Human rights

On the basis of this obser­va­tion, respect for human rights is iden­ti­fied as one of the three cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ties of Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Cooperation’s gen­er­al strat­e­gy (“On the way to 2030”). Togeth­er with the oth­er two cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ties, gen­der equal­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, respect for and pro­mo­tion of human rights are thus sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly tak­en into account in Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and human­i­tar­i­an inter­ven­tions. In the frame­work of the imple­men­ta­tion of its fem­i­nist for­eign pol­i­cy, Lux­em­bourg has a par­tic­u­lar com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing women’s rights as an inte­gral part of human rights, as well as to increas­ing the rep­re­sen­ta­tion and par­tic­i­pa­tion of women as the under-rep­re­sent­ed sex, at all lev­els of society.

In all its activ­i­ties, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion has boost­ed sup­port for respect for inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law, human rights, the rule of law and access to jus­tice, as well as sup­port for the emer­gence of more effec­tive and account­able pub­lic insti­tu­tions. In order to ensure inclu­sive gov­er­nance and the effi­cient and effec­tive allo­ca­tion of pub­lic resources in part­ner coun­tries, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion sup­ports the con­duct of sec­toral and admin­is­tra­tive reforms, decon­cen­tra­tion and decen­tral­i­sa­tion, as well as a stronger com­mit­ment to local part­ners. These actions are com­ple­ment­ed by ongo­ing sup­port to Lux­em­bour­gish and inter­na­tion­al NGOs in the area of human rights pro­mo­tion. The aim is to pro­mote the increased par­tic­i­pa­tion of civ­il soci­ety in deci­sion-mak­ing process­es, facil­i­tate the estab­lish­ment of an inclu­sive rights-based envi­ron­ment and pro­tect indi­vid­u­als against arbi­trary action by the state. Also, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and human­i­tar­i­an action con­tin­ued in 2021 to sup­port access to and the pro­vi­sion of high-qual­i­ty basic social ser­vices, in par­tic­u­lar to the most vul­ner­a­ble and mar­gin­alised pop­u­la­tion groups, includ­ing women and young people.

At the bilat­er­al lev­el, in order to respond to these pri­or­i­ties, the human rights sit­u­a­tion in part­ner coun­tries is addressed, inter alia, in the frame­work of struc­tured dia­logues on pol­i­cy, but also sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly in the imple­men­ta­tion of bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion pro­grammes. Lux­em­bourg pro­motes a rights-based approach in all its cur­rent Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­grammes. For exam­ple, the new Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gramme between Lux­em­bourg and Niger (ICPIV, 2022 – 2026), signed in May 2021, stress­es that a human rights-based approach must be adopt­ed through­out the cycle of ICP inter­ven­tions, through sys­tem­at­ic analy­sis of their poten­tial impli­ca­tions for rights hold­ers and those bound by oblig­a­tions. Sim­i­lar­ly, the inter­ven­tions in the new Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gramme between Lux­em­bourg and Laos (ICP V, 2022 – 2026), signed in July 2021, will focus in par­tic­u­lar on the pro­mo­tion of and respect for human rights.

The issue of human rights is also being addressed in mul­ti­lat­er­al forums. Lux­em­bourg is com­mit­ted, through its devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion pol­i­cy, to strength­en­ing the capac­i­ties of human rights net­works and organ­i­sa­tions in devel­op­ing coun­tries. For exam­ple, from 6 to 8 Decem­ber 2021, Franz Fay­ot trav­elled to New York for a work­ing vis­it where he signed two new strate­gic part­ner­ship frame­works with UNICEF and with the Unit­ed Nations Pop­u­la­tion Fund (UNF­PA). UNICEF and UNF­PA will ben­e­fit from a total finan­cial enve­lope of approx­i­mate­ly EUR26 mil­lion, respec­tive­ly, over a 4‑year peri­od (to 2025). The sign­ing of the agree­ment with UNICEF coin­cides with the agency’s new strate­gic plan, which aims to con­tribute to the attain­ment of the SDGs and to estab­lish a soci­ety in which every child is includ­ed and has agency, oppor­tu­ni­ty and their rights ful­filled. The new agree­ment with UNF­PA will enable Lux­em­bourg to strength­en a long-stand­ing part­ner­ship and work close­ly with a com­pe­tent and expe­ri­enced body to ensure uni­ver­sal access to sex­u­al and repro­duc­tive health and guar­an­teed repro­duc­tive rights and to reduce child mor­tal­i­ty. Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion has also stepped up its col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Office of the Unit­ed Nations High Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights (UNHCR). A con­tri­bu­tion of EUR500000 was made to the UNHCR East Africa Region­al Office, a sec­ond con­tri­bu­tion of EUR500000 was trans­ferred to the UNHCR Office in Myan­mar and a third con­tri­bu­tion of EUR400000 was made to the UNHCR fund for tech­ni­cal coop­er­a­tion in the field of human rights, which pro­vides tech­ni­cal assis­tance to states to help them devel­op their own nation­al capac­i­ties in this area and to share good prac­tices to pro­mote the effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of their human rights obligations.

In its col­lab­o­ra­tion with the pri­vate sec­tor, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion ful­ly adheres to the Unit­ed Nations guid­ing prin­ci­ples on busi­ness and human rights and the guide­lines of the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co-oper­a­tion and Devel­op­ment (OECD) to pro­tect human rights and social devel­op­ment. In this con­text, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion makes its sup­port for pri­vate actors express­ly con­di­tion­al on their for­mal com­mit­ment to respect human rights. Indeed, com­pli­ance with the Unit­ed Nations guid­ing prin­ci­ples on busi­ness and human rights is a cri­te­ri­on for eval­u­at­ing the 2021 selec­tion of the Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Facil­i­ty. In its activ­i­ties with pri­vate sec­tor actors, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion thus active­ly pro­motes con­duct by busi­ness­es that respects human rights at every lev­el of their val­ue chain. The Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs has also active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the work of the ​“Enter­pris­es and Human Rights” work­ing group and in the inter­min­is­te­r­i­al com­mit­tee respon­si­ble for defin­ing the broad guide­lines on the duty of care for Lux­em­bourg com­pa­nies, and even prepar­ing a posi­tion for nego­ti­a­tions in rela­tion to a Euro­pean direc­tive in this field. This work, which is a con­crete exam­ple of a strong com­mit­ment to pol­i­cy coher­ence for devel­op­ment and the imple­men­ta­tion of a human rights pol­i­cy, will con­tin­ue in 2022.