Outsourcing law reform in developing countries to private contractors: A human rights perspective

The financial resources available for the pursuit of human rights objectives has given rise to an entire industry that is reliant on human rights consultancies. This is fed by tied or other forms of development aid and there exist few controls to assess the work of the actors that make their living from this industry. To a large degree, this privatisation of law reform is exacerbated by the fact that developing countries agree to the multitude of conditions set upon them by multilateral donors, one of which is said privatisation. In this manner, donors may adversely intervene in the relevant processes and distort a situation on the ground by, for example, painting a picture that does not accord with reality solely to justify their funding policies and recommendations to the recipient State.