Move away from terminologies – Human Rights Commissioner

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE, MUMBAI, INDIA

Nomathemba Niseni, a human rights commissioner in Zimbabwe, has charged participants at a Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India, to desist from using terminologies which suggest the poor and needy do not know what is wrong with them or what they need.

We portray with terminologies such as diagnosis that people do not know what is wrong with them – it is doctors who diagnose, she told the about 400 participants at a plenary session Wednesday, October 12, 2011.

Sharing her perspective on the topic: “The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation” with the sub-theme: “What difference if any, does the human right to sanitation make for poor people”, she said, “People cannot hold their governments accountable for inclusive designs and inclusive monitoring but “you can hold your governments for the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states that the child must be given water and sanitation.”

“You can’t say inclusive design but you can say the Convention on Disability. These are the issues we must emphasize, because these are frameworks within which the governments can be held accountable,” she charged the participants from over 70 countries who were at the forum.

She emphasized that “Once we adopt the UN rights-based approach to programming, it will do a lot more for the poor,” saying, “So I recommend that as we leave this forum, we start with words like right holders and duty bearers.”

If you are a right holder it is your right to be looked after. After all governments have that responsibility to take care of their citizens, Nomathemba Niseni, one of nine human rights commissioners of Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Commission and also Executive Director, Institute of Water and Sanitation Development, Zimbabwe, explained.

Drawing analogies from the relationship between a husband and wife, stressing that it is the man’s duty to take care of the wife whereas it is the wife’s right to be taken care of and provided for, the Human Rights Commissioner said the rights in this case are social and economic and not civil rights as most people think when rights are talked about.

Also differentiating between charity and rights, Noma Niseni told the gathering to insist on using terms such as right holders for the poor, who may not be as privileged as they were and hold accountable the duty bearers (government), by checking the Acts and Conventions they have signed and agreed to.

Before sharing her perspective, Noma Niseni drew thunderous applause from participants with the following quote: “In life, there are two things: either you are born rich or you are born poor. If you are born rich you are lucky, but if you are born poor there are two things. Either you are given donations and gifts or become the subject for discussions at international fora…”