Food to transform apathy into an action-oriented thought
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Human Rights Reader 85
ACTIVISM, PROFESSION, COMPASSION AND POLITICAL SOLIDARITY.
1. In their work --and not that this is easy-- human rights (HR)
activists ought to make practical experiences influence theory,
as well as use theoretical considerations in their practice. The
idea is that a progressive engagement in human (people's) rights
work should lead to an activism in which profession, compassion
and political solidarity become one and the same thing.
2. S/he-who-has-no-bearings just goes round in circles. This is
why this Reader aims at persuading other people to spend more
time and energy on HR work. We need to build up this capacity to
motivate others so we all start from our 'new' selves. (At least
one person who got influenced by the Reader is myself.)
3. Apathy can turn our work into stagnation. We need to trans-
form-apathy-into-activism and to consolidate-negotiated-social-
contracts between people (as claim-holders) and their represen-
tatives (or purported representatives) at all levels (as duty-
bearers).
4. I think that visionaries who communicate their vision to oth-
ers are the true realists of history.
5. We need to shift our attention from just reaching-the-poor-
merely-as-an-extension-of-the-prevailing-paradigm to a-deeper-
understanding-of-the-issues-of-poverty-and-inequality-and-their-
underlying-processes. What ultimately counts is our social and
political accountability and our work in true partnership with
the poor.
6. We also need to explicitly recognize that political-
processes-and-issues-of-power determine the content, direction
and implementation of HR policies and programs. Together with
the marginalized and poor, as HR activists (and from within our
respective professions), we can and should become strong politi-
cal players instead of implicitly protecting narrow group inter-
ests through our work under the wings of governments, industry
and international agencies that are most often unmindful of the
real interests of the poor, despite their (and our) public
statements to the contrary. (T. Narayan)
7. It is ultimately our networked power and strength that will
achieve higher levels of emancipation and that will eventually
reverse HR violations in all domains.
8. [A word of caution about networking in our empowerment ef-
forts: The noisy kind of street democracy of protesters at World
Bank/IMF, WTO and Davos-type gatherings has to get its act to-
gether. The cacophony of thousands of voices that may no-longer-
hear-one-another risks squandering wonderful young energy if no
coherent agenda for the future is put forward. Protesters (mid-
dle-class activists?) need now to develop or adhere to a whole
set of new universal values in the name of which they propose
new systems of governance; and this has to lead to agreement
among the more committed sector of organized civil society; only
thus will protesters make their reasoned collective case heard].
[But also note that, in our case, using the streets to spread
and defend the principles of HR and to popularize our HR work
is, I think, indeed legitimate].
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn
--
Mostly taken from the German development journal D+C Vol 31, Jan
2004 and from Poverty, Health and Development, Health Coopera-
tion Paper No.17, AIFO, Bologna, Italy, 2003.