Food for a thought that is here to stay (2)
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Response by George Kent <kent@hawaii.edu> to Human Rights Reader
93 - The Rise of Rights
Here are a few comments.
In relation to paragraph 1:
Folks who talk about the human rights-based approach should be
explicit about the reference: it is an approach to what? As I
understand it, it refers to the question of how international
agencies, both governmental and nongovernmental, formulate their
programs. Yes, with few exceptions the international agencies
tend to be timid about human rights. Of course they all proclaim
that they support human rights, but they all do that selec-
tively, if and when and how they wish. Most of them fail to ac-
knowledge that they too have human rights obligations, and
therefore they too are capable of violating human rights. I ad-
dress this issue in an article on "Human Rights Obligations of
International Governmental Organizations" that will appear soon
in the UN Chronicle.
In relation to paragraph 2:
Agree. And we should emphasize the fact that one of the most
fundamental requirements of any human rights system is to pro-
vide effective means through which rights holders can seek reme-
dies if they believe their rights may have been violated. Rights
require remedies.
In relation to paragraph 3:
Yes. But rights are not simply about resources. They are also
about things like services and appropriate infrastructures. The
human right to adequate food, for example, is not about primar-
ily about the duty of government to feed people. Rather, it is
more fundamentally about the obligation of government to assure
that there are enabling conditions that allow people to provide
for themselves.
--
George Kent
mailto:kent@hawaii.edu