Food for the basically wrong thoughts that we need to be aware of
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Human Rights Reader 88
'BEHIND HUMAN RIGHTS ARE FREEDOMS AND NEEDS SO FUNDAMENTAL THAT
THEIR DENIAL PUTS HUMAN DIGNITY ITSELF AT RISK'
(Goldewijk & Fortman)
1. Human needs provide a critical grounding for human (people's)
rights (HR). Not all needs correspond to rights though, and not
all rights correspond to needs. But a central set of human
rights rests on basic human needs. HR are often impeded by
"wrong" social and political structures or adverse environments
in those domains, i.e., the socio-political conditions that are
required to sustain HR. The needs-based approach looks for
causal factors rather than for 'deliberate acts by evil actors'.
(J. Galtung). Using capacity (accountability) analysis, the HR-
based approach looks for both.
2. The primary role of the HR-based approach is to make people
aware of what-is-basically-wrong. And when this is widely ac-
knowledged, it has to be pointed out to people that there are
legally-recognized-and-binding-instruments-to-right- these-
wrongs. Ergo, the poor and marginalized have legitimate claims
in the struggle for the fulfillment of their needs.
3. Consider the example of the international debt of low-income
countries: By the late 1990s many very poor countries paid more
in debt service to rich countries than they spent on education
or health. Typically, their education and health budgets have
been cut at the insistence of international financial organiza-
tions. Sacrifice of these basic needs, in order to service debt,
is unacceptable. 'Jubilee 2000' campaigners for debt relief have
shown how such cuts contravene the Universal Declaration of Hu-
man Rights (UDHR) endorsed by nearly all governments, including
the debt collectors'. The UDHR prioritizes access to education
and health care. [Even in welfare-states, when a family goes
bankrupt, no child is expected to lose access to basic education
and health care in order for debts to be repaid first; this
principle should apply for people everywhere!].
4. Ultimately, rights-are-justified-claims towards the protec-
tion of persons' most basic needs and dearest interests; they
are justified-priorities-that-give- people-basic-claiming-
capabilities to achieve them; rights convey respect to persons-
as-choosers, as active rights-claiming, choice-making agents.
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn
--
Mostly taken from 'Needs and Human Rights', Des Gasper, in 'The
Essentials of Human Rights Encyclopaedia', (forthcoming).