Given unequal relations of power, ‘legality’ and ‘legitimacy’ are mere window-dressing. The claims of the more powerful are simply enforced by overt or covert coercion and repression. People’s tolerance of…
In world affairs parlance, often particular words, short phrases and slogans briefly (or not so briefly) become fashionable; it may seem they do little harm. But, beware, thought is dependent…
Have you ever noticed that when we have a problem with something, we declare war on it? The war on illiteracy, the war on AIDS, the war on drugs, the…
When reading the last three (or more) Readers, it becomes clear that the question of leadership is a crucial one for the human rights (HR) movement. A leader is a…
Power is to be understood here as the submission of some to the will of others. When power leads to the advancement of an individual’s or a minority group’s own…
As said so many times before, our ‘do-gooder’ zeal is not good enough to objectively improve the human rights (HR) situation of the have-nots in the world. I am amazed…
Development in the wrong direction? Development cooperation can neither be reduced to fighting terrorism nor can development policy remain a repair shop for the longstanding damage done by a whole…
Needs are met or satisfied. Rights are realized (respected, protected, facilitated and fulfilled). Needs do not imply duties or obligations, although they may generate promises. Rights always imply correlative duties…
For claim-holders to build their capacity is for people to understand their rights, to claim them and to contribute to realizing them. Claim-holders simply have to hold duty-bearers accountable and,…
For decades the ‘Development School’ and the ‘Human Rights (HR) School’ had progressed in a parallel manner with very limited exchange and interaction. It is only recently that both schools…