Thursday, October 23, 2014
A Human Rights Lab
More and more social entrepreneurs and innovators seek to break out of the boxes of established institutions by creating "labs," that promise creative spaces, relatively less hierarchy, engagement with technology, and the possibility of social transformation. Building on this trend, in 2013, the United Nations Development Programme offices in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States established the first-of-its-kind Human Rights Lab.
According to its website, HuRiLab "is a platform to promote innovative concepts into the Rule of Law, Human Rights, and Justice programming. We seek to facilitate collaboration with institutions and youth/ civil society organizations in order to develop more responsive and effective projects that can address persistent challenges posed by vulnerability, marginalization, and exclusion."
HuRiLab's on-line "idea box" is a place where human rights activists can initiate dialogue about their nascent ideas for transformative social change. Projects to date include several focused on disabilities and one of particular interest to lawyers, "How can innovation and technology help deliver legal aid more effectively?"
Several of HuRiLab's post-graduate fellows are addressing this access to justice issue during their fellowship year, by setting up access to Skype consultations, for example, and developing the use of mobile tools to access legal information. The fellows' "microblogs" chronicle their successes and challenges during the year.
The human rights lab model has much to recommend it as a source for both ideas and implementation. As U.S. advocates work closely with local human rights commissions, and continue the long struggle to establish a national human rights body, perhaps we should also be borrowing a page from HuRiLab and consciously developing new approaches to encourage human rights innovation.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/2014/10/a-human-rights-lab.html