On 4th and 5th November 2013, co-director of the Centre and Academic Lead on Global Governance, James Harrison, spoke at the Austrian Scientific Foundation for International Developments (ÖFSE) in Vienna. His keynote presentation was on Human Rights Impact Assessment: Potential and Challenges in the Development Context and can be viewed on the ÖFSE’s website. He also delivered a second presentation named Human Rights Impact Assessments of Free Trade Agreements: What is the State of the Art?

These talks drew extensively upon previous published work by James.

James' keynote presentation considered:

• the rationale for thinking about Human Rights Impact Assessments in development terms,
• where HRIAs have been used
• the key elements in undertaking an HRIA
• the key differences between different types of HRIAs, and
• how to improve HRIAs through a different methodology, and institutionalising meaningful and robust HRIA proccesses

James' second presentation provided an overview of existing practice relating to conducting human rights impact assessments.

To read the presentation handouts in full, please visit our public engagement pages.