Handbook in human rights assessment : state obligations awareness & empowerment

The major goal of Norwegian development cooperation
is to contribute to the improvement of economic,
social, and political conditions in developing countries with
particular emphasis on poverty alleviation. Moreover, the
Norwegian Parliament has singled out the promotion of
human rights as one among several target areas within this
field of activity. Priority is given to enhancing the rights of
women, children, the disabled and indigenous people.
The Government's Plan of Action on Human Rights
launched in December 1999 states that «peace, democracy
and respect for human rights are fundamental conditions
for sustainable development. Consequently, these
components must be built into development co-operation
both globally and with each partner country». NORAD's
strategy 2000-2005 outlines that; «human rights are
essential components of the development co-operation
effort and that human rights treaties shall serve as a
common denominator for the dialogue between Norway
and its partner countries.» In this way the two documents
introduces a rights based approach to development.
To implement this policy, issues related to human
rights are addressed in policy dialogue with partner
countries. Emphasis is placed on the need to consolidate
legal framework by means of reform of domestic
legislation and adherence to international human rights
treaties. Furthermore, support is provided to initiatives
which main aim is to enhance and promote human rights, such as ombudsman institutions, independent judiciary,
free media, democratic elections etc. Finally, efforts are
made to mainstream human rights into other programme
areas. The latter is the approach to be further elaborated in
this handbook.
In this context mainstreaming implies that the manner
in which development co-operation is carried out pay due
regard to respecting and promoting human rights. A
cornerstone in this approach is the active free and
meaningful participation of the beneficiaries as lined out in
the UN Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986.
So far, we have gained only little operational experience
with this approach. The handbook therefore aims at
providing the user with a practical tool for enhancing the
human rights profile of development programmes.
NORAD's Technical Department would welcome any
comment, advise or suggestion which could contribute at
improving the modality in future editions.