SSF Interview Series with Mark Frezzo
Shulamith Koenig
On behalf of Sociologists without Borders (SSF), Mark Frezzo interviewed Shula Koenig—founder and president of PDHRE, the People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning and recipient of the 2003 United Nations Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Human Rights. Designed to develop and advance pedagogies for human rights learning and dialogue relevant to people’s daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice, societal development and democracy,” PDHRE includes activists, community organizers, NGO representatives, UN officials, and scholars (PDHRE). Upon establishing PDHRE in 1988, Ms. Koenig worked with the UN Human Rights Center and the UN Commission on Human Rights, participated in the Vienna Human Rights Conference in 1993, and pushed tirelessly for the UN Decade of Human Rights Education (1994-2004). In recent years, Ms. Koenig and PDHRE have pursued the Human Rights Cities Program. Emphasizing popular participation in decision-making, a human rights city is “a community based on equality and nondiscrimination” .
Frezzo: Let’s begin with a few reflections on your work as a human rights educator. Interestingly enough, your writings and lectures reflect a taste for religious imagery. For example, you often use the term “evangelist” to characterize your role as an advocate of human rights. In addition, you often allude to the Bible and other sacred texts in demonstrating that the concept of human rights is rooted in a sense of dignity. Finally, in a manner characteristic of a “secular religion,” you offer a totalizing vision of human rights that encompasses morality, law, politics, social life, and culture. In a way, your reference to religion has the effect of de-emphasizing the role of the European Enlightenment in codifying and propagating human rights. Tell us more about your vision of human rights.
Koenig: As the psychologist Alfred Adler established, human culture is rooted in the desire for dignity and belonging. Notwithstanding their contributions to the canon of human rights and their occasional appeals to universality, the world’s major religions are by definition exclusionary. They impose conditions of belonging on their adherents. In contrast, the political ideology of human rights is intrinsically and irreducibly inclusive. By definition, all people are included in the framework of human rights. Since I was trained as an engineer and worked on water distribution and irrigation , I like water-related allegories. Human rights can be seen as the banks of a river. Life flows freely between the banks. In times of flooding, as the water levels rise, people strengthen the banks to protect themselves.
Frezzo: The image of levies as concretized human rights is especially poignant in light of the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans in 2005. In revealing the total erosion of the social compact, along with enduring inequalities of race, class, and gender, the disaster in New Orleans had the effect of inspiring sociologists to “go public,” so to speak, with their advocacy of human rights. Perhaps this will lead to greater collaboration among scholars, NGOs, movements, and community groups. This points to the mission of PDHRE—namely, the promotion of human rights education. What are the major principles of human rights education?
Koenig: In actuality, I prefer the term “learning” because it suggests an active participatory position, whereas the term “education” often suggests a passive one. In my work with PDHRE, I operate from the following premise: although all people are bearers of human rights, many people are not aware of their human rights. Thus, the purpose of PDHRE is to facilitate program that enables people to be aware of their human rights and own them as a powerful too for action. This has the effect of mobilizing people to empower themselves guided by the holisitic human rights framework..
Frezzo: This points to a profoundly historical and materialist conception of human rights. Your analysis reminds me of Micheline Ishay’s argument in The History of Human Rights (2004). In tracing the historical trajectory of human rights from ancient religions, through the Enlightenment revolutions of the 18th century, to the founding of the UN in 1945, all the way to our own chaotic period, Ishay attributes the expansion of human rights to the struggles of workers, women, marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and peoples in the global South. In struggling for inclusion, equality, and justice, these movements effectively expanded the scope of human rights. As a consequence, we now think in terms not only of first-generation rights to liberty, but also of second-generation rights to equality and third-generation rights to solidarity.
Koenig: This is quite true. But I prefer the term “mobilization” because it has a positive connotation, where as the term “struggle” often has a negative connotation to violation rather then to realization.
Frezzo: That makes sense to me. What’s most important is that you define human rights historically and relationally. Let’s return to the principles of human rights learning.
Koenig: Every person has a sense of justice. Every person desires dignity and belonging. Yet millions of people live and die without ever knowing that they are entitled to justice, dignity, and belonging which has been recognized by most countries around the world through the Human Rights Covenants and Convention they have ratified . They don’t realize that they are bearers of human rights. Programs in human rights learning are designed to make people aware of their human rights as a way of life. When people become aware of their human rights, they spontaneously take action. While it is important to take action to overcome human rights abuses, the learning process does not stop there. The next step is to think in terms of the realization of human rights whicn holds hope and positive promise if made relevant to people’s daily lives.
Frezzo: This reminds me of Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)—a book that has exerted tremendous influence on advocates of popular education, public sociology, nonviolent conflict resolution, and peace studies in the last 40 years. Published amidst an upsurge in social movement activity and a series of academic debates on national liberation and development in the Third World, Freire’s book has received renewed attention with the rise of the global justice movement and the academic debates on the post-colonial condition, alternative development, and global governance in the 21st century. In rejecting the conventional hierarchy between teacher and student, Freire offers a model of a participatory classroom. The primary goal of education is to facilitate critical thinking about power relations, injustice, and inequality, while encouraging the student to imagine an alternative world—as the slogan of the World Social Forum (WSF) suggests. An interesting connection: once the base of the WSF, and a pioneer in participatory planning, Porto Alegre, Brazil is also a human rights city. In any case, do you see a connection between human rights learning and the tradition of critical pedagogy?
Koenig: Absolutely. But I would like to backtrack and talk about the source of human rights violations. I truly believe that patriarchy is the reason for all human rights violations in the world. Needless to say, I recognize that this is a very controversial position. And I recognize that there are many forms of exploitation and exclusion in the world. But I am convinced that all forms of hierarchy derive from patriarchy—to produce racism and sexism where people exchange their equality for survival . This is encapsulated in the “erection syndrome” whicn demonstrates itself physically metaphorically to perform. This emulates a culture of fear that must move from the vertical to the horizontal through the learning of women and men about the human rights as a way of life. The concept of horizontality opens up human potential, choices, and possibilities. We have no other option.
Frezzo: That’s very interesting because the concept of horizontality figures prominently in the movements around the WSF. It is closely related to the principle of subsidiarity—the idea that decisions should be made by the people who stand to be most affected by them. And it is pleasant note on which to close this interview. Thank you for helping SSF to launch its think tank.
Koenig: Thank you. Let us remember that human rights is basically about two concerns : equality and non-discrimination. Learning how to assure genuine equality and overcome discrimination is what human rights is all about. Transforming the patriarchal order to a huamn rights system—a task we should all undertake despite the complications—will bring us closer to belonging in dignity in community with others.