About the Portal

During the last decade the UN has accumulated a wide range of knowledge and experience in mainstreaming human rights into its work.  The Practitioners Portal on HRBA – www.hrbaportal.org –  pools together that body of knowledge and experience, and makes it accessible to UN practitioners through a single entry point.

The initiative grew out of a need to harness the body of knowledge and experience gathered by the UN system in strengthening human rights at the country level, so that these lessons can be applied in the future.  The application of this knowledge and learning is vital to improve the quality of human rights mainstreaming work.

Our Mission

  • To share lessons learned and good practice in mainstreaming human rights in programming and practice;
  • To improve the quality of our work in mainstreaming human rights – both the processes and results – and support evidence-based policy formulation;
  • To connect UN practitioners system-wide and provide a knowledge sharing tool that allows you to contribute resources of strategic relevance to programming HRBA.  See our contribute section.

What does the Portal Offer

The portal will focus on providing strategic and practical tools on integrating HRBA into programming and is designed to complement existing resources on broader human rights issues.  It offers access to:

  • Database of Resources:  virtual access to reports, handbooks, guides and case-studies on mainstreaming HRBA into development programming, searchable by topic area, region or programming cycle;
  • HuriTALK Corner: experiences, lessons learned and examples of good practice shared by UN members through the Human Rights Policy Network.  Search consolidated replies and e-discussions by topic area, or browse the insights series.
  • Learning Materials:  training and learning materials on integrating HRBA into development programming including the UN Common Learning Package on HRBA.


The portal is an ongoing work in progress; during this time, materials and features are being reviewed, added and improved.  We welcome your contributions to the portal and feedback on how we can improve this site.  Please see our feedback page.

Background

Mainstreaming human rights within the UN system has been central to the series of UN reform efforts since 1997, when the former Secretary-General designated human rights as cross-cutting to the work of the organization.  Over the last decade, important progress has been made in integrating human rights into policies and practice in many agencies and areas of work across the UN system.  See the UN Statement of Common Understanding on HRBA.

The Practitioners Portal on HRBA to programming was developed with the support of the Action 2 Global Programme on Human Rights with the aim of better managing our ‘knowledge assets’ in applying human rights in our work.  The project has been implemented by the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre.

For more information, please contact sarah.rattray@undp.org