Food for thought for friend and foe (8)
---------------------------------------
A reader in Human Rights (20)
The Role of Human Rights in Politicising Development Ethics, Development
Assisstance and Development Praxis
Part (8)
Where to start? In development work, dreaming is OK, but being naive is
not.
54. We do not exert effective political leadership on most of these is-
sues yet. But we cannot run away from showing intellectual leadership at
least. All of us are called upon to help legitimize and enforce all UN-
sanctioned people's rights, and that requires a crucial change in con-
ceptual thinking, a change of our mind set.
55. More than before, defining Human Rights objectives and establishing
explicit Human Rights goals is thus a political task we cannot escape.
We urgently need to contribute to the setting up of the legal entities
that will define people's rights more bindingly (e.g. setting up Na-
tional Human Rights Committees).
56. To this, we will have to add all the needed work at grassroots
level to launch the Social Mobilization and Empowerment processes needed
to pursue the hard path alluded to earlier. (14)
57. Additionally, among many other, what we need to, is to: - Strengthen
the capacity of development workers in all fields of specialization to
more effectively analyze and act upon the core economic, political and
social determinants found in the basic causes of nondevelopment, wher-
ever they work. (4) - Overcome the culture of silence and apathy of this
staff around Human Rights issues; this means they will have to work more
directly with communities using a AAA approach. - Challenge and build
consensus on political issues related to Human Rights, perhaps starting
with eliminating in people's minds the division they see between poli-
tics and their professional endeavors. - Move from the politics of
status-quo to a politics of global responsibility for the enforcement of
Human Rights; we need to become scholar-practitioner-activists. - Work
towards the more liberatory view of social movements (Paulo Freire), and
not wait for opportunities, but create new opportunities [rights have
to be taken; they are not given!]. - Move from Human Rights to wider So-
cial Rights and from Declaration to Implementation (Gramsci); we need to
"walk the talk and not talk the talk". - Link the normative standards of
Human Rights with other developmental processes in which each of us now
works so as to proactively change our roles in development work in the
new millennium. (7) - Forcefully support the 20/20 Compact, because a
Human Rights approach will need additional financial resources (20/20,
also is a useful monitoring tool to monitor the intentions of govern-
ments and donors to implement economic, social and cultural rights). (7)
58. The overall call is for us to move from a basic needs to a rights-
based approach. In it, beneficiaries are active subjects and bona-fide
claim holders. In the rights-based approach duties and obligations are
set for those duty bearers against whom a claim can be brought, both na-
tionally and internationally, thus ensuring that claim holder needs are
met. The added value of the rights-based approach really lies in creat-
ing and enforcing the legal accountability needed and in legitimizing
the use of political means in the mainstream process of enforcing it.(7)
59. The establishment of national and international complaints proce-
dures is, therefore, also needed. Short of civil society taking up this
function on its own shoulders, national and international monitoring
bodies will be needed. To achieve this, one can start with eliciting
contributions to the formulation of and adherence to voluntary guide-
lines that pursue the application of Human Rights principles.
Claudio Schuftan
Hanoi aviva@netnam.vn
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