Human needs provide a critical grounding for human (people’s) rights (HR). Not all needs correspond to rights though, and not all rights correspond to needs. But a central set of…
Processes are occurring every day that make people poor. So, it is legitimate to ask: Where is the end of ‘survival’ and where the beginning of ‘living’? Being poor, changes…
It has never been proven that improving the provision of services through privatization is the best approach to the problems of public sector inefficiency. Give the public sector the hidden…
In their work –and not that this is easy– human rights (HR) activists ought to make practical experiences influence theory, as well as use theoretical considerations in their practice. The…
Human rights (HR) violations are varied and dynamic; they and/or their character and intensity change over time. Commonly found patronage (clientelism) and exploitation structures find ways to perpetuate these violations…
Respecting and fulfilling human rights (HR) has a cost indeed –maybe even in terms of economic growth foregone. But solidarity, fairness and justice are also values that count –perhaps more…
In a free-market world economy, Third World countries are not being given the benefits they and their economies need, but rather what-ideologically-motivated-Northern-trade-partners believe they should give them. Conversely, in the…
NGOs became players on the political and human rights stage (HR) long ago –both at the national and the international level. As such players, in the Third World, many of…
Given unequal relations of power, ‘legality’ and ‘legitimacy’ are mere window-dressing. The claims of the more powerful are simply enforced by overt or covert coercion and repression. People’s tolerance of…
In world affairs parlance, often particular words, short phrases and slogans briefly (or not so briefly) become fashionable; it may seem they do little harm. But, beware, thought is dependent…