From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Fri Aug 21 2009 - 00:56:34 EDT
Brazil's riposte to interventionism
Increasingly, human rights organisations in Brazil are challenging
pre-packaged doctrines of western liberal values
o Conor Foley
Shortly before his death in Baghdad six years ago, the Brazilian UN chief
Sergio Vieira de Mello gave an interview in which he warned that the US
occupation forces were trampling on Iraq's dignity and wounding its
national pride. "Who would like to see his country occupied?" he asked. "I
would not like to see foreign tanks in Copacabana."
Vieira de Mello's career had taken him through some of the world's worst
conflict zones, grappling with the dilemma of how the international
community should respond to grave human rights violations and crimes
against humanity. His own family had suffered under Brazil's military
dictatorship and – like most progressives of his generation – he did
not accept the view that what governments did to their own people was a
prerogative of national sovereignty. International solidarity trumped the
doctrine of "non-interference in a state's internal affairs", which is
enshrined in article 2 of the UN charter, but has been chipped away at by a
variety of human rights treaties in recent decades.
One achievement of the former British premier Tony Blair may have been his
impact on this debate through attempts to hitch it to his tawdry
justifications for the illegal invasion of Iraq. Although Blair's own
arguments did not stand up to much serious scrutiny he seems to have
convinced a surprising large number of people that the doctrine of
humanitarian intervention is just a new name for old-fashioned imperialism.
Alongside the basically rightwing position that "we should not concern
ourselves with what one group of foreigners do to another" is an
increasingly fashionable leftist view that only criticises human rights
violations when these can be laid at the door of western governments.
Médicos Sem Fronteiras (MSF) Brasil, and Conectas, a Sao Paulo-based human
rights organisation, provide an eloquent riposte to such intellectual
myopia. MSF has been working in Brazil since 1991, providing medical
services in the Amazon as well as the violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
For the last two years, it has been providing emergency and mental health
services in Complexo do Alemão, where residents have been trapped in the
middle of all-out gun battles between police and criminal gangs, fitting
most established definitions of what constitutes a war zone.
I first met MSF Brasil's director Simone Rocha, when we were both working
in the northern Afghan town of Mazar-i-Sharif. She has been deployed in a
dozen countries, for different national sections, but the creation of MSF
Brasil is a new and more ambitious project. It is now raising funds in
Brazil and sending Brazilian doctors into 35 countries so far, like Darfur,
Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where their medical
experiences of providing assistance in remote, impoverished and often
violent places is sorely-needed.
MSF combines its assistance with advocacy. As Rocha notes:
One of our most important activities is the collaboration we have
established with Brazilian civil society in the fight for universal access
to medicines. We have linked this to our activities in other countries of
the south such as India, Thailand and China. MSF has provided both
technical and legal support to defend doctors in these countries against
monopolistic practices on essential medicines.
Conectas has pursued a similar strategy of defending human rights in
Brazil, while locating these within a conception of Brazil's rightful role
on the planet. During President Lula's recent visit to the UN human rights
council it called on his government "to review and resolve any
inconsistencies in the positions it has adopted in regard to the severe and
persistent cases of abuses and violations of human rights in specific
countries". Conectas criticised Brazil's quiescence towards calls for a war
crimes investigation in Sri Lanka earlier in the year and its silence over
violations in China and North Korea. Its legal director, Oscar Vilhena
Vieira, argues that Brazil is constitutionally required to promote human
rights in its foreign policy.
Conectas seeks to strengthen respect for human rights and the rule of law
in the global south through strategic litigation and south-south
co-operation. It helped to shut down the notorious Compexto Tatuapé, a
brutal and overcrowded young offenders institution in 2007, and its reports
on the shortcomings of the Brazilian criminal justice system have become
required reading for those interested in penal reform here.
Conectas has coupled this work in Brazil with what it describes as a
programme to build "the influence and impact of a new generation of Global
South human rights defenders". Through sharing information between human
rights practitioners and a colloquium of students and academics, it has
helped to create a vibrant network for the exchange of ideas and
campaigning actions. Much of its work is focused on the UN, although it
also lobbies on the human rights and environmental debates surrounding the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), where Brazil plays an influential role.
Conectas and MSF Brasil are part of a trend towards an increasingly
assertive and internationalist civil society in the developing world.
