1. TWELVE KEY POINTS IN RELATION TO A HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH (HRBA)
Urban Jonsson
The Owls

2. A Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) is based on the recognition of a pattern of human rights in society, i.e. human rights relationships between right-holders with valid claims on duty-bearers with correlative obligations or duties to respect, protect and fulfil the rights. The claim-holder is the subject of the rights and the duty-bearer is the object of the right.

3. The state is most often the ultimate duty-bearer, but there are also non-state duty-bearers. Rights are totally different from ‘needs’ or ‘entitlements’, which lack any duty-bearers. It is important to appreciate that ‘duty-bearer’ and ‘claim-holder’ are roles into which individuals or groups may enter.

4. 2. Human rights has a moral and a legal aspect
2. Human rights has a moral and a legal aspect. The moral values are not specifically European, but are found in most major cultures and religions in the world. The legal aspect comes from the United Nations Charter, elaborated in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the two Covenants and the seven Human Rights Conventions.

5. 3. Development consists of a desirable outcome through a legitimate process. In a HRBA to development human rights standards define the desirable outcome and human rights principles the legitimacy of the process. Both outcome and process must be relevant in the international human rights framework. In that sense human rights have a moral and a legal aspect.

6. 4. The Aid Effectiveness Agenda and the Human Rights Agenda have so far become two competing paradigms in current development cooperation. While the first gets its strengths from the Paris Declaration, the second gets its strength from the UN Common Understanding on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation.

7. 4. There is an urgent need to reconcile the two agendas, by moving beyond the first agenda’s focus on aid effectiveness to focus on development effectiveness, with development defined in human rights terms. This is probably easiest in a programme-based approach (PBA).

8. 5. It is important to understand the difference between a right and a privilege. Rights are universal and inalienable, while privileges never are universal and can be taken away at any time. The achievement of a desirable human rights standard-relevant outcome, say basic education, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the realisation of the corresponding right,’ i.e. the right to basic education.

9. 5. If the process used does not ensure sustainability in its broadest sense, the achievement of the outcome may just be a temporary privilege. This is why the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should not be taken out of the context of the Millennium Declaration, which stipulates a process guided by democracy and human rights.

10. 6. A HRBA rules out some trade-offs (a situation that involves losing one quality or aspect of something in return for gaining another quality or aspect), which are acceptable in conventional development approaches; promotes the rule of law (reducing impunity and corruption, and increasing the social access to justice

11. 6. A HRBA gives more attention to exclusion, disparities and injustice, and addresses the basic causes of problems; gives more attention to legal and institutional reforms and national policy review; and finally can be used to challenge power.

12. 7. Defining and operationalising the accountability of duty-bearers is essential for the practical application of HRBAP. How accountability is operationalized depends on programme issues, level of programming and country context. Greater accountability leads to certain changes in societies, communities and families.

13. 7. Accountabilities should be established by setting human rights-based criteria (standards and principles) for service provision and government institutions practices. The state should be held accountable for meting the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil all the human rights enshrined in the treaties ratified by the state.

14. 8. A human rights relationship between a claim-holder (subject) and a duty-bearer (object) often reflects unequal power relations, which may have far-reaching implications not only for accountability, but also for participation, equality and indivisibility. Equality may mean equality of opportunities or equality of results.

15. 9. There is an international human rights monitoring system in place, with obligatory regular reporting by ratifying states to the Treaty Monitoring Bodies in Geneva that after review issues Concluding Observations. These observations should be used in country level dialogue and policy and programme development. It is important that the MDG reporting system includes human rights assessments in the MDG Reports.

16. 10.Both Outcome and Process should be included in national monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes. The value of any monitoring system is determined by the degree to which it provides information that is being used for improved decision making. It is important not to replace existing monitoring bodies, but rather build on what already exists.

17. 11.A HRBA to Development employs simultaneously top-down advocacy and awareness raising approaches and bottom-up approaches driven by the valid claims or demands of the claim-holders. It is the very synergy of these that makes the difference. Civil society organisations can play a very decisive role in this empowerment.

18. 12.According to international human rights law, as far as ESCR are concerned, countries are obliged to take steps to the maximum use of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the treatise by all appropriate means.

19. 12.In the analysis of the capacity gaps of duty-bearers, it is therefore important to determine whether resource allocations are adequate and consistent with the State’s obligations under international law.