Questions and Answers
(1) How does the human rights-based approach (focusing on upstream efforts) really differ from other approaches?
(2) How can you be sure that the “rights based approach” (RBA) is not just another buzzword?
(3) Are your partners inspired to work with the RBA?
(4) How will the RBA help in the daily work of development workers?
(5) Is Equalinrights using existing networks?
(6) How does Equalinrights work locally? Can it be effective when it is based in the Netherlands?
(7) How can Equalinrights assist groups that are not in a network and that need assistance?
(8) How real are human rights-based approaches considering that donors have imposed them?
1. How does the Human rights-based approach (focusing on upstream efforts) really differ from other approaches?
The Rights-based Approach (RBA) differs in a number of critical specific elements, but also in the overall integration of development, human rights and other fields of study (anthropology, change theory, social struggles, political science etc). It combines factors from these fields to provide for a holistic and powerful framework and process.
The following table sets out clearly some key differences in development work between former approaches and human rights-based approaches.
| Other Approaches | Human Rights-based Approaches |
|---|---|
Action is voluntary or optional | Action is mandatory |
People have needs which should be met, and these needs can be prioritized | People have legally established claims and entitlements |
Poor people deserve help as the object of charity | Poor people are entitled to help as the subject of rightsSome people may have to be left out (i.e. a target can be less than 100%) |
Some people may have to be left out | All people have the same right to fulfill their potential and should be assisted to do so (i.e. the target is 100%) |
Some needs may not be recognised in some cultures | Rights are universal and inalienable, they cannot be diluted or taken away |
Focus is on manifestations of problems and their immediate causes | Focus is on structural causes of problems, as well as manifestations and immediate causes. |
People affected by development work are passive beneficiaries; they can be invited to participate in order to improve the effectiveness of programmes or projects | People affected by development work are active participants by right |
Power structures are too difficult to change and pragmatic ways need to be found to work within them | Power structures that block progress in realising human rights must be effectively changed |
Development is a technocratic process and should be led by technical ‘experts’ who know best | Development actors must empower rights holders to claim their rights and be involved in public decision-making |
There is a ‘hierarchy’ of needs and some needs are nearly always more important than others | Rights are indivisible and interdependent, though in any situation some practical prioritisation may be required |
| Work towards outcome goals | Work towards process and outcome goals |
| The focus is on the social context, with little emphasis on policy | The focus is on social, economic, cultural, civil and political context and is policy oriented. |
Taken from Collins, Pearson & Delany, Rights-based approach discussion paper, The Senate of Canada, April 2002; and Child Rights Programming; How to Apply Rights Based Approaches to Programming, A Handbook for International Save the Children Alliance Members, 2nd ed. 2005.
Among the key changes are the following:
It is premised on human rights standards, which are the only universally accepted moral standard of behaviour and are set out in an international legal framework. This provides a strong normative foundation that holds significant legitimacy and authority.
The RBA adds a duty to facilitate the fulfilment of people‘s human rights, which is enforced through law that States have voluntarily agreed to comply with. It provides people with a tool to identify those legally and/or morally required to support them in their struggle and how they are obliged to support them. It seeks to hold governments, donors, the private sector, communities and individuals accountable to these responsibilities.
The RBA centres on the process of realising human rights. This shifts the focus to rights-holders to carry the responsibility for claiming their rights and demands that human rights are defined and applied in a manner relevant to people‘s daily struggle to live in dignity and peace. More generally, the RBA‘s understanding of the process as being as important as the outcome is a clear distinguishing factor from former approaches.
It demands that development workers engage with people receiving aid/development support as partners who have equal, inalienable human rights that must be respected - not as beneficiaries. It demands the transferral of agency.
It further seeks to draw out the underlying structural causes of poverty, rather than the manifestations of the problem or immediate cause of abuse. The RBA targets power: it challenges and seeks to transform unequal systems and relationships of power.
Centring on empowerment is a fundamental advance of the RBA. Empowerment aims to expand people‘s choices and opportunities; to invest them with the power, capacities, capabilities and access needed to affect change in their lives, their communities and their future. The RBA thus strives to enhance the agency and power of those living in poverty to drive development and effect change in ways meaningful to them. It prioritises local rights struggles of popular movements that adapt and reshape human rights standards and governing institutions.
The RBA highlights the need for multiple strategies connecting multiple actors on all tiers of society in different kinds of partnerships– from the local to the global and from academics to people living in local communities. It gives prominence to moving beyond traditional forms of protest to dialogue between State and citizens to devise an alternative future, giving responsibility to both parties.
It identifies, and directs attention to, the most vulnerable and excluded groups of society.
