The Key Questions
1. Which (problem and related) policy will be analysed?
2. Which groups are affected by the policy?
3. Which rights are affected by the policy?
Where to find the Information
You may find relevant information to answer the following questions in:
• Government policy documents and websites
• Websites of human rights organizations
• Articles and studies describing the policy
• Interviews with women affected by the policy
• Government reports and NGO reports to UN bodies
• National Human Rights Institutes/Commissions, National Ombudsmen.
HeRWAI Step 1: Identifying the Policy
Purpose
In this step you will define the focus of your analysis. You can do this by describing the problem and the policy that you have decided to analyse, the affected groups of women and the rights that are involved. Some of the questions have already been discussed while making the Quick scan. Here you note the answers in a way that forms the basis for further analysis. You can also use this information to clarify for others what is included in the analysis and what is not.
Human Rights Aspects of Government Policies
On the basis of human rights treaties, governments have the responsibility to do everything in their power to ensure the realization of the right to health. They must take deliberate, concrete and targeted steps to ensure that all individuals can enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. Governments also have to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise and to ensure the full development and advancement of women. This means that policies should not have a discriminatory impact on women’s health rights [1].
The Most Affected Groups
When outlining the policy, it is important to describe who will be affected by it. The groups that are most affected by the policy are the groups on which you should focus in the following steps. The affected groups may be the same or may differ from the groups which the government policy is intended to reach. It is also important to consider whether specific subgroups of women may be more affected than others. Certain groups of women are particularly vulnerable in relation to their health rights, such as girl children, rural women and women living with HIV/AIDS. The ‘most affected groups’ also refers to women in various life stages (life-cycle approach). In addition, you need to examine whether certain groups of women are excluded from the beneficial effects a policy may have. For example, it often happens that contraceptive methods are not made available to unmarried women. If different groups may be affected by the policy, the data to be gathered in the rest of the assessment process should be disaggregated according to these groups (e.g. rural/urban, minority women, girls and elderly women).
Rights Affected
The HeRWAI analysis focuses on health rights. But within or related to health rights, a number of more specific rights may be affected and these may influence the type of>information you need for the following steps. For example, the lack of maternity leave for pregnant women in the private sector in Kenya affects not only women’s right to health but also their right to work. In step 1, you make a first rough assessment of the rights involved in the policy. The issue of rights affected will be worked out further in step 4 and at that point, you may want to add on or change the rights you first listed.
[1] ICESCR general comment 14, paragraph 30; CEDAW article 2, 3 and 4.
