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 level. As such players, in the Third World, many of…
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 by overt or covert coercion and repression. People’s tolerance of…
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 seem they do little harm. But, beware, thought is dependent…
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 illiteracy, the war on AIDS, the war on drugs, the…
77. MORE ON LEADERSHIP
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…
76. WHY POWER ONLY YIELDS TO COUNTER-POWER.
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…
75. MORE ON HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS AS ACTIVISTS
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…
74. FIVE DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE HAVE COST THE WORLD OVER 1 TRILLION USD: HOW MUCH IN IMPROVED HUMAN RIGHTS IS THERE TO SHOW FOR THAT?
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…
73. RECAPITULATING: THE EIGHT MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE BASIC NEEDS AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT
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…
72. The worst tactic is to impose the transition to a HR-based approach (HRAP) by fast-tracking. More sensitization and in-depth training on the HRAP is needed. Good time has to be spent on training a core group. Then one can move on to district trainers and facilitators and finally to community mobilizers; all this with the aim of developing HR-based community action plans.
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,…