Developing bottom-up indicators for human rights

There is a growing effort to quantify and track trends in human rights. The reliance on large, international indicators, including global indexes and national human rights report cards, is increasing as part of international development assistance and human rights monitoring. This article explores t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The international journal of human rights 2019-09, Vol.23 (8), p.1378-1394
Main Author: Stremlau, Nicole
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
Development aid
Development programs
Human rights
Human rights indicators
human rights trends
index
Indexes
Indicators
political rights
Reliance
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Summary:There is a growing effort to quantify and track trends in human rights. The reliance on large, international indicators, including global indexes and national human rights report cards, is increasing as part of international development assistance and human rights monitoring. This article explores the limitations of mainstream human rights indicators, particularly in the developing world, arguing that many of these approaches overlook local realities. An alternative strategy for designing bottom-up human rights indicators is offered drawing on the experience of constructing the Uhakiki Human Rights Index in Tanzania. The challenges of developing an appropriate and feasible methodology in complex environments is discussed, particularly given that with bottom-up indicators, what works in one situation might not necessarily be transferrable to another context.
ISSN:1364-2987
1744-053X
DOI:10.1080/13642987.2019.1642198