AFRO-NETS> The new UN human rights approach. (5)

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

The new UN human rights approach. (5)
-------------------------------------

WHAT DOES THE NEW UN HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH BRING
TO THE STRUGGLE OF THE POOR?

Part 4

The politics of it all

Politics is nothing more than the ability to resolve,
time and again, conflicts of interest.

  30. Because we need to be concerned with what happens to people now,
what we do now will affect the next generation. That makes Human
Rights eminently an issue in the contemporary political discourse.
(8)

31. Human Rights ultimately give direction and boundaries to politi-
cal and economic choices; some economic choices simply are not per-
missible, even if they promise a good return. Just like the limits of
a national Constitution, there are things politicians can simply not
do, and other things they have to do. That is how we should conceptu-
alise Human Rights.(8)

32. With such an overwhelming mandate, most of us just feel helpless.
But it is partly due to that feeling of helplessness that normative
approaches are finding fertile ground, and that development thinking
is no longer accepting utilitarian approaches. I thus see this as the
beginning of a political movement; one that aims to develop and im-
plement a non-ethnocentric global ethics (and, for now, we have to
recognize that the United Nations is the organization that is set to
lead that movement). (2)

33. In reality, there is a need for a political solution in conjunc-
tion with humanitarian efforts. But in the last instance, only poli-
tics will determine the speed with which the ultimate achievement of
Human Rights will be realized. (25, 13)

34. I contend that it is by using a combination of the Human Rights
instruments that we can become more political in our work. Further-
more, given their moral standing, people's organizations should begin
to speak more with one voice on these issues. (4)

35. On the other hand, political leaders do understand that change is
more inevitable when communities demand their rights. Development
agencies need to do likewise. (26)

36. Human Rights language raises social commitment. It is a very po-
litically powerful language. As our social commitment increases, our
level of political responsibility also increases. (5)

37. But it is more; we also need to focus on the politico-legal links
in Human Rights work. (4)

38. The Human Rights framework is becoming guidance and a directive
in the area of global governance. It must now be used in a politi-
cally deliberate and systematic way to ensure its ultimate achieve-
ment, ergo the realization of Human Rights. (8)

39. The question, of course, here is: Are we all likely to have the
strength and the political will to use Human Rights effectively as
our supposedly new weapon against global violations of the Right to
Development? Or put otherwise, will the explicit inclusion of Human
Rights into the politics of, for instance, malnutrition make any dif-
ference to the many millions whose lives are blighted by this prob-
lem? (27)

40. One can be skeptical. Not much has really changed so far. This
is, because of the political sensitivities involved in resolving
these issues. They have never really been addressed in depth. But
these sensitivities are now under siege: We are at a point where you
cannot but take sides! Get prepared for a fair struggle.

Claudio Schuftan,
Hanoi
mailto:aviva@netnam.vn

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