What is it about?
The paper looks at how we measure human rights. We measure them in order to compare each country's performance against others. As a result, countries like Scotland, look like they don't have problems delivering rights. However, not everyone in Scotland has human rights. The paper explores other ways of measuring rights that allow evidence about problems to appear, and in a way that allows those in charge of policy, or health, or the law, to respond.
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Why is it important?
Unless we can 'prove' that rights are violated, it is hard to convince those that run a country that they need to act. Nor does it tell them how to stop rights being violated. The paper explores the current process developed by Scotland's National Action Plan, an initiative from the Scottish Human Rights Commission that brings together rights holders (those who may experience violations) with duty bearers (those that could act to end the violations) to agree what violations happen and what can be done to fix the issues.
Perspectives
This paper has global relevance. It looks at the process that one country undertook to face up to human rights violations, and how a national commitment can transform lives. It champions the need for each country to collect their own evidence, and to grow networks of duty bearers committed to listening and working with rights holders to end violations.
Jo Ferrie
University of Glasgow
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Methodological challenges in developing an evidence base, and realising rights, The International Journal of Human Rights, November 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2017.1390300.
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