Poverty is a form of exile, of being cut off from the larger society –and this is a human rights issue.
1. Other than the World Bank’s and perhaps the OECD’s, studies keep showing us that the poor are getting worse off. So, who are the ones, then, we expect to change things around? Well, I have news for you: not you and me.
2. Common sense would dictate that the experience of poor and marginalized groups of being socially excluded for so long should be the starting point and the trigger from which they ought to more proactively get organized to challenge elite-defined notions of development and of poverty reduction*. Although marginalized groups may periodically complain about their condition, complaining has shown not to be enough; for decades it has led them nowhere; organized-and-coalescing-protests that allow these groups not only to convey-their-claims, but also to gain-them-actual-influence are what is needed.
*: Historically, across the world, it is popular movements for democracy and for independence that have invoked universal human rights (HR) in their struggles….and they often reaffirmed this commitment when they succeeded and adopted new constitutions.
3. But on the duty-bearers’ side, slogans are incessantly repeated that the best policies to stimulate human development and to alleviate poverty are those that reduce the role of the state in the economic and social lives of citizens. This, of course, fits like a glove with a) policies of privatization of public services and of public enterprises, b) the deregulation of the mobility of capital and less-so of labor, c) the elimination of protectionism and d) with the reduction of public social protection mechanisms. In short, this is the core of the neoliberal ideology that has guided the globalization of economic activities and has become the conventional wisdom in, we can say, most international agencies and institutions. Regrettably, these policies are widely accepted (or are imposed) as the only ones possible and advisable.** (Vicente Navarro)
**: Facetiously and cynically, the enthusiastic backers of neoliberal globalization seem to be telling us that being exploited is a good thing, because you are not excluded and at least you have a job…
4. To confound and to blur things even more, beware that the over-sold, so-called ‘pro-poor strategies’ in government programs are most of the time not pro-human rights!*** Why? Because governments confer privileged decision-making position to those interest groups whose cooperation it considers important to bring about the implementation of policies that are in the government’s interest….which are not positions that consider human rights..! (Tim Reed)
***: About this, never forget to point out that, for those not involved in HR work, the move from many to everyone may seem a small semantic shift, but for us, in our struggle for HR, it is a shift with extraordinarily radical consequences. (Hardt and Negri)
5. So, the citizens are deceived and governments keep asking for stronger ‘inter-sectoral coordination’ as a classical delaying tactic to avoid dealing with the very real economic, social and political determinants of poverty****. The question is: Falling for this pro-poor ‘verborrhea’ of pretty-much empty promises, are we playing into the hands of governments without the political will to heed human rights obligations that they are signatories of? [Or put otherwise: Have we, to some degree, naively mistaken the difference between HR activists shaking the hand of a head of state, and actually having a check written to them? Or have we taken the power of ‘(hard-hitting) data’ as a panacea –overlooking the fact that decision-makers follow their own political priorities and will only react to such data to avoid an acute crisis?].
****: Not being facetious here, and from a HR perspective, government-sponsored initiatives may be compared to a government-arranged stage tragedy –with a poor script, dismal directorship and untalented actors. (G. Enste)
6. In the context of HR, I always like to remember two great thinkers: Immanuel Kant urged us to act treating humanity in every case as an end, and never as a means. Rabindranath Tagore reminded us that development drags us towards progress, but never tells us progress towards what and progress for whom; …could it be a path to collective self-destruction?, he asked. (K. Hossain)
7. Since something has gone terribly wrong with the promotion of democracy, and our elected leaders are far from treating poverty as the most important umbrella condition of human rights violations, among other, we have to use our vote, our moral authority and our purchasing power to remove from positions of authority those who insist on blocking HR and condone ecologically destructive policies only to serve short-term interests of an elite. The challenge is not new; it involves ridding the electoral process and key decision-making institutions of the control of powerful elites.
8. So, you see? not you and me will change things around: it is coalescing popular movements that eventually will.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
cschuftan@phmovement.org _______________