Anthropological Methods To Address Human Rights Issues: Participatory Action Research

PAR Method and Human Rights Issues

Question:

Discuss about the Anthropologists Engaging with Local Communities.

The set of universal claims that are prepared to safeguard human way of life from any illegitimate coercion and typically enacted by state agents are referred as human rights. The anthropologists are bound to work for the betterment of the communities. They study their culture and society to propose the process following, which can help the people attain sustainable and standard way of life. Hence, it is their job to promote and protect the rights of the people and make them realize their human rights. The regulations and policies set by the government often violate the way of life for individual communities. It comes under the ethical responsibilities of the Anthropological Associations to protest and oppose such deprivations (Americananthro.org. 2017). American Anthropological Association proposes multiple ways for the anthropologists to get involved in the human rights work in association with the local community facing issue related to the human rights. These issues often arise due to the government’s ignorance of the norms and culture of individual communities while considering the progress of the greater mass. The ways prescribed are to increase anthropological knowledge on human rights, increase professional dialogue, increase student knowledge and intervene in cases of human rights abuse.

Anthropologists take participatory action research method for engaging with the members of the local communities in a collaborative research process. It enables the community members to achieve the desirable rights. This kind of collaboration between the anthropologists and local communities are becoming common to the course of anthropology. It enables the anthropologists to understand the problems presents in the community under study and analyze it. The analyzed report is then compared with the international human rights standard guideline to ensure the interest of every community around the globe.

Different scholars defined the PAR in many terms relating it to the field they are utilizing in. The method is availed by various disciplines other than anthropology as it is useful in understanding and implementing actions as per requirement as discussed earlier. The social researchers have defined it as a form of action in which the researchers understand the issues present in the community with full collaboration with its members and take part in the process of transformation. This process is popular among the applied and action anthropologists who take part in the learning process of the communal culture and issues by directly participating in the actions. They use other anthropological tools such as participant observation, interview, and focused group interview for gaining knowledge o the culture and society and to build relation with the community members. Kempadoo, Sanghera and Pattanaik (2015) on the other hand described it something more than just description and interpretation of social reality in a more reliable way. It is also facilitates in bringing radical change in the society. The aim of PAR is to transform the reality with rather than for oppressed people. The process according to the authors is a combination of three activities that are investigation, evaluation and action. Elaboration of the process is described in the later part of the study (Hynes et al. 2010; Barnett 2016).

Three Phases of PAR: Data Collection, Evaluation, and Action

To be more specific, the action and applied anthropologist are the one who takes part in this participatory action research method for addressing the human right issues present in the community and develop the condition according to the requirement. Modern day anthropological training is leaning towards this collaborative approach between the anthropologists and the local communities (Americananthro.org.b 2017). Anthropologists can use this PAR approach in addressing various issues of human rights present in the communities that might be Religion, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Politics in Development, Economic Globalization, Political Democracy and State Repression, Torture, Human Trafficking, Children’s Human Rights Advocacy, Human Rights and Forced Migration, Indigenous People’ Human Right, Humanitarian Intervention, and Transitional Justice. This particular method is useful for both recording and addressing the issues, which makes the utility of the method much broader (Goodhart 2016).

The method significantly varies from the traditional researching three ways. These are the steps identified in the PAR. The first step focuses on the action. The aim of the step is to conduct research on the community under study and identify the disputes or challenges they are facing. It is performed with the help of other anthropological methods of data collection such as participant observation, direct or indirect interview, focused group interview and any other applicable in the scenario. The data is then analyzed for the identification of the Human Right issue the community is facing. The second part of the participatory action process incorporates the community members in the research. It gives attention to the power relationships, reducing the gap between the researcher and the community. This process brings transformation of the community changing them from subject of research to the researcher. The community then actively participates in the process of claiming the human rights they are long denied. The researcher communicates the rights they have being a citizen of the world and what they are being denied off. The third phase of the research it to engage the community members into action, which means to work towards the development of the community (Kemmis, McTaggart and Nixon 2014). In this case of human rights, it is to motivate and encourage them to raise their voice against the suppression they are facing for years. The anthropologists walk side by side to for supporting the community and leading them in the process where they claim their denied rights.

