The Human Rights-Based Approach to Development: The Right to Water
| Author | Emilie Filmer-Wilson |
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/016934410502300203 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
THE HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO
DEVELOPMENT: THE RIGHT TO WATER
EMILIE FILMER-WILSON*
Abstract
The Human Rights-Based Approach to Development (RBA) puts human rights at the heart of
human development. It sets the achievement of human rights obligations as an objective of
development aid and integrates human rights principles into the development process. Based on
the experience of development agencies and using the right to water as an example, this article
identifies the practical implications and added value of the RBA. The RBA establishes the
obligations of States to ensure that basic water needs are met and empowers communities to
claim their right; it identifies and addresses the root causes for lack of access to water; and it
places people at the centre of the development process. Translating this complex approach into
practice is challenging. Yet taking the extra steps to adopt the RBA will improve the overall
impact and sustainability of development aid.
1. INTRODUCTION
The human rights-based approach to development (RBA) puts human rights at the
heart of human development. In this way, the RBA re-conceptualises traditional
development thinking about the nature of human development and the process by
which it is realised. It ‘describes situations not simply in terms of human needs, or of
development requirements, but in terms of society’s obligations to respond to the
inalienable rights of individuals, empowers people to demand justice as a right, not
as a charity and gives communities a moral basis from which to claim international
assistance when needed’.
1
The RBA presents a framework for the pursuit of human
development with human rights standards and principles guiding that process and
international human rights obligations providing the objectives of development.
This novel approach to development is gaining ground among the international
community, influencing the development policy and programmes of many major
donors and international NGOs. Wrapped in appealing notions of ‘justice’,
‘empowerment’ and ‘equity’, it is popular in development discourse. Yet going
beyond the official rhetoric to grasp the practical implications of the RBA is difficult.
Conceptual clarity on how development organisations translate this approach into
development programming and the means by which its universal goals and vision
are adjusted to specific country contexts is missing.
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 23/2, 213-241, 2005.
#Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Printed in the Netherlands. 213
* Emilie Filmer-Wilson is an independent consultant based in London. She has worked as a
consultant for both the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – for whom she is currently co-authoring a guidance
note on how to integrate human rights into energy and environment programming.
1
UNDP, Integrating Human Rights with Sustainable Human Development, UNDP, New York, 1998, paras
173-174.
214
The aim of this article is to describe the RBA in conceptual terms and to examine
what integrating human rights with sustainable human development means in
practice. Focusing on the realisation of the right to water through the use of the RBA
enables a clearer exploration of the practical implications and the value added by
this approach, as well as its limitations. The growing urgency in the global freshwater
situation today; the essential nature of water for sustainable human development;
and the complex practical considerations of water-related development projects,
make the right to water well suited for a full appreciation of this approach.
Owing to the recent introduction of the RBA into the world of development,
empirical evidence to demonstrate its impact, at both organisation and country
level, is limited. Most of the development organisations that have adopted this
approach are still at the experimental stage. Case studies of water-related
development projects that are realised through the RBA are particularly scarce.
Consequently, this article should be viewed as a preliminary analysis of what the RBA
means in conceptual and practical terms and an exploration of its added value and
limitations. As the RBA is increasingly adopted and institutionalised in development
practice, its contribution to achieving development objectives, such as freshwater for
all, continues to emerge. As such, any evaluation of the RBA is an ongoing process,
which in turn will contribute to the refinement of the RBA model itself.
The first part of this article provides a comprehensive overview of the RBA,
charting its origins; identifying the basic elements that distinguish it from traditional
development approaches; and illustrating the value that it adds to achieving
development goals. Based on the experience of major development organisations
that have adopted this approach, the article goes on to explore the practical
implications of applying the RBA. These issues are clarified and developed further
in the last part of the article, which examines the RBA in light of realising the right to
water.
2. THE HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT
2.1. Historical Overview
Development and human rights were considered as two separate spheres with
diverging strategies and objectives until the late 1980s. Despite human rights and
development appearing as interrelated objectives in the 1945 Charter of the United
Nations, governments, international donor agencies, multilateral agencies and UN
agencies were reluctant to recognise the relationship between the two. It was
generally understood that human rights existed outside the domain of develop-
ment. This perceived dichotomy between human rights and development meant
that development organisations placed little or no emphasis on the promotion and
protection of human rights. It was not considered part of their work.
The separation between human rights and development was partly due to the
Cold War and the accompanying political rhetoric. Although the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights recognises civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights together in the same document, the ideological divide of the Cold
War counterpoised civil and political rights against economic, social and cultural
rights. As a result, two separate legally binding treaties were drafted: the Covenant
for Civil and Political Rights, promoted by Western governments and the Covenant
Emilie Filmer-Wilson
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