AFRO-NETS> Food for a powerful thought

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

Food for a powerful thought
---------------------------


Human Rights Reader 36

PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS: FURTHERING THE DEBATE.

On power and Human Rights:

1. To be a fully empowered claim holder is to have the ability to 
compel the performance of some obligation; before being empowered, 
people are unable to compel important others to perform their obliga-
tions.

2. This, because in our societies, having a right means having the 
power to command respect, to make claims and to have them heard and 
acted upon. Put another way, to have a right is to have a power; to 
have to obtain a right is to be powerless.

3. That in these same societies some are powerful, dialectically sug-
gests that others are powerless. So, any coherent notion of rights 
must, therefore, recognize this connection between power, respect and 
inequality in our societies.

4. Seen from such an angle, our performance in the Human Rights (HR) 
arena is still largely inadequate, because so far, it has failed to 
reverse the powerlessness of the poor. This failure of ours is cou-
pled to our continued choice of rather paternalistic interventions. 
(How many of us are aware that, in our work, rather than empowering 
the poor, we may be empowering ourselves to intervene in their 
lives?).

5. Power and powerlessness are fundamental dialectical opposites in 
society; they regulate the interactions between individuals, the 
state, and its citizen. It is inconceivable to imagine a world with-
out power --and utopian to believe that such a world might exist. (A 
rights theory which envisions what should be, rather than what is, 
lacks the force and persuasiveness to effect true change): Rights 
must be tied to the notion of power and powerlessness.

6. What this means is that a HR-based approach will indeed challenge 
patterns of authority and power. Placing claims does not grant equal-
ity per-se, but merely grants equality of attention; it is a first 
step in challenging existing hierarchies; placing claims is part of a 
slow historical process that will eventually lead to a better life 
for the poor.

7. But a caveat is called for: Rights arguments are also increasingly 
being used to justify particular sets of policies imposed on the 
poor. HR arguments may actually be used against them.

8. HR can contribute (positively or negatively) to the power strug-
gles of the poor: they can be used as much in defense of privileges 
and the powerful in society, as they can be used to advance the in-
terests of the poor and marginalized. Economic rights of the haves 
(e.g., to property) are often used against the interests of the de-
prived majorities, as much as legitimate rights of people (e.g., to 
information, to assembly) are not infrequently contested in litiga-
tion or simply trampled using brutal repression.

9. If HR-based interventions prioritize the needs of the poor and 
marginalized, rights can become powerful tools to advance democracy 
provided they do not ignore the power imbalances that exist between 
and within countries. This, because rights are easily co-opted to 
serve those who already benefit from inequity and imbalances of 
power.

10. So, how do rights-based interventions put the poor first? An ac-
tive pro-poor civil society has a key role to play here. Their social 
mobilization activities have to aim for the structural changes needed 
for meaningful and sustainable changes that will discriminate in fa-
vor of the poor. In some countries, Human Rights Commissions have 
been put in place, but are no panacea if they ignore tying rights to 
the notion of power and powerlessness in the country.

11. While Western preoccupation with good governance makes a misnomer 
of what good governance should be, it is only active grassroots eve-
ryday public participation (and not 'democratic', often rigged, elec-
tions in which only a minority votes) that can really influence gov-
ernments. Using a HR approach to foster such an active participation 
is paramount --remembering that individual rights and group rights 
are naturally compatible.

12. The success of the HR approach should thus be judged by its ca-
pacity to strengthen the least powerful in society to act in their 
own interest, individually and collectively (indirectly leading to 
better governance).

13. We have to better understand HR and the role they can play in the 
context in which each of us works and in which these HR are to be ap-
plied; therein lies the immediate challenge.

[Mostly taken from L. London, Univ. of Cape Town, Oct.5, 2002, and 
from K.H. Federle, Rights flow downhill, The Intl J of Children's 
Rights, 2: 343-368, 1994].

--
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:aviva@netnam.vn

--
To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets
To contact a person, send a message to: afro-nets-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org