UNITED NATIONS, New York— A  new manual on how to apply and promote human rights in all development work—including in humanitarian settings and difficult contexts -- was launched the day before Human Rights Day. The manual, which was developed by UNFPA and the Harvard School of Public Health, provides practical tools for designing and implementing a human rights-based approach to a census, sexual and reproductive health programmes, and gender equality programmes, among others. It also illustrates the benefits of using such an approach in development work.

“The promotion and protection of human rights are fundamental to the work of UNFPA,” Mr. Werner Haug, director of the technical division of UNFPA, told an audience of some 40 who attended the launch. The manual will serve UNFPA staff as well as a wider audience that includes various UN agencies and NGOs to operationalize the human rights-based approach, explained Ms.Aminata Toure, chief of the gender, human rights and culture branch of UNFPA. “The Manual is a translation of the theoretical language of human rights to programmes and concrete actions,” she said.

A process of collaboration, inclusion, and mutual respect and understanding was central to the development of the manual, according to Ms. Sofia Gruskin, Director of Programs on International Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. She elaborated on the extensive process of working with many organizations and individuals from various areas such as sexual and reproductive health, population and development, gender and emergency response, to have oral and written feedback on what should be covered.

“This Manual is a fantastic tool in bringing human rights to life – from planning, implementation to monitoring,” stated Ms. Luisa Cabal, Director of the International Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Ms. Luz Angela Melo, a human rights technical advisor at UNFPA and one of the primary authors of the Manual, underscored that this is a big effort to try to provide very practical tools and examples to operationalize the human rights standards and principles, and link them to development efforts. ‘We hope that this manual brings an added value for all of those trying to bring positive changes in the lives of people, particularly the ones who are excluded and marginalized,” she said.