CALL FOR ASSISTANCE: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN FAILED STATES

Dear colleagues,

Please allow me to introduce myself: my name is Fabienne Simenel and I am working for equalinrights, an independent international resource centre and support network on human rights and human rights-based strategies based in The Netherlands. I would like to present you the following question:

Human development in failed States ... How can communities and others take action to realise their human rights when there is no operating State?

Equalinrights is seeking persons working with human rights-based strategies (or the "rights-based approach") (HRBA) in the context of a failed or failing State. We are also seeking relevant resources, case studies, resource persons and background documents. We are currently planning for an initial event at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, January 2007, to explore this issue and engage further on-going support to those working in this environment to try to
overcome some of the hurdles that exist.

Failing and failed states have become increasingly common phenomena over the past decades, each one causing enormous human suffering, poverty, trauma and destruction on all levels of society. They leave millions of people with little protection in the face of gross and persistent human rights violations across the spectrum of rights. Conditions make security and human, social and economic development all but an impossibility. Or do they?

The human rights-based approach to development is a powerful, holistic framework to eradicate poverty, injustice and exclusion. It offers creative possibilities to expose and redress underlying power relations, hold different actors accountable; promote self-empowerment processes for those living in poverty to play a key role in their development and advance multilateral strategies to realise human dignity for all. However, failed or failing States raise difficult questions on how the HRBA can be effectively used. Further, work is needed to elaborate its meaning, overcome hurdles and consolidate creative
strategies for this context.

This will provide the basis of the event proposed for the WSF. It will explore what kind of human rights-based strategies communities, civil society, development agencies, donors, and international NGOs and institutions are using and can use where there is no effective government or state systems operating in a country. How can they act most effectively to secure respect for human rights, including the human right to work, the human right to a decent standard of living, the human right to protection from violence; the human right to protection from discrimination, and the human right to life?

We are seeking people and networks engaged on this issue as well as innovative stories; strategies and mechanisms; testimonies and short films that relate to informal or formal use of elements of the "rights-based approach" in relation to increased human security, development and human rights. Some issues include:
* What does the HRBA mean for civil society actors working in a failed state?
* Who can communities hold accountable and how?
* How can people renegotiate their relationship with those exercising power over resources, opportunities and space to realise their
human rights, to effect meaningful changes in their own lives and to influence their future?
* How can civil society use often extremely confined political space and lack of human security to mobilise and act for change? Who else can provide support in this situation and what would this entail?

Please join us in this effort to share your experience, understanding and strategies, and think together to advance practical options with people struggling for change within these environments.

Please contact Emma Sydenham on sydenham@equalinrights.org

Background on equalinrights ...

Equalinrights is an independent, global resource centre and support network, established in response to an identified gap in support, resources and know-how in understanding and implementing human rights-based strategies in the struggle against poverty. Equalinrights connects people struggling against poverty to other people and resources they need to more effectively achieve their mission through human rights-based strategies. It also seeks to explore and develop new materials, tools and practices to better understand and apply human rights-based strategies to make rights real!

Fabienne Simenel
Equalinrights
The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights
Janskerkhof 3, Utrecht The Netherlands, 3512 BK
Tel: +31 30 253 8510
Email: info@equalinrights.org
Website : http://www.equalinrights.org