Rights-Based and Faith-Based? Approaches to Aid in Pakistan

Since the 1990s, the rights-based approach (RBA) has become a well-established concept in the humanitarian field. Faith-based organizations have increasingly embraced the concept, though not without contestation. Human rights and religion are often seen as incompatible by both secular proponents of rights and by religious actors who question the need for a secular rights framework. Are rights-based and faith-based approaches compatible? How are ‘global’ RBA norms operationalized in ‘local’ contexts characterized by great normative diversity? Based on a study in Pakistan, this policy brief examines the intersection of rights and faith, and the implications for humanitarian action.