http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/03/demand_a_human_rights_approach.html

by Jeanne M. Woods

By Con­tribut­ing Op-Ed columnist

March 10, 2010, 4:29PM

In the wake of the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake that struck Haiti in Jan­u­ary, thou­sands of its cit­i­zens are revers­ing a trend that has defined life in Third World coun­tries for decades: They are migrat­ing back to the countryside.

Peo­ple raise their hands Fri­day dur­ing a national day of mourn­ing in front of the national palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. / The Asso­ci­ated Press

Poli­cies pro­moted by multi­na­tional cor­po­ra­tions and enforced by insti­tu­tions like the World Bank and the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund forced peas­ants off their land and into urban fac­to­ries run by for­eign cor­po­ra­tions. No longer able to feed them­selves, the peo­ple became depen­dent on expen­sive imports or food aid that fur­ther under­mined their agri­cul­tural sector.

What will hap­pen to these trau­ma­tized sur­vivors upon their return to their vil­lages? More impor­tant, who will decide?

A huge donors’ con­fer­ence is sched­uled for later this month at United Nations head­quar­ters in New York. Throngs of gov­ern­ments, finan­cial insti­tu­tions and char­i­ta­ble groups will con­verge to map out a strat­egy for Haiti. Who will receive the bil­lions sure to be gen­er­ated, and for what projects? And where are Haitians as this agenda is set?

Those who want to help Haiti must demand a “human rights approach” to its rebuild­ing. This is an approach man­dated by inter­na­tional law: the right of Haitians to deter­mine their destiny.

A human rights approach requires a focus on people’s basic needs. It includes the con­struc­tion of hos­pi­tals, schools, and agri­cul­tural infra­struc­ture — employ­ing local peo­ple — espe­cially in the coun­try­side, where the major­ity of Haitians live. It requires an agri­cul­tural pol­icy that empha­sizes the abil­ity of peo­ple to feed them­selves, rather than grow­ing a sin­gle crop for export.

Thanks to this unfath­omable dis­as­ter, some of Haiti’s inter­na­tional loans have been “for­given” — loans that required Haiti to pay $1 mil­lion a week in inter­est to wealthy coun­tries. Con­gress­woman Max­ine Waters has intro­duced a bill that would can­cel $800 mil­lion owed the U.S. That’s a good start, but a human rights approach is about more than money.

We in New Orleans have wit­nessed a non-human rights approach to post-disaster re-building. When Hur­ri­cane Kat­rina (and U.S. gov­ern­ment inep­ti­tude) engulfed our city, The Wall Street Jour­nal pub­lished a “blue­print” for its rebuild­ing. It included pro­pos­als like end­ing affir­ma­tive action and annulling pro-labor laws. Not long after­ward, most pub­lic hous­ing devel­op­ments, though not severely dam­aged by the storm, were bull­dozed. Those who lack the means to come home appear to have been forgotten.

We should not let this hap­pen to Haiti. Will peo­ple now earn­ing the legal min­i­mum of $3 per day see their wages fur­ther degraded in the name of devel­op­ment? Will rural land be turned over to for­eign agribusinesses?

Will Port-au-Prince be rebuilt as a First World show­case in lieu of build­ing and main­tain­ing afford­able hous­ing, schools and clinics?

Or will Haiti be a first again?

Will it repeat its glo­ri­ous rev­o­lu­tion­ary his­tory, this time recon­struct­ing the coun­try not along lines of color and wealth, but on the basis of fun­da­men­tal human rights?

Jeanne M. Woods is the Henry F. Bonura Jr. Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor of Law at Loy­ola Uni­ver­sity in New Orleans, where she teaches inter­na­tional law and human rights. She is the author of “Human Rights and the Global Mar­ket­place: Eco­nomic, Social and Cul­tural Dimen­sions.” She may be reached at woods@loyno.edu.