as a violation of HR: towards a right to
non-poverty; C. Arnsperger, Poverty and HR: The issue of
discrimination.</FONT></U></SPAN><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>