What do civil society actors think about the human rightsbased approach ?

On the eve of the international conference Human rights and sustainable development, which took place at AFD on 8 December 2023, many representatives of civil society organizations from all continents, met at the Agence Française de Développement to discuss how they approach the human rights-based approach. This approach aims to ensure that development projects do not degrade human rights on the one hand, and advance them on the other. Rather unknown, little visible, and generally little applied by the international community of development actors (donors, operators, partners), it allows to go up in terms of human rights in development projects, considering that they are the backbone of the 2030 Agenda.

This meeting provided a rich exchange between practitioners from civil society on a wide variety of topics. But also to present the results of a study conducted by AFD with CSOs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East on their perceptions of “human rights and development” issues in general and  “Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Sustainable Development” in particular. In addition, a workshop specifically dedicated to the issue of children’s and youth rights was held as part of this meeting, with testimonies from representatives of children and youth.

This document recounts all the exchanges and includes, as an annex, the entire study on CSO cross-views of human rights-based approach.