The Human Rights Industry - Softcover

De Zayas, Alfred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1949762521 ISBN 13: 9781949762525

Publisher: Clarity Press, 2023

Synopsis

The promotion and protection of human rights is a pillar of the United Nations, enshrined in the Charter, the international bill of rights, elaborated in General Assembly resolutions and declarations, and buttressed by monitoring mechanisms and regional human rights courts. After WWII the world demanded respect for collective and individual rights and freedoms, including the right to live in peace, i.e.freedom from fear and want, the right to food, water, health, shelter, belief and expression. Human dignity was understood as an inalienable entitlement of every member of the human family, rights that were juridical. justiciable and enforceable.
It did not take long for these noble goals to be politicized. Many States systematically weaponize human rights for geopolitics. A “human rights industry” operates at all levels and instrumentalizes values with the complicity of diplomats, politicians, non-governmental organizations, academics, journalists, -independent experts-, rapporteurs, secretariat members and media conglomerates.
This book addresses the decisive role played by major governmental and private agencies such as the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID, elite think tanks, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, World Economic Forum and others in shaping a “perception” of human rights that primarily serves geopolitical interests. Major non-governmental organizations that once were truly independent, including Amnesty and HRW, today belong to the leading narrative managers.
The voting record in the General Assembly and Human Rights Council by China, Russia, the United States, Canada, UK, EU, OIC, Group of 77, Non-aligned movement, etc. documents who supports and who subverts human rights. Why do the Council and NGOs practice double-standards and allow States to brazenly lie, blackmail and bully weaker States? Under the pretext of providing humanitarian assistance, lethal military interventions are conducted, e.g. in Libya, emblematic example of how the noble idea of the “responsibility to protect” was corrupted. Propagandistic use of the words “human rights”, “democracy”, “rule of law”, "freedom" - demean them and subvert rational discourse.
Drawing on more than four decades of working in the field of human rights as UN staff member, rapporteur, consultant, professor and NGO president, Alfred de Zayas examines how the tools of implementation of human rights serve to entrench political narratives promoted by the “industry”.

About this title

About the Author

Alfred de Zayas is a former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order (2012-18), former senior lawyer with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee and Chief of the Petitions Department (registrar). Zayas grew up in Chicago, holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D., modern history from University of Gottingen, Fulbright Graduate Fellow in Germany. Retired member of the New York and Florida Bar, author of 9 books and more than 200 scholarly articles. He lives in Geneva.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

It is worth remembering that the UN Division of Human Rights under Theo van Boven advanced a holistic view of all human rights―civil, cultural, economic, political, and social―which are acknowledged as universal, interdependent, and interrelated. When in 1980 Theo hired me, I hoped to make a difference, to help advance standard-setting, monitoring and implementation. We had a small office with a committed staff whose vocation was not merely to apply band-aids on victims’ wounds, but to uncover the root causes of their problems, the historical inequities and inequalities. In our idealism we wanted to develop strategies to prevent violations, provide recourse and remedies to victims, and advisory services and technical assistance to States.
It did not take long to understand how the game was going to be played. Indeed, many States soon politicized human rights and used them as weapons in their hostile geopolitical arsenal. Diplomats, politicians, non-governmental organizations, academics, journalists, secretariat members, and even “independent experts” preferred to engage in “naming and shaming” rather than promoting dialogue and formulating constructive solutions. Human rights gradually became a secular “religion”, promptly hijacked by lobbies and special interests which subverted core values, applied double standards, weaponized values against rivals.
Today the donors dictate the agenda, and the mainstream media suppresses legitimate dissent and non-conforming narratives, even reports from UN rapporteurs whose findings do not serve the desired political purposes. This is also the result of lack in strong and committed leadership in the human rights institutions.
Today, Orwellian policies are justified under the banner of human rights, such as the unilateral application of coercive measures that kill tens of thousands of innocent people every year worldwide―a form of State terrorism and a crime against humanity as prohibited by article 7 of the Statute of Rome.
Under the pretext of providing “humanitarian assistance”, lethal military interventions are conducted, e.g., in Libya, an emblematic example of how the noble idea of the “responsibility to protect” was corrupted.
The epistemological onslaught sells interventionism and enforced regime change as “colour revolutions”, which are not home-grown but serve the interests of foreign players and are often prepared by foreign NGOs and intelligence services through overt and covert activities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarity Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1949762521
• ISBN 13: 9781949762525
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350