Human Rights Due Diligence Policy
Also called: HRDDP · Topic: Transparency, Accountability and e-Governance · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Human Rights Due Diligence Policy (HRDDP) is a United Nations rule about which forces the UN will help. The UN will not support security forces that are not part of the UN, such as a national army or police, if there are strong reasons to believe they risk committing serious violations. These are violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war that protect civilians), human rights law or refugee law. "Due diligence" means checking carefully before acting. The policy matters because UN support should not strengthen forces that abuse people.
Example
Sri Lanka's army faced questions about its conduct in the final phase of the civil war. In 2019 the UN human rights chief warned that the appointment of an accused army commander could affect Sri Lanka's role in UN peacekeeping. The HRDDP is the standard used to judge such deployments. So when India and Sri Lanka train under a UN-mandate scenario, as in Exercise MITRA SHAKTI, whether Sri Lankan units can actually join UN missions depends on this standard.
Don't confuse with
- Vetting (screening): vetting checks the rights record of each soldier or unit before a UN mission. The HRDDP is the wider policy that decides whether the UN supports a force at all.
- International humanitarian law: this is the body of law itself. The HRDDP is a UN policy that uses that law to decide whom the UN supports.