The Adaptation of Human Rights Norms in Local Settings: Intersections of Local and Bureaucratic Knowledge in an Israeli NGO

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the anthropological discussion on the practice of human rights. Scholars have suggested that human rights NGOs working to bring transnational notions of human rights into particular local settings must compromise these notions and adapt them to the local ones in order for them to be accepted by local communities. However, this article explains how an Israeli human rights NGO departs from the universal human rights discourse, despite the fact that its clients often insist on the recognition of their universal human rights. The dynamic process of localization and the use of local and bureaucratic knowledge serve complex interests, values, and beliefs of the actors in the organization, rather than constituting a constraint. The findings of this ethnographic study suggest a more complex interrelationship between various local agents and discourses on human rights.

Acknowledgments

Zvika Orr is a cultural anthropologist and a PhD candidate in the Federmann School of Public Policy & Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His areas of research include human rights, NGOs, medical anthropology, labor migration, professions, and social policy. His current research focuses on the sociocultural construction of moral perceptions and public policy decisions toward ethical dilemmas concerning health and the human body.

I am deeply indebted to the wonderful and dedicated staff, volunteers, clients, and project participants at YEDID. I am profoundly grateful to Daphna Golan-Agnon and Tamar El-Or for their advice and encouragement. An earlier version of this article was presented at the workshop “International Order: Transnational Processes and Their Effects,” Free University of Berlin, November 11–12, 2010. I thank the workshop participants and discussants, and especially Arie Kacowicz, Thomas Risse, Galia Press-Barnathan, and Piki Ish-Shalom, for their helpful comments. This research was facilitated by scholarships from the Shaine Center for Research in Social Sciences, the Minerva Center for Human Rights, and the Einstein Center (Social Science Group), all at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I gratefully acknowledge their support.

Notes

1. The statement of the American Anthropological Association (1947), written by Melville Herskovits, expressed support in a philosophical and cultural pluralism that differs from the “ethnocentric” idea of human rights (Goodale 2006a). For the multiple causes of anthropologists’ critical stance toward universal human rights, see for instance Goodale (2009), Messer (1993), and Wilson (1997a).

2. A recent interesting exception is Merry et al. (2010).

3. The organization's full name in Hebrew is (literally): “YEDID - Rights Centers in the Community,” and in English: “YEDID - The Association for Community Empowerment.”

4. Personal interview with Elena, the director of the center, Haifa, June 1, 2004.

5. Personal interview with Elena, the director of the center, Haifa, June 1, 2004.

6. Personal interview with Elena, the director of the center, Haifa, June 1, 2004.

7. Personal interview with Elena, the director of the center, Haifa, June 1, 2004.

8. Personal interview with Elena, the director of the center, Haifa, June 1, 2004.

9. Personal interview with Elena, the director of the center, Haifa, June 1, 2004.

10. Clients' success stories, an organizational document written by Noa, a lawyer at YEDID.

11. Description of clients’ cases that are part of YEDID's long-term personal assistance program, an organizational document.

12. Personal interview with Maayan, a volunteer and later the housing coordinator, Haifa, December 7, 2005.

13. Personal interview with Maayan, a volunteer and later the housing coordinator, Haifa, December 7, 2005.

14. Personal interview with Tanya, the client coordinator, Haifa, September 6, 2004.

15. Personal interview with Tanya, the client coordinator, Haifa, September 6, 2004.

16. Personal interview with Hila, a National Service volunteer, Haifa, September 2, 2004.

17. A ceremonial shelter constructed during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. In this case, however, the Sukkah was not constructed during the holiday.

18. The different approaches in the national level and in the local level are related to the organization's strategies concerning protest against or cooperation with governmental agencies in various contexts. The organization generally avoids encouraging clients to take part in direct protests with regard to their own personal cases, while the organization itself often criticizes and protests against the establishment in different ways.