Using Science as a Tool to Protect Human

Rights
The Science for Human Rights (SHR) project leverages technological and scientific progress for
human rights advocacy and campaigning. We currently focus on utilizing geospatial technologies
like satellite imagery for human rights monitoring and conflict prevention. These new tools allow
us to gain access to previously inaccessible conflict zones, provide compelling visual evidence
and present information in a new and engaging way, all of which assists our activists in their
campaigning efforts.

Linking science and

human rights: Facts and
figures
1001
Shares
S. Romi Mukherjee outlines human rights-based approaches to science, technology and development, and
what they mean for policy and practice.
A human rights-based approach to science, technology and development seeks to place a concern for human
rights at the heart of how the international community engages with urgent global challenges. It entered the
UN's lexicon in 1997, with Kofi Annan's call for human rights to be integrated into the UN's mandates,
management, and methodologies for development and international cooperation.
The UN Development Programme characterises this approach as one that "leads to better and more sustainable
outcomes by analyzing and addressing the inequalities, discriminatory practices and unjust power relations
which are often at the heart of development problems. It puts the international human rights entitlements and
claims of the people (the 'right-holders') and the corresponding obligations of the state (the 'duty-bearer') in the
centre of the national development debate, and it clarifies the purpose of capacity development". [1]
However, there is no universally accepted definition of human rights-based approaches. [2] This does not
necessarily mean the concept lacks focus or substance. On the contrary, it provides a framework for confronting
important global issues from gender biases to food andwater safety to misuses of science and technology
grounded in a set of principles, developed through international consensus (see box 1), that clarify the
relationship between 'rights holders' and 'duty bearers'. [3]

Gender equality and food security are among the issues addressed by human rights principles
Flickr/USAID
Many international policy scholars argue that rights-based approaches help to re-orient NGOs and the UN
system away from professionalised philanthropy and towards capacity-building; that they promise sustainable
interventions and reduce dependency on aid; and that they help to redefine the responsibilities of governmental
authorities, local actors, NGOs, and the UN system. [4]
For science and technology, the approach requires scientists to go beyond knowing how their work relates to
human rights, and demands that they strive to secure and affirm human rights through the knowledge they
produce. For instance, a rights-based approach to virus studies in potentially creating an ethical framework
that guides research as it evolves would not only push the frontiers of medicine and seek medical benefits,
but actively guard against the potential to create new biological weapons. There is a question, here, of whether
this is the responsibility of virologists (e.g. by contributing to dual-use debates) or the scientific community in
general.
A human rights perspective also affirms that access to scientific information is a human right (Article 27(1) of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, see box 1). [5] This implies that the benefits of scientific
advancement should be shared openly, free from restrictions by social groups, corporate entities or states. Above
all, a rights-based approach to science seeks to create the conditions for equitable participation in the global
science community and fair access to scientific information and goods.
In a general sense, a human rights-based approach recognises that science is a socially organised, human activity
which is value-laden and shaped by organisational structures and procedures. It asks how governments and other
stakeholders can create and implement policies to ensure safety, health and livelihoods; to include people's
needs and priorities in development and environmental strategies; and to ensure they participate in decisionmaking that affects their lives and resources.
BOX 1: Documents that include or centre around human rights-based approach to science, development,
and technology, and their key principles:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 27): affirms everyone's right to participate in and benefit
from scientific advances, and be protected from scientific misuses.
The right to the benefits of science comes under the domain of 'culture', so is usually examined from a cultural
rights perspective. However, the World Commission of the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology
(COMEST), an independent advisory body of UNESCO, is assessing the implications of Article 27 in
relationship to science and technology ethics. [5, 6]
UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers 1974 (article 4): affirms that all
advances in scientific and technological knowledge should be solely geared towards securing well-being for
global citizens, and calls upon member states to develop the necessary protocol and policies to monitor and
secure this objective. [7]

