Global Issues
CAN EMERGING DEMOCRACIES CHALLENGE THE MORAL HEGEMONY OF WESTERN POWERS?
What many hoped would be an across-the-board humanitarian intervention by a multi-lateral UN force to protect civilian lives in Libya has ended up becoming a military operation run by a "coalition of the willing", some of whose constituents are blamed for causing numerous civilian deaths in military operations elsewhere, writes Mandeep S.Tiwana, Policy Manager at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
In this analysis, the author writes that the need for alternate and principled centres of power that own the global human rights agenda, particularly amongst nations of the global south -where most struggles are being waged- is acute.
No grouping of major powers is better placed to fill this role than the India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) trilateral. Established in 2003, IBSA prides itself in being a meeting of minds of three multi-ethnic and multi-cultural democracies determined to contribute to the construction of a new international architecture. However, while IBSA has great potential to deepen the protection of human and democratic rights globally, its constituents need to enhance their legitimacy to advance these values. First, the need to practice at home what one preaches abroad cannot be overemphasised. Second, there must be a willingness to discarding diplomatic niceties and calling a spade a spade at bilateral and multilateral forums when gross abuses of human rights are committed. South Africa will need to reassess its relationship with Mugabe's dictatorship in Zimbabwe, Brazil will need to reconsider its future support of Iran at the UN, and India will need to speak out against crimes against humanity in Myanmar.
(*) Mandeep S.Tiwana is Policy Manager, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
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