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…
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…
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…
77. MORE ON LEADERSHIP
When reading the last three (or more) Readers, it becomes clear that the question of leadership is a crucial one…
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…
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)…
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…
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,…
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…
71. REMEMBER? RIGHTS MEAN NOT ONLY HAVING A RIGHT TO SOMETHING, BUT ALSO CLAIMING THAT RIGHT FROM APPROPRIATE DUTY-BEARERS.
For decades the ‘Development School’ and the ‘Human Rights (HR) School’ had progressed in a parallel manner with very limited…