| dc.description.abstract | Rights based approaches (RBA) offer new perspectives
and solutions to traditional development projects.
This guide hopes to offer practical ideas and inspira tion to civil society organisations wanting to apply this
approach in their day-to-day work. Although we hope
that this publication may be of interest to a wider
range of those involved in development assistance,
the booklet is primarily aimed at staff and directors
of smaller organisations in countries challenged by
poverty. Since it is intended for people who are busy
doing, it has been kept short and simple and aims to
inspire rather than direct.
Many organisations are introduced to rights-based
development through the guidelines and policies of
their partner or donor agencies in a way that relates
to a specific subject or way of managing programmes.
This booklet offers a more generic model, which does
not take its outset in a specific mandate, strategy or
policy of an organisation. Human rights are relevant
in all regimes and cultures; and due to its embed dedness in universal norms and standards RBA lends
itself to some level of generality. However, local lives
and contexts should always be the point of departure
for development and rights-based approaches should
take different forms and focuses in different societies.
The generic format of this booklet challenges you, the
readers, to continuously seek to ‘apply’ this inspiratio nal guideline to your own organisation and context
allowing it to reflect your specific needs, interests and
concerns.
Guidelines and checklists will not transform society.
When reading this booklet, it is essential to keep the
basic impetus of RBA in sight: poverty as an injustice
imposed on people. RBA is flexible and it is possible
to be inspired by some elements, while finding others
too cumbersome or unproductive. RBA should, howe ver, always be addressed with sincerity, by adhering
to the basic human rights principles and with a focus
on the central goal of achieving justice. If not, there
is a real danger that both RBA and the human rights
vocabulary will become diluted as more organisations
flock to this approach. | en_US |
