[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about what actions you can take when your government does not respect human rights. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text].

-The above can mean that, if your government does not respect HR, you do not have to respect your government.

-We have rights only as long as we know how to defend them. (French Revolution slogan)

1. The right to speak up is the way that allows all of us, without any exception, to actively demand our rights as guaranteed and protected by international law. The right to have rights (Hannah Arendt) is considered by some to be the first right because, without it our very condition as human beings is impossible. (Alvaro Ramis)

2. Realistically speaking, even if all human rights (HR) principles and standards embedded in UN treaties were to be considered for enforcement, they will need political will, good faith, stern demands by claim holders and an effective enforcement mechanism in order to make a difference. (Moreover, for the full enforcement of the UN Charter, all UN HR treaties must simply be implemented).*

*: A reminder here: Subsequent to signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted  by the General Assembly resolution of December 10, 1948, countries negotiated two more treaties: in 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). These two treaties were adopted by the Member States of the United Nations on December 16, 1966. However, they only came into force in 1976, when a sufficient number of countries ratified them. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), to date, the second covenant (ICESCR) has been ratified by 169 states, but not the United States of America (OHCHR, 2009, https:// indicators. ohchr.org/). Together with the UDHR, these documents are referred to as ‘the International Bill of Rights’. (Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu)

3. As regards economic, social and cultural rights –that amplify civil society’s power– making institutions more responsive and generating an improved policy environment have proven more difficult than we imagined in the current context. Improvements in the global policy environment have actually been rather more superficial than structural. (CESR)

Forwarding the cause of the peoples does not admit the slightest delay (Jose Artigas, 1764-1850)

-They may cut all the flowers, but they will never stop the spring. (Pablo Neruda)

-Depression and cynicism are states of mind to overcome; we simply have to resist. (Bernie Sanders)

4. Not to forget: It is the events or actions that violate or deny HR that provide the trigger for claim holders to mobilize to respond to all HR abuses.

5. So, to inspire HR action, claim holders need to propose something new rather than just criticize what is there (which is what predominates in street protests). Traditionally, HR advocates have been better at documenting what is wrong, rather than proposing a bold way forward. We must strive to break that mold proposing a HR (and a human security)** vision. (CESR) –…a vision that these HR Readers try to promote in the name of human dignity.

**: The concept of human security, first introduced in UNDP’s 1994 Human Development Report, signaled a radical departure from the prevailing idea that humans were secure if they lived in a ‘safe’ geographical area. Instead, it suggested that security was about everyone living free from want, free from fear and free from indignity –and dignity is the backbone of HR.

Only by taking action will we have hope (Katharine Hayhoe)

-We cannot solve problems with the same mindset that created them. (Albert Einstein) Keep in mind that those directly enduring the pain will perceive problems and solutions differently from those trying to ‘objectively’ describe and analyze them (us!). (Arab saying)

6. Being ‘realistic and truthful’, as has so far been the tonein the struggle for HR, has been mostly been carried out in words and in promises. Hopefully (or I’d say As a must), actions will (have to) follow; only then will real hope materialize. (David Zakus)

7. Now is not the time to create more and different plans for the way forward, it is time to stick to the plan. We do have most of the foundational socio-economic and HR thinking to build-on. As HR activists, we know what is needed to break out of the staus-quo. The question is how to do it. What we need are better tools and mostly levers and pushes to turn activists’ plans into action. (The Club of Rome) Yes, and it is only mobilized claim holders that will set those levers in motion.

8. Well, do not be taken-in: reverting the situation is by no means easy. This is why we have to strive for actions in different fronts. Just some of the key challenges are:

  • to give even greater priority to fostering alliances with community-based organizations and social movements as driving forces of economic change (particularly those working for environmental and climate justice who seem to be more organized);
  • to weave rights-based arguments into the collective demands of broader economic justice coalitions;
  • to underscore the role of (UN and other) corporate capture and widespread conflicts of interest;
  • to more directly address the myriad skewed fiscal injustices and biased governance structures hampering HR;
  • to map-out priority advocacy spaces in the international HR and economic governance spheres where aiming our collective messages will have the most impact; and
  • to generate the needed evidence to complement and support our global demands and advocacy messages. (CESR)

9. Finally, globally binding mandatory guidelines, with flexibility for progressive implementation, applicable to all members states*** and other public, as well as private actors will be indispensable. (Jeffrey Sachs) And let us not forget: The judiciary and the legislative in each country are part of the scaffolding of the power of the dominant class. Taking down that scaffolding is thus another challenging front in the long road to the fulfillment of HR. (in memoriam of Jorge Zabalza, Uruguay)

***: Take for instance, a) the binding principle of non-retrogression in HR that prevents a State from entering into any agreements (including commercial agreements) that will prevent it from fulfilling its existing obligations under the ICCPR and the ICESCR (Alfred de Zayas), and b) the still under-long-negotiation binding treaty on TNCs and HR.

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com

Postscript/Marginalia

-En un café de Madrid escuché esta conversación, que mostraba un gran pesimismo, pero sin dramatismo alguno:

Uno de los contertulios le decía a otro:

-A mi, lo que más me gusta es perder a las barajas.

-¿Pero es que no te gusta ganar?

-¡Coño! ¿se puede? [translate with deepl.com] (recounted by Albino Gomez) 

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