It provides scope for moving beyond the traditional vision of rights and responsibilities of the State as against its citizens – to include previously “private” matters outside the concern of the State, such as domestic violence, mandating mutual respect for each other‘s rights. An RBA is also increasingly devising means to reach other non-State actors, such as transnational corporations.
2. How can you be sure that the “Rights based approach” is not just another buzzword?
First, it is important to confirm here that human rights are not simply another approach, to be replaced in a few years by another fad. If we look to the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood
It is clear that human rights are not a choice, but a commitment for all, and that they are part of every human being, from birth until death. They are founded on human dignity and enforced through our legal, political, social and cultural structures. While the term human rights itself is a relatively modern term and foreign to many, human dignity is valued across all cultures and people. Human rights are thus a modern means to protect human dignity. While the specific meaning of various human rights, their interpretation in different contexts and the obligations that they impose may differ over time and context, human rights as such are not a choice, nor are they negotiable.
Let us take a look at gender or participation. These were “buzz words” of recent years. Analysing the RBA, we see that both of these concepts are critical elements, developed and integrated within the framework. These have not been discarded, but rather the RBA continues to reflect on the weaknesses and holes in application of these concepts and to tighten the structure to ensure greater success in a holistic package.
3. Are your partners inspired to work with the RBA?
Partners have different responses to the RBA. Many immediately see the potential power and dynamism of the RBA. Others feel relevance in it as a concept but have difficulty in seeing how the concept translates into their work on a day-to-day level.
Many concerns are practical ones. Some express a lack of confidence in effectively using it, due to lack of training, experience or practical tools to help in applying it. Some have doubts based on fears that their church will not support it or they will feel negative consequences from the State, tribal Chiefs or others in positions of power.
Other have doubts about its ability to apply to the diverse contexts of development. For example, where there is no functioning State; where there is conflict; where strong cultural norms seem to stand in opposition to it. These are very complex areas which require creative and holistic strategies that respond to the local context. The need to be flexible and experiment with the RBA is clear, as is the fact that these are real issues that require further exploration and work in how the RBA can best be applied to create results for those in poverty.
Above all, it is clear that adapting to the RBA takes time. It is a process. It is about an underlying shift in the way we see others and ourselves. It is very confronting for all involved - and necessarily so - as it challenges the premises on which we all act and work, how participatory we are in our lives, how we overcome competitive environments to work together.
Nevertheless, as people work more and more with the RBA, they become comfortable with it and increasingly inspired. They are able to identify strengths and weaknesses in how it is being applied and effective entry points in their political, social and cultural context.
However, to say this is not to hide the immense difficulties in working with the RBA. These should not be underestimated. And in fact, looking at the enormity of what people are trying to achieve in realising human dignity for all - to change the fundamental structures and relationships of power that dictate peoples access to all kinds of resources and inclusion in society – the immensity of this struggle is clear. There are no illusions that this is anything but a long-term process of shaping and reshaping relationships of power.
4. How will the RBA help in the daily work of development workers?
The RBA provides clear and direct support to development workers, both in terms of the normative framework of the human rights paradigm and practical tools to use in development projects. The principles are translated into practical guidelines through human rights-based programming and related tools. These provide clear instructions on how to integrate a human rights-based approach into development work, extending across all stages of the program cycle: situation analysis, planning and setting priorities, implementation strategies, and monitoring and evaluation.
There is a danger however, in focusing excessively on tools, methods and indicators. What is most critical is the shift in mindset in each stage of the programme cycle. Thus development workers require a strong understanding of the principles of the RBA in order to internalise them in all aspects of their work.
Some examples of how the RBA helps are as follows:
- It provides a clear outline of who are rights-holders in each situation, who are the duty bearers, and what are their obligations. It then seeks to engage them and hold them to account. This includes a clear framework of the responsibilities of development workers and duties they are required to fulfil in working with partners in poverty eradication;
- It ensures that development workers identify and include the most vulnerable and excluded groups in development projects;
- It advances a broad scope of possible interventions, ensuring a holistic response - targeting different types of actors and partnerships, as well as different strategies, extending across all levels of society;
- It focuses on building partnerships and alliances for the protection and promotion of human rights;
- It centres on those partners that development workers seek to support in their work, seeking to transfer agency to them to make the process participatory in substance and to lead to the empowerment of partners;
- It targets relationships and structures of power, moving development to the political sphere;
- It prioritises identification of the root causes of poverty and strategising on means to remove them;
- It integrates the normative framework of the international human rights standards, providing legitimacy, drawing on practical guidelines and invoking existing monitoring mechanisms;
- It provides a lens, the RBA principles, through which all processes and actions are designed and implemented;
- It measures impact by the realisation of human rights of the targeted groups;
- It demands a long-term perspective, balancing meeting of immediate needs and longer term structural change and empowerment;
See resources for links to rights-based programming guidelines and tools!
