From earned and deserved to inherent and universal: Changing social norms on human rights in the Philippines through randomised

fictional radio dramaArbie Baguios, July 2018

Introduction

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ is marred by extrajudicial killings, which has since claimed over 12,000 lives (HRW, 2018). But is there an underlying social factor that facilitates this continued gross violation of Filipinos’ human rights? And what could be done to change this?

In this paper, I argue that Filipinos’ distinct normative conception of human rights as “earned” and “deserved” leads to the “demonization” of human rights and the dehumanisation of those vulnerable to abuses, and therefore facilitates the violent drug war.

Using literature and concepts on how change happens – particularly on institutions, power, civil society and social movements, and complexity and systems thinking – I then develop a human rights education (HRE) campaign through radio drama that could effectively change normative conceptions of human rights from earned and deserved to inherent and universal. This could then reform the institutional space leading to policy changes that uphold human rights, which foster a just and peaceful society.

‘Earned’ rights and ‘undeserving’ poor as institutions of human rights

Awareness of human rights in the Philippines is high – HRE is widely incorporated in the education curriculum (Fernandez & Brillantes, 2011); 96.5% of respondents from a national survey of 2,001 students say they are aware of human rights (Nava et al., 2005). The understanding of human rights, however, offers a different picture: knowledge of human rights remains only “at the level of appreciation” (Fernandez & Brillantes, 2011, p. 18); the same set of students scored low on human rights comprehension (Nava et al., 2005). Crucially, the survey found that Filipinos “do not recognize human rights as inherent” as understood in the UN declaration, but rather as earned “in the context of give-and-take relationship between and among human beings” (Nava et al., 2005).

Meanwhile, there is another prevalent idea within Philippine society: that of the ‘deserving’ versus ‘undeserving’ poor. In a study on elite perceptions of the poor, Clarke and Sison (2003, p. 227) found that “54% [of participants] felt it was possible to distinguish between a deserving and underserving poor.” This is also confirmed by Ong’s (2015) research, which shows how the media plays a role in constructing Filipinos’ perception of “deserving” and “authentic” poor versus “underserving” ones.

While these concepts do not immediately seem interrelated, I argue that the normative conceptions of earned rights and deserving poor serve as informal institutions that govern

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the human rights regime in the Philippines; and that such norms pave the way to the systemic dehumanisation of those vulnerable to human rights violations, and the “demonization” of human rights and its advocates.

Dehumanisation of the poor and “demonization” of human rights

The dehumanisation of the poor is evident in the rhetoric of Duterte’s administration. In response to protesting labourers, the President said: “You're poor?...Suffer hardship and hunger, I don't care” (Ranada, 2017). Against accusations of crimes against humanity, he replied: “Crime against humanity? In the first place, I’d like to be frank with you: are they humans?” (Yahoo News, 2016). Eadie (2017) provides an acute analysis:

“Virtually all of the casualties of Duterte’s war on drugs have been poor…Duterte’s war is actually a war on the poor…In other countries the language of the undeserving poor is arguably seductive as a rationale for cutting welfare payments or foreign aid; in the Philippines the undeserving poor are shot.”

Meanwhile, human rights and its advocates are “demonized” (Gavilan, 2017): human rights are seen as “used to shield criminals from prosecution” (Gavilan, 2016); and human rights defenders are accused as “destabilizers” (Gavilan, 2017) or “terrorists” (UN News, 2018). In a talk at the LSE, Philippines Vice-President Leni Robredo said: “For the very first time, many Filipinos regard human rights as…a bad thing” (Cupin, 2018).

These shared normative conceptions of earned and deserved human rights, I would argue, enforces the public’s tacit sanctioning of the Duterte administration’s dehumanisation of those vulnerable to human rights abuses, and the demonization of human rights and its advocates. After all, Duterte and his drug war enjoy high approval ratings (Billones, 2018).

If human rights were to be upheld in the Philippines, the goal is clear: the norm of earned and deserved human rights must be challenged. Towards this, I propose a HRE campaign through radio drama that could usher normative change.

HRE through radio drama

The proposed HRE campaign through radio drama builds on the successes of the previous national HRE Decade Plan (HREDP) from 1998 to 2007 (UNOHCHR, 1998). Implemented by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Department of Education, and Amnesty International (AI), it aimed to raise the awareness and understanding of human rights through the education system, and within the armed forces and police.

The HREDP’s evaluation found that (Mendoza & Brillantes, 2011, p. 5):

HRE has a powerful enabling policy and legal framework at the national and international levels

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The operational framework to conduct HRE is in place HRE has been implemented at the appreciation level only

The evaluation also recommends (Mendoza & Brillantes, 2011, p. 28-31):

Going beyond the appreciation level in teaching human rights Developing and nurturing partnerships in the conduct of HRE Continuously reviewing teaching materials and methods, and monitoring

the implementation of HRE Developing a media advocacy plan

Recognising that effective campaigns build on what already works locally (Green, 2015), the proposed campaign, therefore, will apply these findings and recommendations: it would be conceived out of existing best practice; aim to take HRE “beyond the appreciation level”; be implemented through a coalition of actors; and be optimised through adaptation and experimentation.

Changing norms through radio drama

Radio drama has been selected as the medium for this campaign because the HREDP has identified radio programmes as best practice (Mendoza & Brillantes, 2011). This is supported by the fact that “television/radio” (82%) ranks among students’ top sources of knowledge of human rights, above “family/parents” (78%) (Nava et al., 2005). And with 65.6% of Filipinos listening to the radio at least once a week, radio drama programmes are a salient intervention (Media Ownership Monitor, n.d.).