Through their links with similar organisations in Asia and Africa, they are
helping to challenge the dominant discourse on human rights, which often
regards a set of pre-packaged western liberal values as being ready for
export.
But in universalising the debate about issues such as UN reform and the
"responsibility to protect" doctrine, they are also helping to build a
broader global understanding of them. It is the countries of the south who
have borne the brunt of the humanitarian crises, conflicts and large-scale
human rights violations of recent years, yet those in the north that have
responsible for framing the international responses. It is fairly obvious
whose voice has been missing in the debate up to now.
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MoveAnyMountain's profile picture MoveAnyMountain
20 Aug 09, 9:26am (about 20 hours ago)
The problem with this article is the massive big hole in the centre
of it.
It is nice that Third World NGOs are "challeng[ing] the dominant
discourse on human rights" but Conor Foley does not come up with one single
smidgen of a hint or suggestion of what this might be.
I know of no First World NGOs who think war crimes, North Korea or
brutal children's prisons are hunky dory. In fact I can't think of one that
wouldn't complain about all three.
So what does this challenge consist of?
MoveAnyMountain's profile picture MoveAnyMountain
20 Aug 09, 9:30am (about 20 hours ago)
It is the countries of the south who have borne the brunt of the
humanitarian crises, conflicts and large-scale human rights violations of
recent years, yet those in the north that have responsible for framing the
international responses. It is fairly obvious whose voice has been missing
in the debate up to now.
So the people of the South have largely suffered under dysfunctional,
corrupt and incompetent Governents, while the people of the North have been
quietly going about their business living in tolerant, peaceful, free,
prosperous liberal democracies. Naturally it is the Govenrments of the
South the world should be turning to for lessons in how to live a good
life. The Swedes? What would they know? Challenge that dominant discourse -
demand Uganada-style human rights today.
Let me suggest a basic rule in responding to human rights abuses -
don't listen to anyone from a country where the Foreign Minister is old
enough to remember being tortured by his own Government. Try the Norwegians
instead.
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Anglophobia's profile picture Anglophobia
20 Aug 09, 9:48am (about 20 hours ago)
Increasingly, human rights organisations in Brazil are
challenging pre-packaged doctrines of western liberal values
Thank goodness that East Asian countries like Brazil are standing up
against the west at last.
And thank goodness that countries that abuse human rights a lot
finally feel comfortable lecturing countries that abuse them a little.
As usual, Conor Foley is on the cutting-edge of humanitarianism,
where to be moral a Briton must start by despising himself.
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Hooloovoo's profile picture Hooloovoo
20 Aug 09, 9:52am (about 19 hours ago)
Anglophobia said it all for me
I mean, what have *holds nose* western liberal values ever done for
anyone?
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masterislove's profile picture masterislove
20 Aug 09, 10:03am (about 19 hours ago)
Is Brazil not western? I thought they were all Spanish.
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sarka's profile picture sarka
20 Aug 09, 10:05am (about 19 hours ago)
Interesting article despite the totally misleading header.
Obviously there should be as much local input to aid projects as
possible anywhere in the developing world so that the whole thing does not
look to critics just like a roving western "industry" with a hidden agenda.
Obviously it's fine and useful for organisations like those you mention to
link up with others in "the south".
But I'll still second MaM in asking for more specific detail on what
is wrong with the western idea, or discourse, or whatever of human rights.
Surely some of this is just a matter of manners not principles. I.e. it may
be counterproductive for a foreign aid organisation to crash around like a
bull in a chinashop talking down to "natives", being know-it-all, not
taking advice and so irritating locals and not adopting the most effective
strategies for the local conditions - but this has nothing to do with the
principles as such, does it?
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JorgeyBorgey's profile picture JorgeyBorgey
20 Aug 09, 10:22am (about 19 hours ago)
Maybe it's me, but does this article actually say anything? It reads
like the liberal-human rights equlivant of business-speak.
There is no content to it, just a bunch of finger wagging, and gentle
patting on the back. How about you re-write it to make more sense? I've
read both Lacan and Hegel, and they made more sense, ardous writing style -
but they were intellectually heavy, compared with this light-weight trite.
All I can make sense is: human rights and medical care - good.
Without actually analysing what this actually means.
