Human Rights Indicators in Development : An Introduction
Human rights indicators are central to the application of human rights standards in context and relate essentially to measuring human rights realization, both qualitatively and quantitatively. They offer an empirical or evidence-based dimension to...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank
2012
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| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000333038_20101116232436 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2529 |
| Summary: | Human rights indicators are central to
the application of human rights standards in context and
relate essentially to measuring human rights realization,
both qualitatively and quantitatively. They offer an
empirical or evidence-based dimension to the normative
content of human rights legal obligations and provide a
means of connecting those obligations with empirical data
and evidence and, in this way, relate to human rights
accountability and the enforcement of human rights
obligations. Human rights indicators are important for both
assessment and diagnostic purposes: the assessment function
of human rights indicators relates to their use in
monitoring accountability, effectiveness, and impact; the
diagnostic purpose relates to measuring the current state of
human rights implementation and enjoyment in a given
context, whether regional, country-specific, or local. This
paper offers a preliminary review of the foregoing in the
development context and a general perspective on the
significance of human rights indicators for development
processes and outcomes. It is not intended to be
prescriptive and does not provide specific operational
recommendations on the use of human rights indicators in
development projects. Nor does it advocate a particular
approach or mode of integrating human rights in development
or argue for a rights-based approach to development. This
paper is designed to provide development practitioners with
a preliminary view on the possible relevance, design, and
use of human rights indicators in development policy and
practice. It also introduces a basic conceptual framework
about the relationship between rights and development,
including in the World Bank context. It then moves to
methodological approaches on human rights measurement,
exploring in general terms different types of human rights
indicators and their potential implications for development
at three levels of convergence or integration. The paper
therefore offers a theoretical introduction to a complex
area of growing relevance in a number of areas of
development that may be of interest to practitioners and
scholars in a variety of institutional settings. |
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