HUMAN RIGHTS MEASUREMENT Types of Indicators and Evidence

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HUMAN RIGHTS MEASUREMENTTypes of Indicators and
Evidence

• Estonia 04-05.06. 2008.
• Hans-Otto Sano
• Danish Institute for Human Rights

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PROGRAM

• An overview of dilemmas
• Hypotheses of HR Change
• What do we measure?
• How do we measure?
• OHCHR compliance indicators
• Examples of indicators
• Conclusions on indicators
• HR and evidence researching people, policies
  and institutions
• Conclusions

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DILEMMAS

• Ranking and comparisons of states
• Quantitative or qualitative
• Objective or subjective measurement
• Violations or progressive realization
• Linking program indicators to country performance

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THEORIES/HYPOTHESES OF HR IMPLEMENTATION

• Monitoring ? change (Naming and shaming)
• Constitutional reforms/democratization ? change
• Dialogue ? change (Collaboration and mutual
  awareness)
• Advocacy ? change (A refined political pressure
  model) Risse spiral model
• Empowerment and making claims ? change
  (marginalized populations engage duty-bearers)
• Institutional reforms ? change (work from within)
• Combined Pressure from peer groups, pressure
  from below, pressure from within perpetrating
  institutions and endorsement from above.

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WHAT SHOULD BE MEASURED?

• Purpose
• Compliance normative-legal assessment framework
• Violations, inadequate protection, enjoyment and
  progress, Process HR Principles
• Analytical The nature of HR change, the
  effectiveness of implementation efforts
• Programmatic Did Y inputs lead to X outputs? Did
  we achieve what we set out to achieve?

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HOW DO WE MEASURE?

• Events-based documenting atrocities, gross
  violations
• Expert-based routinised macro-assessments
• Survey-based
• PRA-Based
• Data
• Quantitative data how many were killed?
• Qualitative data perceptions, researching power
  relations
• Administrative data lists
• Expert assessment data of systemasticity and
  severity

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OHCHR COMPLIANCE INDICATORS

• Structural Ratifications, Domestic laws,
  Statement of Policies, NIHR
• Commitment and acceptance
• Process Building outcomes resources, policy
  implementation, capacity building
• Effort and promotion
• Outcomes Levels of HR Protection, The failure to
  protect
• Results and protection

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EXAMPLES OF INDICATORSOHCHR

• Reported cases of disappearances (e.g. as
  reported to the UN Working Group on Enforced or
  Involuntary Disappearances. Indicates
  violations directly
• Proportions of seats in parliament and elected
  bodies at sub-national and local level held by
  women and target groups relative to their
  respective weight in the countrys
  population Indicates implicit bench-marking

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EXAMPLES OF INDICATORS IIOHCHR

• Proportion of population below minimum level of
  dietary energy consumption Indicates levels of
  protection
• Recidivism rates of juveniles Indicates levels
  of protection

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WHAT ARE TH E CHALLENGING ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS?

• Evaluating policies
• Accountability are policies implemented with
  roots in HR obligations?
• Do policies seek to redress HR problems
• Trends What are the trends of HR progress? What
  Causal factors?
• Evaluating capacities of HR implementation
• Institutional anchoring
• Capacities in terms of knowledge, learning and
  reaching out
• Resources
• Evaluating processes
• Principles of participation, non-discrimination,
  accountability

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WHAT CAN THESE INDICATORS BE USED FOR?

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SUMMING UP

• OHCHR indicators have their strength in assessing
  compliance
• In itself a major step forward if indicators of
  compliance are accepted and used.
• Blurred as regards respect, protect and fulfil
• The indicators are hardly contributing to a
  better understanding of state efforts
• At the analytical level
• Causal mechanisms are still unclear
• Actors are not present (except under structural
  indicators)

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FOUR PROPOSITIONS ABOUT HR RESEARCH

• HR research tends to focus on legislation and on
  general policy, less on practice except in cases
  of law suits
• HR research does not easily address institutional
  matters. Institutions are black boxes tending
  to be filled with propositions of good or bad
  governance.
• HR research does not easily deal with social
  conditions as a matter of a rights discourse.
• HR research has started to involve itself in
  impact discussions, but these efforts are
  inconclusive.

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THE NEED FOR EVIDENCE BEYOND INDICATORS

• Two big gaps
• Understanding implementation processes beyond the
  law
• Understanding how people, not individuals,
  enjoy human rights, the social anchoring of HR in
  local communities and in duty-bearer institutions

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SUMMARIZING DATA ON HR JOURNALS 2007. SHARE OF
TOTAL REFERENCES

• Reports from organizations 17.4
• Administrative documents 4.9
• Legal documents, conventions, courts 11.3
• Quasi-legal institutions 5.7
• Secondary sources 53.8
• Internet sources 5.1
• Quantitative data 0.1
• Qualitative data 1.5
• Events-based data 0.2

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SUMMING UP

• As an interdisciplinary discipline HR research is
  only beginning to make its marks
• The training of HR researches might not be
  compatible with the objectives of creating
  interdisciplinary capacity
• HR is becoming a policy area, but in competition
  with other policy areas like good governance
• HR is ready to contribute to processes of
  empowerment, but the evidence showing that
  rights-based empowerment takes place is scarce.
  So far, RBA empowerment is an assumption more
  than a demonstrated fact.

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Torture (East Europe)
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Torture (East Europe)
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Women's Economic Right (Latin America)
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Freedom of Speech (Middle East and North Africa)
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Freedom of Assembly and Association (West Africa)
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Freedom of Assembly and Association (East Africa)
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