Direct Line 17-Human rights and Sustainable Human Development

Interoffice Memorandum

To:	All Resident Representatives			

Date: 30 January 1998

From:	James Gustave Speth

Subject:	Direct Line 17 - Human Rights and Sustainable Human Development

The Secretary-General's identification of human rights as a cross-cutting issue in all sectors of United Nations activity, including operational activities for development, presents us with new challenges and opportunities. This Direct Line therefore highlights the issue of human rights and its links to sustainable human development (SHD). It also provides guidance on how UNDP can take advantage of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998 to strengthen our role in the field of human rights and sustainable human development. In the context of the overarching goal of our work, poverty eradication, we are moving towards a rights based approach. In this framework, poverty can be seen as a violation of many human rights, including the right to development.

The evolution of the SHD concept and the broadening of our activities in the field of governance point towards a programme that embraces all human rights -- civil, political, cultural, economic and social. Following an extensive process of consultation, both outside and in-house, a policy paper entitled "Integrating Human Rights with Sustainable Human Development" is now ready. I am grateful to all of you who have contributed to its preparation. The policy paper contains many ideas and suggestions for an human rights based approach to SHD, including strong recognition of the right to development and freedom from poverty as a human right. I am very pleased that Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has prepared a Preface to this important UNDP policy paper.

I am also providing you with a speech I recently gave on the subject of human rights and UNDP; I think you will find it helpful.

I know that many of you are already collaborating with Headquarters in developing new initiatives in this critical area. I would encourage you to share your experience and your approaches with your colleagues. The following are several suggestions for UNDP's role in the area of human rights. The nature of the programmes will vary depending on different national experience and priorities.

1. The critical role of the country office:

Many UNDP programmes currently focus on the promotion of human rights. We recognize freedom from poverty as a fundamental human right, and the eradication of poverty can be seen as promoting the enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to development. Our expanding work in good governance promotes a wide variety of human rights objectives. Increasingly we are called upon by governments to assist in democratic transitions and in the protection and promotion of political, civil, and cultural rights.

UNDP is not in a position to exercise responsibility for the monitoring of human rights. This is the duty of other United Nations system agencies and mechanisms, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The UNDP country office will, however, continue to provide logistical support to United Nations missions monitoring human rights and stands ready to share with United Nations missions its insights of relevance for the analysis of the human rights situation at the country level.

2. Cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:

Cooperation with OHCHR will increase in line with the reform of the United Nations. Normally, the country office should be able to serve as the home for human rights related assistance in the country and be able to rely on OHCHR for help with programming and backstopping in areas where OHCHR has expertise. OHCHR may on occasion also be a possible source of funds for human rights related joint projects. This approach has been used in Paraguay and Latvia where UNDP and OHCHR are supporting, at the respective Government's request, an Office for Human Rights. UNDP and OHCHR have provided consultants, fellowships and relevant documentation and have assisted in the preparation of manuals and in the organization of workshops, human rights training and a national promotion and awareness campaign.

3. Advocacy for Human Rights:

	Consistent with the guidance in the enclosed materials, the UNDP Resident Representatives should consider advocacy for human rights as part of the UNDP advocacy agenda and be ready to discuss with the government and other counterparts in the country how UNDP can best support capacity development for the promotion of human rights. The advocacy may include encouragement of the country's acceding to international human rights treaties and/or the development of capacity to implement its treaty obligations. This is an important aspect of UNDP's human rights support policy in Latvia, for example.

4. Civil Society Organizations:

As the strengthening of civil society and its organizations is an important aspect of the promotion of human rights, UNDP has reason to cultivate a considerable network of organizations, academic institutions and media in its work. This naturally includes human rights organizations. In its cooperation with national and international human rights organizations, UNDP's work will be guided by international conventions.

5. International Coordination and Resource Mobilization:

In the field of human rights, as in other areas, UNDP will assist in improving the coordination of international assistance, sometimes by strengthening the capacity of Government and at other times by serving as an impartial facilitator for the parties concerned. The actual role of UNDP must always be carefully evaluated in each situation depending on the circumstances. In Mozambique, for instance, UNDP support to resource mobilization for the country's first multiparty elections in 1994 led to some $60 million raised from international assistance.

6. Mainstreaming:

In reviewing ongoing programmes, Resident Representatives should consider whether activities are designed to move national legislation and national policies in the direction of internationally agreed standards and rights. If not, they could consider initiating discussions with the Government on what can be done in this respect. In designing new programmes, efforts should be made systematically to take international human rights standards and the recommendations of the international conferences as the starting-point for policies and programmes to be elaborated.

7. Governance Programming:

Most Country Cooperation Frameworks already have governance components dealing directly or indirectly with human rights. Many of these activities are focused on civil and political rights, widening the UNDP agenda in this respect. For instance, national workshops on human rights institutions and ombudsman systems have been requested by Armenia, Bulgaria and Moldova among others. Capacity building for governance should aim at strengthening a country's ability to promote all human rights - including economic, social, cultural and political - for instance by strengthening the country's system for policy formulation and policy implementation, and promoting the role of civil society and participation of intended beneficiaries.

8. 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

The Anniversary offers UNDP the major occasion to bring attention to its more active stance on human rights, as outlined in the enclosed policy paper, and to advocate the broad, inclusive, and indivisible United Nations concept of human rights. Country offices should see the anniversary year as the time to initiate activities that explicitly address human rights issues. Please refer to my circular letter dated 10 November 1997 to Resident Representatives on this subject.

Country offices can also help to increase public and political awareness of the human right to development through media outreach at any time during the 50^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and on Human Rights Day (10 December). Please alert your Public Affairs Officers to the need to emphasize the human rights dimensions of SHD in their information materials and day-to-day contacts with journalists and others who can help inform public opinion. If your office has arranged or is involved in special activities/events for the year or for Human Rights Day, please contact Mr. Djibril Diallo, Director, DPA, fax (212) 906-5364 or e-mail. This will enable us to maintain a schedule and record of Human Rights events that UNDP is associated with during the year.

I am particularly pleased by the initiative to hold a regional meeting at Yalta (Ukraine) on "Gender Equality, Equal Access to Opportunities and Democratic Instruments". The meeting will be held under the auspices of UNDP (RBEC) with the support of OHCHR and the Association of Western European Parliamentarians (AWEPA). Fifty-three years after the original Yalta Conference, this is an opportunity for governments, parliamentarians and NGOs in the region to show their commitment to these important goals of the international community.

I look forward to your discussion of the topics raised here, or any other human rights related issue. Please do not hesitate to write directly to the Assistant Administrator for your region, with a copy to Mr. Shabbir Cheema, Director, MDGD, fax: (212) 906-6471 or e-mail. Please feel free to contact me should you need specific guidance or wish to flag any special issues.	

I am counting on your personal support in integrating human rights issues in UNDP programme activities.