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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Human Rights Reader 211</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">HUMAN RIGHTS ARE PART OF A NEVER-ENDING HUMAN STRUGGLE TO IMPROVE PEOPLE’S LIVES AND TO PREVENT REOCCURRENCES OF PAST ABUSE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">(part 2 of 2)</span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">4. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Human Rights Iron Laws on Advocacy:</b></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 2in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">-The public advocacy we promote in HR work draws on five major sources: The power of people, direct grassroots experiences, popular information and knowledge, constitutional guarantees and moral and political convictions. </font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Advocacy that is concerned with empowerment is different from that that only focuses on policy reform. (Venekasen and Miller 2002) [Empowerment is conflictive since it requires questioning established power relations]. It has to be said though that too many advocacy actions we engage-in do little to change power structures or power dynamics; instead, they focus on policy reforms which too often do not challenge elite groups maneuvering the national and international corridors of power; by going that route, one loses touch with the grassroots and, worse, one leaves the marginalized as politically excluded as they were before. [Therefore, advocacy that targets the legal and judicial systems that control unjust laws and policies is necessary, but still not sufficient. Work in other arenas closer to the grassroots is necessary as much or more if we want policy gains to empower and to be sustained*]. Without progress on all fronts, gains achieved in only one or more <u>arenas will remain vulnerable to ever changing power dynamics and eventually to being lost again</u>. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">*: We need to be cautious though that advocacy work does not undermine local organizations or place people unduly at risk of repression.</font></font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">As a corollary, local activists with an adequate level of expertise <u>and</u> popular support have proven to be better advocates than professional experts (like us).</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Work on policy advocacy is, no doubt, seductive, because it requires interaction with powerful players and it can make HR activists feel like they are doing something significant and worthwhile that will reap significant benefits. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">The caveat here is that the assumption that the political system is relatively open and democratic and that the HR policy concerns can be met through lobbyists backed-up by solid information, data and arguments is flawed. This ignores the realities of power and how change works --and has little effect on holding institutions accountable over the long run.</font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">5.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> Human Rights Iron Laws on Power:</b></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">-Justice and power must be brought together so that whatever is just may be powerful and whatever is powerful may be just. (Blaise Pascal) </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">-Gains in human rights cannot be sustained without transforming power relations.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">-As a matter of fact, the rights-based framework means little if it has no potential to change power relations.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">In its workings in development, the HR-based framework, applied as it should be, does take into consideration power relations, social struggle and a vision of a better future society as key factors; it opposes a depoliticized interpretation of development which portrays problems to be ‘purely technical-matters-that-can-be-resolved-outside-the-political-arena’. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">In all truth, HR cannot be realized if we do not change <u>who</u> makes the decisions,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><u>whose</u> voices are ultimately heard and heeded, and <u>what</u> topics are seen as legitimate for discussion --this explains why power analyses are central to HR work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Why? Because the ideas generated by dominant economic and political interests shape people’s understanding of what is considered acceptable and proper. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Poverty and the denial of people’s rights are directly linked with unequal power relations. [Many development organizations claiming to adopt the HR-based framework actually ignore the question of power in their analyses, except at a very superficial level; but power is simply everywhere]. Power is always relational (from interpersonal to global). Power is unevenly concentrated and wielded (not necessarily in an overt way). And power is dynamic and multidimensional. [This changing dynamics of power results in occasional cracks in oppressive systems; these cracks can be widened and used as entry points for HR action. What we call ‘power of resistance’ allows activists to search out the right openings and opportunities to widen those cracks].</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">In the prevailing system, having power has involved taking it from someone else (the disempowered) and now preventing those ‘someone others’ from gaining it back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Some people speak of three types of power: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Power with</i> (finding the common good, building collective strength); <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">power to</i> (shape one’s life <u>and the world); and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">power within</i> (sense of self-growth and self-confidence)</u>**. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">**: This Reader is not sure this classification is too helpful.</font></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">We are all more aware of the visible-forms-of-power (coming from the executive and legislative branches of government, from laws, from existing policies…). But there are invisible-mechanisms-of-power that shape what is acceptable and who is worthy in society; these mechanisms operate at a deeply psychological level --and we have to be aware of them.</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">For people at all levels, critical thinking focused on power and change is a vital skill required for HR work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Local organizing, alliance building and networking are key strategies for changing power relations. For this, work with existing and new social movements is a top priority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Building relations among poor people and the excluded helps create solidarity and the collective force necessary for countering powerful opponents.</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">[If you are skeptical about this portrayal of the power scene, why not probing how power operates in your own organization? Top-down decisions? Gender imbalances? Maternity leave?...].</font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">6.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> Some risks to be aware-of in HR work:</b></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">There is an inherent risk in viewing HR work in very narrow technical terms and not placing it in the overall context of social change and power relations.</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Out of context, multiple isolated responses (including ‘multi-disciplinary’ ones…) risk becoming ineffectual in promoting long-term change, i.e., narrow, technical<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>interpretations (even if ‘multi-disciplinary’) can and do result in negative impacts.</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">By starting with a de-politicized notion of HR, one risks ending-up not relating to how people experience the world --and thus failing to build empowered constituencies. (We simply have to start from people’s daily problems).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">We thus cannot allow HR work to lose legitimacy and support from established social movements organized by poor communities and by discriminated groups. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">There is also the danger of seeing the HR-based framework as the sole approach to address the problems of poverty. Other fronts need to be covered, such as leadership development (strengthening of their skills) and the active exploration and design of viable alternatives to the current neoliberal paradigm, now so mortally wounded. </font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">Another risk we HR activists face is not finding a balance between promoting the claims and voice of the marginalized we are all for, and actually (as we often do) speaking-on-their-behalf.</font></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Times New Roman">There is, lastly, the danger mentioned earlier, namely us equating our work for a human rights-based approach with an approach to only achieve policy reform through advocacy; this is not all that is needed to solve the problems of poverty and exclusion….<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">7. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Epilogue:</b></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">No matter how we look at it, challenging the dominance of the current development paradigm and creating space for alternatives is what our struggle as HR activists is ultimately all about; we are called to bring-in new thinking and going all-out for alternative visions. (The People’s Health Movement is doing just that in the area of health </font><a href="http://www.phmovement.org/"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">www.phmovement.org</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> ). [Just keep in mind that activism runs the risk of a set of urban elites (us) taking over the voice of the marginalized themselves].</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The above Iron Laws are <u>not</u> purely theoretical; they come from experience. We are beginning to see some encouraging results as groups organize to identify and claim their human rights, and to forcefully represent themselves and their communities in the different arenas of public (but not yet private) decision-making.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="IT" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: IT"><font face="Times New Roman">Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="IT" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: IT"><a href="mailto:cschuftan@phmovement.org"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">cschuftan@phmovement.org</font></span></a></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt"><font face="Times New Roman">[All Readers can be found in </font><a href="http://www.humaninfo.org/aviva%20under%20No.%2069"><font face="Times New Roman">www.humaninfo.org/aviva under No. 69</font></a><font face="Times New Roman">] <span style="COLOR: red">Note that the website was updated in March 2009</span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">______________________________________</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Adapted from Right-Based Development: The Challenge of Change and Power, Working Paper 2, ActionAid, Nov. 2005.</font></span></p>