We are grateful to Gauthier de Beco of the Catholic University of Louvain for providing the basis for this section of the online HRIA Guide.
Further Reading
Landman, Todd (2006) Studying Human Rights. Routledge
Hunt, Paul; MacNaughton, Gillian (2006) Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A Case Study Using The Right to the Highest Attainanble Standard of Health. UNESCO
Andreassen, Bard Anders; Sano, Hans-Otto (2004) What's the Goal? What's the Purpose? Observations on Human Rights Impact Assessment. Norwegian Centre for Human Rights
Radstaake, Marike; Bronkhorst, Daan (2001) Matching Practice with Principles, Human Rights Impact Assessment: EU Opportunities. Aim for human rights
Roche, Chris (2000) Impact Assessment: Seeing the Wood and the Trees. Routledge
Human rights impact assessment (HRIA) is a relatively new concept although other kinds of impact assessments have existed for some time. In particular, environmental, economic, and social impact assessments have been carried out since the 1950s and these provide a solid basis for work on the assessment of human rights impact.
An Introduction to Human Rights Impact Assessment
Human rights impact assessment (HRIA) measures the impact of policies, programmes, projects and interventions on human rights. There are different types of impact - it can be positive when the human rights situation improves as a result of activities and interventions, or it can be negative when the human rights situation worsens.
HRIA can be used for actions that are designed to have an impact on human rights. It can also be used for actions that are not specifically designed to have an impact on human rights but could impact on them indirectly. This latter type of HRIA should be used to avoid any negative impact on human rights. An example of it is the assessment of the impact of a company’s mining operations on the right to health.
HRIA assists in systematically determining whether policies, programmes and activities take human rights sufficiently into account.
The type of HRIA undertaken is determined by when it is done. HRIA can be ex ante, meaning the impact assessment is done before the activity takes place, or it can be ex post, meaning it is done after the activity has taken place. Ex ante HRIAs aim to evaluate the potential impact of policies on human rights. The objective of these is to prevent states from violating human rights. As the results of ex ante HRIAs must be known when policies can still be changed, it is important to carry them out at the earliest possible stage. Ex post HRIAs aim to determine the actual impact of policies on human rights and can therefore take place after a policy has been implemented.
HRIA types can be combined. In other words one can perform an impact assessment of any type of action before or after the action takes place. Nonetheless the type of action and the timing of the HRIA are important as they have different added value.