[afro-nets] Food to sow the seeds of a thought

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Food to sow the seeds of a thought
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Human Rights Reader 129

THE RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGES THE NATURE OF
STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS.

In last instance, rights practices sow the seeds of a different
social order since they hold duty-bearers effectively account-
able.

1. The struggle to replace 'clientelism' with rights is ongoing.
(Clientelism is an 'instrumental friendship' in which an indi-
vidual of higher socioeconomic status, --the 'patron' (or boss)-
- uses his own influence and resources to provide protection and
benefits for a person of lower status --the client-- who recip-
rocates by offering general support, assistance and personal
services to the patron). Clientelism and rights thus exist as
polar opposites, because the human rights-based approach (HRBAP)
builds accountable, equal-to-equal relationships between citi-
zens as claim-holders and government institutions and officers
as duty-bearers.

2. This new pattern of relationships highlights the political
artistry necessary to advance the new-to-many human rights stan-
dards and principles*, because, to be successful, the HRBAP will
have to break the monopoly on the legitimacy of power and on the
control of resources enjoyed by clientelist 'patrones'.
(*:Standards define the minimum acceptable level of a given
right. Principles specify the criteria for an acceptable process
to achieve a given right).

3. The lesson here is that the politics of human rights (peo-
ple's rights) is not for the naïve. Part of it is about forging
cross-class alliances to displace traditional elites' grip on
power.
Let us be clear: Policy making is political since it is about
power and values; it is not a domain of technical judgment only,
especially not in health. The same is true for the science be-
hind policy decisions (and for science in general) since there
always is a social and political contextualization of scientific
knowledge (biomedical sciences included).

4. So, when we talk about governance problems in relation to hu-
man rights (HR), let us understand that bad governance is not
only about corruption and the rule of law. It is about the poli-
tics-and-power-relations-that-underlie. In the same vein, it is
not enough to provide a legal base to HR: We have to guarantee
that HR principles are applied and complied with.

5. I am afraid we have an attitude of complacency in our socie-
ties concerning HR-seen-in-the-light-of-the-above. To many, HR
violations, including the violations to the right to health, are
just a fact of life; few really believe that these violations
often actually kill. Let us wake up. The impact of HR violations
on poor people is so great and so "in-your-face" that we have
chosen to filter it out. Maybe, we act like this out of compla-
cency or out of despair, in light of the economic and financial
implications that eradicating these violations has. So, perhaps
the first step we take will have to be to eradicate our compla-
cent attitudes. This is key. The question is what will it take
to eradicate this attitude? Whatever it takes, we have to over-
come this inertia, because it is this attitude that perpetuates
the tame and conservative approaches we embark-on (the efforts
at health sector reform in the last 15 or more years is a good
example). Such approaches are but an attempt to assuage our con-
science --so that we can be able to lament when finally forced
to admit defeat by saying: "well, well, we tried!" (R. Karanja)

6. This is why we are asking HR activists to get rid of this
missionary position and not to be politically tone-deaf, but ac-
tually to defy political abuse when they see it. They ought to
remember the maxim: "You can always be political, and hate party
politics". Under that banner, HR activists ought to function
both as the 'opposing team' and as referees. Or, as somebody al-
ready said, "be with the system during the day and against it at
night". [Yet others have said: HR activists should "comfort the
afflicted and afflict the comfortable" (T. Jailer)].

7. HR activists cannot uncritically take the 'facts' they are
fed as truths; they have to analyze the evidence in-depth and
come to their own conclusions. Then, they should spare no effort
to work with claim-holder and duty-bearers to demand the needed
changes from the latter.

8. Moreover, at national level, they ought to apply equal rigor
for abuses-of-dominance exerted by companies and corporations
(e.g. pharmaceutical houses) than the rigor they apply for
abuses-by-the-state.

9. Internationally, HR activism is, in part, about putting pres-
sure on countries and agencies that fall short of delivering on
their verbal and/or formal commitments on HR. Publishing a list
of them is one way of applying pressure, i.e., using the some-
times-effective-technique of naming-and-shaming.


Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn

Mostly adapted from Dev Pol Rev 23:5, Sept 2005, and F&D, 42:2.
June 2005.