Human rights seem to be whatever people want it to mean, whether it's
someone genuinely trying to stop police intimidation, to some hook-handed
hatefilled bastard trying to avoid what's he deserving, to mothers
complaining about healthy school meals. It is both livelihood for lawyers,
and politics for the feeble.
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Yanpol's profile picture Yanpol
20 Aug 09, 10:58am (about 18 hours ago)
they are helping to challenge the dominant discourse on human
rights, which often regards a set of pre-packaged western liberal values as
being ready for export
Conor, I think you're making a common mistake here.
Human rights are not western. They have to be regarded as universal,
or they'd lose their raison d'etre. The point of the UDHR is that the
states commit themselves to enshrine those rights in the statute book and
make their best to enforce them. But states are like people, they don't
usually hold to their promises.
The Commission that drafted the UDHR had representatives from the
five continents.
Australia,
Europe: Belgium, Byelorussia, France, UK, USSR, Yugoslavia,
the Americas: Chile, Panama, USA, Uruguay
Africa: Egypt
Asia: China, India, Iran, Lebanon, Philippines.
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Yanpol's profile picture Yanpol
20 Aug 09, 11:01am (about 18 hours ago)
By the way,
The words "western" and "liberal" are put together with "human
rights" only by those who want to undermine them. Authoritarian regimes
claim that they are western, and thus a foreign import that doesn't belong
in their local culture, because then they don't feel compelled to respect
them. In Latin American countries like Brazil, they were often sneered by
right-wing colonels and generals as "a Jewish Marxist European" conspiracy.
In the US, the UN or any International Court of Human Rights are criticized
as Anti-American by those who don't want to comply with them. It's a normal
tactic. If you want to appeal to the masses in your domestic context,
there's nothing like accusing your opponent of being a "strange/foreign
influence"
Wishy-washy post modernist pseudo-intellectuals use the same tactics
when they talk about Western values, as if the "brownies" didn't deserve to
have their rights to life, free speech, freedom of religion and from
religion, etc. respected.
Imperialist might use that tactic to justify their foreign
adventures, too. But then do little to make those rights respected among
the populations whose countries they invade (see e.g. Afghan constitution).
Organizations that defend human rights exist in all countries. Their
members are local people who want their fellow citizens to be treated with
dignity. It's the enemies of those human rights supporters who accuse them
of being "foreign agents".
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JOHNQPUBLIC's profile picture JOHNQPUBLIC
20 Aug 09, 12:16pm (about 17 hours ago)
Its not you JORGEY, although beautifully written the content of this
article approximates zero.
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Teacup's profile picture Teacup
20 Aug 09, 12:18pm (about 17 hours ago)
Hi Yanpol,
This discussion reminds me that surrounding domestic violence. Is it
something a family has to deal with by itself (translation, the woman has
to put up with beatings) or do outsiders intervene.
As a woman whose self-defence skills are pathetically feeble , I
would normally opt for the latter. The trouble is that when one intervenes,
all too often the abuser and victim gang up on the person who tries to
help.
I suppose that the same logic holds true for a nation where human
rights are abused (including my own). We actually need to sort things out,
but resent it when it comes from outside.
I am not saying that this is a good thing, I don't think so at all,
but it seems to be human nature.
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conorfoley's profile picture conorfoley
20 Aug 09, 12:23pm (about 17 hours ago)
Contributor Contributor
I think the headline and standfirst are a bit misleading here - and
have rather skewed the debate in the comments so far.
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Hooloovoo's profile picture Hooloovoo
20 Aug 09, 12:24pm (about 17 hours ago)
Teacup - very true, and such a conundrum. Helping draws so much
resentment and often we mess things up, but doing nothing seems so lazy and
callous
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Teacup's profile picture Teacup
20 Aug 09, 1:13pm (about 16 hours ago)
Connorfoley,
To be sure that I haven't misunderstand you, the gist is that
citizens of developing countries are trying to ensure that their
governments ensure civil rights for their own people. Where there are
abuses they are trying to ensure that these are corrected. A home-grown
activism rather than one imposed by "the west".
Correct me if I have mis-understood.
Hooloovoo,
"Lazy and callous" just about sums it up. On the other hand, when one
tries and is rebuffed, the result is anger and frustration. I have no
answer or solution to this.
