What's the Goal? What's the Purpose? Observations on Human Rights Impact Assessment1

Abstract

Human rights indicators and human rights impact assessment have become subjects that attract a wide interest within the human rights community and among donor agencies and development NGOs. This interest has evolved parallel to a growing interest in implementation of human rights projects and in the application of human rights-based approaches to national and international development. The article discusses practices of human rights impact assessment. A particular emphasis is put on the need to focus on how indicators are defined as part of a wider process of defining goals and objectives of human rights change. Organisations are often unclear about their objectives; they tend therefore to have unclear strategies of change that are conducive to international human rights. It is argued that the construction of indicators should be seen as an integral part of defining a viable strategy of human rights change.