Paper short abstract:

This contribution from Ecuador addresses the shifts of an international project to implement human rights indicators between two competing visions of justice. Hegemony, the idea of development and improvement seems to characterize the first, misnamed as Buen Vivir, the second differs entirely.

Paper long abstract:

Based on four field trips (2008-2013) to Ecuador, this qualitative research contribution addresses the changing role of the national human rights indicators system during its implementation. While following UNHCHR methodology and advise, executive-related problems arise locally from diverging epistemologies of justice ("sumakawsay") under the given political and social-economical reality. The current Ecuadorian government draws, in a blurred way, on genuine indigenous perspectives ('buen vivir') in order to seek, at least officially, an alternative to the Western idea of development altogether, for which also human rights indicators stand in a paradigmatic way. Thus, two types of envisioning justice seem to clash; difficult to reconcile without understanding their respective ethical 'script' on a discursive as well as on an empirical level as a struggle for biocentric hegemony. Numerous indigenous leaders and human rights defenders have been persecuted and arrested by the police and military under the charge of terrorism. Likewise, diverging sources of information and documentation regarding human rights issues are publicly delegitimized. Over the past years, also the human rights indicator project has been shifted in outlook. From a promising space for deepened socio-political information and thus participation and empowerment, it became more and more appropriated by a "cunning state" (S. Randeria) in its attempt to render the state more visible. At the same time as the Correa government seeks to maintain hegemony, and international bodies seek to fulfill their agenda, also the bottom-up movement following a different path towards justice develops own strategies to counter the national attempts.