Radio drama has been used for HRE in other contexts: for example, in Pakistan to raise gender rights issues (Smith, Yocum & Ricketts, 2006); in Kenya to discuss human rights and push for police reform (Maore & Roche, 2015); and in Malawi to protect the rights of, and change norms towards, people with albinism (Lund, 2015).

Radio dramas’ effectiveness in changing norms is owed to the power of fiction: “Stories, memoirs and picture books are a great resource to help personalise human rights that may otherwise seem abstract” (AI, n.d.). A fictional story, which provides a human face to HRE, could effectively dispel the notion of ‘undeserving’ human rights victims and counter their dehumanisation.

The proposed radio drama’s fictional narrative will be developed by local community members and national stakeholders through a participatory approach, recognising that “in order for human rights ideas to be effective…they need to be translated into local terms and situated within local contexts of power and meaning” Merry (2006, p. 1).

In changing social norms, this campaign acknowledges its value-laden nature. But pre-empting accusations of Western-centrism, I argue that the UN’s conceptualisation of inherent, universal human rights was, in fact, championed by Global South actors –

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including the Philippines. As Jensen (2016) writes: “Decolonization – not western liberals – established human rights on the global agenda.”

Normative change has been selected as the campaign’s ultimate goal: after all, people change their behaviours and preferences not exactly because of a change in personal belief, but through a change in their perception of the social norm (Spiegel, 2018).

Power analysis and stakeholder mapping

At the heart of the proposed campaign’s goal of changing norms on human rights is people’s empowerment.

Lukes (2005, p. 28) argued that the most “insidious use of power…is by shaping perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things.” By accepting human rights as ‘earned’ only by those who ‘deserve’ them, people – especially those vulnerable to abuses – internalise their oppression (Lukes, 2005).

Using Rowlands’ (1997) ‘four powers’ model, empowerment in this context therefore means: people’s ability to resist power over them by human rights violators; people’s power to and with fellow citizens to collectively claim their human rights; and power from within to overcome their internalised oppression, and see themselves and others as inherently endowed with – instead of having to earn – human rights.

Implementing the proposed empowerment campaign involves a coalition of actors (Green, 2015), including: local communities; national human rights defenders; government agencies; civil society, especially the media and the Catholic Church; the private sector; and international NGOs. In particular, the Human Rights Educators’ Association of the Philippines (HREAP) could support narrative development; the broadcasters’ and journalists’ unions could serve as links to the media; and AI and the UN, which has a history of supporting radio and TV shows towards changing norms in other contexts – for example in Somalia (Spiegel, 2018) and Haiti (UN News, 2017) – could provide financial and technical assistance.

Below is a stakeholder map for the campaign:

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Strategies, tactics and Theory of Change

Incorporating Popovic’s & Miller’s (2015) elements for effective social movements, the proposed campaign’s grand strategy follows the HREDP’s vision of a Philippines where each citizen demonstrates knowledge and understanding of human rights, which enables them to maintain a just, equal, peaceful and democratic society (UNOHCHR, 1998). The short-term strategy would see a normative shift from human rights that is earned and deserved to inherent and universal, which leads to policy changes towards upholding universal human rights.

Possible tactics would aim not just for normative change amongst the public (e.g., through the radio drama), but also cultural-cognitive changes, and policy changes through internal and external pressures (Andrews, 2013; Green, 2015). This entails taking advantage of critical junctures (Green, 2015) for social mobilisation – for instance, when the killing of a teenager by the police sparked protests (Fonbuena, 2017).

In pursuit of these strategies and tactics, the campaign relies on a Theory of Change (ToC), which “[makes] explicit a set of assumptions in relation to a given change process” that, unlike linear logframes, considers the context’s complexities, uncertainties

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and varied actors (Valters, 2015, p. 5). Recognising that it must be locally designed, below is a suggested ToC:

Finding what works through PDIA and RCTs

“Norms,” according to Green (2015, p. 61), “act like a complex system: the way they evolve is seldom linear or imposed.” Amidst the complexity and uncertainties of pursing a normative change, the proposed campaign could be effectively implemented through Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA). Such an approach addresses complexities and uncertainties; and “evolves” local solutions through experimentation (Andrews, Pritchett & Woolcock, 2017).

Consistent with a PDIA approach, the campaign will be implemented as a pilot in select locations and optimised through RCTs. Radio drama interventions in other contexts have similarly utilised RCTs: in evaluating a health programme in Bangladesh (BBC Media Action, 2016); to increase AIDS awareness in South Africa (Harvey, Stuart & Swan,

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2000); and in changing norms to reduce under-5 mortality in Burkina Faso (Murray et al., 2015). The latter particularly demonstrates that good baselines and indicators could be established for projects that aim to change norms.

Conclusion

In this paper, I argue that Duterte’s gross human rights violations in his drug war is facilitated by the ‘demonization’ of human rights and dehumanisation of those vulnerable to abuses. These, in turn, are tacitly sanctioned through Filipinos’ shared normative conception of human rights as ‘earned’ and ‘deserved.’

To challenge such norms, I then draw from a wide range of literature on how change happens and from empirical evidence from other contexts to develop a HRE campaign through radio drama. Utilising fiction to usher people’s empowerment, a coalition of stakeholders, a robust theory of change, and an iterative and adaptive approach, the radio drama campaign could effectively change Filipinos’ human rights conceptions from earned and deserved to inherent and universal. This could then reform the institutional space leading to policy changes that uphold human rights, which foster a just and peaceful society.

References

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