87. EXCUSE THE REDUNDANCY, BUT THE POOR ARE A MAJORITY: HOW DOES THIS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR STRATEGIES AND OUR EVERYDAY WORK?
Processes are occurring every day that make people poor. So, it is legitimate to ask: Where is the end of…
86. DOES IMPROVING THE PROVISION OF SERVICES EMPOWER POOR PEOPLE, OR IS IT THE EMPOWERING OF POOR PEOPLE THAT IMPROVES THE PROVISION OF SERVICES?
It has never been proven that improving the provision of services through privatization is the best approach to the problems…
85. ACTIVISM, PROFESSION, COMPASSION AND POLITICAL SOLIDARITY.
In their work –and not that this is easy– human rights (HR) activists ought to make practical experiences influence theory,…
84. DEVELOPMENT = SUBSTANTIAL AND STEADY ADVANCEMENT IN THE REALIZATION OF ALL RIGHTS
Human rights (HR) violations are varied and dynamic; they and/or their character and intensity change over time. Commonly found patronage…
83. All this emphasizes what this Reader has said many times before, namely that, if the context and the framework of our development discourse are wrong, discussions and actions based on the wrong analyses will be like pouring water into a broken vessel; no amount of effort to fill it will be sufficient.
Respecting and fulfilling human rights (HR) has a cost indeed –maybe even in terms of economic growth foregone. But solidarity,…
82. Because of this, there are those who now dissociate themselves from the NGO concept and opt for a more radical and militant perspective: one of social-mobilization-cum-political-consciousness-raising (a-la-Paulo-Freire).
In a free-market world economy, Third World countries are not being given the benefits they and their economies need, but…
81. ON NGOs AND THE RIGHTS OF WINNERS AND LOSERS
NGOs became players on the political and human rights stage (HR) long ago –both at the national and the international…
80. ASSERTING AND AFFIRMING HUMAN RIGHTS IS AS CONFLICT-PRONE AS IT IS INDISPENSABLE.
Given unequal relations of power, ‘legality’ and ‘legitimacy’ are mere window-dressing. The claims of the more powerful are simply enforced…
79. HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE “WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION”:
In world affairs parlance, often particular words, short phrases and slogans briefly (or not so briefly) become fashionable; it may…
78. WE HAVE DECLARED WAR ON POVERTY AND POVERTY HAS WON. (President Lyndon Johnson, 1964)
Have you ever noticed that when we have a problem with something, we declare war on it? The war on…