THRE has been working with the Third Sector Platform of Catalonia over the past year on our shared goal of promoting a human rights-based approach to third sector organisations in Scotland and Catalonia respectively. The Platform acts to represent all third sector organisations in Catalonia with the shared goal of defending social rights, eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities.
We have been working in partnership over the course of the last year to share best practice and our localised experiences in order to strengthen human rights-based approaches between ourselves and across other European partners. THRE featured in a recent report produced by the Platform as an example of international best practice when it comes to promoting a human rights-based approach.
For this year’s ‘Europa Social’ debate, the Platform invited THRE to present our experiences in a peer learning session on “Promoting the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) in the third sector.” In our presentation, we got to showcase the work we’ve done since the beginning of THRE with our Catalan colleagues – how THRE came to be, how we do what we do, and key lessons we’ve picked up on the way in how to engage third sector organisations in taking a human rights-based approach.
The highlight of this session was a roundtable discussion with local Catalan organisations sharing their experiences of rights-based approaches in their work. Organisations present ranged from those working in drug and alcohol addiction recovery; disability advocacy and mental health. We found that there was lots of crossover and shared struggles between Catalonia and Scotland. Some shared insights we gathered were:
- Taking a human rights-based approach is as much about one’s own organisational culture as what you do in practice with communities – it’s not enough to only review what we do externally with service users but we must also be thinking about the relationships and dynamics within our organisations
- We need to ‘speak from our hearts, not just our minds’ – avoid jargon and make sure that people understand that rights are about their everyday lives and not just an abstract ideal
- A human rights-based approach doesn’t exist in isolation – if used effectively it can contribute to tackling a range of social issues including as a tool to push back on hate speech, racism and other forms of discrimination
- Funding and resources are often the most major barriers to transformational processes – working together and promoting dialogue is key to moving forward despite these barriers
- Taking a human rights-based approach is fundamentally about empowerment – by giving rights-holders the language and confidence to engage with rights we help give power to those that traditionally have less power
We came out of this session with a real sense that we were part of a much bigger movement working to bring human rights to life in our everyday practices as third sector organisations. For us, this was a really affirming way to end 2024 and to celebrate Human Rights Day by coming together with like-minded organisations to share both the successes and setbacks we’ve all came across on our journeys and to be reminded that we’re part of a global rights community that shares the same values, principles and hopes that transcend geography and language.
Thank you so much to the Third Sector Platform of Catalonia and Catalonia International for inviting and hosting us – we look forward to the next chapter of collaboration and partnership working in 2025!
