Rights by Doing: Can the Human Rights-Based Approach translate Human Rights into action?

This thesis examines whether the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) is an effective framework for realising human rights in practice. While international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establish universal standards, their implementation is shaped by political negotiation, power dynamics, and the active participation of rights-holders. The HRBA seeks to move beyond a state-centred and legalistic model by embedding principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination, and empowerment into processes that affect people’s lives. The study is organised in three parts. The first explores the conceptual and political foundations of human rights and the challenges of translating universal principles into practice. The second analyses the development, components, and interpretations of HRBA, positioning it as a framework that operationalises human rights by linking legal standards to concrete mechanisms of engagement and accountability. The third examines two case studies supported by the Scottish Human Rights Commission: the Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use and its Toolkit, and the justice model for survivors of historic childhood abuse in care in Scotland. These examples illustrate how HRBA can reconfigure relationships between rights-holders and duty-bearers, strengthen participation of marginalised groups, and embed rights principles in policy and practice. The thesis concludes that HRBA offers a transformative approach to bridging the gap between human rights norms and lived realities.