230 POVERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS.
I have often been asked what is the most serious form of human rights violation in the world today, and my reply is consistent: extreme poverty. (Mary Robinson) 1. By…
229 SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN.
Allow me to present these reflections in the form of bullets • A truly women-centered approach to human rights (HR) has to depart from the principle that there are an…
228 FOCUSING ON EQUALITY OF RESULTS (BEYOND EQUALITY OF ACCESS) IS THE NEEDED STEP TOWARDS SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THUS TOWARDS HUMAN RIGHTS.
Communities –and not academics setting cut-off points– are the best qualified to identify the poor among themselves thus judging relative poverty. 1. In our work in health, we see equality…
227 DISPARITY REDUCTION, NATIONAL BUDGETS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The availability and allocation of budgetary resources says a lot about whether, how, and to what extent a government is committed and determined to implement its disparity reduction and thus…
226 IT IS NOT INEQUALITIES THAT KILL PEOPLE; IT IS THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE INEQUALITIES THAT KILL PEOPLE. (Vicente Navarro)
People that happen to be poor need jobs and a livelihood; to agonize about inequality is, for them, a luxury. (M. Klein, World Bank) 1. Both Structural Adjustment and the…
225 OPPOSING COUNTER-POWER TO POWER…
1. Public sector interventions impinge on a vast array of human rights issues. Quite predictably, these interventions reflect the distribution of power in our societies. Therefore, changes have systematically benefited…
224 THE DILEMMA IN HUMAN RIGHTS WORK: WHEN ARE SERVICE DELIVERY, CAPACITY BUILDING, ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL MOBILIZATION REALLY EMPOWERING?
Disclaimer: i) The empowerment of some entails the dis-empowerment of others –usually the current holders of power. ii) Empowering people can well trigger repressive actions by these current holders of…
223 ‘ELEMENTAL WATSON’: HEALTH SECTOR REFORM HAS, SO FAR, IGNORED THE HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH.
1. Ministries of health around the world claim they have carried out ‘a’ health sector reform; they argue that by doing so, they have decentralized and devolved the governance of…
222 EXPERIENCE HAS SHOWN THAT, IN DEVELOPMENT WORK, WE NOW HAVE TO CHANGE OUR TACTICS: WE WILL NO LONGER ASK FOR POLITICAL WILL OR COMMITMENT, BUT INSTEAD, WILL PUSH GOVERNMENTS ON THEIR LEGAL OBLIGATION.
-Injustice is a social disease that needs to be combated with the force of an epidemic. -We have no other world except this one; it is difficult to imagine improving…
221 IT BEHOOVES ALL OF US TO INSIST ON ASSERTING OUR HUMAN RIGHTS; OTHERWISE, WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY.
-Ignoring human rights considerations carries a huge cost; one of them is an inability to understand our world. (Vicente Navarro) -The human rights situation is not like a photograph in…