- Too many NGOs are fragmented and trapped in project work; they are often human-rights-blind and mainly service oriented; many are caught up in sustaining themselves financially.
- Service-oriented NGOs will find it more difficult to alter or change power relations –a must for a Human Rights-based approach.
- too many NGOs are not looking (or have ceased to look) holistically despite the fact that they have much knowledge of what is going on; but they are not acting on that knowledge to really serve the people they work with. (Lawrence Haddad) They need to speak up on how they interpret what they see.
- So, here are some ‘take-home-messages’ for NGOs who are ready to assume their due role in the struggle for Human Rights:
- In a participatory process, NGOs need to refocus their respective visions and restructure their plans in the light of Globalization and the specific historical context of each country.
- This entails retraining their staff in the new vision and sharing the vision with their respective constituencies for feedback.
- They need to network with other like-minded NGOs to join forces to courageously advocate and denounce donor agencies and governments not upholding Human Rights.
- They also need to change their organizational structure and internal systems as needed to adopt a Human Rights-based approach, as well as tos et up an ad-hoc internal task force that focuses on macro and Human Rights issues.
- On the other hand, communities need greater control over NGO staff’s activities; this is what has been called ‘localized accountability’.
- So, to get out of a state of lethargy in this domain, NGOs need to amass a fair dose of creative anger.
- Involving their respective constituencies (global, regional, national and local), each NGO should ask itself:
- What problems are we dealing with now? To what extent are they related to Human Rights?
- What information about rights violations do we already have? What information do we still need to research more on? How are we using this knowledge?
- What actions are we now involved in? Are we addressing/minimizing/preventing Human Rights problems? Are we altogether “off-track” as relates to the Human Rights problems?
- If we are currently not addressing the Human Rights problems, what structures would we need to address them?
- What organizational restructuring will we need? within our own NGO? and in our work to expand the Human Rights actors’ network nationally?
- Who is responsible to make these changes: we, as an individual NGO, or a national network of NGOs?
- There is ‘big-league’ and ‘small-league’ advocacy NGOs have to get involved in. In advocacy work, in order to avoid spreading themselves too thin, NGOs ought to concentrate on a few major (core) issues and on issues specifically pertaining to each of them. (Do not loose focus by covering all macro issues…and do share your success stories…).
- Given the challenges ahead, the Human Rights agenda of NGOs cannot be apolitical; the name of the game is actually being politically smart in furthering Human Rights goals.
- Knowing about injustice does not move many; becoming-conscious about it generates a creative anger that calls for involvement in corrective measures. That is why being socially-responsible is but a euphemism for what should really be called political-responsibility. Political commitment is important, precisely because governments function as political entities. Political forces are thus fought with political actions, not with morals or technical fixes. It is precisely a misunderstanding of reality (or a partial understanding of it) that often reinforces an apolitical position of some NGOs.
- One national NGO should act as an umbrella Human Rights organization, i.e., to be a broker of information to its members, helping them interpret it and challenging them to use the information to their advantage; this by itself fosters activism –giving other NGOs some novel ideas on how to do new things in their Human Rights work. The umbrella organization thus becomes a catalyst and an alter-ego (the consciousness) of its members and brings all members to a common ground by setting up either lose or militant networks (even if heterogeneous otherwise, but united on Human Rights goals) in which the relationship is based on a shared vision and political outlook on Human Rights issues.
- Bottom line: NGOs ought to put their right hand over their hearts and face the sometimes painful truth: You DO know where you stand and DO know on whose side you are acting.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City