Human Rights and Development Tools

In 2009 a working group of researchers focused on the subtopic of human right and development tools with a particular focus on EU and UN institutions was established by AHRI members participating in the current COST Action on the role of the EU in UN Human Rights reform.

The main output of the work of the team is an edited volume: Towards a Theory of Change: Human Rights and Development in the new Millennium (Routledge, 2013) . It analyses how human rights expansion into development influences organizational and operational change and the role of relevant actors in bringing about the change at local, national and international levels.

During the expert breakfast organized by CONCORD on Monday 28th January 2013 in Brussels, three of the authors presented their research findings.

Prof. P. Gready, who analysed the human rights-based approach (HRBA) implementation and its impact on ActionAid, discussed the need to align all aspects of the organization’s work with its approach to programming. Is there for instance also a HRBA to fundraising and advocacy?

Prof. W. Vandenhole studied HRBA to development within the EU context. He drew attention to the recent EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy of the Council of the EU from June 2012 which explicitly mentions HRBA for the area of the EU development cooperation. The question however remains how seriously and coherently is HRBA taken by EU institutions and policy-makers in practice.

Last, but not least, prof. K. Arts researching on a positive HRBA practice example - Plan’s project on countering violence against children in the Philippines, stressed the importance of similar positive HRBA examples and suggested that the complexity and the lengthiness of HRBA should be reflected in the evaluation and the project cycle.

For more information and online ordering visit: www.routledge.com.

AHRI consists of 43 member institutions based in Europe that carry out research and education in the field of human rights.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is one of the longest-running European instruments supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe.

Information provided by Katarina Sramkova, TRIALOG