Human Rights Policy Versus Practice: An Evaluation of the Implementation of the Human Rights Policy of the Netherlands in its Relations with China, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico and Rwanda in the Period 1999-2004

Human rights are considered as a cornerstone of Dutch foreign policy. Despite the importance of the policy area, only a few limited evaluations of human rights programs have been carried out during the past decade. The policy and operations evaluation department (IOB) therefore included this policy area in its evaluation programme and carried out a policy analysis and five sub-studies. 'Human rights policy versus practice' presents the results of one of these sub-studies. Between November 2004 and April 2005 Dutch political efforts in the field of human rights in Indonesia, China, Iran, Rwanda and Mexico were assessed. The aim of the sub-study was to describe the implementation of Dutch human rights policy and, for a selected number of case studies, to gauge its effectiveness. To this end, an evaluation framework was designed, documents were reviewed and a large number of key actors were interviewed. The results presented in this report reflect the main issues arising from the analysis of the data collection from all sources. IOB evaluator Marijke Stegeman is responsible for the overall evaluation of human rights policy. The sub-study presented here was carried out by Marcel Zwamborn, Hilde Hey and Mirjam van Reisen. Research assistant Inge Sturkenboom participated in preparing the documentation for the evaluation. The responsibility for the contents of the report remains, however, with the authors. This report is one in an IOB series of 'working documents' that consists of studies which may be of interest to a broader audience.