I remember vividly a conversation I had while I was working in Zimbabwe during the time of Mugabe.
A human rights lawyer heading up a rights organisation was telling me about the many challenges they were facing: their offices were being raided, they were being arrested, they were being attacked. This had been going on for years.
She said resolutely: We will continue our work. And we will continue to use the legal structures to shine the light on the fact that this is against human rights. We will use national courts. We will use the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. 🏛️ We will not let them get away with this.
As a young-ish human rights lawyer who had spent months delving into the many failures of the legal system, I felt panic and asked her: But, how can we expect this to work? We know the courts are not independent in Zimbabwe, and applications in front of the African Commission take forever.
She looked at me straight in the eye and said: But Anna, what choice do we have? This is the system that we are in. We’ve got to work with what we have. And we will continue to hold the system to account for its many failings. The harder it becomes for us to do it, the harder we will fight. 🗣️
Since that conversation, I have had countless similar conversations with human rights advocates in a number of different countries ruled by dictators or quasi-dictators. My human rights work with those on the front lines has shown me that people never give up. If anything, setbacks strengthen their resolve. What is the alternative?
At the same time, we need to talk about our broken systems. ⛓️💥
🌎 We have a system where a little under 75 million people get to impact the lives of over 8 billion people, through one single vote. The climate crisis is already impacting lives, and this is set to rapidly accelerate. What rich and powerful countries do in their backyard does not remain in their backyard. The U.S. is the second largest emitter of green houses gases, and the largest per capita — three times higher than the world average. It also has disproportionate weight over international systems.
So how about a system where climate-related decisions were taken out of the hands of national leaders? Where the representatives of groups impacted by climate change worldwide, and representatives of future generations, were the ones electing and entrusting leaders of today to take climate-related actions? In short, where democracy was adapted to fit the needs of our current day reality? ⚖️
Sounds unrealistic? Do you know what else sounded unrealistic? The idea that people had human rights whether governments liked it or not. It took the World War II genocide to get us to move away from the Westphalian system (see here at 0’45 for more) to a system where human rights are recognised internationally. Let’s hope that we don’t need to reach a tipping point before we start making changes to our political systems.
In the meantime, now is the time to sit down and think long and hard about our role. Our roles as citizens. Our roles in companies. Our roles in systems. We need to fix our broken systems, and we need to do that now.
Anna ✨
PS: If you’re interested in an insider view on what it was like working with people who had literally risked their lives fighting for democracy, check out this recent podcast I recorded on my work in Libya — I went out just after Qadhafi was killed, working with Libyans to create their new political system that led to their first elections in over 40 years. I discuss what it was like being escorted by a militia group after stepping off the plane (4’18) and the incredible role women played (12’30) in the fight for democracy – amongst many other matters. YouTube here and podcast here.
PPS: The claim lodged by the Zimbabwean organisation was successful in front of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights! More here.
