Are human rights practices an effective way to produce social change?

By Isabella Bwiire

It is not easy to answer the question of whether human rights are still an effective way to bring about social change, because it requires undertaking a more extensive and comprehensive analysis of their role in society.

Nevertheless, without drifting into a reductionist view, we can say that they are, in themselves, an indicator of social change.

It is important to remember that human rights, besides being a legal category, must be understood as a social construction that has been developed and demonstrated in many different ways throughout human history. Although it wasn’t until the recent second half of the last century that they were recognised as a model of modern democracy.

This explains why it is possible to speak of a democratic society once human rights are regulated and fully in effect. Through this lens, the great challenge of our time is making these rights a reality for everyone.

We must recall that a comprehensive vision of human rights was first mentioned in 1993 with the Vienna Declaration and program of action which established that they are universal, indivisible interdependent and interrelated.

This means that the violation of any one right impacts the others, leading to the impairment or restriction exercise of human rights depends on the needs of each person and on the context, because the rights are not exercised in the same way, nor at the same time. In other words, the equality of human rights lies in human dignity, which goes beyond the regulatory framework.

Every state must identify the deficits that exist in the enjoyment and exercise of every person’s human rights as well as design and apply differentiated policies based on the understanding that there are different demands and problems within society. Human rights are an ethical –political demand for policy makers as well as a fundamental indicator to help assess the administration and democratic governance of the state.

Today the public discusses human rights as part of the political debate which was impossible just a couple of years ago likewise in colleges a case in point is the recent Inter- University debate that convened over twenty (30) Universities in Uganda. This new reality represents a new opinionated triumph as well as challenge to set aside the authoritarian career which is still not fully eradicated.

Despite all these complex dynamics in the human rights arena today, the most significant moment is when different social actors appropriate human rights as a tool for social, political, and cultural changes.

The writer works with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI)