Seminar on human rights and the millennium development goals : The Hague, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25-26 may 2009 : report

This seminar was organised to discuss the opportunities and challenges of building bridges between human rights instruments and development cooperation instruments provided by a range of partners to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In the keynote speeches, presentations and discussions, the human rights perspective and the operational response to development challenges have intersected at many levels and in very concrete ways. Participants discussed possible links between instruments, examined donor interventions in three specific MDGs and country cases and explored ways to use and enhance accountability mechanisms. Participants were witnesses to what could be called a marriage between the development and the human rights communities, at least for the two days of the seminar. It can be concluded that this union is full of potential, as can be seen in the broad consensus on the need to bring human rights and the MDGs together and the many suggestions for concrete steps forwards. [authors abstract]