A plataforma openDemocracy publicou a tradução em inglês de uma declaração pública do filósofo francês Michel Foucault a respeito dos direitos e deveres da cidadania internacional. A declaração foi lida em 1981 e publicada pela revista Libération em 1984 (após a morte do filósofo). O título atribuído ao texto pelo periódico foi "Confrontando governos, direitos humanos". No texto Foucault justifica a criação de organizações humanitárias internacionais (como, por exemplo, os Médicos sem Fronteiras e a Anistia Internacional) como uma forma de proteger nosso estatuto global enquanto pessoas "governadas" por Estados e que, portanto, partilhariam de um tipo específico de solidariedade: a defesa dos indivíduos contra a opressão, ou inação, dos Estados nacionais. Instituições internacionais como a Anistia Internacional, segundo Foucault, "criaram um novo direito: o direito de indivíduos privados de intervir ativa e materialmente na ordem política internacional".
O texto em inglês pode ser lido abaixo:
[Confronting Government, Human Rights]
by Michel Foucault
We are here only as private individuals and with no other claim to speak, and to speak together, except a certain difficulty we share in enduring what is taking place.
I know very well, and one must defer to this evident truth: we can do little about the reasons which make men and women prefer to leave their country rather than remain and live in it. It is not in our power to change these facts.
So who asked us to speak? No one, and that is exactly our entitlement. It seems to me that we need to keep in mind three principles which, I believe, guide this initiative, like several others that have preceded it: Ile-de-Lumière,Cap Anamour, A Plane for El Salvador, but also Terre des Hommes and Amnesty International.[1]
1) There exists an international citizenship which as such has its rights and duties, and which is obliged to stand up against all forms of abuse of power, no matter who commits them, no matter who are their victims. After all, we are all governed, and, by that fact, joined in solidarity.
2) Because of their claim to care for the wellbeing of societies, governments arrogate to themselves the right to treat in terms of profit and loss the human suffering which their decisions cause and their negligence allows. It is a duty of this international citizenship to always confront the eyes and ears of governments with the human suffering for which it cannot truthfully be denied that they bear responsibility. People's suffering must never be allowed to remain the silent residue of politics. It grounds an absolute right to stand up and to challenge those who hold power.
3) We must refuse the division of labour which is so often proposed to us: individuals are allowed to be indignant and to talk, while it falls to governments to deliberate and to act. It is true that well-intentioned governments appreciate the sacred indignation of the governed, providing that it remains merely lyrical. But I think we must be aware that it is very often those who govern who talk, are only able to talk, or only want to talk. Experience shows that we can and must refuse the histrionic role of pure protest which governments would like to offer us. Amnesty International, Terre des Hommes, Médecins du Monde are initiatives which have created this new right: the right of private individuals to intervene actively and materially in the order of international politics and strategy. The will of individuals must be present and expressed in the order of reality which governments have sought to monopolise. Step by step and day by day, their purported monopoly must be rolled back."
Translated by Colin Gordon, October 2015
