Food for hammering out a new thought
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Human Rights Reader 154
HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE TO BE TRANSFORMATIVE RATHER THAN JUST SIMPLY
EASING HUMAN SUFFERING. (L. London)
Underdevelopment, with its flagrant violations of human rights,
can and does persist with the full connivance of the exploited
and of those who purport to work on their behalf.
1. As we live in a world:
* where markets are clearly a political idea that matters on a
global scale,
* where markets reflect highly unequal bargaining power,
* where pro-market reforms have a dark side for the poor,
(R.Labonte)
* where free trade has irretrievably lost its innocence, ( P.
Krugman)
* where the individual predominates over the social, the
psychological over the sociological, and intentionally directed
communications over political conscientization,
* where values and bigger cosmo-visions matter less to people,
* where social inequalities are tolerated as facts-of-life,
* where firm convictions are disappearing,
* where s/he who has weak thoughts is tolerant beyond what is
ethically acceptable,
* where a loss of faith in the existence of an ideology that
explains the social processes in their totality is the rule,
* where the ruling paradigm obbeys contradictory rules and
avoids deep compromises,
* where pessimism is becoming widespread so that little is
actually done, and
* where soothing ideas and a philosophy-of-the-status-quo
prevail, (A. Gomez)
we have to ask ourselves what has gone wrong. We have already
criticized politicians, leaders, national, and international
bureaucrats and official organizations, as well as the market
forces ad-nauseam. We now ask: Have we put perhaps too much hope
in existing civil society organizations being able to redress
some of these trends?
2. Civil society is understood as a constituent part of society,
alongside the political sphere and the market. Civil society
organizations most often get involved in promoting
democratization and development by way of gradualist reform;
when they do so, they fail to offer any approach capable to
serve as a counterweight to a democracy-eroding, human rights-
violating and globalized capitalist system. This, because they
are often merely single-issue driven and/or are working well
within the prevailing development paradigm. (We have repeatedly
covered this in previous Readers).
3. NGOs --as one type of civil society-- do have the potential
to raise hard and even awkward questions though; they can skip
hierarchies, establish difficult connections that can prompt
truly new insights and can help negotiate new social contracts
that include mandatory rights and responsibilities for all
involved. In other words, development NGOs can and should probe
from inside the system. Because they are uniquely placed,
remissioned NGOs need to make themselves available to mediate in
case of difficulties or of conflict. Their business needs to
include creating trust and balancing interests by getting
decision-makers and administrators (duty bearers), other NGOs
and representatives of the poor people (claim holders) around
one table to thrash out both practicable, on-the-ground
solutions, as well as hammering out concessions to structural
constraints. (adapted from V. Voigt)
4. [Keep in mind here that genuine participation involves a
give-and-take discourse among all interested groups concerned.
The challenge is to ensure that exploited citizens' preferences
are made to really matter in decision-making].
5. For this to work, it will be crucial to endogenize
international NGOs in their national branches, as well as to
train their staff (and the staff of local NGOs) on the human
rights-based framework. This is needed so they can de-facto help
draw public attention to the often-neglected, even down-played
issue of human rights (HR) violations and thus contribute to
push people's rights into the political agenda.
6. In this context, also remember:
* that HR are a product of development struggles (in which NGOs
should take a leading role),
* that HR are the products of contestation of power, locally,
nationally and internationally,
* that HR challenge power imbalances, e.g., those that underlie
inequities in the social sector, and foremost
* that when the language of rights becomes denuded of power, it
is turned into a technical exercise of compliance with existing
norms! (L. London)
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn