Developing Rights? Relating Discourse to Context and Practice

• Published in: IDS bulletin (Brighton. 1984) Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Pettit, Jethro, Wheeler, Joanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2005
• Subjects: Development Policy; Development Strategies; Discourse; Human Rights; Social Change
• ISSN: 0265-5012; 1759-5436
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2005.tb00173.x

As increasing attention is focused on rights-based approaches, there is the danger that a rights-based agenda will become narrowed into a top-down, donor-led trend. On the other hand, much of the current focus on rights-based approaches derives struggles for rights that are rooted both historically & contextually in experiences of exclusion & marginalisation, & have the capacity to contribute positively to change. Drawing on the range of contributions to this IDS Bulletin, the introduction highlights some of the key lessons about using rights effectively. First, important historical & geopolitical forces are behind the timing & framing of the rights-based discourse, which bear careful examination. Second, the contexts of actual struggles are crucial to understanding how rights become substantive. Third, the process of making rights real is a political one, rather than a technical or procedural one, because it entails confronting the structural inequalities that underlie the negation of rights. Understanding how rights can shift power relations is essential to realising the potential of rights to contribute to change. Finally, a rights perspective, when understood within particular contexts & linked to strategies to shift power relations, has the potential to confront some of the most prominent assumptions of development orthodoxy & emerging agendas of security. References. Adapted from the source document.