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Measuring human rights

Measuring human rights. Purpose of measurement Levels of measurement Categories and dimensions Objects of measurement Problems of measurement. Purposes of measurement. Contextual description Monitoring Documentation Classification Types of regime Types of governance

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Measuring human rights

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  1. Measuring human rights • Purpose of measurement • Levels of measurement • Categories and dimensions • Objects of measurement • Problems of measurement

  2. Purposes of measurement • Contextual description • Monitoring • Documentation • Classification • Types of regime • Types of governance • Types of rights violations • Mapping (time and space) • Global trends • Regional • Local • Secondary analysis • Academic research • Policy research • Political dialogue

  3. Levels of social scientific measurement Adapted from: Zeller and Carmines 1980; Munck and Verkuilen 2000; Adcock and Collier 2001; Ball and Spirer 2000

  4. Measuring Example

  5. Categories and dimensions of human rights • Categories • Civil rights • Political rights • Economic rights • Social rights • Cultural rights • Solidarity rights • Dimensions • Protect • Respect • Fulfil

  6. Objects of measurement • Principle (de jure) • International legal • National legal • Practice (de facto) • Events-based • Standards-based • Dichotomous categories • Polychotomous scales • Survey-based • Hybrid measures • Policy • Input • Process • Output • Outcome

  7. Principle (de jure) measurement • Code treaty participation (scale) • No signature (0) • Signature (1) • Ratification (2) • Ratification with reservations (weighting) • Code national constitutions (n or scale) • Articles on civil rights • Articles on political rights • Articles on economic rights • Articles on social rights • Articles on cultural rights

  8. International de jure human rights Landman (2005) Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press

  9. International de jure rights: coding reservations • Rewarding the absence of reservations • Countries with no reservations with regard to said treaty that do not modify obligations, or non-substantial declarations (score = 4) • Countries whose reservations could have some but not major impact on their obligations (score = 3) • Countries whose reservations have noticeable effect on the obligations (score = 2) • Countries whose reservations can have significant and severe effects on treaty obligations (score = 1) • The ratification score • No signature (0) • Signature (1) • Ratification (2) • Weighting the ratification score • Weighted Ratification = [Ratification score (0,1,2) * Reservations score (1,2,3,4)] • High score = ratification with fewer substantial reservations • Low score = ratification with more substantial reservations

  10. International de jure rights: ICCPR with and without reservations Landman (2005) Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press

  11. International de jure rights: ICCPR with reservations Landman (2005) Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press

  12. Domestic de jure civil and political rights Source: van Maarseveen and Tang (1978)

  13. Domestic de jure economic and social rights Source: van Maarseveen and Tang (1978)

  14. Practice (de facto) measurement • Events-based • Standards-based • Survey-based • Hybrid

  15. De facto measurement: events-based methodology for human rights • Disaggregated events (‘who did what to whom’) • Act • Violation(s) • Perpetrator • Victim • Context • When • Where • Controlled vocabularies • Aggregated event counts • Multiple sources of information

  16. De facto measurement: events-based data model Source: http://shr.aaas.org/hrdag/idea/datamodel/index.html

  17. Measuring de facto rights: events-based example in Kosovo Estimated total refugee migration and killings over time, in Kosovo Source: Patrick Ball and Jana Asher

  18. Measuring de facto rights: events-based example in Peru, 1980-2000 Source: http://shr.aaas.org/hrdag/project-38.php

  19. Measuring de facto rights: events-based example for abuse against Human Rights Defenders, 1997-2000 Source: Landman (2006)’Holding the Line: Human Rights Defenders in the Age of Terror’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 8..

  20. De facto measurement: standards-based methodology • Ideal standards • Legal instruments • Conceptual definition • Democracy • Good governance • Human rights • Empirical information • Monitoring bodies • Human rights treaty bodies • NGOs (e.g. Amnesty International/Human Rights Watch) • Governments (e.g. US State Department) • Newspapers • Historical accounts/narratives • Coding • Dichotomous categories • ACLP • Doorenspleet • Polychotomous scales • Freedom House • Political Terror Scale • Torture Scale

  21. De facto measurement: standards-based scales of rights Landman (2005) Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press

  22. De facto rights:Standards-based measures across space Landman (2005) Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press

  23. De facto measurement: standards-based scales of political and civil rightsCingranelli and Richards (CIRI) data set www.humanrightsdata.com

  24. De facto measurement: standards-based scales of women’s and workers’ rightsCingranelli and Richards (CIRI) data set www.humanrightsdata.com

  25. De facto measurement: survey-based methodology • Sample of the population • ‘VIPs’ • Quota sample • Random • Standardised questions • Reponses • Open • Closed

  26. De facto measurement: survey-based measure of human rights World Values Survey (1994) question on support for the idea of human rights in 1990 across eight countries (1002  N  2095).

  27. De facto measurement: survey-based measure of human rights Physicians for Human Rights (2002); N = 991 IDPs in Sierra Leone

  28. Policy indicators • Input • Process • Performance • Output • Outcome • Perception

  29. Policy indicators: input • Provision of resources • Spending in education • Spending on health service • Spending on housing

  30. Policy indicators: process • Health • Number of patients seen per day • Waiting lists • Average journey time to hospital • Water • Time it takes to access clean water • Number of trips to water source needed per day

  31. Policy indicators: performance • Health • Time it takes to build new hospitals • Time it takes to deliver new beds • Time it takes to train and recruit new doctors • Water • Time it takes to provide a water connection • Time it takes to build a sewerage system

  32. Policy indicators: output • Health • Number of doctors per 100,000 • Number of hospital beds per 100,000 • Number of hospitals per geographical area • Water • Households with access to water within 200m of dwelling • Increase in quality of water

  33. Policy indicators: outcome • Health • Infant mortality rates • Longevity rates • New HIV/AIDs cases • Water • Level of water born diseases • Infant mortality rate

  34. Policy indicators: perception • Attitudinal data • Surveys • Feedback questionnaires • Can evaluate inputs, process, and outputs

  35. Problems of measurement • Validity • Reliability • Measurement bias • Lack of transparency • Variance truncation • Information bias • Aggregation problems

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