Moralists, too often insist on quixotic actions against the injustices of the prevalent social system –which they also clearly condemn. But they do not seem to realize that, in the…
An emotional commitment to human rights (HR) work is loose and romantic; a political commitment is more militant. People or institutions that fall under this category strongly feel that the…
The objective consequences of many a development project may turn out to be different from their original subjective intent. We need human rights (HR) activists who are strong and elastic…
Much of what has been called liberal activism in the last half century has been merely an accommodation to historical change –to circumstances. It represents a triumph of circumstance over…
It should not come as a surprise that social and economic injustice is not an accident. It springs from the very nature of capitalism, now in its phase of globalization.…
‘In-the-way-things-are’, society makes disprivilege look right. Human rights (HR) violations are simply ‘explained-away’. Although development scholars sometimes engage in an ideological debate with the culture that breeds them, they almost…
When looking at totalities, what will count as facts will depend on the concepts we use, on the questions we ask. Asking different kinds of questions produces quite different kinds…
Two questions arise in relation to the objectivity of our work: a). Would the outlook for eliminating human rights (HR) violations in the world be any better if the people…
It is the prevailing determinants of the social and economic conditions of a society that lead to the violation of the rights of a sizeable sector of the population; these…
We know that the human rights-based approach pushes organizations to focus more on law making, influencing policy, and bringing about empowering participation. In other words, only by contributing to social,…