Slovenia "Non-Human Rights-based development leads to conflict in crisis"

Project : GREAT 2 Nov 2009 |

Ljubljana, Slovenia: On October 15th Ekvilib Institute organised a panel discussion on the application of Human Rights in Development, together with the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of the first Slovenian Development Days.

The Director, International Human Rights Network (IHRN), Patrick Twomey, described the benefits and challenges of applying Human Rights in development. He used the example of Rwanda for what happens when development actors disregard human rights: “non-Human Rights-based development leads to conflict in crisis – all the more reason to do HRBA". He also quoted an Irish police officer who used the metaphor of the seat-belt to describe Human Rights Based policing: 1. It is common sense (i.e. it is good for you) 2. Its use should be instinctual and 3. It is the law.

Twomey insists: “NGO’s have a moral authority to do human rights at home and in development as well, since Human Rights violations are the cause of poverty”. The Director of IHRN also used the example of Nepal where development NGOs continued their work despite the civil war, and by this they were delaying the peace process: they were on the one hand providing funding to the Maoists (e.g. taxes they paid) and also diverted attention away from finding a solution to the conflict.

Patrick Twomey indicated that Slovenia is a newcomer and has an opportunity to start where other donors got to through hard learning, and that other donors often found that too much money thrown at a problem was sometimes a mistake. So the solution is coherence between politics and development, dialogue between governments, between Human Rights and development professionals and political will and accountability.

Ms. Saenz, Technical Advisor for Human Rights and Democracy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark, explained the evolution of Danish aid and its focus on human rights and democratization. They moved from stand-alone projects to more systematic programming, where Human Rights is a thematic focus but also a cross-cutting issue as well: Human Rights and democratization are seen as a means of reducing poverty and achieving peace and security. Also, they discovered that a well-working justice system for example is not only about courts. It is also about police, lawyers, court clerks, so a more comprehensive approach was needed.

Now the Danish development program works on several levels:

• justice, rights oversight
• political dialogue with the partner governments
• support of sector programs (comprehensively)
• support to Danish NGOs
• support to multilateral organizations
• mainstreaming – including monitoring and reporting

The Norwegian Ambassador to Slovenia, Ms Guro Katharina Vikor, spoke about the evolution of Norwegian development policy and the inclusion of gender equality in it: she admitted that most policies had the right wording but a review showed that these strategies were not followed through. She was proud of the fact that the Norwegian Parliament approved a WHITE PAPER on Women in Development with wide support.

She spoke also of her work as Ambassador for gender equality working with the women of Sudan who take up 60% of the population, so can hardly be considered minority. They demanded that they be specifically named in the peace accords (men, women, boys and girls).

The gender strategy of Norway now includes political empowerment, economic empowerment, reproductive health and protection from violence. In addition there is a segregated budget for women (euro 25 million) and it is being tracked – and 30% of ODA is being spent on women. Norway is also supporting the World Bank’s effort to develop a new gender strategy.

The Development Days continued with the appearance of the Slovene President the following day and the passing of the Millenium Goal No. 3. Champion torch being passed from the Danish Ambassador to the Slovene State Secretary. [JA]