THE WAY PEOPLE PERCEIVE THEMSELVES VIS-A-VIS THE GOVERNMENT.

THE REAL POTENTIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS LIES IN ITS ABILITY TO CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE PERCEIVE THEMSELVES VIS-A-VIS THE GOVERNMENT.

June 26th, 2011 by Claudio Schuftan

Food for staging a thought

Human Rights Reader 266
Human rights are intrinsic values that give all human beings dignity.

 1. Human rights (HR) are a foundation of the UN. Therefore, the UN has a core mandate to institute international HR mechanisms worldwide. “HR are foreign to no culture and native to all nations”. (Kofi Annan)  HR are legally guaranteed by HR law. Governments are thus obliged to do certain things and prevented from doing other. Yes, but are they faring well at this?

 2. In 2000, the Millennium Development Declaration was signed by 189 member states. But the MDGs that came from it, stripping it to the bone, do not underscore HR sufficiently thus absconding from one of the main purposes of the United Nations. Since HR and the MDGs both clearly confer obligations on governments –but do not fully succeed in it yet– they are to be considered two sets of interdependent and mutually reinforcing commitments: I wish I could say they were./.../