Carr Center > Measurement & Human Rights > Projects > R2development
Expert meeting
The Measurement and Human Rights Program of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Program on Human Rights in Development at the Harvard School of Public Health and The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) are hosting a conference of specialists to assess, compare and identify innovative methodological approaches for the development and refinement of tools for measuring compliance with the right to development, and thus contribute to the operationalization of this right. The final product will involve a publication and eventual submission to the highest human rights policy organs of the United Nations, the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.
The right to development is both a contentious political issue and a framework for improving the quality of development, which is taken seriously by many governments, international institutions, and scholars, although it is considered hopelessly mired in global politics by others.
The workshop will assess, compare and identify innovative methodological approaches for the development and refinement of tools for measuring compliance with the right to development. The outcome of the workshop should also contribute to the scholarly literature on the relationship between development and human rights and to the rethinking of the policy tools of national governments and development agencies.
The meeting will focus on on progressive development and refinement of the right to development criteria. The right to development criteria were elaborated by the high-level task force established to support UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the implementation of the right to development. The criteria were applied on a pilot-basis to selected global development partnerships under MDG 8. At its last session in August 2008, the Working Group requested the task force to draw on the necessary expertise to:
Essential to the success of this framework as a practical tool rather than political posturing is the clarification of what is expected of states and other stakeholders in development, and the effectiveness of evaluative tools to assess compliance with those expectations.
Andrea Rossi, Director Measurement and Human Rights Program
Stephen Marks, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the High Level Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on the Right to Development |
