Reinventing Development?: Translating Rights-based Approaches from Theory into Practice - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1842776487 ISBN 13: 9781842776483

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd, 2005

Synopsis

The recognition that the persistence of poverty is closely linked to the denial of human rights has propelled rights-based approaches into the policy and practice of many development NGOs, UN bodies and aid agencies. This book presents the practical experiences of development practitioners who have tried to apply a rights-based approach in their work. Its aim is to increase understanding of the approach by drawing on bottom-up insights, and to identify what difference a rights-based approach makes in practice. What is the 'value added' of a rights-based approach? What difficulties and tensions arise? The case-studies span development, humanitarian relief and conflict resolution. The book concludes that there is potential not only for human rights to reinvent development, but for development to reinvent human rights.

About this title

Review

'This is a timely and important contribution to the rights and development literature. The moral appeal of what have become known as 'rights-based approaches' is irrefutable on a superficial gloss, accompanied in recent years by a burgeoning volume of policy statements, programming guidelines and scholarly analyses. But the virtuousness of the rhetoric masks a great many hard questions as to how such putatively transformational approaches can be applied in practice, and more fundamentally still, how far these approaches must themselves be examined for consistency with the ideals they purport to embody, and how far they can go in attacking the complex and varied 'root causes' of poverty and injustice in any given situation. While shunning pretences at easy answers, this book frames these dilemmas coherently and articulately, based on practitioners' own experiences, against an engaging account of the philosophical underpinnings and history of human rights and rights-based approaches. The result is a critical and nuanced analysis that will appeal to practitioners, academics and policy-makers alike.' - Mac Darrow, Coordinator, Human Rights Strengthening (HURIST) programme, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva 'At last a book that digs deeply into what it means in practice for humanitarian and development agencies to adopt a political philosophy of rights as they respond to people suffering from poverty, war and disaster. The case studies are clear and revealing. The advantages and the risks of a rights-based approach are openly discussed. ' - Dr. Hugo Slim, Chief Scholar, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva.

About the Author

Paul Gready is a senior lecturer in human rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. His publications include the edited volume Fighting for Human Rights (Routledge, 2004). Jonathan Ensor is a former lecturer in engineering with a doctorate from the University of York who now works for the Immigration Advisory Service. The contributors are development practitioners and researchers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Zed Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1842776487
• ISBN 13: 9781842776483
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Gready Paul, Ensor Jonathan