Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, 2007-08 Cogut Visiting Professor at Brown University, is the United Nations special rapporteur of Human Rights in Myanmar, and from 1995-2000 served in that capacity in Burundi. He is also the chairman of the UN Sub Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Geneva. Also a Professor, Pinheiro holds a Ph.D. in political science and a graduate degree in Sociology from the University of Paris. He has taught at Columbia University and Notre Dame University in the U.S., Oxford University in the U.K., and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. In addition to his scholarly work, Professor Pinheiro has focused much of his career on human rights.
Interview by Angélica Durán Martínez
Diálogos: The threats to Human Rights in Latin America are broad and diverse. The threats of militarized policing in Mexico, juvenile violence in Central America and the Caribbean, displacement in Colombia or the weakened rule of law in Venezuela are only some of these varied problems. What are the common challenges on human rights protection faced by the region? What are the areas of most particular concern?
Pinheiro: It is very important to understand violations to Human Rights to deal with regions or countries separately. Having said this, I think there are some common challenges. Of course the most pressing issue is the poverty that prevails in all the region, such as racial discrimination against indigenous people and Afro-latinos. Another common challenge is the bad functioning of the State and the weakness of the rule of law. The corruption of the State apparatuses and the weak accountability are also relevant problems.
Diálogos: One of the current paradoxes in human rights protection in Latin America and the Caribbean is that the inability of the State to protect citizens has nurtured requests from the population to militarize and implement hard hand measures to tackle increasing crime rates that can further curtail human rights. How can we advance an agenda of human rights protection is this context of skepticism in the population?
Pinheiro: There is not a recipe for the entire continent. I think that the consolidation of democracy is very precarious because, among several factors, governments tackled with the legacies of the dictatorships and military regimes. I am not just referring to the disappearances, the torture, the problems of the amnesty laws (I must say that happily in Argentina and Chile the judiciary has succeeded in by-passing those laws and are settling account with the torturers). What is shocking is that the state apparatuses and closed institutions, such as prisons, juvenile offenders’ centers, mentally ill people in asylums, schools, preserve authoritarian rule inside its walls. Thus, despite democracy, authoritarian practices continue unabated.
Diálogos: One of the major threats to human rights in the region derives from the persistence of sharp economic inequalities. Is it possible to improve human rights standards without a structural change in the economic organization of our societies?
Pinheiro: The population cannot expect economic development to protect their basic rights. Poverty cannot be invoked as a justification for not protecting human rights. A lot can be done in the present conditions. The “Bolsa familia,” regular allowances that 11 million families receive, and through the mothers, if their children are sent to school, is a good example of what can be done. On the other hand, stopping arbitrary executions by the police and stopping torture does not require special budgets. Of course income concentration must be pursued by any economic policy. Most of the countries that are poor will continue to be poor in the next decade, particularly with the aggravation of the financial trade crisis.
Diálogos: The progress in human rights in the region sometimes appears to be bleak, but what do you think are the main progresses we have achieved during the past five years?
Pinheiro: The end of dictatorships is a great achievement. Immense progresses in education and health have been made. Brazil has an exemplary program of distribution of retroviral drugs for people with HIV/ AIDS, for free. In many countries the judiciary and the public prosecutors’ office became much stronger with regards to the protection of the rights of the population. Despite the continuities that I mentioned the present landscape of Latin American societies is dramatically different. The continent has an active and dynamic human rights system of protection, with and Inter-American commission on Human Rights and an Inter-American court of Human Rights.
Diálogos: Do you think that international mechanisms such as the CICIG in Guatemala, which aims to investigate and prosecute members of clandestine illegal groups threatening human rights defenders and undermining the criminal justice system, can be successfully applied and extended to other countries?
Pinheiro: I think that it is a very promising initiative but I would be cautious in just replicating the same body for other countries. I think that it can inspire similar initiatives in other countries.
Diálogos: The world is about to face the change of the US Government and there is a sense that human rights agenda can become more prominent in US foreign policy. How do you think the change of government will influence human rights protection in Latin America and the Caribbean?
Pinheiro: I think that President-elect Obama, who has promised to eliminate all the provisions concerning torture and renditions of prisoners to be tortured in Third World countries, will contribute to restore the authority of the USA and of democracy to protect and promote human rights. I think that any initiative inside the United States that will reinforce the commitments of the USA with human rights will have a formidable significance for our continent. Even if in the specific foreign policies towards all countries change will be slower. But we have learned that we need to demand more from our own governments rather than expecting too much from the USA. Of course changes in the policies on Latin American migrants will have an extraordinary impact. The election for Obama is extremely meaningful in itself, for the values that he represents. It was a great moment on the lives of people all over the world who believe in democracy, human rights and overcoming racism. Obama in a certain way is also the Mandela of our time, in terms of the change of paradigm of politics that his election has meant.
Diálogos: Finally, your own experience is an example of bridging activism, academic work, and policy-making commitments. What are the main obstacles you have faced in this endeavor and what are the main advantages and satisfactions?
The population cannot expect economic development to protect their basic rights. Poverty cannot be invoked as a justification for not protecting human rights.
Pinheiro: I am lucky. I was able to mix as you say activism, academic work, policy, and some diplomacy. I learned a lot precisely because of that blend of kinds of action. I did not have to face too many obstacles. My main satisfaction is when I manage to contribute to freeing people from prison or joining forces with other people to confront manifestation of authoritarianism surviving under democratic regimes.
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[Note: Originally Published in Dialogos Magazine. Providence: CLACS, Brown University. 2009.]
Angélica Durán Martínez has a B.A. in Political Science from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, a M.A. in Latin American Studies from New York University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown University. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.