Methodology is the planning of research, which contributes in shaping the perspective and use of anthropological methods to achieve desirable outcome. It incorporates early mentioned methods of anthropology such as qualitative and quantitative method (Bernard 2011).

Anthropological Methods Used in PAR

Strang (2009) in her work “What Anthropologists Do” highlighted a case study using the participatory action research addressing the land right issue faced by a Australian community. According to her opinion, the PAR can show its best potential in addressing the land and resource issues faced by the communities around the world. She in her case used the method for recording important cultural elements. It involved spending time with the aboriginal people of north Queensland doing cultural mapping. She travelled around the country with the elders of the community. She collected this cultural data with the collaboration of the communal people, which is now a key evidence for them to make claims to their aboriginal lands. This action did not helped them in gaining back the lands from the government, however negotiation enabled them to gain a limited access to their sacred land. They gained success in the negotiation signing a joint management agreement with the Queensland Park and Wildlife Service. They furthermore, negotiated to substantiate their ownership claims sufficiently to persuade local glaziers to co-sign Indigenous Land Use Agreements.

Another case described by Kempadoo, Sanghera and Pattanaik (2015) is the issue of human trafficking, especially the women in Mekong Region. There was an evidence of increased number of women trafficking in the late 1980s and early 1990 in Cambodia and Vietnam. It was hard to come by any reliable data on trafficking during that period. The researchers took the PAR for gathering necessary data to develop appropriate strategies to address the issue and support eh women concerned. The participatory action incorporated in this case is widely known as FPAR due to its incorporation of a number of feminist in the process. Instead of adopting the traditional three phase approach, they only had two phases that are research phase and action phase. Four partner organizations namely, Cambodian Women’s Development Agency, Youth research Institute, Women’s Union of Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh Women’s union in Southern Vietnam took part in the process under the coordination of Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women. This project was implemented in early 1997 after a few projects on trafficking in the particular region that raised the sensitivity level in certain political environment. It contributed in the success of the implemented project and its outcome.

Conclusion

The above discussion highlights the Human Right issues that are common around the world. The main focus of the research being the anthropological involvement with the local communities in addressing the Human Right issue identifies the Participatory Action Research as the main method used in the process. The study further deduces the importance and usefulness of PAR in the practical field. It has three main phases discussed in the report are the data collection, evaluation and actions. These are the three ways of engaging with the community and also engage the members for claiming their rights as fellow citizens of the world. The report also identified several other anthropological methods utilized under the PAR method for data collection and analysis. These cumulative research methods help the anthropologists in getting involved to any given Human Right issue faced by local communities. Furthermore, the evidences collected from the two cases supports the usefulness of the method.

References

Americananthro.org. 2017. Declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights – Connect with AAA. [online] Available at: https://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1880 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2017].

Americananthro.org.b 2017. Resources for Anthropologists Concerned with Human Rights – Participate & Advocate. [online] Available at: https://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2076 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2017].

Barnett, T.M., 2016. Participatory action research. Social Work, 61(1), pp.95-95.

Bernard, H.R., 2011. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Rowman Altamira.

Goodhart, M., 2016. Human rights: politics and practice. Oxford University Press.

Hynes, P., Lamb, M., Short, D. and Waites, M., 2010. Sociology and human rights: Confrontations, evasions and new engagements. The International Journal of Human Rights, 14(6), pp.811-832.

Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R. and Nixon, R., 2014. Introducing Critical Participatory Action Research. In The Action Research Planner (pp. 1-31). Springer Singapore.

Kempadoo, K., Sanghera, J. and Pattanaik, B., 2015. Trafficking and prostitution reconsidered: New perspectives on migration, sex work, and human rights.

Strang, V., 2009. What anthropologists do. Berg.