Reviving Social Rights in Latin America: The Potential Role of International Human Rights Documents
In: Citizenship studies, Band 4, Heft 2, S. 189-206
ISSN: 1362-1025
Social rights are essential to our ability to fully participate in society. In Latin America, these rights are increasingly marginalized as neoliberal policies take hold. At the same time, the related concepts of civil society & social capital are often incorporated into strategies aimed at alleviating the problems of the Latin American poor. It is expected that, by strengthening people's civic capacity, their sense of mutual responsibility & ability to self-provide certain services will be enhanced. In the context of the current policy environment, however, such strategies are unlikely to be entirely successful. Lack of economic resources may preclude the Latin American poor from effective civic participation. More importantly, the promotion of civil society & social capital on the part of aid agencies & governments may represent an implicit threat to social rights, in as much as the organizations advocated are not likely to actively struggle for expansion of rights. Nevertheless, human rights documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & the Convention on the Rights of the Child provide a base upon which rights-based movements can be constructed. 40 References. Adapted from the source document.
