Human rights and justice in Europe & CIS

Human Rights Based Approach

A HRBA offers a coherent framework for development assistance, placing people at the core. It translates needs into rights. This is significant because rights imply responsibilities and raises the question of who has the charge for respecting, protecting, promoting and fulfilling these rights. It is distinguished from a needs approach, which is motivated by compassion directed to passive recipients, without reference to who might otherwise have responsibilities.

Development activities, however well-intended, have not always been carried out in a manner respectful of human rights. The UN's 'Common Understanding" of a human rights based approach now factor human rights claims and obligations explicitly into the development cooperation framework. It treats development issues as matters of obligation and rights, rather than discretion or charity. It focuses on raising levels of accountability in the development process by identifying rights-holders (and their entitlements) and corresponding duty-holders (and their obligations).

The UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre works on strengthening the capacity of governments, civil society counter parts and UNDP staff in the region to apply a HRBA to development programming. This is done through several activities, such as mapping UNDP projects that apply a HRBA in the region, supporting the implementation of pilot projects, conducting advisory missions and organizing project setup and cooperation with Country offices.

Project document: Umbrella Human rights and Justice project

Events:  Making Human Rights Work

The first full-fledged meeting of the human rights and justice Community of Practice (CoP) in Europe and the CIS, held in Prague on 25-26 November, brought together some 30 practitioners from 14 countires in the region. They were joined by counterparts from the Latin American and Caribbean region and from the Asia-Pacific region to share other regional experiences and from HURIST, UNDP New York and the Geneva offices to provide updates on corporate policy-reform initiatives. (The list of participants is Rights-Based Approach to Development Programming in Europe and the CIS". Meetings on this theme have taken place in other regions, notably in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Asia-Pacific. In the Europe and CIS region, the theme had only been touched upon during CoP meetings on National Human Rights Institutions where it had been requested that such a CoP meeting on Human Rights and Justice be convened.

Links:

Guidelines and toolkits on Human Rights 

Contacts

Louise Nylin, Analyst of Regional Program, UNDP Bratislava, louise.nylin@undp.org
Tel: (421 2) 59337316

Ilona Mikoczy, UNDP Bratislava, ilona.mikoczy@undp.org