The development community is on a high as the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, is set to kick off Nov. 29.
Three days before the aid effectiveness forum, about 500 civil society representatives from different organizations attended the Busan Global Civil Society summit to call for a rights-based approach to development.
“All aid actors must recognize that a rights based approach is fundamental to any decisions on how aid is used,” BetterAid Chairperson Antonio Tujan said.
The approach, which was based on a three-year consultation with civil society organizations worldwide, pushes for commitments to make all development cooperation work, not just that of CSOs. U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association Maina Kiai, who also joined the summit, said “governments need to ensure the protection of several main international principles.” These include freedom of assembly, association and expression, the rights of civil society groups to seek and secure funding, and the states’ duty to protect these freedoms and rights.
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