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Yanpol's profile picture Yanpol
20 Aug 09, 1:36pm (about 16 hours ago)
Hi Teacup,
I agree, but the situation you talk about is about enforcement of
rights, not about their nature. Whether third parties have to intervene to
enforce the rights enshrined in the statue book is one thing, whether those
values are universal or merely "western" is another. The fact is that Human
Rights have been regarded as universal by people from the four corners of
the globe, and attacked as foreign meddling by authoritarian of all hues in
every single country (look how the American right opposes an international
court), even when the advocates of those rights were local people.
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conorfoley's profile picture conorfoley
20 Aug 09, 2:33pm (about 15 hours ago)
Contributor Contributor
Teacup: yes you are quite right.
In as much as Brazilian NGOs are 'challenging western assumption' I
simply mean that the dominant discourse on human rights is not the only one
(for example, Brazil's constitution enshrines economic, social and cultural
rights, which, whatever you think of the idea, involves a quite different
approach to the way that the issue is addressed in countries such as the
United States).
The article also makes the point that many people in the 'west' or
'north' seem to assume that the debate about 'interventionism' solely
revolves around what they think of the issue (a prejudice reflected in the
way that this article was headlined and summarised) whereas it is actually
something that people in the 'south' have much more of a stake in.
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Teacup's profile picture Teacup
20 Aug 09, 2:52pm (about 15 hours ago)
True, O Yanpol, live forever!
Since we are all human, I agree that our rights would be applicable
to all human beings. The point Connor is making is that these campaigns are
coming from within the poorer countries themselves and is therefore more
acceptable that being lectured to by rich people far away.
It seems to me that one needs a certain level of, I would not say
wealth, but economic sufficiency to take an interest in human rights. Very
poor people wouldn't be bothered by how well their diet is balanced, since
their primary aim would be to ensure that their families get a sufficient
quantity of food. To worry about quality of food is a luxury that only
those who don't have to worry about quantity have.
I was quite taken by surprise at the recent decriminalisation of
homosexuality in India. I am glad it has happened, but I didn't think that
the country would accept it. I am pleasantly surprised.
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conorfoley's profile picture conorfoley
20 Aug 09, 3:29pm (about 14 hours ago)
Contributor Contributor
Teacup: It would be good if CiF could find someone to blog from India.
I remember I got a very amazed reaction when I wrote about gays in
the Brazilian military a couple of years ago, but gay rights is such a
mainstream issue (largest Pride marches in the world, etc.) that I had not
realised it would be controversial. Most of the comments did come from
Yankees as I remember and they are rather backward and primitive on this
issue I suppose.
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Yanpol's profile picture Yanpol
20 Aug 09, 4:03pm (about 13 hours ago)
Hi Conor,
My trouble with your distinction is that it looks as if you were
talking about blocks. North/West, South/Third world. I'd rather say it's a
conflict that exists within each society, and the appeal to "western"
distinctiveness only muddles our understanding of what human rights are.
Brazil is part of the west... to some extent more so than modern
Greece.
OK, the topic is interesting, but reading my posts, I see this is not
my best day... I'm off... it's bloody hot over here (Deutschland).
Teacup... thanks for the good wishes... but I'm no Gilgamesh =)
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Teacup's profile picture Teacup
20 Aug 09, 4:52pm (about 13 hours ago)
Connor,
There are bloggers from India on CiF, or perhaps they are people of
Indian origin now resident in Britain Pankaj Misra (I am sure he is
Indian), Anindita Sengupta and Sriram Karirri for starters
Has the US military repudiated its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy?
In my own ethno-religious society, there has a been sort of flowering
of people who have retired taking up volunteer work to set up schools and
so for tribals, handicapped people and the elderly. I don't remember this
happening in my grandparent's time, but certainly my parents and their
contemporaries are deeply involved.
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stevejones123's profile picture stevejones123
20 Aug 09, 5:34pm (about 12 hours ago)
Pankaj Mishrah is one of the three or four leading writers in English
in India, and by far the best writer on Cif.
He did state he was in the UK in his last piece, but it may well have
been simply on holiday. He's been writing for years for the New York Review
of Books.
There are of course plenty of people who live between the West and
India; Priyamvada Gopal who is a lecturer in English at Cambridge also
often contributes to Outlook India, and there are others.
There is the problem with British newspapers that they seem to think
knowledge comes with skin color, so you'll get Indians born in Peckham or
Leicester deputed to write about India, even though they have rarely lived
there, and basically have a totally western upbringing.
