Human rights

In accor­dance with its com­mit­ment as a respon­si­ble mem­ber of the Euro­pean Union and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, the coali­tion agree­ment of the Lux­em­bour­gish gov­ern­ment (2018−2023) reit­er­ates the impor­tance it places in its exter­nal action on pro­tect­ing the val­ues of free­dom, peace and secu­ri­ty, democ­ra­cy, respect for human rights and dig­ni­ty, sol­i­dar­i­ty, tol­er­ance, plu­ral­ism and equal­i­ty. These prin­ci­ples and com­mit­ments are reflect­ed in Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion gen­er­al strat­e­gy, the main aim of which is to con­tribute to the reduc­tion and, in the long term, erad­i­ca­tion of extreme pover­ty by sup­port­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment in the eco­nom­ic, social and envi­ron­men­tal spheres.

In sup­port of the Unit­ed Nations Agen­da 2030 and the attain­ment of the 17 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals in asso­ci­a­tion with the prin­ci­ple of ​‘leav­ing no one behind’, the strat­e­gy estab­lish­es the pro­mo­tion of and respect for human rights as a cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ty of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion. Along­side gen­der equal­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, these three cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ties are sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly incor­po­rat­ed into Luxembourg’s devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion and human­i­tar­i­an action interventions.

Luxembourg’s human­i­tar­i­an action is guid­ed by the prin­ci­ples and good prac­tice of human­i­tar­i­an action (good human­i­tar­i­an donor­ship) in accor­dance with the inter­na­tion­al prin­ci­ples for pre­dictable and flex­i­ble aid and the pro­mo­tion of respect for inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law.

The action of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion in favour of the pro­mo­tion of and respect for human rights is struc­tured using a mul­ti-lev­el ratio­nale and instru­ments, both mul­ti­lat­er­al and inter­na­tion­al forums and through sup­port for projects and pro­grammes in its part­ner coun­tries. In 2020, ini­tia­tives were car­ried out there as part of its bilat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al action and also in sup­port of non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions and civ­il soci­ety in the broad sense. This lat­ter aspect includ­ed ini­tia­tives in Lux­em­bourg through aware­ness-rais­ing and devel­op­ment edu­ca­tion. Nation­al­ly, and with regard to the pri­vate sec­tor, it should also be not­ed that Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion ful­ly sub­scribes to the imple­men­ta­tion of the Unit­ed Nations guid­ing prin­ci­ples on busi­ness and human rights. In this con­text, Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion now makes its sup­port for pri­vate actors express­ly con­di­tion­al on their for­mal com­mit­ment to respect human rights.

In its part­ner coun­tries and in line with its aim to con­tribute to the strength­en­ing of access to and the sup­ply of high-qual­i­ty basic social ser­vices, par­tic­u­lar­ly to the most vul­ner­a­ble and mar­gin­alised groups, in 2020 Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion con­tin­ued its bilat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al sup­port to projects and pro­grammes that pri­ori­tise, first and fore­most, the defence of and respect for children’s rights and the rights of women and girls, includ­ing through sup­port for health and sex­u­al and repro­duc­tive rights.

The pro­mo­tion of inclu­sive gov­er­nance at all lev­els is one of the four the­mat­ic pri­or­i­ties of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion. In view of the dete­ri­o­ra­tion observed in expres­sion and par­tic­i­pa­tion in civ­il soci­ety, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the Sahel, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and South-East Asia, Luxembourg’s devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion action has strength­ened sup­port, in its pro­grammes and projects, for respect for the rule of law and access to jus­tice as well as sup­port for the emer­gence of more effi­cient and more account­able pub­lic insti­tu­tions. Along­side these actions Lux­em­bourg is con­tin­u­ing its sup­port to Lux­em­bour­gish and inter­na­tion­al NGOs to pro­mote civ­il soci­ety par­tic­i­pa­tion in deci­sion-mak­ing process­es with a view to facil­i­tat­ing, in the long term, the estab­lish­ment of a tru­ly inclu­sive and rights-based environment.