HRIA Step 1: Assessment of the Actual Human Rights Situation

Content

• A transparent analysis is the basis for strategy development, policy-decisions, project definition, monitoring and evaluation.
• Comprehensiveness is needed in order to establish a baseline and to obtain a broad overview.
• The assessment should identify the critical issues in a specific situation, narrowed down to strategic issues and sectors.
• In-depth analysis on a number of areas of particular interest for the organisations.
• Development of indicators, to be used throughout the process.

Implementation

• Overall and extensive country assessments demand expertise, investments and time. Therefore it is suggested to draw from existing country reports, from international and local sources. Examples are the US State Department Report, Human Rights Watch Report, Amnesty International reports, International Helsinki Federation Report, Reports by Treaty bodies (see reference material). Tools such as indexes, monitoring tools or aides to formulate indicators can also be used (see under this step, Tools).
  
• Combine the information available with selected assessment models in order to reach a higher level of analysis. This will assist in getting a better grip on the problems, the root causes, and the connections and interplay between issues at stake. In addition, this will be helpful in identifying ways to address the problems and in clarifying the respective roles of the organisations in a particular situation.