About us

"Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient become independent of it."
John D. Rockefeller

There is no shortage of rhetoric about the importance of human rights in responding to poverty and hunger. This is the time to turn words into action.

Thirdway Human Rights and Development is a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands dedicated to the promotion of human rights in the West African nation of Ghana and all across the planet. It has its headquarters in the Netherlands with departmental offices in America-human rights education, France-microfinance, and Ghana-project land.

 
As with many other human rights groups, our actions are based upon the firm belief that all people, simply by virtue of our common humanity, have certain fundamental rights, which are indivisible and universal,  and that the totality of all human rights are closely intertwined with efforts at development and the creation of open societies. Therefore, our work is centred on the idea that the realization of civil and political rights cannot occur so long as social and economic rights are not both recognized and protected. The mother of a family may have the right to freely cast her ballot in fair elections and participate in government, but she can't fully exercise that right if she is beset by concerns of how she will afford the school fees for her children's education or how she will provide tonight's dinner.  Ultimately our goal is to increase independence from the bottom up while significantly decreasing the need for international aid organizations such as ours.
In our own terms we want to prevent and find a cure to development ’AIDS.’ - Acquired Immune Dependency Syndrome.

 
We believe that Human Rights is Development and Development is Human Rights!