The Oslo Governance Forum, 3-5 October, 2011, focused on participatory governance assessments and social accountability as a means for strengthening democratic governance at the national and international level. The Forum considered and adopted the Oslo Principles on Democratic Governance Assessments (The Oslo Principles). [...]

A parallel session considered some of the conceptual issues involved in mainstreaming human rights into governance assessments. The session was chaired by Ms Shireen Said, Policy Advisor, Human Rights, UNDP. Three theoretical papers were followed by the voice of a practitioner. The speakers were Professor Bård A. Andreassen, University of Oslo, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights; Professor Todd Landman, Director, Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, University of Essex; Professor Julia Häusermann, Founder and President, Rights and Humanity; and Mr Brian Kagoro, Programme Adviser, UNDP, Regional Centre, Johannesburg. Professor Häusermann acted as Rapporteur of the Session.

The parallel session constituted a first step in establishing a dialogue with key stakeholders aimed at understanding and strengthening governance assessments under a common framework and set of principles that contribute to the enjoyment of human rights. Some of its key recommendations were integrated into the Oslo Principles adopted by the Forum as a whole.

The present report is in two parts. The first, outlines the presentations and discussions at the Parallel Session and the conclusions reached, some of which were included in the final draft of the Oslo Principles.  The second, consolidates the approaches considered in the session with other approaches to human rights in governance assessments as the basis for a preliminary conceptual framework for a Human Rights Based Approach to Democratic Governance Assessments.

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