A big thank you for all the submissions and ideas that we received for our #HumanRightsParty call!

The challenge of thinking as a human rights party invoked a wide range of suggestions and read like a ‘101 on how to create a better world’. We found similarities and diversity amoung the responses, along with personal stories and passionate pleas.

The haste was apparent and the number of things to do abundant in a world that seems to be collecting problems faster than it can solve them. Nevertheless, it was refreshing to encounter a healthy dose of relativism by way of a general understanding that human rights can be messy and imperfect. Some even suggested that it should be. While doing their best to provide ideas to improve the lives of all, many contributers were attent of the dangers of being overly rigid and even warned against forms of ideological imperialism.

Altogether, a thorough collection of ideas, gripes, and dreams have formed a broad framework to help guide the direction and policies of a #HumanRightsParty.

Hereunder some reflections as we journey through the responses for our Hague Hacks 2020 #HumanRightsParty call.

I think it is fair to say that we all want a government that we can trust. Key requisites for this were an honest (human rights-based) motivation and transparency. The responses we received overwhelmingly called for a kinder capitalism that sustains and supports, instead of exploits and divides our liveable planet and its diversity of inhabitants.

A majority were decidedly positive that a human rights party could help to achieve this, although reservations were expressed about how this could best be done. Many felt that most would be achieved as the ruling party, or even as a pan-country party, where as others saw human rights as the constant arbitrator nested in the opposition, or as an accountability mechanism working alongside national institutions.

A returning and cross-issue concern was the rarety of ‘Prima Facie‘, or ‘On Face Value‘ which is when someone’s word is accepted as correct until proven otherwise. This alluded to difficulties in dealing with legal procedures and administrative systems (often decentralised) that increasingly seem to function on the premise of guilty until proven innocent instead. As such, Prima Facie is a fundamental philisophical building-block for the approach of #HumanRightsParty.

The responses were passionate yet also sensitive about their human rights proposals, with many keen to avoid potentially hypocritical situations created by rigid definitions of universalism. Particularly with regard to individual rights, alternative interpretations such as cultural sensitivity and relevatism were embraced as a crucial part of their implementation.

Naunce woven into the passionate pleas and urgent calls-to-action suggested a considerate philosophy of slow thinking and self-reflection amoung the responders.

Many saw their solutions as crucial movements in the right direction while recognising the intrinsic flaws of a one-size-fits-all approach. Our responders felt it important to acknowledge conflicting rights, to adopt a cultural, scientific, and evidence-based approach, and that a ‘happy chaos’ may sometimes the best outcome that should be strived for.

The repsonders felt that it was time to reserve more of our global capital to encourage and sustain the human rights-orientated goals of our society. These goals should hold true at both national and international levels, and be embodied by a consistent foreign policy that revolves around accountability for human rights transgressions.

One of the most pressing human rights challenges remains the international community’s struggle to honour the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries (UDHR Article 14). The right to life and liberty, and freedom from fear are as fundamental as human rights get.

The rules and guidelines for this have been in place for over half a decade, yet people fleeing war and persecution are often ignored with few viable options at their disposal.

Our responders overwhelmingly supported a more generous refugee and asylum policy, some even insisting on no maximum to the number of refugees permitted into a country. Information, awareness, and education campaigns where suggested as a means to counter dehumanising and racist narratives and to help improve public support for immigration.

A causal link was established between human rights violations and insecurity and inequality in today’s global society. Calls to reduce social and economic inequality more often than not placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of politicians, large corporations, and heads of industry. Suggestions on how to curb this worrying trend varied from fairer tax systems to finally recognising and abolishing modern day slavery.

“… capitalism turns out to be amazingly ineffective in watching out for people” (Trebor Scholz 2017).

In his ‘Elements of the Philosophy of Right,’ Georg Hegel proclaimed that within a realm strictly governed by economic incentives—void of institutional market barriers— responsibility and charity are too volatile to structurally persist.

#HumanRightsParty considers the need to establish effective market barriers as paramount to addressing the rising insecurity and inequality that finds itself at the root of much human conflict and division.

Many responders called for the direct accountability of industries that have a negative impact on human rights and the environment.

Supply-chain transparency, fair trade, and immediate action to halt climate change found their way onto most wishlists that sought to tackle modern-day slavery and environmental destruction.

To enforce meaningful change, all trade supply-chains should be transparent and respectful of fundamental human rights, with legislation and monitoring mechanisms on the international level. Not dissimilar to the EU but with more consistency and sharper teeth. Corporations, CEOs, or politicians who through action or inaction fail to enforce or repsect an honest supply chain, should not enjoy impunity but be held accountable.

