The substance
- I do not know about you. But I have the feeling that not much is happening in advancing the Human Rights cause in development work.** We hear (and write) praises about how this is the right way forward, but an expanded understanding and concrete steps remain scanty. A lot of what is said sounds disturbingly progressive…, but has not enough substance to base a praxis on.
- We cannot continue to blame everything on the global power structure only. (Lamentations alone do not lead to liberation). Likewise, we must be critical of our efforts at grassroots level and –in all honesty–of ourselves.
- We have to stop talking about utopian generalities. It behooves us to give a clear sense of what might be the next best steps that organized groups working on Human Rights could and should take. We need to make practical suggestions on how to convert our dreams into reality. In short, no more slogans, but a sense of direction, i.e. an integrated framework needs to tie all the main issues into an action plan.
- Ultimately, to counter the Human Rights opponents’ arguments, the people’s movement fighting for Human Rights needs to be much better informed and what its members say must be well documented. Just in terms of awareness creation alone (which is essential in the struggle for change), we still have a long way to go.
- Success will depend on concrete actions and activities our affiliated groups manage to undertake. Ultimately –let’s not lose sight– this is a movement struggling to transform current unfair Human Rights conditions. The question is: What small but significant steps will each of us take to effectively contribute to this?
- Since the recommendations for mechanisms and actions to do this have not yet been clearly worked out, the “Human Rights movement” many of us are part of can and has to provide a platform around which people can organize, mobilize and lobby (or protest) for change. Novel approaches to solve old problems must be proposed and –as important in Human Rights work– solidarity channels must be set up and/or reinforced and then sustained.
- Building such an international solidarity primarily means giving people a chance to air their grievances and be exposed to the grievances of others. The usually silenced victims of Human Rights violations should be the first to be given the chance to express themselves. Free speech is the path to liberation.
- Only the ongoing sharing of critical Human Rights analyses and successes will lead us to liberation… or at least has a chance of doing so. This, because it is these analyses that we need to use for grassroots organizing and for the careful planning of strategic actions. It is no longer enough to clarify and rally around key Human Rights issues by only carrying out comprehensive analyses of causes and hoping this will awaken dormant combativity: Collective strategic planning of how to get where we want to go is the real important thing.
- Responses to questions like: Where is all this leading us? and How do we get there? must be inclusive of practical suggestions for specific Human Rights-promoting actions that individuals and organizations can/should take, i.e. a sense of direction must be given. This is what leadership is all about:
A degree of collective guidance and facilitation is indispensable to give such a sense of direction. People should have a chance to hear the views and learn from the analysis of those who are more fully informed and experienced. Therefore, the ‘public forum’ we ought to aim for should not simply be a ‘chat room’, but rather a well moderated educational communications tool which can help guide people to come to realistic conclusions and to the formulation of their own practical plans of action.
The discussion of an integrated Human Rights framework and of collective, coordinated strategic Human Rights plans can indeed be started and advanced through such a ‘public forum’.
- At the base here is more a tactical than a strategic debate; and for it, I do not necessarily have all the answers. What I do know is that, in today’s world and perhaps more than ever, there can be no liberation (i.e. respect for Human Rights) without a strategy… and no strategy without a struggle.
- It will thus be a ‘facilitated search of direction’ based on a unifying analysis (framework) that will lead us to the so much needed host of workable local plans of action. We can give global general guidelines, but only local plans will be realistic. If we fail, people will come away with a blurred sense of what might be the next step their group should take in promoting Human Rights. If the direction is ambiguous, so will the actions!
The network
- The only way to do what is proposed above on a scale commensurate with the current needs is to establish an active Human Rights communications network, a mechanism whereby groups in different parts of the world can be supportive of one another in times of crisis and can be ongoingly exposed to this vital exchange of information on Human Rights. (The People’s Health Assembly is in the process of exactly setting up such a network. We could all learn from it). It will be critical then to maintain this channel of information sharing which, among other, could be used to coordinate inputs from NGOs, other organized civil society groups or movements and from activists, as well as from similar coalitions working in other sectors on other reivindications.
- The first viable channel that comes to mind is an email list-server. However, only maximum 10% of the world’s population has direct or indirect access to computers and less even to the Internet. More traditional means of communication are thus also indispensable (and could be linked to and triggered by the email network): We are talking about newsletters, radio, videos, webs of community workers and union organizers, and other such channels.
- While doing all this, we have to keep the process democratic yet on track, i.e. advancing! For that, a balance has to be sought between guided facilitation and open-ended Human Rights discussions. The presentation of successive drafts of a unifying analytical framework and of strategic plans for us to discuss on-line is the first step to focus the discussion and to make steady progress towards agreed upon objectives.
- I call on you to contribute to fill the gaps I here depict and to encourage others to contribute, each in their own way. I thought that starting this Human Rights Reader was a contribution in the right direction, but it remains desperately academic, and few of you react. It could evolve into a list-server though as the basis for an ongoing real multi-centric dialogue. Others among you would have to help by contributing the ‘substance’ for the concerted actions that I am pleading for here.
- We will need skilled communicators to help us give simple language, clear and accurate summaries of the key issues starting from an assessment of where we are and then pointing to what needs to be done next. They also need to check what people are understanding of what is being said in this virtual and face-to-face communications network. Explicit plans for follow-up action are crucial and all our correspondents should have the mailing addresses of all in the group (or access to all through the list-server).
- So –as we come out of an always sleepy summer in the North– this is, in short, the challenge I perceive: Would anybody care to comment?
Claudio Schuftan, Hanoi
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*: Adapted from Werner, D. and Sanders, D. Liberation from What?, Newsletter
from the Sierra Madre #44, March 2001, pp.1-7. www.healthwrights.org
**: A welcome exception is CARE’s publication of the Newsletter ‘Promoting Rights
and Responsibilities’. jones@care.org