And this is where the problem emerges in the context of the human rights discourse. Many human rights advocates, particularly in the Philippines, are still trapped in the classical liberal imagination that only the state can violate citizens’ rights. Devoid of a radical political ideology that can be associated with each of these movements, human rights activism becomes the province of the elite and the professional human rights workers in civil society, in agencies like the CHR, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. What is bred by this is a culture that admonishes people to respect human rights, even as the discourse on human rights does not consider abuses by ordinary peoples as under its purview. It’s about time that human rights activism take a leaf from the feminist mantra that women’s rights are human rights, regardless of who the agent of violence is.

Source: Manila Times July 19, 2017 16:30 UTC