We all know that it is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. Human rights activists are repeatedly faced with the need to figure out…
1. Long centuries of poverty and injustice have accumulated too many insatisfactions, too much misery and too much indignity, as well as a heavy load of preventable ill-health, malnutrition and…
It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power. (Montesquieu) Let’s face it: The majority of laws in a country are passed…
Human rights (HR) are based on the assumption that there are things that ought not to be done to any human being or things that ought to be done for…
The human rights-based approach (HRBA) signals a ‘new deal’ in the annals of development work. It shifts the focus from technocratic to political solutions and to the empowerment of claim…
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. This notion ignores the all important economic, social and cultural rights. Let us take examples from health and nutrition you can…
HIV/AIDS is an example of a challenge that, in the last at least ten years, changed the political landscape in the health sector. One can ask, why has the HRBA…
January blog Claudio Schuftan Ho Chi Minh City. After a long seven months in the US, I am back home. In about two years, my wife and I are planning…
Other attributes of the human rights-based approach (RBA): A mini-SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis: Some of the RBA’s perceived strengths are Other attributes of the human rights-based approach…
The bullets here below recap what it means to apply a holistic rights-based lens in development practice, be it in health, in education or in any other sector. They also…