Transcript What are HRBA? - Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade

What are Human Rights
Based Approaches?
1IHRN
A human rights-based approach is
a process which applies certain
core principles aimed at ensuring
the full enjoyment of human
rights by all
2IHRN
HRBA to what?
• Development (social, economic,
human, MDGs)
• Humanitarian aid
• Peace-keeping
• Trade/investment/privatisation
• etc
3IHRN
Development-security-human
rights
… the human family will not enjoy
development without security, it will
not
enjoy
security
without
development, and it will not enjoy
either without respect for human
rights
–
Kofi Annan 2005
4IHRN
HRBA milestones……not new

1940s UN Charter

1997 SG Programme for Reform -HR to be fully
integrated into all areas of work

1994 Rwanda genocide

2000 UN Human Development Report: decent
standard of living, adequate nutrition, healthcare,
education, decent work, protection against calamities,
are not just development goals…they are also human
rights

2003 Stamford ‘Common Understanding’
5IHRN
5 CORE LEGAL PRINCIPLES of HRBA
1. Expressly apply the int’l
legal framework
2. Empowerment
3. Participation
4. Non-discrimination &
vulnerable groups
5. Accountability
6IHRN
1. Expressly apply the int’l legal
framework
•
The nature of the treaty obligations –
respect, protect, fulfil
•
Universality, inalienability; indivisibility,
interdependence, inter-relatedness
•
Immediate obligations (ensure core
minimum, take steps, non-discrimination)
- progressive realisation to maximum of
available resources
•
Standards made by states & evolving
7IHRN
2. Empowerment
•
Empowerment a precondition for
meaningful participation
•
Treaty obligation to actively inform the
public regarding the content of the HR
treaties, Treaty bodies, availability of
remedies etc
•
Requires education, information,
expectation not charity
8IHRN
3. Participation
•
The right to ‘active, free & meaningful’
participation
•
A means and an end in itself
•
A composite right - expression, assembly,
association, right to vote, stand for election,
participate in one’s development…
Who participates? How, on what issues?, at
what stages?, with access to what
information? to what degree of influence?
•
•
Who decides the answers to these
questions? – and how?
9IHRN
4. Non-Discrimination &
Vulnerable Groups
•
Equality and non-discrimination
•
Disaggregation of data by race, religion
etc
•
Vulnerability to human rights violations –
varies with time, context, type of human
right
10IHRN
5. Accountability: legal & political
•
Due process rights (equality before the
law, access to justice)
•
Right to effective remedies: judicial,
administrative….
•
Right to participate e.g in M&E of
development plans, Access to information
•
Clarity regarding duties and duty-holders
•
Justiciability of ESC rights
11IHRN
What is specific to HRBA ?
1. People holders of rights - not merely
beneficiaries
2. Programming framed by int’l HR law,
informed
at
all
stages
by
international/regional HR mechanisms
3. Legitimacy: states’ mutual accountability
under treaties – same framework applies
to development partners domestically
4. Universal
accountability
standards,
primary role of the state & approaches
that are adapted to the context
12IHRN
Specific to HRBA:
reinforces ‘good programming’
5. Needs assessment identifies root causes for
non-realisation of HR (indivisibility &
interdependence of CPR-ESCR)
6. Programmes build capacities
holders & duty bearers as such
of
rights
7. Process
as
important
as
outcome:
empowerment
through
locally
owned
development + participation as a HR, both
as a means and goal
13IHRN
Specific to HRBA:
reinforces ‘good programming’
8. Strengthens empowerment, sustainability &
accountability: through access to information,
transparency & participation. Obligation to
monitor compliance, evaluate both outcomes
and processes based on HR standards &
principles, with effective mechanisms for
redress.
14IHRN
Sample initiatives
• UN - HURIST; Practitioners’ Forum on Human
Rights in Development; UNDP Governance
Centre Oslo indicators for HRBA
• Bi-Lateral donors: Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Switzerland, Germany….Ireland?
• NGOs (CARE Int’l, Oxfam, COHRE….) &
research bodies (ODI ‘Rights in Action’)
• EC “Mainstreaming” Review 2008
15IHRN
Review
of the
White Paper on Irish Aid
?
16IHRN
Ongoing Challenges…
 Ideological opposition (ESC rights in
Ireland?) + need to mobilise wide
public awareness
 Inadequate authority & responsibility
= fog created around
terminology’/concepts
 Inadequate human and financial
capacity applied (skills, resources,
knowledge, time)
 Inadequate unity of effort
17IHRN
New efforts are needed to overcome
polarised debate, to mobilise support
from a wide public constituency, and
to encourage [Irish aid]
to fully integrate all human rights in
their work
-
adapted from Report of the UN Secretary-General
on the Right to Development 2011
18IHRN
It is the way we do business that
has to change.
This is not a matter simply of the
introduction of new human rights
projects or … the infusion of
human rights language or the
addition of human rights components.
-
UN Human Rights Strengthening Programme, Review
2001
19IHRN
20IHRN