Overview 

Rethinking Rights Impact is a project to develop and test a tool that seeks to support human rights organisations to reflect on their contribution to the broader human rights movement, and what is needed to achieve the long-term goal of realising all rights for all people. The project starts from the observation that, in a context of eroding rights and funding challenges, ‘impact’ is increasingly defined in terms of short- or medium-term goals. The tool seeks to re-focus attention on what is needed to strengthen the collective efforts of human rights organisations towards achieving rights for all.  

Rationale for the tool 

Human rights faces widely documented challenges from authoritarianism, populism and states proclaiming human rights but failing to uphold them. Civil society organisations that work on human rights also face challenges from within the system: competition for funding, and pressures to demonstrate measurable results across short timescales. A common response to such challenges is for organisations to narrow their scope and focus on short- or medium-term goals. As a result, we are at risk of neglecting what is needed to achieve the longer-term human rights goals. 

About the Tool 

The Human Rights Impact Mapping Tool was conceived in response to these challenges. It enables human rights organisations to strategically reflect on their work in relation to the larger movement for human rights and the goal of all rights for all people, by helping organisations align their strategies to that longer-term goal. It does so by encouraging reflection and strategic thinking with respect to how individual organisations can contribute to the movement and the ambition for fully rights respecting states. 

The tool helps organisations: 

  • By providing a language and framework for internal exploration, and to help make the case for longer-term human rights work with funders and supporters. 
  • To reflect on their strategies in relation to the needs of the broader human rights community. 
  • To plan purposeful collaboration with others to contribute towards achieving the long-term goals of human rights. 

The tool is intended to be used as part of a facilitated workshop, and particularly helpful at times when organisations are undertaking strategic planning or review. The process begins with a survey to help map an organisation’s position across seven key components . It then seeks to explore each of these in detail, reflecting on current capabilities and strategies, and consider how organisations can contribute to the broader human rights movement. 

Seven components of the tool 

The tool focusses attention on the seven components listed below that we see as important to achieving the long-term vision of rights respecting states. No organisation will be strong across all seven, but collective strength in all seven is what is needed to advance the work of the human rights movement as a whole. 

Moving from engaging large numbers of people to engaging whole communities, so that those who lack or are denied access to certain rights know what they are entitled to, and what to expect from those who govern.
Moving from human rights as news items to mainstreaming human rights discourse to creating narratives that activate the public to act on expectations of human rights.
Cultivating constituencies, not merely of human rights supporters, but of advocates for human rights who expect their governments to meet their human rights responsibilities.
Countering the fragmentation and siloing of human rights to restore its holistic character through the indivisibility and interdependence of all rights in practice.
Expanding, strengthening and deepening collaboration, moving beyond partnerships as means to an end to ends in themselves, and extending to include other like-minded communities.
Moving from merely valuing empowerment to disrupting and actually creating power that can help us deliver the transformative changes we envisage.
Engaging in purposeful movement building and aligning with movements that share our values because movements have been behind all meaningful social and political transformations.

Developing the Tool 

The Human Rights Impact Mapping Tool was designed based on extensive consultancy experience and practice with human rights organisations. Our project, Rethinking Rights Impact, seeks to validate, develop and test the tool to understand it’s relevance and usefulness for organisations. In Phase 1 of the project, we have: 

  • Consulted with human rights practitioners to validate the rational for the tool 
  • Sought expert practitioner inputs on each of the seven components 
  • Conducted an initial pilot of the tool with two human rights organisations 

We are currently planning Phase 2, to more rigorously test the tool with a range of human rights organisations. This project has been possible with thanks to the support of Oak Foundation. 

Keep in touch 

We are putting together an email list to share emerging insights and outcomes from the project, starting in 2025. If you would like to be added to this list, please share your details on this form.  

For enquiries about Phase 2 of the project, please contact djames [at] intrac.org 

Regions

Global,

Tags

activism, human rights, impact assessment, new forms of organising, organisational development,

Client

This project was made possible Global with thanks to the support of Oak Foundation.  

People

Kate Newman, Mona Younis, Dan James, Molly Judge