Human Rights Reader 360
Only with stronger cooperation and integration between social movements and public interest civil society groups will the shift in paradigm towards human rights become a reality. (Right to Food+Nutrition Watch 2014, People’s Health Movement)
The centrality of politics
1. Do politics matter? We should realize that if the answer to this important question is no, then we --those living in so-called democratic societies--are in deep trouble. Why? Because we know that democracy does not work under primarily technocratic regimes. Do note that the evidence shows that the answer to the question above is a strong YES: politics do indeed matter. Political parties, for example, do shape outcomes --although not always in the direction we would expect or like them to, e.g., having human rights (HR) considerations at the forefront… (V. Navarro). What this Reader has been saying repeatedly is that people need to conquer the right to fight for their rights* --and this is only possible in democracy. (F. Mestrum)
*: Independently of how powerful economic, political or even military institutions are, they persist because they are legitimized and that legitimation rests on the acquiescence of people. But people can legitimize and delegitimize! One of the characteristics of legitimacy is the power of people to change its precepts. History has certainly been a witness. (W. Herman) We are all what we remember, but also what we choose to forget and those of us who do not protest are insensitive to the inequalities in this world. (Albino Gomez)
2. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. (F. Douglas) Take, for instance, patriarchal power. It is embedded in political power and is inimically opposed to dialogue. It places all types of obstacles to dialogue. Patriarchal politicians pass judgment and give explanations as if they were the sole truth. (J. Monsalvo) Greed, hunger for power and patriarchy are congruent desires. (P. Simonetti)
3. The belief that it is possible to solve political problems as if they were engineering problems, with rational planning, is a tragic fallacy. Technocrats, politicians and ideologues have abstract technical knowledge and think that that is all there is. Their prefabricated plans come apart, because they simplify reality and do not understand how society works and, importantly, what the rest of the people know intuitively. (M. Oakeshott)
4. This is why more of us have to start using honest and punching political language to address the so many current political processes going the wrong way. Capitalism itself is one such exploit. Neoliberal dogma has made honest political terms into dirty words (think equality, disparity reduction, HR….). Capitalism is not a dirty word. It is a dirty system. Ergo, we must use honest and simple political language with people to explain political processes and systems to then take effective political action. No wonder we cannot mobilize ‘the people’ when discussions are unintelligible to most claim holders; the point is they do not have to be unintelligible. Not surprisingly, when politics is explained truthfully, it is perfectly understandable to the vast majority of the population. (A. Katz)
It is not a lack of political will, but rather the accumulation of a political will by the powerful to oppose or stall the implementation of progressive policies that tackle human rights abuses
-Power is omnipresent, but really only shows when there is the will to use it. (paraphrasing Nietzche)
-All we need is political will, but political will is a renewable resource. (Al Gore)
5. You are all aware of the classical contradiction between powerful trade regimes and the relatively weak HR regime. When we hear calls for coherence and greater commitment among development actors, it is not clear ‘coherence’ in whose interest? Greater coherence can indeed erode HR accountability by coalescing actors who are party to unfair trade agreements and aggressively impose their financial interests and capture public spaces --in practice working against HR and against greater equality.**
**: Inequality is best understood as a proxy for how effectively an elite has constructed institutions that extract value from the rest of society. (W. Hutton)
6. Given the unilateralism imposed by the powerful, “We, the People…” has taken-on a new urgency (A. Fazal), and to respond to this urgency, claim holders need to say no to the fatal flaws of neoliberalism that we witness day-in-day-out informed by the unfair ethics of the market. This is an ethics in which a minority makes most of the profits against the majority literally giving their lives. In other words, those who cannot compete, die. This is a perverse ethics that, in fact, is devoid of ethics.*** (P. Freire)
***: Since when has economics been making itself a moral science? (R. Savio) In the trenches of the opposition, we argue with high morals while those in power use the logic of the market.