It is estimated that currently one person per second is forced to relocate due to climate change. The palpable urgency behind this crisis led to consensus that environmental destruction should be brought under ‘crimes against humanity’. A human rights party should focus on an immediate halt to environmental destruction and develop a fair vision to share the burden of cost.

Manipulating the market to achieve environmental goals was considered crucial as no one believed an entirely free market economy would realise this on its own.

Although changes in individual behaviour were welcomed to help reduce climate impact, the bulk of responsibility was attributed to political parties and industries, those that have their powerbase and wealth to thank by maintaining the status quo. These are the decision makers and influencers who ultimately decide which choices we are able to make.

Tackling discrimination was high on the agenda, with genuine concerns about increasing conservatism and right-wing extremism. A ‘bubblelicious’ social media with its polarising success model via engagement algorithms received its fair share of accusations in under-representing constructive dialogue towards understanding.

Some felt that such business models based on unregulated and polarising algorithms, coupled with a worrying trend of global insecurity and inequality, were complicit mechanisms in an escalation of anger and ‘rhetorics of war’ in debates and had worrying de-humanising repercussions with respect to discrimination.

Questions were also raised about the responsibility of social media companies with regard to their position as modern institutions. Social media monopolies can no longer be simply seen as offering commercial products. Their embedded function in societies around the world has made them an unmissable public utility for communication and survival in the modern age.

As such, there were conflicting calls for internet freedom and regulation, with several responders acknowledgeding a dichotomy between its function as a platform for freedom of speech, and as a catalyst for discrimination.

Nevertheless, there was an evident need to regulate social media companies in their role as champions of the free word and as institutions.

“Acknowledging a world with individual differences is not made easier with divided social classes that do not mingle nor seek to understand each other”. That evolving class structures in the modern market do little to reduce these divisions was widely shared. That ‘cultural discriminatory programming’ is part of our decision-making process and always present in these class structures, was also widely acknowledged.

Bridging gaps between progressive and conservative attitudes has always been an awkward process, often requiring conservative groups to develop new attitudes and responses in order to keep up with the social changes of the period. In the wake of WOKE and its call for awareness and (cultural) self-reflection, we are reliving a human mechanism that continues to play out through the ages, albeit with new rules and societal catalysors.

Any such alignment of attitudes or half-way happy meeting-points are by no means innevitable, and with the information bubbles and polarising workings of social media it will take a concerted effort by any political party to address this.

This brings us to another reoccuring theme amoung our #HumanRightsParty responses; diversity and the decolonisation of ‘Western’ attitudes towards ‘non-Western’ or ‘non-Christian’ backgrounds.

Decolonisation challenges all kinds of normative associations, and welcomes a new plurality of perspectives and respect for diverse identities.

Both diversity and decolonisation represent a break with the myth of objectivity. That a single narrative can pass as an absolute truth is increasingly acknowledged today as a position of ignorance or arrogance.

Moreover, decades of research in the social sciences have shown that any self-perceived notions of objectivity that we may have, invariably fall victim to the subconscious mechanisms of discrimination that we all inherit whether we like it or not.

This insight is about progress that has been made in our understanding of human behaviour, and it is once again the lot of conservative theories to rewrite themselves in order to catch up.

It would appear that the modern age of embracing and respecting multiple view-points conflicts with a colonial history that is embedded with a culturally heightened sense of singularity.

Many solutions found their counterpart in the educational curriculum. As is often the case, education is considered an essential route to solving today’s problems tomorrow.

According to our #HumanRightsParty responses there are several aspects of school curricula that require revision. This includes new lesson materials to broaden awareness of the human rights and environmental challenges that we face today.

While acknowledging the role of education in disseminating shared information and encouraging new attitudes, it is worth taking heed of concerns that schools are becoming increasingly stressful environments. This is backed up by recent research claiming that almost half of students are stressed by school pressures.

With the large amount of suggested reforms, it is prudent to be cautious of the effects of ‘mission creep’ in schools; where work-loads steadily increase to meet rising competitive norms, and new requirements are eagerly and regularly added in the hope of creating retrospective solution-makers amoung the next generation.

Amoung the rights that require protection is the right to healthcare. Like housing, the enjoyment of this right is very unequal.

Familiar mechanisms that drive societal inequality also create a growing divide in the opportunities for healthcare. Even those with health insurance are increasingly exposed to higher health costs and expenses that can quickly turn into debt. We received suggestions for free healthcare, compulsory health insurance, and hybrid versions of financing a health system based on equity.

Text and illustrations: Steen Bentall