Countries are asked to show that science and technology is integrated into policies that aim to ensure a more
humane and just society. This is monitored by the member-states of UNESCO and through UNESCO's biannual meeting of the Executive Board. During 2012, member-states are currently re-assessing how article 4 is
implemented, with a view to updating its scope and monitoring. [8]
UNESCO Declaration on the Use of Scientific Knowledge 1999(article 33): this states, "Today, more than
ever, science and its applications are indispensable for development. All levels of government and the private
sector should provide enhanced support for building up an adequate and evenly distributed scientific and
technological capacity through appropriate education and research programmes as an indispensable foundation
for economic, social, cultural and environmentally sound development. This is particularly urgent for
developing countries." [9]
This Declaration encompasses issues such as pollution-free production, efficient resource use, biodiversity
protection and brain drains. Monitoring is being reconsidered within a broader re-assessment of the 1974
Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Research. Governmental bodies and stakeholders concerned with
the monitoring and implementation of the Declaration include COMEST, the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Council for Science (ICSU).
Other Instruments important for human rights-based approaches to science, technology, and
development:

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) [10]

Declaration on Social Progress and Development (1969) [11]
Declaration on the Use of Scientific and Technological Progress in the Interests of
Peace and for the Benefit of Mankind (1975) [12]
Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) [13]
The Declaration of Dakar (2007) [14]
The Cairo Declaration (2006) [15]
Culture clashes
The human rights-based approach is not without its critics. Indeed, a powerful critique comes from development
theorists and policymakers in the global South, who emphasize the Eurocentric and Western origins of human
rights and how they clash radically with non-European religious and social world views. Alternate thought
systems, which often favour holism and community over 'self', call the approach into question, often viewing
demands to recognise human rights as yet another strategy for subjugating citizens in the global South by
imposing the 'human' and individual 'rights' onto cultures that struggle to recognise these notions.
Should we, therefore, endorse an approach that is called into question by some of the very communities it is
intended to benefit? While it undoubtedly comes from highly specific social and political contexts in 18th
century Europe, it should not be lightly dismissed. It would be a mistake to assert, for example, that human
rights campaigns have done little good in conflict zones, or to argue that Eurocentric roots cancel out their
capacity for positive social change.
Rather, the challenge is to explore how the human rights approach can help promote indigenous and local
knowledge; how it can enable dialogue between competing beliefs where each claims to be universal; and how it
can establish bridges between traditional and innovative forms of science and technology.

It is hoped that human rights approaches can link scientific innovation and indigenous knowledge
Flickr/DFID UK Department for International Development
Two-way street
Good science, and a respect for human rights, rely heavily on each other. For example,scientists depend on
human rights to protect their own scientific freedom which in turn lets them promote well-being and human
rights through their work. [16]
In addition, science and technology can cause serious harm to the social and ecological systems on which life
depends. Military technologies, for example, can be used to undermine liberty and justice; and new
technologies, such asnanotechnology or geoengineering, may even call into question what it means to be human.
Human rights approaches can shed light on the ethical implications of new technologies and examine how
policy can keep up with rapidly developing science.
On the other hand, science and technology also bolster development and even the fulfilment of human rights
(box 2). This extends to information and communication technologies (ICTs) as tools that potentially facilitate
access to scientific knowledge. ICTs are rapidly influencing democratic practice through e-government and
social networks, for example. [17] But the use of ICT tools can also be suppressed through censorship or underdevelopment leading to digital divides that bring new forms of exclusion. This illustrates how human rights
approaches can support demands for fair and effective use of technologies such as ICTs.
BOX 2: Emerging issues: Geospatial technologies
Another way in which science and technology intersect with human rights issues is the use of technologies such
as geo-spatial, satellite imagery, and geographic positioning systems toidentify and track human-rights
violations. They offer access to remote parts of the world, providing both new information and a powerful way
of communicating it for advocacy, policy debates or litigation.
Amnesty International, for example, has created the Science for Human Rights Project where geo-spatial
technologies are actively used to access conflict zones and gather visual evidence in novel ways. [18] Amnesty's
recent work in Syria, "Eyes on Syria" [19] illustrates the breadth of these technologies which can, with great
precision, track unlawful executions, cases of torture and property destruction.
This approach could have enormous impact on the legal treatment of human rights violations and international
law. But the status of geospatial data in national and international human rights tribunals, and questions around
who gathers it, who reads it, and to what end, remain to be examined. According to project leaders at the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which has also emphasized the importance of
geospatial technologies, scholars, organisations and advocates need to come together with the technology
community to discuss the implications and identify where geospatial tools might be needed. [20]
Relationship to ethics
The right to science and its benefits are not yet central to the ethics of development (a discipline that engages
with human and social implications of development). This is partly because development ethicists prefer a

