The Bias of Human Rights Watch

[ThinkJustice]

7. It makes perfect sense

What the article is saying is that to focus "only" on political and civil rights and to completely "ignore" social and economic rights is to promote capitalist values that believe it is the responsibility of the individual rather than the state to guarantee food, housing, healthcare and education to an entire population. This is exactly what Human Rights Watch does in its reports, which constitutes a selective approach to the UN Declaration of Human Rights. This by definition undermines any socialist alternative because socialism is based on ensuring the social and economic rights of all citizens. And while the promotion of social and economic rights might indeed infringe on some political and civil rights, so does the promotion of political and civil rights also infringe on some social and economic rights. Venezuela is not taking a Stalinist approach by prioritizing social and economic rights over political and civil rights, it is trying to ensure that all of these rights guaranteed to the degree that is possible. As the article notes, there is a participatory democracy in Venezuela that guarantees significant political and civil rights for the population, but Human Rights Watch chooses to ignore this reality.