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<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=1>Human Rights
Reader 151<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=5> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
size=3><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt">HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE TO BE A CORE
COMPONENT OF THE PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></B></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>1. Today, too much emphasis is placed on representative rather than
direct democracy. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><SPAN style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></SPAN></o:p></SPAN></U></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt">2.
We forget that the beginnings of democratic development in <st1:place
w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> were not marked by elections, but by struggle for
rights and influence, along with institution building. (V. Perthes) Since
then,</SPAN> there has been a progressive shift from ideological debates to the
discussion of technical mechanisms of democracy and of development.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>3. Especially
but not only in fragile states, elections seldom mean more democracy. In those
states, elections bring about ‘legitimacy’ only from the international
community’s perspective, but not from the perspective of the people who live
there. More often than not,
the-democracy-fostered-or-brokered-by-countries-in-the-North does not correspond
to the demands of population majorities in the ‘assisted’ countries in the
South. When fostering such ‘democratization’ --to succeed-- Northern countries
mostly focus and rely on partner (often free-market-sympathetic) organizations
attuned to Western standards. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>4. Furthermore, Northern countries also push the nebulous concept of
‘good governance’ which aims more at calming foreign investors than to protect
the economic, social and cultural rights of the people who live there. The goal
should be to promote justice and human rights (HR), not to assuage the concerns
of potential investors. (A. Traore) </FONT></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt">5.
If such a promotion of democracy is not geared towards the needs and the
participation of the largest possible section of the population, one can safely
say it is no more than an imported product, i.e., highly suspicious of being
imperialism and colonialism in disguise. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN>Western-style democracy has simply
time and again failed to improve people’s lives in those countries. It has been
unable/unwilling to understand that it is not enough to invest more money in the
social sectors, because it is utterly unrealistic to think that this will bring
about the needed radical institutional changes or the needed fundamental
political reorientation of governments to bring about a shift towards a HR-based
framework. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>6. The
implications of this are that we simply cannot continue to believe that
development is value-neutral and that development indicators are not socially
determined. (M. Rao) We thus have to get rid of what has been called ‘biased
development expertocracy’.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>7. In sum, this type of democracy many of us
accept as a given does not protect the have-nots from predation by the powerful
or from governments exerting their authority to the benefit of elites.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mechanisms to replace it therefore
<U>do</U> fall within the realm of the human rights framework.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>8. Human
rights activists have been wrongly accused of denouncing the neoliberal ideology
behind this drive towards Western-style democratization as a central cause of HR
violations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Such insinuations are
uncalled for and show a rather naïve understanding of what HR are all about.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>9. Without a
HR focus, remedies devised through democracies installed as above will, at best,
yield solutions that are long and drawn-out in coming, i.e., justice will be
rendered too late --and that is no justice.
(CETIM)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>10. As decades of failed top-down planning have taught us, Western-style
democracy with its excessive segmentation, sectorialization and specialization
in development work has been a true barrier to connecting the dots for progress
in HR.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>11. So, HR
violations have reached alarming dimensions as (‘democracy-sanctioned’) immunity
for those committing violations has become commonplace (and intolerable).
Therefore, not adopting HR monitoring and enforcement protocols --in the spirit
of direct democracy-- is tantamount to calling into question the very principles
of HR …and of democracy! <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>12. In the same spirit, we thus say: Let not <U>us</U> ‘plan’ for HRs…
start by exposing the respective flagrant violations. Listen to people more
closely and work with them to make it possible for them to claim their rights
from the bottom up.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt">13.
For this to happen, development agencies and human rights organizations that are
active in different political and social environments still need to change much,
as well as to work on harmonizing their practices. As of now, it is the way
these two groups of organizations construct the reality that differs --not the
reality itself. (U. Jonsson)</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>14. A good start would be to focus on HR training within these
organizations specifically targeting long-term social transformations. While so
doing, the training has to tackle values, avenues for change and reform, as well
as the role and function of elites, of international rules and of the global
power constellation (or the power geometry, as some have called it). </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN lang=ES-MX
style="mso-ansi-language: ES-MX"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=ES-MX
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=1>Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh
City<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><A href="mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam,vn"><SPAN lang=ES-MX
style="mso-ansi-language: ES-MX"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=1>claudio@hcmc.netnam,vn</FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN lang=ES-MX
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=1><SPAN lang=ES-MX
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX"></SPAN><SPAN
lang=ES-MX
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX">_____<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P><FONT
size=1><SPAN lang=ES-MX
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Adapted
from </SPAN><SPAN lang=PT-BR
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: PT-BR; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">D+C,
Vol. 33, No.4, April 2006; </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">F+D
Vol. 43, No.1, March 2006; D+C, Vol. 33 No.7, July 2006; D+C, Vol. 33, No.8/9,
August/September 2006; J. of Health and Development Vol. 2, Nos.1&2,
Jan-June 2006, and CETIM, The case for a protocol to the ICESCR!, <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Geneva</st1:place></st1:City>, February
2006.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>