Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies

Background

1. Since the reforms introduced by the United Nations Secretary-General in 1997, a major task for the United Nations, and in particular for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), has been to integrate human rights into the whole of the Organization's work, including the overarching development goal of poverty eradication. In 2001 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requested the Office of the High Commissioner "to develop substantive guidelines for the integration of human rights in national poverty reduction strategies". The present document is the outcome of that request.
2. Its objective is to provide practitioners involved in the design and implementation of poverty reduction strategies (PRS) with operational guidelines for the adoption of a human rights approach to poverty reduction. As it is widely accepted that poverty reduction strategies must be "country-owned", the project focuses on the preparation of operational guidelines for States that are integrating human rights into their poverty reduction strategies. However, it is hoped that the guidelines will also be of use to other actors - civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, the United Nations system and other international organizations - that are committed to the eradication of poverty.





Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction




3. The essential idea underlying the adoption of a human rights approach to poverty reduction is that policies and institutions for poverty reduction should be based explicitly on the norms and values set out in the international law of human rights. Whether explicit or implicit, norms and values shape policies and institutions. The human rights approach offers an explicit normative framework - that of international human rights. Underpinned by universally recognized moral values and reinforced by legal obligations, international human rights provide a compelling normative framework for the formulation of national and international policies, including poverty reduction strategies.
4. One reason why this framework is compelling in the context of poverty reduction is that the norms and values enshrined in it have the potential to empower the poor. It is now widely recognized that effective poverty reduction is not possible without empowerment of the poor. The human rights approach to poverty reduction is essentially about such empowerment.
5. The most fundamental way in which empowerment occurs is through the introduction of the concept of rights itself. Once this concept is introduced into the context of policy-making, the rationale of poverty reduction no longer derives merely from the fact that the poor have needs but also from the fact that they have rights - entitlements that give rise to legal obligations on the part of others. Poverty reduction then becomes more than charity, more than a moral obligation - it becomes a legal obligation. This recognition of the existence of legal entitlements of the poor and legal obligations of others towards them is the first step towards empowerment.
6. The obligations deriving from rights may be analysed by reference to the duties to respect, protect and fulfil. The duty to respect requires the duty-bearer not to breach directly or indirectly the enjoyment of any human right. The duty to protect requires the duty-bearer to take measures that prevent third parties from abusing the right. The duty to fulfil requires the duty-bearer to adopt appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures towards the full realization of human rights.
7. Most of the salient features of the human rights normative framework can contribute to the empowerment of the poor in one way or another. These features include the notion of accountability, the principles of universality, non-discrimination and equality, the principle of participatory decision-making processes, and recognition of the interdependence of rights. They are all essential characteristics of a human rights approach to poverty reduction....

Guideline 5: Participation and Empowerment

• As States have primary responsibility for fulfilling the human rights of the people living in their respective jurisdiction, it follows that any poverty reduction strategy must be a country-driven process. Country ownership should thus be an essential attribute of any poverty reduction strategy.
• However, country ownership should not be interpreted narrowly to mean ownership on the part of the Government alone. The strategy has to be owned by all relevant stakeholders within the country, including the poor. This can only be possible, however, when all stakeholders, including the poor, participate effectively in all stages of the process.
• Active and informed participation by the poor is not only consistent with, but also demanded by, the rights-based approach because the international human rights normative framework affirms the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs.
• One may distinguish four stages of participation: preference revelation; policy choice;implementation; and monitoring, assessment and accountability.
• The stage of preference revelation is the initial stage of any process of policy formulation. Before policies can be formulated, people must be enabled to express what their preferences are, i.e. what objectives they want to achieve.
• The stage of policy choice refers to the stage at which policies are formulated and decisions taken regarding the allocation of resources among alternative uses. As different patterns of resource allocation will serve the interests of different groups of people differently, a conflict of interest is inherent in any process of policy formulation. In whose favour this conflict is resolved depends very much on who can participate effectively in the process. Traditionally, the poor are left out, as they do not possess enough political or financial power to make their interests count. A human rights approach must take steps to alter this situation, by creating a legal- institutional framework in which the poor can participate effectively in policy formulation.
• The point is not that the poor should take part in all the technical deliberations that underlie policy formulation. But they must be allowed to take part in the process of setting priorities and benchmarks that will guide such deliberations. In practice, this means that when alternative policy options are being explored by experts, the implications of these options for the interests of various population groups must be made transparent to the general public, including the poor, so that they can have an opportunity to argue for the options that serve their interests best.
• Although the implementation of policies is primarily the responsibility of the executive arm of the State, opportunities must be created to enable the poor to exercise their right to participate in the implementation stage as well. Such opportunities are more likely to arise in community-level activities, which in turn are more likely to flourish within an institutional framework of representative local government. Decentralization of government and a deepening of democracy are therefore essential components of the human rights approach to poverty reduction.
• The final stage of participation is the stage of monitoring and assessment of the success or failure of policies so that the State and other duty-bearers can be held accountable for their obligations. It is an essential feature of the human rights approach that the people who are affected by policies are able to participate in monitoring and assessing their success or failure and then take part in the procedures for holding the duty-bearers accountable. Appropriate institutional arrangements are needed for such participation to be possible. (This issue is discussed further in Section III on Implementation, Monitoring and Accountability.)
• It is not enough for the poor merely to participate in decision-making processes; they must be able to participate effectively. In order to ensure this, two sets of preconditions have to be satisfied.
• First, while the practice of democracy is an essential precondition for the enjoyment of the right to participate, electoral democracy is not all that is needed. Devising specific mechanisms and detailed institutional arrangements through which the poor can effectively participate at different stages of decision- making is an essential component of the human rights approach to poverty reduction.
• The second precondition is empowerment of the poor themselves so as to make theirparticipation effective. In part, this empowerment will depend on the realization of a minimum degree of economic security without which the poor are unlikely to be able to resist established structures that perpetuate their poverty. Capacity-building activities are also essential in order to empower the poor. Human rights education can play an effective role in this process.
• In addition, however, empowerment requires simultaneous efforts to promote a range of other human rights. For example, if the poor are to be empowered to participate meaningfully in the conduct of public affairs, they must be free to organize without restriction (right of association), to meet without impediment (right of assembly), to say what they want to without intimidation (freedom of expression) and to know the relevant facts (right to information). Furthermore, poor people must be allowed to receive support from sympathetic civil society organizations (including the media) that might be willing to champion their cause. For this to be possible, the State must create the necessary legal and institutional framework in which an independent civil society can flourish. (See Guideline 14 on political rights and freedoms.)...