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<p class="MsoBodyText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Human Rights Reader 178<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoBodyText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font face="Times New Roman">OF CLAIM HOLDERS, DUTY BEARERS <u>AND</u> AGENTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY. </font>
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<p class="MsoBodyText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 2in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Human rights are indeed a very powerful framework for bringing change to the unequal power structures and relationships that perpetuate poverty and its accompanying human rights violations provided the proper accountability mechanisms are in place. (Equalinrights 2007)
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0.5in 0pt 0in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: windowtext"><font face="Times New Roman">1. This Reader has not emphasized enough an additional actor in the human rights (HR) discourse. Actually, in any well-developed system of rights there are
<u>three</u> major roles to be fulfilled: the <i>claim holders</i>, the <i>duty bearers</i> <u>and</u> the<i> agents of accountability</i>. The task of the agents of accountability is to make sure that those who have the duties carry out their obligations towards those who bare the rights. Thus, to describe a rights system, we also need to know
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">the procedures</i> through which a government (and/or civil society) assure(s) that the duty bearers meet their obligations towards the claim holders. These <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">
accountability mechanisms</i> include, in particular, the remedies and restitutions available (or not) to the claim holders themselves.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0.5in 0pt 0in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: windowtext"><font face="Times New Roman">2. In essence, the system should work as follows:</font></span></p>
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Rights establish the standards and goals of the system.
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Duties describe who must do what to achieve those standards and goals.
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Accountability mechanisms are the institutional arrangements that are required to make the system work.
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">The essence of a good system of rights is having good mechanisms of accountability directly available to the claim holders.
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">If they do not have real, explicit opportunities to pursue their own rights, it is not a proper system of rights.
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Claim holders thus need to know their rights, as much as they need to know what they can do to assure that their rights are respected.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">3. But beware, not all rights are human rights. Some rights, such as property rights for example, have little relation to human rights. The key distinguishing features are that HR are about matters essential to human dignity, and they are universal.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Rights that are established only within a particular country, perhaps by its constitution, are sometimes described as civil rights. </font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">4. The human rights-based framework emphasizes that in pursuing key social objectives, it is not only the ends (the outcomes), but also the means (the processes) that must respect HR. The objectives must be met in ways that are transparent and open to broad participation by the intended beneficiaries.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">5. Among other, this has implications for foreign aid and its relation to HR: Development cooperation should, but does not contribute enough to the development of capacities of duty bearers to meet their obligations and/or development cooperation should, but does not, contribute enough to claim holders claiming their rights.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0.5in 0pt 0in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">6. For development projects/programs to be human rights-based, their planning, programming and execution must be anchored in a clear articulation of who has which rights and who has which duties, as well as anchored in mechanisms of accountability designed with the view of a workable and effective implementation.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">7. Local dialogues with claim holders and duty bearers on the meaning, on the relevance and on the application of human rights-based strategies is a critical starting point for the HR-based approach. This, because HR have to come from within, not from without.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">8. So, for HR workers, supporting the HR cause is about facilitating the internal learning and the self-empowering processes of the people they work with
</span>(Equalinrights 2007)<span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">. </span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Claudio Schuftan, </span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Ho Chi Minh City</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></span>
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<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><a href="mailto:cschuftan@phmovement.org"><font face="Times New Roman">cschuftan@phmovement.org</font></a><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></span></p>
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<font face="Times New Roman"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt">[All Readers can be found in </span><span lang="IT" style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: IT"><a href="http://www.humaninfo.org/aviva"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US">
www.humaninfo.org/aviva</span></a></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt"> under No.69]</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></span></font></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Adapted from the writings of George Kent.</font></span><u><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">
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