Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

EU commitment to promote and protect Human Rights

The EU is founded on a strong commitment to promote and protect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. In line with the 2019-2024 strategic agenda adopted by the European Council and the 2019-2024 political guidelines for the European Commission, the EU has a strategic interest in advancing its global leadership on human rights and democracy with the aim of bringing tangible benefits to people around the world.

The EU and its Member States will implement a rights-based approach to development cooperation, encompassing all human rights. They will promote inclusion and participation, non-discrimination, equality and equity, transparency, and accountability. The EU and its Member States will continue to play a key role in ensuring that no-one is left behind, wherever people live and regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation and gender identity, migration status or other factors. This approach includes addressing the multiple discriminations faced by vulnerable people and marginalised groups.

European Consensus on Development, Art. 16

Since the adoption of the EU strategic framework on human rights and democracy in 2012, the first two EU action plans on human rights and democracy (2012 -2014 and 2015 -2019), the appointment of the first EU Special Representative for Human Rights (EUSR) and the 2019 Council conclusions on democracy, the EU has become more coordinated, active, visible and effective in its engagement in and with third countries and more prominently engaged at multilateral level.

The new Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024 sets out the EU’s ambitions and priorities for concrete action for the next five years in the field of external relations. In line with EU GAP III, the Action Plans reaffirms EU and Member States’ commitment to promote women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of human rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as a priority across all areas of action. It also underlines the fundamental role played by an independent civil society, an enabling civic space and the support and protection of human rights defenders.

The Action Plan stresses once more the relevance of applying a rights-based approach (RBA) across EU bilateral and regional cooperation, including TEI and joint programming processes. Gender equality is an integral part of the RBA, encompassing the promotion, protection, and fulfilment of all human rights (See Annex 11). Since 2017, with the adoption of the new European Consensus for Development in June 2017, the EU and its Member States committed to implementing an RBA.

Human Rights based Approach (HRBA): the fundamentals.

HRBA is a working methodology based on internationally recognised human rights and which aims to promote and protect human rights in practice. It integrates the norms, standards, and principles of international human rights law into the plans, policies and processes of development programmes and projects. It applies to all sectors, all modalities, and each step of the project cycle: identification, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Within the framework of an HRBA, target groups are considered ‘rights-holders’ with legal entitlements, and government institutions are ‘duty-bearers’, with the obligation to promote, protect and respect people’s human rights. Applying an HRBA to development cooperation should strengthen ‘rights-holders’ to claim their rights and ‘duty-bearers’ to meet their obligations.

The following elements are necessary to apply a rights-based approach to development:

• Assessment and analysis to identify the human rights claims of rights-holders and the corresponding human rights obligations of duty-bearers as well as the immediate, underlying, and structural causes of the non-fulfilment of rights.
• Programmes and projects to assess the capacity of rights-holders to claim their rights and of duty-bearers to fulfil their obligations and to develop strategies to build these capacities.

At the heart of an HRBA is the recognition that unequal power relations and social exclusion deny people their human rights and often keep them in poverty. The approach therefore puts strong emphasis on people living in marginalised, disadvantaged, and excluded situations. The HRBA methodology also reminds us that development interventions can have an unintended negative impact in terms of human rights, such as by disadvantaging certain groups, interfering with participation rights and labour rights or contributing to forced displacement. It is therefore important to abide by the ‘do no harm’ principle and carry out the required analysis and mitigation. Moreover, the HRBA working methodology recognises that pursuing human rights objectives is not, in itself, enough. The way these objectives are achieved is equally important. Programmes therefore monitor and evaluate both outcomes and processes.

Human Rights based Approach (HRBA): the five principles.

RBA is underpinned by five working principles to be followed throughout the programme cycle:

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• Applying all rights (legality, universality, and indivisibility of human rights) - Human rights are universal, inalienable, and indivisible - all human rights, whether economic, political, civil, cultural or social, are of equal validity and importance.
• In practice: Make the link to the human rights system and use its products (reports, concluding observations, recommendations, etc.) to inform programming: How are human rights standards from treaties or laws – and related recommendations – identified in strategies and used to advance the intended project and programme outcomes (or how could they be)?
• Participation and access to the decision-making process - Participation is the basis for active citizenship. Active, free and meaningful participation is both a means and an end in itself.
• In practice: Make sure that participation is more than consultation or a technical step in project preparation. Do rights holders participate in a meaningful way? Are there opportunities for them to influence strategies and the intended outcomes of the intervention?
• Non-discrimination and equal access - Activities must prioritise the people living in the most marginalised situations and avoid contributing to established patterns of discrimination.
• In practice: Who are the rights holders? Have they been considered in designing the contribution? Is there unjustified formal or de facto restriction or prevention of particular groups’ access to resources or services or of their participation in decision-making processes? Have efforts been made to include the most marginalised? Is the development intervention accessible for persons with disabilities¹⁶⁸ and have efforts been made to ensure equal participation of persons with disabilities¹⁶⁹?
• Accountability and access to the rule of law - Activities must promote accessible, transparent, and effective mechanisms of accountability.
• In practice: Who are the duty-bearers? Which powers and capacities do they have (and not have) to advance their human rights obligations? Is the proposed initiative accountable towards the rights-holders? Violations need to be prosecuted and victims have the right to adequate redress.
• Transparency and access to information - Activities must be transparent, with information made available in accessible formats (i.e. in local languages). Transparency is paramount for ensuring the application of the other working principles; without transparency it is not possible to achieve accountability and participation will not be meaningful.

In practice: Is information available in an accessible way to all stakeholders (people involved in the activities)? Are rights holders able to participate in meetings and processes where issues that affect them are discussed?

Human Rights based Approach (HRBA): the toolbox.

The HRBA must be applied in each step of Team Europe approach cycle (from identification to formulation of the Joint Intervention Logic/Joint Response, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation). The HRBA checklist developed in the framework of the HRBA toolbox can help and support EU staff and all stakeholders involved in this process. It consists of a list of questions/elements to guide the implementation of an HRBA in all EU development programmes and projects.

168 In line with the EU’s obligation under Article 32 of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities 169 In line with EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030, and Guidance Note on Disability inclusion in EU external action