Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T04:42:45.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Measuring Human Rights: Indicators, Expertise, and Evidence-Based Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2017

Margaret Satterthwaite*
Affiliation:
New York University School of Law

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Indicators in International Law
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The debate in international law has largely been about the value, promise, and limits of empirical investigation. For an overview, see Shaffer, Gregory & Ginsburg, Tom, The Empirical Turn in International Legal Scholarship, 106 AJIL 1 (2012)Google Scholar.

2 See Rachlinski, Jeffrey J., Evidence-Based Law, 96 Cornell L. Rev. 901 (2011)Google Scholar.

3 Galit Sarfaty examines similar issues in her analysis of the World Bank’s work to “empirically measure normative concepts” like human rights. Sarfaty, Galit, Measuring Justice: Internal Conflict Over the World Bank’s Empirical Approach to Human Rights, in Mirrors of Justice: Law and Power in the Post-Cold War Era 131, 131 (Clarke, Kamari & Goodale, Mark eds., 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Rene Urueña, Indicators as the Working Language for Interaction Among Regimes, supra at 251.

5 See, e.g., Siobhán McInerney-Lankford & Hans-Otto Sano, Human Rights Indicators in Development: an Introduction 1 (2010).

6 See Merry, Sally Engle, Measuring the World: Indicators, Human Rights, and Global Governance, 52 Current Anthropology (Supplement 3) S83, S88 (2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rosga, AnnJanette & Satterthwaite, Margaret L., The Trust in Indicators: Measuring Human Rights, 27 Berkeley J. Int’l L. 256 (2009)Google Scholar.

7 See International Law and Society: Empirical Approaches to Human Rights (Laura A. Dickinson ed., 2007). See also Social Science and Human Rights: Understanding Social Action, Promoting Human Rights (Ryan Goodman & Derek Jinks eds., forthcoming 2012).

8 The International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) recently identified a “measurement revolution” in human rights contexts. ICHRP, No Perfect Measure: Rethinking Evaluation and Assessment of Human Rights Work (2012), available at http://www.ichrp.org/files/reports/68/181_evaluating_hr_work_report.pdf.

9 The Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School has a project on “Measurement on Human Rights.” Measurement & Human Rights Program Description, Carr Ctr. for Hum. Rts. Pol’y, http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/mhr/program.php (last visited Apr. 15, 2012). Similarly, Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights has a project examining “Human Rights Impact Measurement.” Human Rights Impact, Inst. for the Study of Hum. Rts., http://hrcolumbia.org/impact/bibliography/.

10 The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law launched in 2012 a project on human rights fact-finding and evidence. In 2011, The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights held a conference on this issue. Fact-Finding on Gross Violations of Human Rights During and After Conflicts, Norwegian Ctr. for Hum. Rts., http://www.jus.uio.no/smr/english/research/areas/conflict/events/conferences/fact-finding/.

11 See James Ron, Evidence-Based Human Rights Practice, http://www.jamesron.com/Evidence-Based-Human-Rights.php1; Sano, Hans-Otto & Thelle, Hatia, The Need for Evidence-Based Human Rights Research, in Methods of Human Rights Research (Coomans, Fons, Grünfeld, Fred & Kamminga, Menno T. eds., 2009)Google Scholar. See also Where it the Evidence? 1 J. Hum. Rts. Prac. 1 (2009)Google ScholarPubMed (Special Issue) (presenting practitioners’ experience with human rights evidence).

12 See Satterthwaite, Margaret L., Indicators in Crisis: Rights-Based Humanitarümism in Post-Earthquake Haiti, 43 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. 866 (2011)Google Scholar; Satterthwaite, Margaret L., “Missing Indicators, Disappearing Gender: Measuring USAID’s Programming to Counter Violent Extremism,” in Gender, National Security and Counter-Terrorism: Human Rights Perspectives (Satterthwaite, Margaret L. & Huckerby, Jayne C. eds., forthcoming 2013)Google Scholar; Rosga, Ann-Janette & Satterthwaite, Margaret L., The Trust in Indicators: Measuring Human Rights, 27 Berkeley J. Int’l L. 256 (2009)Google Scholar; Yon Je Louvri, Reducing Vulnerability to Sexual Violence in Haiti’s Idp Camps (2012).

13 I have benefited from discussion with my NYU colleagues engaged in the Institute for International Law and Justice’s project on “Indicators as a Global Technology.” See Davis, Kevin E., Kingsbury, Benedict & Merry, Sally Engle, Indicators as a Technology of Global Governance, 46 Law & Soc’y Rev. 71 (2012)Google Scholar; Governance by Indicators: Global Power Through Quantification and Rankings (Kevin Davis, Angelina Fisher, Benedict Kingsbury & Sally Engle Merry eds., 2012).

14 Koskenniemi, Martti, Human Rights Mainstreaming as a Strategy for Institutional Power, 1 Humanity: Int’l J. Hum. Rts., Humanitarianism, & Dev. 47 (2010)Google Scholar (discussing the impact of human rights mainstreaming).

15 Kennedy, David, Challenging Expert Rule: The Politics of Global Governance, 27 Sydney L. Rev. 5 (2005)Google Scholar.

16 Haas, Peter M., Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination, 46 Int’l Org. 1 (1992)Google Scholar.

17 Li, Tania Murray, The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics 7 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 See Merry, supra note 6, at S88; Rosga & Satterthwaite, supra note 6, at 293-304.