Another trap all of us tend to fall for is that of presuming because
somebody comes from a country and lives there his views are necessarily
more accurate than those of others. We'd never dream of accepting one
authority to write about England, or even dream that being English born and
bred makes one the authorative voice on all things English, yet we tend to
do this with bloggers from India, or China, or Brazil, or Africa.
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stevejones123's profile picture stevejones123
20 Aug 09, 5:36pm (about 12 hours ago)
I was quite taken by surprise at the recent decriminalisation of
homosexuality in India. I am glad it has happened, but I didn't think that
the country would accept it. I am pleasantly surprised.
The decision has been appealed by an astrologer, so it is much too
soon to start throwing the caps in the air.
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PyrrhoHuxley's profile picture PyrrhoHuxley
20 Aug 09, 6:14pm (about 11 hours ago)
@ Anglophobia "Thank goodness that East Asian countries like Brazil
are standing up against the west at last."
South America - Brazil is in South America
@ masterislove's "Is Brazil not western? I thought they were all
Spanish"
Portuguese - Brazil was in the Portuguese empire. They speak
Portuguese there. Haven't you read any Paolo Coelo? "Eleven Minutes" has
some interesting scenes...
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Yanpol's profile picture Yanpol
20 Aug 09, 7:23pm (about 10 hours ago)
Sorry, Pyrrho,
Coelho? Are you sure?
If you want to read something good from Brazil, go for Jorge Amado.
Grabiela, cravo e canela (Gabriela, clove and cinnamon) is a masterpiece.
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PyrrhoHuxley's profile picture PyrrhoHuxley
20 Aug 09, 7:40pm (about 10 hours ago)
@ Yanpol "Sorry, Pyrrho, Coelho? Are you sure? If you want to read
something good from Brazil, go for Jorge Amado. Grabiela, cravo e canela
(Gabriela, clove and cinnamon) is a masterpiece."
*laughing* OK - I will. Thanks for the advice. I like Coelo -
something about his stories touches my heart and I'm often very moved by
them.
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MoveAnyMountain's profile picture MoveAnyMountain
20 Aug 09, 8:18pm (about 9 hours ago)
conorfoley
(for example, Brazil's constitution enshrines economic, social
and cultural rights, which, whatever you think of the idea, involves a
quite different approach to the way that the issue is addressed in
countries such as the United States).
A different approach? Well I suppose. After all, people in the United
States have economic, social and cultural rights. The people of Brazil have
some fine words on a piece of paper. A very different approach.
The article also makes the point that many people in the 'west'
or 'north' seem to assume that the debate about 'interventionism' solely
revolves around what they think of the issue (a prejudice reflected in the
way that this article was headlined and summarised) whereas it is actually
something that people in the 'south' have much more of a stake in.
Well yes. The victims of Government oppression often do. The question
is whether the different approach taken by the Governments of the Third
World actually help. The Chinese for instance say that economic, social and
cultural rights are more important than things like democracy so a One
Party dictatorship is fine as long as there is economic growth. I think
there is something to be said for that but I wonder what the people of
China think. Many Muslim countries have signed up to the absurd Cairo
document which rejects Universal Human Rights in favour of more Islamic
ones. Not a lot of threats to Governments in that. So how does the Third
World's approach, in so far as it exists, differ and is it effective? Seem
reasonable question to me. Take your first two paragraphs:
Shortly before his death in Baghdad six years ago, the Brazilian
UN chief Sergio Vieira de Mello gave an interview in which he warned that
the US occupation forces were trampling on Iraq's dignity and wounding its
national pride. .... His own family had suffered under Brazil's military
dictatorship and – like most progressives of his generation – he did
not accept the view that what governments did to their own people was a
prerogative of national sovereignty.
So SVdM did not like foreign occupation and yet he did not think that
Governments could do what he liked? There is an obvious contradiction
there. What did he think was an appropriate response to Government crimes -
a stiff note from the Embassy?
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BrasilMercosul's profile picture BrasilMercosul
21 Aug 09, 1:49am (about 4 hours ago)
Excellent article, Mr Foley . Please carry on, you are doing an
excellent job covering the real Brazil with all its contradictions .
Somehow, Brazil is a "new west" , a sample of the "west' which will
be, more mixed and full of blend, I believe and hope. Ideologies included .
Less arrogant . Humbler .