Frequently Asked Questions on Human Rights-Based Approach

Through strengthening access-to-justice componentswithin development policies and programmes, startingwith strengthening capacities for data collection andanalysis, monitoring, and ensuring accessible avenues(formal and informal) for redress when rights areviolated. Human rights education and redress mechanismscan be set up as part of development projects,to raise human rights awareness and provide an openand constructive means of channelling grievances andresolving disputes.By encouraging alternative law groups, paralegalsand related civil society organizations to help mediateconflicts, assist people in their interactions withthe law and facilitate dealings with bureaucraticprocesses. Paralegals and mediators have helpedto resolve competing claims over landownership andland use in many countries, for example betweenbeneficiaries of agrarian reform and landowners.Where support is targeted to certain groups at theexpense of others, particularly in post-conflict scenarios,the risks of violent conflict must be factoredin at the outset and the interests of other groupsaccommodated as far as feasible.The “best interests of the child” principle (Conventionon the Rights of the Child, art. 3) is a mediating principleto help resolve conflicts involving children’s rights.It can help address clashes between children’s rightsand parental responsibilities on access to health careor schooling, for example.It is now generally recognized that sustainable human developmentmay be difficult to achieve without addressing powerimbalances that prejudice particular groups of people andopening up space for public dialogue.A human rights-based approach compels a fuller appreciationof the political dimensions of development.Programming is thus directed to supporting States inidentifying the root causes of the non-realization of humanrights—entrenched patterns of discrimination, clientelismand poor governance—and in addressing them. This callsfor a better understanding of the authority, motivationand resources required to produce social change, involvingawareness-raising, advocacy, social mobilization andempowerment over and above more traditional capacity-buildingand service delivery. Broad alliances and newpartnerships may be needed to address such challenges,finding a workable balance between constructive engagementwith national partners and, where needed, principledadvocacy.20 Does a human rights-basedapproach require United Nationsdevelopment agencies to engagein partisan politics?No. The United Nations cooperation system has a mandateand a role to provide non-partisan policy advice and programmingsupport.However, development and politics are inextricably linked.Development actors have often been accused of approachingdevelopment problems from an artificially technocraticperspective, downplaying or overlooking the political factors.20