Political will is not owned by politicians
-The problem in our world is that fanatics are always sure of themselves while our intellectuals and politicians are always full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell)
-Heads of government all know what to do; they just don’t know how to get re-elected if and when they do it. (J. C. Juncker)
7. We are ruled by a class of politicians who know only how to dismantle and starve public institutions just when these most need to be fortified and re-imagined. Theirs is a culture of the perpetual present, one that deliberately severs itself from the past that is responsible for what we are, as well as from the future they are not shaping with their actions. (Naomi Klein)
8. It is fitting to remind ourselves of the term ‘doublethink’ coined by the novelist George Orwell. He defined doublethink as “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies****... to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it...”
****: Is it right for politicians to sell their soul in order to acquire power, a power they then use only to purportedly ‘serve the poor’? No, indeed not. (D. Brooks) On the other hand, when politicians strive so hard as to be feared, it takes no time for them to be hated. (Montesquieu)
9. We have to vehemently combat the dirty tactics of flimsy politicians such as the one that says: “If there is misery, hunger, corruption, poor health and worse education… don’t let it show!” (A. Grande)
10. So, indeed, political will is not ‘owned’ by politicians who usually act only in response to consistent and compelling pressures. For HR activists exerting such a pressure, ‘acting’ means more than thinking, more than writing and/or speaking. It means getting involved in direct action, political action that is often irrevocable, which always involves danger and risk, and changes the lives of those who commit themselves.
11. Gandhi’s choice of campaigns was always inspired by knowing what would touch ordinary people in their everyday lives, what would raise their consciousness and thus make them active citizens. In HR affairs there come times when direct action is justified, and where failure to act is wrong. So, has the point now been reached when direct action is needed to improve the state of, for example, public health and nutrition throughout the world? We are thus talking about taking actions in the public interest. In these matters, scientists need to step down from their ivory towers to now become citizens and political activists as well. The HR field is a good place to get them started… All those with special knowledge-of and interest-in their respective field now need to denounce what is happening, nationally and globally, in clear and strong terms, again and again. Being polite and writing notes of concern (or buying a page full of signatures in the New York Times) does not work. All concerted responses that fall short of direct action, and that overlook the need for laws and regulations that protect the public interest, never work. (G. Cannon) But beware: In the eyes of those who hold the power, protests can be as rowdy as they want --as long as they remain ineffective. (B. Moore)
12. States are still the dominant actors, but public interest civil society organizations and social movements are increasingly involved in shaping the global agenda, in defining new rules, and in monitoring compliance with international HR obligations. (S. Patrick) Only a united global social movement will force nations to acting in the interest of humanity and of the planet. Herein lies the role of the global HR movement.
Claudio Schuftan Ho Chi Minh City
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Postscript/Marginalia
-Issuing ‘global report cards’ on corporations and on governments naming and shaming their actions adds to the pressure good popular organization can bring about.
-In people’s politics, sticking to positions is not negotiating. There are many many members of public interest civil society organizations and social movements that over-and-over witness how many rich countries stick to their short-term, self-interested positions as they negotiate rather than being flexible when facing humanity’s greatest ever challenges. Over the last 20 years plus, international high level negotiations have sadly become instances of ‘business as usual’ and this trend seems to me is set to continue for another 20 years. The North/South divide in global summits is, by now, a classic. Only a united global social movement will force nations to acting in the interest of humanity and of the planet. Herein lies the role of the global HR movement. (Repeated on purpose).
-The Economist once said: “Of all the ills that kill the poor, none is as central as bad governance”. To this add: The mother of all failures is a governance failure. (A. Fazal) Rulers are what some call ‘macro-responsible’.
-The principles of what is needed in global governance can be summarized into The 3 Rs: redistribution, regulation and rights. I would add social justice and equality.
-What passes for governance in so many countries is thus an ungainly patchwork of formal and informal institutions. (How often would we like to say: This is not policy. This is insanity!).
-This is why governance must be HR centered, participatory, transparent, equitable, guaranteeing access to justice and to the rule of law; it must fight against corruption and, above all, be accountable.
Извор: The Social Medicine Portal – 28.04.2015
