Definition of Human Rights
This looks like a wonderful coalition! Congrats! I have a question:
What is the coalition's definition of "Human Rights"? Is the coalition talking about any specific categories of Human Rights or all Human Rights as they have been laid out in various treaties and conventions emanating from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948? In other words, are you considering only Civil and Political Rights, or Economic, Social, and Cultural rights also? How does this definition influence the way the coalition functions?
There are many organizations that have "human rights" in their name or mottoes but which mainly focus on very specific categories of human rights overall, specifically civil and political rights, and perhaps they privilege these fundamental freedoms above other fundamental rights (say to food, shelter, etc).
In Rwanda this has a deep impact on the organization that I am working for, Global Youth Connect, because people in Rwanda hear us say we are a "human rights" organization and they sometimes get defensive when we walk in the room because they think that we are coming with an idea that only civil and political rights are important.
Rather, GYC is focused on making sure that Human Rights is understood by our youth as a framework that includes all human rights, not just civil and political rights. We believe that this opens up many avenues for understanding different approaches to human development and change/progress. And it certainly opens up the opportunity to focus on positive developments before focusing only on negative developments -- which is good for dialogue between people who may have different approaches, so that the negatives can ultimately be resolved. It is essentially working from the UN framework and the UDHR.
Given that some youth grow up in Rwanda believing that Human Rights are only Civil and Political Freedoms, and that some youth in the USA hear the words Human Rights only when hearing about the Human Rights Campaign (which basically focuses on LGBT rights, and mainly Gay Marriage), we at GYC try to talk to our youth about the importance of being aware and clear about how they as activists will define the words that they use to describe themselves in the future so that others will be able to better understand where they are coming from and what they hope to accomplish. And we hope that if they call themselves Human Rights activists that they will consider all human rights in their activism.
I am looking forward to introducing to your coalition the youth and organizations with which we are working in Rwanda, specifically those organizations with which we are working on issues related to the use of the Arts for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (especially in Rwanda), but before I do, I would love to know how the coalition defines "Human Rights", which is in its Motto.
If the answer is readily available on here, please just point me to it and I will happily read through it... I have not searched thoroughly as I thought this would be a good topic for discussion regardless.
Perhaps other words can be defined too, but I will focus mainly on this one for now.
Thanks! - Jesse Hawkes, Executive Director, Global Youth Connect (www.globalyouthconnect.org)
Views: 15
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Todd Lester on -
Hey Jesse, thanks for posting. I will read your post and share some ideas over the weekend... in the meantime, our research shows that you current picture is inaccurate:) We suspect that you have a nice smile ... we want to see it!!
Todd
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Permalink Reply by Mary Ann DeVlieg on -
Many thanks Jesse....it's a very good question and I honestly don't think we discussed it yet! (We are quite new, you know, only having been formed in July this year). I look forward to hearing our colleages reply. For me, personally, human rights include those in the Universal Declaration, but much has happend since 1948: for example, the awareness of the ecological crisis and its affects on certain popluations obliged to migrate, constitute some of the areas which need attention and work. Next week, some of us in the coalition have a mini-meeting - this is what todd was referring to. On the agenda, for sure.
MA
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Permalink Reply by Oliver Spencer on -
Hi Jesse,
It's commonly seen as three generations of rights: firstly those relating to freedom and taking part in political decision making; the second generation is social, economic and cultural; the third is the new stuff such as right to environment.
The US is a funny case, but I don't think that same intellectual environment exists outside. It kind of considers itself the leader, which in many respects it is, but if for example you check out the UN's Universal Periodic Review of the US, you will see that it had the most recommendations for improvement in human rights. Of course, many of these are political in nature, but still, there's a long way to go.
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