The University of New South Wales Initiative for Health and Human Rights (IHHR) hosted a two day retreat of Steering Committee members, who provide scientific and technical guidance to the Initiative, and other invited guests. The aim of the retreat was to create common grounds and recognise commonalities and differences across disciplines as they relate to Health and Human Rights principles, values and approaches. Against the background of the Research Agenda which had been formulated by the IHHR Steering Committee, the Retreat briefly reviewed the current priority setting before discussing methodologies applicable to Health and Human Rights research. The retreat, held on the Central Coast of NSW from 19-20 December 2006, was facilitated by resource persons drawn from the UNSW and the Harvard School of Public Health.