[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are it behooves you. This Reader is about the need for coming up with a new narrative to face what have become chronic HR crises. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
— A new human rights (HR) narrative is needed for a good crisis response, because bad HR narratives and words undermine effective crisis responses.
— When we learn of the horrific HR violations being committed, it is too easy to just call for calm (words) and proportionality in the enforcement of ethical and HR standards —and/or just call (with words) to respect international HR law agreements.# (Fernando Ayala, Zavasabel)
1. The impact of ignoring the roots of HR has been undermining their potential effectiveness. Human rights traditions have existed all over the world for a long time!: Neighbours and communities have always worked together to help overcome adversity and oppression. Nothing new here. However, these traditions are not acknowledged by many despite the fact that they encompass ethical and political approaches that the Western model (that has been exported around the world) could learn from.
2. Building a new narrative for HR will not be easy, because such a large swathe of the public, the media, governments, international institutions and humanitarians have been observing the world from inside the old dominant narrative.
3. This is a ‘we problem’, not a ‘they problem’
–There is an old joke about a conversation between two fishes in which one of them asks the other, “What do you think of this water?”, and the other one replies, “What water?”
4. It behooves ourselves to ask:
- How can we make visible that water that we have all been swimming in?
- How can we challenge assumptions so influential that we do not even recognize them as (unsubstantiated) ‘assumptions’?
- How can we escape algorithms hidden from us that we cannot see?
- Why is it high time to change the system of effective crisis response when bad narratives undermine that?
Narratives are hugely consequential
—Narratives shape the policies that shape the world.
—(Unsubstantiated) stories that dominate determine the system that follows.
5. The challenge is to bring about a more accurate understanding of the different contexts of HR crises so as to engage in more effective ethical and political responses. When we ignore that crisis response is a public good and a function of government, state capability and accountability is undermined. This puts people in danger; it undermines the HR purpose.
6. We propose that now is the time to:
- In a determined and coordinated effort, disrupt the dominant narrative of HR and, together with claim holders, build a better narrative rooted in equality.
- Convey and embody empathy, especially in an era when an exclusionary politics demeans others as lesser and as a threat is rising. It is not about ‘people over there, it is about all of us everywhere. Effective HR responses are thus in the interest of us all.
- Emphasize that the most important crisis responses are always local.
- Break the myth of savior organizations.
- Not underestimate people’s ability to process a complex reality. Too often, HR narratives have started from a patronizing rock-bottom assessment of the capacity of the public to understand. Instead, treat claim holders with respect. Tell the (their) fuller story.*
- Not trying to cling-on to an imploding global HR status-quo that is not working well in crises. Indeed, the status-quo cannot be saved since, as used, the weakness of its foundations has meant it was always going to fall.
*: Many of us have had conversations with our kids about climate activism: They get it –and they explain to our generation that it is the prevailing economic policy that drives the risks we face as a planet.
Bottom Line
7. Remember that the purpose of building a new narrative is not about rebranding. It is about remaking something better, together. (Adapted fromB. Phillips and P. Gathara)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
Postscript/Marginalia
#: International HR law must be fought-for all over the world. Where it is violated, the guilty must be brought to justice, without undue regard for the privileges of national sovereignty. If the leaders of states themselves have little concern for the law, if they themselves are indifferent or mock the rights of people, then why should the excuse of national sovereignty be allowed to come to their rescue? In that case, HR would never take root.