Human rights

DFID rights update

This page of the GSDRC topic guide on human rights and development includes news on DFID's work on rights, and highlights some of the latest events, policy statements and DFID-commissioned studies.

Highlighted documents

The recent UK Government policy paper puts forward new thinking on conditionality in development assistance, and establishes a shared respect for human rights as one of the three objectives underpinning the UK's development partnerships. Guidelines on implementing the new conditionality policy are forthcoming, and will include guidance on the human rights aspects of the policy.

UK Government, 2005, 'Partnerships for Poverty Reduction: Rethinking Conditionality. A UK Policy Paper', DFID, FCO and HM Treasury, UK Government, London
In recent years the UK has been moving away from traditional approaches to conditionality. This paper sets out the current UK government's position on effective aid partnerships. Produced jointly by the Department for International Development (DFID), HM Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, it is based on a broad range of international experience and evidence. While good policy matters for development, it has proven ineffective for donors to impose policies on developing country governments. Donors should support countries to decide what policies should be included in poverty reduction plans.
Access full text: available online

The following DFID-commissioned review is one of the most thorough studies of a donor's progress in integrating human rights into its work. It also provides detailed information on a wide range of DFID country programmes that have integrated human rights in different ways

Piron, L. and Watkins, F., 2004, 'DFID Human Rights Review. A Review of How DFID has Integrated Human Rights into its Work', ODI, London
What lessons can be learned from the UK Department for International Development (DFID)’s human rights work in a range of sectors and initiatives, particularly at the country level? How can human rights make a contribution to poverty reduction? This paper from DFID’s Reaching the Very Poorest Team in the Policy Division documents DFID’s human rights activities in a number of domains. It is designed to serve as a reference document, and contains a number of practical recommendations.
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Executive summary also available online

In early 2005, DFID supported the ODI's Rights in Action group to hold a series of seminars to explore the operational value of human rights for poverty reduction. Topics included donor accountability, HIV and AIDS, fragile states, legal enforcement of economic and social rights and access to water and sanitation. A number of background papers were commissioned to inform the seminar series:

ODI Rights in Action Seminar Series

Short reports on each of the seminars and background papers are available on the ODI website.

DFID recently commissioned a study to collate and review the practical guidance on rights produced by development organisations.

Filmer-Wilson, E., 2005, 'Practical Guidance to Implementing Rights Based Approaches, Human Rights Analyses for Poverty Reduction and Human Rights Benchmarks' Report prepared for the Department for International Development (DFID), London
To what extent are human rights being incorporated into development programmes? How can a human rights-based approach best be developed? This report, by the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID), brings together material collated from development organisations in four key areas: practical guidance on rights-based approaches, including case studies and checklists; analytical tools which feature human rights for understanding the causes and characteristics of poverty; human rights impact assessment; and human rights indicators to measure development progress.
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New additions