Beating the Human Rights Drum

Abstract

After belabouring for hours to explain to my grandmother, Evelyn Nakitto, the subject of my doctoral studies, she summed it up in one sentence: ‘Ooh! You are going to study good manners.’ I then began to question why human rights is a concept that is almost exclusively confined to regulating state power. And yet, despite NGOs’ effort to dismantle existing power structures of especially hierarchies and patriarchies, NGOs inadvertently repeat the same structures within their organisations and relationships. I began to explore the concept of human rights based approaches.