Our approach
Three columns
Our approach is based on three pillars that support each another.
Column 1:
Human Rights: Accessible and practical
We explain human rights in accessible language and with practical relevance – for a range of target groups. In doing so, we establish a shared understanding as a basis for professional communication. We use the 'human rights lens' as an analytical tool, enabling us to analyse specific issues from a human rights perspective. This helps clarify the human rights dimension of a given situation and supports well-informed decisions on next steps.
We answer key practical questions:
- Who has which human rights obligations and/or responsibilities?
- What is a human rights violation?
- What are human rights risks? And what are adverse human rights impacts a company is responsible for?
- What are the features of Human Rights Due Diligence?
Column 2:
Systemic and interdisciplinary thinking
The implementation of human rights requires an appropriate understanding of reality; without this, well-intentioned ideas often come to nothing. Specifically, it requires a sound understanding of organisations as well as practical skills for shaping change processes in practice. We take a systemic, interdisciplinary approach, as is established in organisational consulting. This enables us to understand how organisations function internally, identify effective levers for change and work with clients to design tailor-made change processes.
Column 3:
Focus on sustainable change
Our work focuses on tangible impact and sustainable change – we help to develop organisational structures, processes and practical tools that ensure human rights are integrated in a confident, appropriate and sustainable manner – rather than becoming a bureaucratic exercise. This clear focus helps to unleash the energy needed for change. This is supported by a systemic emphasis on what is already working well and on the positive role organisations play in the realisation of human rights.
The underlying conceptual framework:
Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA)
Our approach doesn't exist in a vacuum. It draws on an internationally established conceptual framework – the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) – which has matured since the 1990s within development cooperation and today extends its influence far beyond that field, into such central areas as: the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), new technologies/artificial intelligence, and the climate crisis.
1. The HRBA brings about a decisive shift in perspective:
People are not recipients of charity, but holders of dignity and rights (rights-holders). State institutions and companies are therefore not merely benefactors, but bearers of duties and/or specific responsibilities (duty-bearers). This paradigm shift is at the heart of the HRBA: moving away from the logic of charity towards the logic of rights-and-duties relationships on an equal footing. In this way, dignity becomes transformational.
2. Human rights are the way and the goal of societal development:
3. Five operational principles give the HRBA its concrete shape:
Participation, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment and alignment with international human rights standards. These principles are not abstract constructs, but tried-and-tested guideposts and tools for steering processes of change in the field of human rights, whilst highlighting and addressing underlying structural inequalities.
4. The HRBA lies at the intersection of two logics:
On the one hand, the legal logic of human rights; on the other, the logic of development shaped by the social and economic sciences. Interdisciplinary dialogue is a key and very practical challenge for the implementation of the HRBA in practice. It requires intellectual openness towards other approaches, but also the ability to simplify (one’s own) complexities, to develop plain language and to engage with other (professional) languages.
Our three-pillar approach is intended as a contribution to the practical application of the HRBA. In doing so, we focus primarily on the capacity-building of those who bear obligations and responsibilities.