Hunt, Paul and Gillian MacNoughton. 2006. "Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A case study using the right to the highest attainable standard of health"
- Objective: To contribute to developing a methodology and tools to aid governments in undertaking HRIA by emphasizing the role of HRIA in alleviating poverty.
- Key characteristics: Focus on right to health (but framework could be used for any right), covers all obligations (respect, protect and fulfill), and all indicators (structure, process, outcome), and is meant for government use.
- Brief Summary: Provides seven general principles for carrying out RBIA (use an explicit human rights framework, aim for progressive realization of human rights, promote equality and non-discrimination in process and policy, ensure meaningful participation by all stakeholders, provide info and protect the right to freely express ideas, establish mechanisms to hold States accountable, recognize interdependence of all human rights) and six steps to integrating the right to health into existing impact assessments.
- Best used for: Governments can use this tool to make sure that they are fulfilling their obligations of progressive realization, and for responding to the reporting demands of treaty bodies. Key focus on poverty and how it is linked to health and human rights.
- Data needed: Data related to the right to health, but more policy process information as opposed to purely quantitative statistics.
- Tested?: This methodology has been used in the Special Rapporteur's missions and reports to the UN. Gives examples in annexes for governments to use.
- Possible disadvantages: While the methodology is quite thorough, more detail on how to advocate for government's to adopt this methodology into its existing impact assessments would be useful.
- Going forward: More testing would be useful to see if integrating human rights into existing impact assessments is possible and practical, or if a stand alone HRIA would be better.; further lobbying necessary to get this methodology implemented?
- Complementary tools: As ex-ante methodology, comprehensive enough to be used alone.