Country Assessments

Assess your country’s human rights status by answering the questions found in the handbook Human Rights Based Programming: What It Is/ How to Do It (pp. 21-23). Some of these assessment questions are:

1. What are the country’s main human rights concerns in the areas of population and development, reproductive health and gender equality? The use of data desegregated by sex, age, ethnicity, and urban or rural residence will help identify major human rights issues and map patterns of exclusion. For example, finding out that a disproportionate share of pregnancies occur among adolescents of a certain ethnic minority living in a particular area can indicate a lack of access to information, education and services.
2. What are the underlying and structural causes for the human rights concerns identified above? What is the State doing to address them?
3. What are the cultural factors that facilitate or constrain reproductive rights and gender equality? Identifying these factors can help you identify opportunities and obstacles. For example, the importance that all cultures give to the family unit can be the basis for the promotion of responsible fatherhood. On the other hand, tension between the rights of adolescents and the rights of parents has been recognized as a cultural factor that works against the establishment of public policies on sexuality education, since it is widely perceived as a matter belonging to the private sphere.
4. Is there universal access to reproductive health care in the country? That is, do all people – including minorities, the poorest of the poor, those living in rural areas, young people and unmarried adolescents – have equal access to high quality reproductive health information and services? Are they treated without discrimination?
5. Which human rights instruments have not been ratified by the country? A list of such instruments and the ratification status of various countries can be found on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ratification of a Convention or Protocol

If your country has not ratified a Convention or related Protocol that you think is important for human rights, plan a lobbying campaign to persuade it to do so. Consider who to target in government, networking with like-minded organizations, gathering evidence of the importance of the issue.

Gender equality legislation

Does your country have any laws or statutory bodies specifically addressing gender equality? Are these effective? How might they be improved? If you have identified an area needing improvement, develop an advocacy campaign to bring it about.

Human rights education in the school system

Find out the status of education for human rights in your school system. Consider ways to advance education for human rights: lobbying Departments of Education, educators and school Councils on its provision and curriculum, providing resources to your local schools, resourcing prizes and awards for student achievements in human rights education. See the publication Building Human Rights Communities in Education for more information.

Indigenous Peoples

If you have an Indigenous population, find out if they have the rights specified in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. If not, plan an advocacy campaign on one or more of the issues you have identified.