language of principles, considered appropriate for capacity building, over a language of rights, founded in legal
concerns. [21]
But the bigger issue is whether, and how, a human rights-based approach should inform development ethics.
Whose rights does the term refer to? Can the focus on individuals be adapted to the realities of development
work at the community level?
The same questions apply to the ethics of science and technology, for which a standardised human rights
approach has yet to be formulated. However, the UNESCO declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights is an
important landmark in bringing human rights based approaches to bear on the ethical implications of rapid
technological transformation. It explicitly calls on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognises
that ethical issues should be examined from a rights perspective, while noting "that health [in the broad sense of
well-being and fulfilment of needs] does not depend solely on scientific and technological research
developments but also on psychosocial and cultural factors". [14]
Policy principles
Human rights approaches to policy can have an impact on many areas of science, technology and development,
including climate change, housing, energy production, deforestation, access to fresh water, biological warfare,
surveillance, public health, and gender issues. They are also at the heart of debates about developing a 'green'
global economy [box 3].
In this context, one fundamental principle of policymaking should be a focus on securing human rights, and
clarification of the actions required of both rights-holders and duty-bearers to do so. In concrete terms, this
requires both policy-makers and stakeholders to remain vigilant as to how the policy they construct redresses
human vulnerability and inequality, while actively establishing mechanisms that thwart human rights abuse. At
the national and geo-political level, a human rights-based approach might allow vulnerable groups greater
authority in conversations over global policy; and it would impel policymakers to tackle those aspects of global
economic and political power that create the conditions for human rights violations.
BOX 3: Green societies or green economies
Rights-based approaches to science, technology, and development are closely bound to the ongoing quest for
greater global sustainability. UNESCO's message to Rio+20, "From Green Economies to Green Societies"
sought to re-orient conventional wisdom on the future of sustainability by arguing that because economies are
embedded within society, achieving sustainable development requires more than low-carbon technologies and
green investments. It calls for human rights-based policies that take into account not only economic but also
scientific, social and educational considerations. [22]
Good practice
To make policy and knowledge work, good practices are needed, and these must be assessed for their impact on,
and implications for, policy objectives. The key here is to translate, mobilize, and evaluate the contribution of
human rights-based approaches.
The UN's human rights-based approach to programmes of development cooperation, policy and technical
assistance uses a three-tiered approach that focuses on goals (realising rights), processes (standards and
principles), and outcomes (increased capacity to meet obligations and claim rights).[23]
A Human Rights-Based Approach Development Planning Toolkit, developed with the support of various UN
agencies, offers a reference for development planning outlining the priorities to keep in mind in development
work within the larger architecture of development projects. And it helps analyse progress in implementing

human rights approaches. One of the tools offered is a table for detailing how people and groups may be
affected or overlooked by a development project (figure 1).
Figure 1. Actor analysis a decision making tool for a human rights-based approach to development planning.
[24] (click for full image)

The toolkit attempts to firmly move the human rights-based approach away from abstract rulings and towards an
analytic frame that can measure success. It is part of an approach to development planning (figure 2) that offers
a series of principle-based guidelines that readily lend themselves to development projects, from inception to
completion, while clearly illustrating how the international instruments discussed above (in Box 1) can be used
to implement the human rights-based approach.
Figure 2. A human rights-based approach to development planning. [25] (click for full image)

An example of how this might work in practice is a study of advancing the right to water, sanitation, water
infrastructure and water use, led by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Lao PDR in collaboration with the
Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the development charity Oxfam, and the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA). [26] Researchers used a range of techniques, to examine the politics
of water distribution and use in Laos, that fall under the rubric of human rights-based approaches, including:
participatory monitoring and evaluation, community dialogues between provincial and district officials and
villages, transparent bidding processes for water supply, and community user groups (which build village
consensus on contribution rates, maintenance of water systems).