Rights, Advocacy and Social Transformation

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Rights, Advocacy and Social Transformation
Alan Smith UNESCO Chair University of
Ulster a.smith_at_ulster.ac.uk
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A Human Rights Based Approach

• explicit links between human rights commitments
  and legislation
• greater accountability
• genuine participation in decision-making
• non-discrimination that meets the needs of poor,
  vulnerable and minority groups

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Five Important Principles PANEL

• Participation
• active, free and meaningful access to
  processes, information and institutions
• Accountability
• identify rights-holders and duty-bearers
• enhances capacities of duty-bearers to fulfil
  their obligations
• laws, policies, mechanisms and benchmarks for
  measuring progress
• Non-discrimination
• particular attention to equality and vulnerable
  groups
• disaggregated data by sex, religion, age,
  ethnicity, etc.
• develop safeguards against reinforcing power
  imbalances
• Empowerment
• enhances capacities of right holders to claim
  their rights
• Linkages to Human Rights Standards
• sets obligations and minimum guarantees

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Human Rights as a basis for advocacy

• Clarification of concepts of advocacy
• Mapping of experiences and approaches
• Further development through 3 entry points
• National support for personal empowerment
• Inclusion in professional education and training
• Agency policies

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Human Rights as a basis for citizenship

• Most states no longer monolithic
• Concept of nation state challenged
• Emergence of supra national entities, such as EU,
  transcending states
• Diversity of origins, cultures and beliefs
  citizens have multiple group loyalties
• Relationship between church and state being
  redefined

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Representation of bonding, bridging and linking
social capital in Northern Ireland
Historically unequal access to political power
and resources
Relatively strong bonding within communities
Relatively weak bridging between communities
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(No Transcript)
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Citizenship based on rights

• The two Governments recognise the birthright of
  all the people of Northern Ireland to identify
  themselves and be accepted as Irish or British,
  or both and accordingly confirm that their
  right to hold both British and Irish citizenship
  is accepted by both Governments and would not be
  affected by any future change in the status of
  Northern Ireland
• The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, 1998

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Belfast Agreement 1998

• Constitutional issues
• Ireland removes territorial claim to NI from its
  constitution
• any change to future constitutional status to be
  determined by the people
• both British and Irish governments will work to
  facilitate any change

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Belfast Agreement 1998

• 2. Political Institutions
• New NI power sharing Assembly with 108
  representatives from different parties
• North-South Ministerial Council in Ireland
• East-West Council between Britain and Ireland

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Belfast Agreement 1998

• 3. Confidence Building Measures
• Human Rights
• Equality
• Decommissioning weapons
• Security and demilitarisation
• Policing and the justice system
• Prisoner releases
• Support for victims and survivors

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The challenge of diversity

• Assimilation, unitary institutions operating
  according to dominant values
• Separate development, plurality of institutions
• Essentialism (organised around identity)
• Integration
• Conservative pluralism (similarity)
• Liberal pluralism (difference)
• Critical pluralism (challenging power relations)

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Dealing with the Past

• Will the twentieth century be most remembered
  for its mass atrocities? The rape of Nanking. The
  Holocaust of World War II. The killing fields of
  Cambodia. Argentinas Dirty War and regime of
  torture and killing. South Africas apartheid and
  the violence deployed to sustain it. The Turkish
  massacre of the Armenians. The Romanian terror
  before and after communism. The slaughter by
  Stalin. The Americans at My Lai. Military regimes
  using repression, mass tortures and murders. The
  massacres of Ibos in Nigeria. Genocide in Rwanda.
  And yet, a century marked by human slaughter and
  torture, sadly, is not a unique century in human
  history.
• Martha Minow, Harvard Law School (2003) Between
  Vengeance and Forgiveness, Beacon Press

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Dealing with the past

• Common attitudes
• Forget the past, live for the present, look to
  the future
• The present can only be understood through the
  past
• The past needs reconciled to create a new future
• Common rationales for dealing with past events
• Learn lessons from the past so that it doesnt
  happen again
• Identify the guilty and bring those responsible
  to justice
• Provide closure for victims and those who
  have suffered
• Enable a transition from conflict to stability
• Restore confidence in law and order

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What do we mean by truth?

• Truth is objective. This view is that the facts
  should be established, that there is an objective
  account and one version of reality. This approach
  tends to be favoured by fairly rigid education
  systems with syllabus, text-based and
  transmissional curricula.
• Truth is relative. This approach places a high
  value on individual subjectivity. There are many
  versions of reality based on individual
  experience and all are equally valid. This
  approach may be favoured by education systems
  that place an emphasis on experiential learning
  as an end in itself.
• Truth is inter-subjective. This approach accepts
  that there are many subjective views of the
  truth, but the emphasis is on problematizing
  concepts, interrogating each, weighing evidence,
  coming to conclusions through negotiation.
• RETURN

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Preparing for the future

• Conflict transformed but not resolved
• Constitutional issues remains
• Possible referendum
• Role of family and community in political
  literacy