Introduction

The Lux­em­bourg gov­ern­ment pri­ori­tis­es the pro­mo­tion and defence of human rights through the var­i­ous ele­ments of its exter­nal action. Through this cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ty, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion aims pri­mar­i­ly to strength­en the respect for and pro­tec­tion and real­i­sa­tion of human rights in order to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment that offers equal oppor­tu­ni­ties, so that each indi­vid­ual can freely deter­mine the course of his or her exis­tence. In oth­er words, the aim is to imple­ment the prin­ci­ple of leav­ing no one behind, as enshrined in Agen­da 2030 and the Addis Aba­ba Action Agen­da for the financ­ing of devel­op­ment, which lie at the heart of Luxembourg’s over­all devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion strategy.

In its part­ner coun­tries, the actions of the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion there­fore form part of this human rights-based approach, in the sense that an improve­ment in gov­er­nance seeks to strength­en the insti­tu­tions of the State in ful­fill­ing their roles as bod­ies bound by oblig­a­tions. Appro­pri­ate legal and admin­is­tra­tive frame­works and insti­tu­tions are nec­es­sary in order to address the needs and rights of peo­ple. Sup­port must also be giv­en to rights hold­ers, who will be bet­ter able to claim and exer­cise their fun­da­men­tal rights, which com­prise civ­il, cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, polit­i­cal and social rights.

With its part­ner coun­tries, Lux­em­bourg main­tains a reg­u­lar polit­i­cal dia­logue at min­is­te­r­i­al lev­el. The Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­grammes include the field of human rights and are the sub­ject of an annu­al review as part of the part­ner­ship com­mit­tee meet­ings that take place alter­nate­ly in Lux­em­bourg and in the rel­e­vant part­ner country.

Through its new human­i­tar­i­an strat­e­gy, Lux­em­bourg remains com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing respect for inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law (IHL), and ensur­ing respect for human rights, as well as sup­port­ing efforts to build a last­ing peace, notably through tran­si­tion­al jus­tice activities.

On 15 Novem­ber 2022, Franz Fay­ot deliv­ered his analy­sis of the chal­lenges faced by the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion to the Cham­ber of Deputies. Dur­ing his speech, the min­is­ter referred to the impor­tance that the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion attach­es to respect for human rights in all its inter­ven­tions. In order to strength­en its com­mit­ment and impact in this area, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion plans in the future to increase the bud­get allo­cat­ed to projects that specif­i­cal­ly pro­mote the pro­tec­tion of human rights in their polit­i­cal and civ­il dimen­sions. For human rights are uni­ver­sal, inter­re­lat­ed, inter­de­pen­dent and indi­vis­i­ble. In order for peo­ple to ful­ly ben­e­fit from their human dig­ni­ty, it is imper­a­tive to guar­an­tee fun­da­men­tal free­doms, such as the free­dom of expres­sion, the pro­tec­tion of pri­va­cy, the right to equal treat­ment or to legal aid, to name a few, that are ensured in States where the rule of law holds sway and in democ­ra­cies. In coun­tries where the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is active, sup­port will con­tin­ue, in par­tic­u­lar, for human rights defenders.