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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2017

Margaret Satterthwaite
Margaret Satterthwaite*
Affiliation:
New York University School of Law
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Abstract

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Type
Indicators in International Law
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 106 , 2012 , pp. 253 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2012

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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.