[TLDR (too long didn’t read): This Reader is about how and why seeking justice is a key, tough human rights struggle. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text].
-In an age of anxiety, men seek justice to set things right. This has been a deep urge throughout history making the idea of a way out an absolute obsession. (adapted from James Michener, Rascals in Paradise) Welcome to human rights (HR)!
Rather than understanding human rights in terms of legal and constitutional rights, it becomes clear first that, in the system under which we live, justice is applied ‘whenever possible’ (Louis Casado)
-I abandoned voice practice and the singing of scales when I found out that a white note was worth two black ones.
1. As a corollary then, to deny minorities the inalienable right of thinking for themselves is a crime of humanity. Even if this minority is reduced to one single wo/man, her/his right is the same. To muzzle that wo/man with the pretext that her/his voice is odious is to deny humanity the right to express itself freely.* (Amanda Labarca)
*: “They wanted to bury us so that we would disappear, but they did not know we were seeds”. (Saúl Vicente, International Indian Treaty Council)
The human rights discourse speaks to the gap between power and justice that seems a persistent feature of the ‘human condition’ (#)
(#): I ask, is it of the ‘human condition’ or rather of unjust, undemocratic political systems so many claim holders live under…?
-We cannot assume that just, because HR are binding in theory, they will be guaranteed in practice.
2. Constitutions point to the precepts that countries have to follow to function and develop democratically. Right? But to have their precepts materialize one needs laws and resolutions that pick up on what is called ‘the spirit of the law’. (Revista Primera Piedra) I ask, …and not the ‘spirit of HR’?
3. Mind you: Our struggling for justice and HR is part of our morality, not our self-interest. Morality applies to those situations in life where self-interest pulls certain people in one direction and justice in another. There is no doubt that it is more difficult to behave morally than to behave in the interest of self. There is still a way to reconcile our putting justice above ‘tribal’ or group allegiances, without having to choose among the two and without our striving for justice being considered a treason towards our peer social group. (Yuval Harari) I ask Dr Harari: How are we to reconcile?
4. Bottom line here: We can have justice whenever those-who-have-not-been-injured-by-injustice are as outraged by it as those who have been. (Solon, c.638 BC-558 BC, Athenian statesman, one of the Seven Sages of Greece)
The most prominent critiques of human rights go beyond a call for rethinking or reform (Grainne de Burca)
5. Talking about the spirit of HR, the critics of HR argue that the age of human rights is over, that its end-time is here, that HR law and the HR movement are ill-suited to address the injustices of our times, that the failure of HR approaches to seek or bring about structural change or economic justice highlights their deeply neoliberal ‘companionship’ and that HR advocates should perhaps no longer seek to preserve HR, but should make way instead for more radical movements.
6. I argue that some of the more damning critiques are exaggerated and partial. Criticisms focus only or mainly on one particular dimension of the HR system, and tend to caricature and reduce a complex, plural and vibrant set of movements to a single, monolithic and dysfunctional one. Be clear: At the same time that the most pessimistic of the critics are writing obituaries for HR, multiple constituencies around the world are mobilizing. Human rights activists and movements should thus exercise vigilance to ensure that they serve and are led by the interests of those whose rights are at stake and that they do not obstruct other progressive movements and tactics. Indeed, the diverse and heterogeneous array of actors that make up the international HR community have an indispensable role to play and are a beacon of hope. (G. de Burca)
7. This is why more and more public interest CSOs acting as watchdogs ought to assess yearly whether children, including girls, are progressively more in school (with supplies and teachers for them); whether clinics are functioning progressively more and better; whether villages progressively have more access to water and electricity; whether mothers can progressively more obtain neonatal and obstetrical care; whether there is enough food to eat; and, finally, whether there are sufficient development funds being made available to cover these essential needs. Such benchmarks** were all supposed to be part of the Sustainable Development Goals, but have lacked the indispensable progressive realization of HR accountability checks.
**: Benchmarks are, in reality, targeted steps to assess the progressive realization of HR. Benchmarks call for, at least annual, real time report cards by public interest CSOs.
8. There are three possible scenarios for the future quality of human and non-human life and for HR. The three scenarios are: negationism, gattopardism and a civilizing alternative. Negationism consists in denying the exceptional gravity of the situation in which we are living, and believing/stating that, very soon, everything will get back to normal. The Gattopardo scenario recognizes that the situation is grave and that just some adjustments are needed in public policies, but that no structural changes are really needed, i.e. change the necessary so that nothing essentially changes. The civilizing alternative is based on the idea that the measures proposed in the second scenario are important and urgent, but are not sufficient. Its proponents posit that, additionally, we need to structurally change our modes of production, of consumption and of life in society. The three scenarios represent the terms that will characterize the social and political conflicts in the decade to come. (Boaventura de Sousa Santos)
For all the above reasons, we need a ‘long-termist’ conception of HR (César Rodríguez-Garavito)
9. Short-termism leads to inadequate accounts of the overall HR situation. Our reactions to crises (short-term) are ultimately temporally deficient for HR purposes; they rest on considering immediate suffering rather than on slow forms of violence –and they look to what just happened or what could immediately be altered rather than considering the continuous nature of deprivation, subordination and HR violations. Exposing the immediate gloomy and menacing truth to claim holders the world over will not stop violence…*** It will contribute to (better-sooner-than-later) countering claim holders’ denial and inaction. (Zinaida Miller)
***: The thing that surprises about street protests is that they have taken so long to erupt. (L. Casado)
10. There is thus a certain ‘normosis’, i.e., a disease of the common sense, that manifests itself as a compulsion to stay away from the question I want to leave you with: Why do privilege and the illegitimate use of power have to continue? (Luis Weinstein) Actually, nothing will happen if you look at the struggle for HR as a spectator sport. (Bernie Sanders)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
All Readers are available at www.claudioschuftan.com