The sphere project: next steps in moving toward a rights-based approach to humanitarian assistance

Since the Sphere Project was launched in 1997, it has sought to integrate principles of human rights norms with adherence to technical standards. While the Sphere Handbook has evolved as both a field tool and a resource for articulating human rights, it does not fully offer a rights-based approach to humanitarian assistance. In the handbook's current edition, its Humanitarian Charter asserts and affirms human rights principles, but the technical Minimum Standards Section that follows has yet to truly embody a rights-based approach; that is, it does not clarify how to operationalize human rights in the field, particularly with respect to the health sector. Using human rights documents, the Sphere documents, and existing, published literature in the field of humanitarian practice and human rights, this article provides critical commentary and suggests how strengthening the link between rights and standards, as well as rhetoric and action, can advance the Sphere Project beyond its current applicability as a handbook of technical standards in the field to operationalizing an effective rights-based approach to humanitarian aid.