Final Remarks

This final chapter situates the analysis of the role of politics in the development of the Special Procedures within the heated debate over the future of the international human rights agenda as articulated by a growing number of scholars. It suggests that the alleged failures of international human rights may be a reflection of the rigidity of the Westphalian edifice in accommodating the struggles of individuals and communities beyond the human rights framework. Only human rights mechanisms have demonstrated enough flexibility, accompanied by political will, to open access for non-state actors to the transnational space. This accessibility has not been accompanied by an acknowledgment of the conceptual, normative, institutional, and practical problems inherent in the attempt to combine agendas that are not always compatible, as illustrated in the relationship between development, security, and human rights issues. This important gap is compounded by the myth this book seeks to discredit, namely, the presumption that politicization of human rights should be eliminated and that some groups of states are rigidly associated with preconceived political alignments.