Carr Center > Measurement & Human Rights > Projects > R2development
HIGH-LEVEL EXPERT CONSULTATION Bell Hall-5th Floor Belfer Building Cambridge, MA, USA,
I. BACKGROUND The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in collaboration with the Measurement and Human Rights Program (MHRP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Program on Human Rights in Development (HRID) of the Harvard School of Public Health, is organizing a high-level expert meeting on the elaboration of the criteria and corresponding sub-criteria [as well as indicators] with the view to implementing the relevant provisions of the above-mentioned resolutions. The conference will take place on 17-18 December 2009 at the Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge MA.
II. OBJECTIVES The main objective of the high-level expert meeting is to facilitate the elaboration of a list of RTD criteria and corresponding sub-criteria [as well as indicators] in a manner that should meet the following expectations of Member States: The criteria and sub-criteria should address the essential features of the right to development, as defined in the Declaration on the Right to Development, in a comprehensive and coherent way, including priority concerns of the international community beyond those enumerated in Millennium Development Goal 8, and serve the purposes set out in all relevant provisions of Human Rights Council resolution 9/3 (Report of the Working Group on the Right to Development on its tenth session (Geneva, 22-26 June 2009), A/HRC/12/28, para. 45).
Any review of the proposed criteria should aim at elaborating a comprehensive and coherent set of right to development standards that could eventually take various forms, including guidelines on the implementation of the right to development, and evolve into a basis for consideration of an international legal standard of a binding nature, through a collaborative process of engagement. (HRC Resolution 9/3, para. 2(d))
Beyond the deliberations of the Working Group and the Human Rights Council, the ultimate beneficiaries of this event include individuals and communities, particularly in the developing countries, who will have a better opportunity to enjoy their right to development as a result of the outcome of the intergovernmental deliberations and decision, which will be informed by the RTD criteria, operational sub-criteria and indicators emanating from the expert meeting. This event will be of immediate benefit to those who deal with development and human rights with the international institutions and the academic community in all regions by providing them with a clearer understanding of what can and cannot be measured regarding the implementation of the RTD and how to develop and apply appropriate tools of measurement. The event will also advance and strengthen the thematic expertise and understanding of the linkage between human rights and measurement, and provide leadership and guidance in the methodology of human rights measurement.
III. PARTICIPANTS AND OUTCOMES The expert meeting will draw together members of the Task Force, development economists from international from institutions and universities, and other specialists with expertise in human rights, development and quantitative and qualitative measurement. It will examine the draft version of the RTD criteria, operational sub-criteria and indicators to be presented by two OHCHR consultants and formulate recommendations for their improvement. The specific outcomes of this activity are: the development of the RTD criteria, corresponding sub-criteria and indicators which would meet the expectations of the intergovernmental Working Group and the Human Rights Council as outlined in Council resolutions 4/4, 9/3 and 12/23, and a report on the meeting for consideration by the Task Force at its annual meeting in January 2010.
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