On power and Human Rights To be a fully empowered claim holder is to have the ability to compel the performance of some obligation; before being empowered, people are unable…

1.In many communities, Human Rights (HR) values still need to be promoted from above, because they have not yet been internalized by unknowing, potential claim holders. This promotion from above…

. 1.The strength of a rights-based approach is that it allows one to talk about entitlements and to challenge unwilling governments. (“One person should not have to decide whether s/he…

”The sovereignty of States must no longer be used as a shield for gross violations of Human Rights”. (Kofi Anan, Nobel lecture, Dec 2001) Betting on the invisible hand of…

The substance I do not know about you. But I have the feeling that not much is happening in advancing the Human Rights cause in development work.** We hear (and…

An intellectually sound analysis around the new Human Rights-centered development approach is needed to arrive at a collective platform or policy for the South. This is needed as part of…

More on accountability analysis Capacity/accountability analyses (that tell us why duty bearers at many levels do not seem to be able to perform their duties as expected) are a cornerstone…

Typical Human Rights questions one should ask about services are: Is there sufficient attention being paid to the most vulnerable groups? Is there equal access to services? Do service providers…

Human Rights are plainly not guaranteed by the existing institutional arrangements. (AmartyaSen) We have to understand this as a point of departure. A country becomes State Party to a convention…

For this issue of the Reader, I find it fitting to excerpt and adapt from Mary Robinson’s (High Commissioner of Human Rights’s) statement to the Copenhagen Plus Five meeting in…