AFRO-NETS> Food from the Thoughts of the Mwalimu

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

Food from the Thoughts of the Mwalimu
-------------------------------------

Human Rights and South-South cooperation [*]

An intellectually sound analysis around the new Human Rights-centered 
development approach is needed to arrive at a collective platform or 
policy for the South. This is needed as part of the South countries' 
quest for solidarity and cooperation with one another --in their en-
deavor to follow a genuinely people-centered development path in 
freedom.

It is our collective responsibility to organize and coordinate up-to-
date analyses --analyses by the South and for the South-- specifi-
cally on the new and not-so-new specific national and general inter-
national Human Rights issues. The countries of the South will be able 
to cooperate and act together more effectively only when they have 
access to greater knowledge and a shared understanding of the major 
Human Rights questions at stake in their own development --including 
the implications of these questions for their continued freedom and 
independence. There is a need for global action in the field of Human 
Rights and the changes needed have to be channeled to serve all of 
mankind, but especially the people in the South.

The economic, political, military and social units which have most of 
the knowledge, skills and capital necessary to make a difference in 
Human Rights worldwide currently have far-reaching power over those 
who lack these assets. No country can escape the effects of these 
powers.

We in the South, must try to understand what Human Rights are in our 
context and what it will mean not to adopt the Human Rights approach. 
We need to know about and seize the opportunities in front of us and 
be aware of the dangers to our development ambitions if we fail to 
act accordingly. It is imperative that the South understands its own 
needs in Human Rights as distinct from the needs and desires of 
richer and more developed countries; only then can we negotiate from 
a position of strength.

Countries in the South need to be in a position to act together to 
maximize the South's benefits from and bargaining power in interna-
tional negotiations and decisions related to Human Rights. Central to 
this action is to work towards a common position on Human Rights for 
collective consideration. Such a position paper is to give informa-
tion and to analyze the major new and evolving Human Rights issues; 
it is then to recommend to the countries and organizations of the 
South what actions they could usefully consider taking, separately or 
together.

Identifying and articulating the South's common Human Rights inter-
ests does not imply seeking confrontation with the countries of the 
North. The existence of distinct groups of countries (e.g. Group of 
8, OECD, Group of 77, Non-aligned Movement) is an expression of a re-
ality: the imbalance in the level of development --and therefore the 
imbalance of power-- in the world. These imbalances impose an obliga-
tion on all of us to continue the endeavor to reduce them. Actions of 
the rich and powerful have a greater effect on others than do events 
in poor and weak countries. That is the everyday meaning of the im-
balance of power. (But even so, the poorest or smallest of us do af-
fect others --either by what we do or fail to do!). Within this im-
balance, different degrees of interdependence have always existed. 
But now, with the speed and nature of modern communications, the ef-
fect of external developments or decisions can be very quick and 
great. For the weak, these effects sometimes have been and are catas-
trophic.

Therefore, we in the South must be able and ready, at any time, to 
speak for --and more often to defend-- our own Human Rights interests 
as these power-induced changes actually take place, or as we are col-
lectively threatened with them. Doing this is the normal process of 
negotiations between groups with different interests. For, ulti-
mately, progress can only take place on the basis of respecting human 
and national equality; changes will only be beneficial to world peace 
and to our collective betterment when respect is accorded to all by 
all and when justice is available to all.

Neither Human Rights nor development can be based upon the oppression 
of might, whether this be economic, scientific, political or military 
might. [Nor can the current acquiescence of silence on the part of 
those whose Human Rights have been and are ignored and violated --but 
who feel too vulnerable themselves to argue or protest-- continue!].

All governments sometimes find it helpful to have someone who can say 
what they would like to say, but from whose words they can, under 
pressure, disassociate themselves if necessary. As members of civil 
society, we need to say such things! And the call is here to do it 
for Human Rights concerns which do relate to economic, social, cul-
tural and many other questions which underlie and affect the peace 
and development of our countries and our people.

The need is there. We thus have to set up the participative mecha-
nisms to work towards making recommendations concerning possible ac-
tion by the South in the realm of Human Rights. But then it will be 
for the governments and the people to ultimately determine what ac-
tions they wish to, have to and can take. We can only persistently 
lobby. Therein lie our challenges, because what we do in this domain 
has to be used by the people, by the governments and by the institu-
tions of the South. An instrument becomes useful only by it being 
used!

Our countries face an international environment and a world economy 
dominated by the strong developed nations and corporations of the 
North. Moreover, international institutions are, to a considerable 
extent, shaped on the basis of the values and interests of the North. 
It is an understatement to say that often the values, aspirations and 
interests of the South are ignored as if they were unimportant.

Developing countries can have strength on this issue of Human Rights 
only if and when they act together, in cooperation and in a coordi-
nated effort. We do not have to be ignored. We are too many to be ig-
nored. If the South wants to count, it must stand up and be counted! 
Let's encourage this needed collective action and let's continue to 
advocates the reforms of international institutions as and when this 
seems necessary to achieve our declared Human Rights goals.

But let's also be conscious of the things we have not done which 
ought to have been done and in particular which it would have been 
useful to do.

To focus on the most important Human Rights issues of current or fu-
ture relevance to development requires political, diplomatic and in-
tellectual support from the South governments and from non-
governmental organizations; it also requires financial support from 
the South.

Our capacity to achieve the goals of the South will depend on the 
support these goals receive from the countries of the South. Assis-
tance from friends in the North will, of course, be helpful. But we 
in the South must continue to be the prime engine.

The value of what we achieve in Human Rights will lie in our intel-
lectual autonomy and independence.

Claudio Schuftan
Hanoi, Vietnam
mailto:aviva@netnam.vn

[*] Adapted from Mwalimu Nyerere's address given at the South Center
    in Geneva, Sept.18, 1995. (South Letter, Vols.1+2, No.37, 2001). 


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