340 GENUINE PARTICIPATION MUST COME BEFORE ACCOUNTABILITY
1. In truly democratic societies, active participation is the means for people to voice their criticism, to open the gates to class actions, to demand justice and to change negative…
339 IN TIMES OF EXTREME HUMAN RIGHTS NEGLECT AND OF EXTREME ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLUNDER, EXTREME MEASURES ARE NEEDED
A specter is haunting (not only) Europe: The specter of human rights. The MDGs never were a global agenda for development; now we need one -Even The Economist recognized that…
338 ON DEVELOPMENT, THE LAW, EMPTY PROMISES AND RESISTANCE IN TIMES OF AGITATION.
A cautionary tale 1. Before the law, there is a sentinel. A peasant approaches this guard and requests the permission to enter the law. But the guard responds that, for…
337 THE SAD TRUTH IS THAT MOST PEOPLE ARE OUTSIDERS TO THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS –NO MATTER HOW STRONGLY THEY AFFIRM THE OPPOSITE
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. (Albert Einstein) This Reader is about human rights learning Human rights literacy has too often been achieved by applying…
336 HUMAN RIGHTS TODAY REPRESENT THE MOST IMPORTANT SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL VALUES THAT SHOULD BE USED AS A COMMON NORMATIVE BASIS
In political terms, the birth of human rights was a non-trivial achievement. The human rights principles about development have now become a firm part of the framework of the modern…
335 INSTEAD OF SEEING THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT LIKE A MONOCULTURE, WE SHOULD LOOK AT IT AS AN ECOSYSTEM. (C. Rodriguez-Garavito)
-Human rights are philosophical; they are holistic; they are a secular religion with its own commandments. (Shula Koenig) But does the philosophy behind human rights depend on science? It does…
334 FROM NUTRITION-IN-ALL-POLICIES TO NUTRITION-EQUALITY-IN-ALL-POLICIES –THE HUMAN RIGHTS WAY.
If children were reared for profit (like young farm stock), giving them a diet below requirements-for-health would be financially unsound. (Boyd Orr) Food sovereignty in perspective 1. Food sovereignty entails…
333 FROM HEALTH-IN-ALL-POLICIES TO HEALTH-EQUALITY-IN-ALL-POLICIES –THE HUMAN RIGHTS WAY.
Over 2.300 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle said that “if we believe that men have any personal rights at all as human beings, they have an absolute right to…
332 IN HUMAN RIGHTS WORK, WE SHOULD BE MEASURING WHAT WE REALLY TREASURE! (N. Pillay)
1. In the language of statistics, uncertainty is a latent variable*(N. Bloom) …particularly when it is mainly statistics that lead to policy-induced uncertainty. In policy making, it too often boils…
331 GENDER INEQUALITY IS THE MOTHER OF ALL INEQUALITIES AND OF THE VIOLATION OF ALL WOMEN’S RIGHTS. (L. Puri)
-In our land of Oz, hypocrisy is without shame. Patriarchy rules. (JeromeKoenig) -Women are not ‘men of the feminine sex’. (Jose Faustino Sarmiento) -Gender relations are a form of organizing…