5. Is equalinrights using existing networks?
Absolutely! This is something that we want to make very clear. Equalinrights is a facilitator that seeks to connect people to other people and information to help them to move forward in their struggle.
Equalinrights seeks to fill the current gap in services provided by human rights and development groups to offer support for organisations using rights-based strategies in the struggle against poverty. It thus tries to assist where others are not readily available and supports active human rights networks where they exist. It seeks to build on such networks, connecting outsiders to them and linking different networks where they see benefit in this.
In our own activities, Equalinrights always seeks to link its efforts with other networks and develop joint strategies towards achieving a common objective. It will not generally engage in substantive work on the content of specific economic, social and cultural rights. It will rather connect organisations seeking assistance on these issues with relevant experts.
6. How does equalinrights work locally? Can it be effective when it is based in the Netherlands?
In its preliminary stage, equalinrights feels it is important to be based in the Netherlands. This provides efficient and effective communication and access to networks at the international and national levels, enabling it to identify organisations and networks working strongly in this area as well as draw together existing and developing tools, resources and initiatives. Equalinright‘s proximity to its initial Steering Committee is also necessary in this first stage. We are seeking out others, based within different regions, to be part of the General Steering Committee, to guide and build on the work of equalinrights.
In the longer term, equalinrights will transfer its central office to an area in the economically developing world. This is based on the belief that it is important that equalinrights is centred in the heart of the fight it struggles for – poverty in terms of the structural non-implementation of human rights.
Being locally based is ultimately necessary to enable equalinrights to appreciate local dynamics and systems, and to operate from a deep understanding of the struggles confronting different groups. Equalinright‘s focus on upstream human rights further strengthens this position and demands primacy for supporting, building and connecting local efforts.
7. How can equalinrights assist groups that are not in a network and that need assistance?
Equalinrights can support organisations not in a network in the same way as it can support those organisations that are part of a network. Such support includes:
- Helping them to identify particular areas within their organisation that they want to develop and connecting them to people and resources that can help them advance in these areas. This may be general understanding of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights; how to prepare parallel reports for the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights; lobbying local governments for change; tracking budget expenditure for particular ESC rights; support in rights-based programming etc;
- Providing know-how and facilitating training of trainers on rights-based strategies and how they can be applied. For example, how to conduct a situation analysis from a human rights perspective; what kind of indicators to use to monitor progress and evaluate programs; what is required to really engage participation throughout your programs; different ways to use the human rights as legal and political tools creatively to effect change;
- Supporting in the development of programmess and strategies for implementation of rights-based strategies, as well as more generally deepening understanding of the rights based approach;
- Connecting them with other organisations within the region and beyond to discuss issues of urgent concern, to develop a broader understanding of the field and to exchange experiences;
- Providing access to best practices tool for rights-based strategies;
- Supporting the development of training materials where there is a gap in existing tools.
- Supporting research to help clarify and evolve pressing issues concerning rights-based strategies and the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, in the local and international contexts.
8. How real are human rights-based approaches considering that donors have imposed them?
While donors have certainly taken up the rights talk, we must recognise that much drive has also come from other circles. Human rights professionals, political scientists, anthropologists and most importantly many social, political and cultural struggles in the North and South have pushed for change in development practice. However, it is true that the formal evolution and application of the RBA has come in a downstream process. This means that it has come from international actors, human rights professionals, national agencies etc, rather than the people for whom it is in essence designed. This highlights the dire need for upstream human rights efforts.
For a RBA to be effective, it must recognise that rights are shaped through actual struggles informed by people‘s own determination of what they are justly entitled to. It must act on this premise.
So for us, it is not that RBA arose from donors, but that they increasingly moulded it to meet their needs or current limitations. Part of the struggle for a RBA is the challenge for donors to move beyond their underlying beliefs and practice. Thus, people must also hold donors accountable for their actions, and demand a role in defining what a RBA means throughout the development process.
There is another factor that has major implications around this issue. That is, the risk of donors watering down the RBA and using it as a tool to legitimise policies and programs they seek to impose. This is already evident in many circles and is significantly damaging people‘s perceptions and understanding of the RBA, as well as adding further confusion to debates on its meaning and value.
The challenge for donors is put power back in the hands of the people they claim to support: to tap into people‘s struggle and find a balance between allowing space for people to determine what is important for their livelihood and dignity and supporting and guiding them in achieving that.
