International development players have been embracing “crosscutting” topics, such as human rights and human security, since the late 90s. This is apparent in their planning and implementation of development interventions: with regard to human rights, many organisations refer to ‘human rights mainstreaming’ and a few apply a ‘human rights-based approach’ where all results are expected to contribute to the improvement of human rights. When it comes to evaluating results of development interventions, however, human rights are rarely if at all included in the assessment. Little practical guidance is currently available on how to address human rights in evaluation. In the evaluation literature, human rights are only indirectly tackled: either evaluation is considered the medium through which others are being empowered or how social justice is supported. Thus, the question for this paper is how to, methodologically, assess human rights as a crosscutting theme in a ‘typical’ evaluation of a development project? To respond to this question, this paper suggests combining elements of the evaluation theory on ‘use’ with the evaluation theory on ‘valuing’. This paper also shares the main results of a recent pilot-test of this methodology in an evaluation of an anti-trafficking project in Myanmar. Findings include a wide(r) context analysis for better understanding the stakeholder situation, capture knowledge and attitudes of rights holders and reveal capacity bottlenecks for duty bearers. The author concludes that these would not have been obtained without an added human rights dimension and underlines the feasibility of the approach. Keywords: development evaluation, human rights, participatory approach, mixed methods, human trafficking.
