Measuring Progress on the Realization of Human Rights

Abstract

Measurement is the fi rst step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can't measure something, you can't understand it. If you can't understand it, you can't control it. If you can't control it, you can't improve it.-H. James Harrington Anything can be measured. If a thing can be observed in any way at all, it lends itself to some type of measurement method. No matter how "fuzzy" the measurement is, it's still a measurement if it tells you more than you knew before. And those very things most likely to be seen as immeasurable are, virtually always, solved by relatively simple measurement methods.-Douglas Hubbard, How to Measure Anything A human rights indicator is specifi c information on the state or condition of an object, event, activity or outcome that can be related to human rights norms and standards; that addresses and refl ects human rights principles and concerns; and that can be used to assess and monitor the promotion and implementation of human rights.-OHCHR, Human Rights Indicators Guide , 2012, p. 16. A human rights-based approach to social policy is a conceptual, normative framework based on international human rights standards that seeks to promote and protect human rights. In a rights-based approach, social policies are developed and implemented to promote human rights and the analysis of social policies evaluates rights holders' efforts and duty bearers' obligations toward fulfi lling human rights including the effects of policies on inequalities and vulnerabilities among populations , and the disclosure of discriminatory practices and unjust distributions of power that impede and undermine human rights. In a rights-based approach to social policy, both the process of arriving at social policy goals, plans and programs, and the goals, plans, and programs themselves are the subjects for analyses according to the human rights-based dimensions. Finding valid and comprehensive indicators of policies promoting rights realization is challenging because of the multidimensional nature of rights and the importance of process and outcomes.