The Need for Better Data

Why is human rights measurement important?

Many excellent organisations monitor human rights and report on abuses.

HRMI fills a very specific gap – the measurement of each country’s performance.

Our research methods mean that we can now track the progress of countries over time and show when things improve or deterioriate. These hard numbers are useful tools we can put in the hands of human rights advocates, governments, media, the private sector, and anyone committed to helping leaders prioritise human rights.

Here’s what experts have to say about the need for good data:

Better investment decisions

“Most investors think mainly about the reputational risks of human rights issues, and much less about how they contribute to investment risks and impacts. Quality human rights data will assist the investor community in making better investment decisions and asses how they contribute to sustainability.”
HIRO MIZUNO
UN Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments

A critical need

“There is a critical need for better human rights data in the Pacific Island region. I recommend that the Pacific human rights community use HRMI’s data to develop better strategies, based on this data, to promote and protect human rights.”
IMRANA JALAL
International human rights lawyer, Co-Founder, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement

The best possible data

“Comparative data on countries’ human rights performance is a useful way to hold governments to account. The Human Rights Measurement Initiative’s work depends on cooperation from human rights defenders everywhere to develop and share the best possible data and to make use of the results.”
KEN ROTH
Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Join!

“In Africa we are forced to exchange rights and dignity for the fetish of economic development. With our hearts, minds and bodies we refuse to do so. We fight the good fight. HRMI is one of our weapons in this fight. Join!”
DAVID MATSINHE
Lusophone Research Specialist, Amnesty International, Southern Africa

Sharing your knowledge

“No one understands the human rights situation in a country better than the local and international experts and activists working to minimize rights violations there. By sharing your wealth of knowledge, you will help HRMI create the most accurate measurement possible.”
BRIAN ROOT
Quantitative Analyst, Human Rights Watch

The fight requires good data

“The information collected from country experts can serve as an important measure of the impact of human rights defenders in a wide cross-section of countries, over time. The fight for universal respect for the rights of people everywhere requires good data.”
SCOTT EDWARDS
Senior Crisis Advisor, Amnesty International

Essential for decision-making

“Robust, accessible data that informs governments and their people about how well they are doing, or could be doing, to promote and protect human rights, is essential for effective, sustainable decision-making in today’s challenging world.”
ROSSLYN NOONAN
Former New Zealand Chief Human Rights Commissioner and Chair of the Global Association of National Human Rights Institutions

Empowering the good

“By describing, monitoring, evaluating and communicating trends in human rights you are empowering the good.”
SUZANNE SNIVELY
Former Chair, Transparency International New Zealand

HRMI data is everything

“HRMI data, for me as a journalist, is everything”
MOHAMMED SHAMMA
Human rights journalist in Jordan

Break through the silence

“One of the things which gives greatest comfort to authoritarian regimes is silence and ignorance of what they’re doing In places where they are operating.
So exercises like this from the HRMI are extremely valuable in providing concrete data which breaks through this world of silence.”
STEVE VINES
Hong Kong human rights journalist