1. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
The Rights-based Municipal Assessment and Planning Project (RMAP) in Bosnia Herzegovina
Methodology for Human Rights-based Assessment and Analysis: Framework, Tools, Added Value and Challenges
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

2. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
What is RMAP?
Joint initiative of OHCHR/UNDP with Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees.
Why it all started? BiH context: lack of data
Ultimate objective = improvement in enjoyment of human rights at local level (see UN Common Understanding point 1)
Pilot project with 2 phases:
Phase 1: Assessment + analysis of 18 municipalities so far from HRB approach
Phase 2: Development planning based on RMAP reports (1st round just finished – 4 municipalities)
Practically: RMAP Project Management team (UNDP), 6 teams in the field (2 for assessment, 4 for planning). OHCHR’s involvement in assessment only.
Involvement of MHRR sought to ensure national ownership of project and to give the authority needed to send assessment teams to Municipalities and secure their co-operation.
Planning Phase was formulated due to unforeseen co-op of Mun. authorities.
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

3. Methodology for A&A: overview
Methodological framework for human rights-based assessment and analysis: makes explicit reference to international Human Rights Standards and Principles.
Tools: complementary to each other, for each step of A&A.
Forthcoming product: Consolidated Tools Package
Teams and Training
See UN Common Understanding:
2. Human rights standards contained in, and principles derived from, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments guide all development cooperation and programming in all sectors and in all phases of the programming process.
Methodology requires knowledge of IHRL. Tools support teams, yet training required.
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

4. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Tools: overview
Human Rights Checklists
Vulnerable Groups List
Civil Society Organisations List
Gender List
The ‘Diokno Tools of Analysis’, summarised in a HRB Analysis Chart and a Brainstorming Grid
HRB Quality Assurance Checklist for reports
(short HR glossary)
All tools developed by RMAP except Diokno Tools of Analysis, based on “Human Rights centered Development, Theory and Practice”, Maria Socorro Diokno – Tools of Analysis chapter
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

5. Tools: Human Rights Checklists
15 checklists, by rights or sectors – public administration, justice, right to work, right to education, to health, to social protection.
Elaborate on main aspects of each right, DB’s obligations and CH entitlements
Reference guide to relevant rights (compilation standards) all along the process
Basis to identify rights affected and develop specific HRB indicators/questions
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

6. Tools: Vulnerable Groups List
Women (incl. female heads of households, victims of domestic violence)
Persons with disabilities
National minorities
Roma
IDPs/returnees/refugees
Children
Elderly
Trafficked Persons
Migrant workers and asylum seekers
Detainees
HIV Positive individuals
Homosexuals
Very poor/homeless
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

7. Tools: 2 rights-based Questions/Indicators Lists
CSOs List
Structure, objectives, mandate
Activities (HR protection and promotion, advocacy, capacity building of CH and DB)
Relationship CSOs and State (freedom of association, participation in public life, partnership with government)
Capacity of CSOs
CSOs and media
Gender List
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

8. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
6 major steps for A&A
Step 1: identify problems and human rights affected
Step 2: set priorities
Step 3: identify actors (claim holders, duty bearers, forces at work)
Step 4: Information collection (set HRB indicators and identify sources of information)
Step 5: Analysis
Step 6: Report drafting
Note: Those steps are not mechanistic, and lines between them are blurred. E.g. causal analysis starts before step 5.
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

9. Step 1: Identify problems and human rights affected
Preliminary step: gather baseline information to get a general picture of the situation in the municipality (desk review)
Identify problems:
What are the prevailing problems/issues that have impact on people’s lives and the enjoyment of their rights?
E.g. Specific groups do not have health insurance in Bratunac
Identify human rights affected:
Which right(s) is/are affected or denied?
Identify entitlements and obligations
Assess how the HR are protected in domestic legal framework
E.g. Right to affordable health care
Problems and rights identification need to be conducted at the same time, as human rights are the lense through which questions are asked and problems identified – sometimes a human rights problem is directly identified (eg discriminatory access to public service), and sometimes one assesses the impact on hr (e.g. bad economy: right to work)
Importance of knowing which HR could potentially be affected, before starting the assessment. If problems are identified first and then only comes link to HR, there is a possibility to actually miss out a few problems or vuln. Groups. So one needs to use the HR checklists and vuln. Groups List in conjunction with participatory approaches.
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

10. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Step 1 cont…
Note: also identify best practices, where HR are actually protected and promoted!
Main tools: HR Checklists, vulnerable groups list, in conjunction to participatory approaches, in order not to miss out any issue or vulnerable groups.
E.g. Roma
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

11. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Step 2: Set priorities
Why is it a problem?
Who is affected by problem and how?
Whose priorities is it? Why?
Which rights and whose rights are affected by the problem?
Who are the most affected among them (attention to vulnerable groups)?
E.g people (out of ) not insured in Bratunac
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

12. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Step 3: Identify Actors
Identify Claim Holders (CH):
Who are CH?
e.g. farmers, returnees, workers
Who are the most vulnerable?
E.g. elderly farmers, who cannot register at unemployment bureau
E.g. older returnees who have more difficult access to information regarding possibilities of registering for health insurance upon place of return
Identify Duty Bearers (DB):
Who (and at which level of authority –municipality/Cantons/entities/State) has the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the rights identified?
E.g. RS Health Insurance Fund, Tax Office (inspection bodies)
Identify Forces at Work:
Which are the forces affecting problem, CH and/or DB?
E.g. enterprises not paying contributions
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

13. Step 4: Information collection
Set HRB indicators
With reference to HR principles and based on essential elements of relevant rights
E.g. is health care affordable? Are people covered by health insurance? Are there certain services they have to pay even if insured? How much self-employed (e.g. farmers) have to pay for h. insurance? Is that affordable given average bread basket?
Main tools: HR Checklists, 3 indicators/questions lists
Identify / contact sources of information
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

14. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Step 5: Analysis
Causal analysis of problems identified
E.g. Unpaid contributions by enterprises to the health fund
E.g. Lack of implementation of monitoring mechanisms
e.g. Lack of information of CH (spec. Returnees/farmers) about their rights to health insurance
Capacity analysis of DB and CH: Swot analysis, incl. vulnerability analysis (CH)
B.1. CH analysis – focus trained on ability to:
seek and access information
Organise
Participate in public life
Mobilise resources, a
Advocate
Seek, claim and obtain redress
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

15. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Analysis cont.
E.g. returnees/older persons: lack of information
E.g. farmers: financial resources (40KM monthly tax)/ legal requirement (taxpayer/land registration)
B.2. DB analysis – “capacity” in terms of:
Authority
Responsibility
Resources
Communication
E.g. lack of human resources in monitoring mechanisms, lack of will to monitor
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

16. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Analysis - final
“Gap analysis”
of the existing gap between Int’l standards and the reality (problems identified in domestic legal framework or its implementation, and capacity gaps).
Map out Entitlements and Obligations:
E.g. Everyone is entitled to access to health care services, and this includes valid health insurance
Authorities are obliged to establish an effective system of health protection and ensures the economic accessibility of health for persons currently left out of the health insurance scheme
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

17. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Step 6 : Drafting report
Problems and causes
DB, CH and Forces at Work
« Gaps » between int’l standards and reality explained
Obligations, entitlements and responsibilities attributed in accordance to IHRL and dom. legal framework
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

18. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Report cont.
Note: Rights to be explained in plain language but explicitly (with exact provision in footnote)
Main tools: HRB Quality Assurance Checklist for reports and HR Checklists
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

19. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Added Value
Helps to identify problems that might be overlooked – e.g. domestic violence
Direct attention to the most vulnerable groups – e.g. Roma or civilian war victims
Capacity-building/empowerment - explaining what the content of specific rights means in plain language:
helps improve the understanding of both CH and DB of what HR are
makes their practical value more apparent – basis for claims
Helps depoliticise problems – e.g. ethnicity of doctors, or the cross in the municipality (freedom of religion)
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

20. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Added Value cont…
Accountability: makes arguments more powerful under IHRL and domestic law - reference to HR is not necessarily ‘scary’:
Importance of context: Elements specific to BiH in favour of such approach:
a) Human rights aware population and authorities
b) National legal and political requirements - ECHR supersedes national law + EU accession
Objective of HRB assessments: development, not judgment – openness of municipalities to cooperate
Set up and clarify performance standards to guide future planning (detailed guidance on minimum obligations of DB)
Results?! Allow for more sound programming…
EXAMPLE MINIMUM OBLIGATIONS – RIGHT TO EDUCATION:
Ensure the right to compulsory primary school free of charge
Develop a detailed plan of action for the progressive implementation of the right to compulsory and free primary schooling, within a reasonable number of years, to be fixed in the plan, of the principle of compulsory education free of charge for all.
Adopt and implement a national educational strategy which includes the provision of secondary, higher and fundamental education in accordance with the Covenant.
Take steps to ensure fundamental education is available. Curricula and delivery systems must be devised which are suitable for students of all ages
Educational data should be disaggregated by the prohibited grounds of discrimination.
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

21. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Challenges…
Debate on which HRBA to choose and why
Accountability issue
Difficulties in developing a methodology with direct linkage to international HR standards:
in terms of tools (esp. indicators)
in terms of capacity (both HQ and teams)
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop

22. Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop
Challenges - final
IF… (a) a HRB assessment is not a HR assessment and (b) a HRBA to development is bigger than the sum of its parts (HR and development), then: How to integrate a development framework/indicators with a HR framework:
Integrated methodology required – shortfall of RMAP?!
E.g. Need for rights-based development indicators…
In light of the above, more interagency cooperation in development of methodology required.
Laure-Anne Courdesse, UNOHCHR 01/10/04, BRC Workshop