THE NEED FOR STATISTICAL INDICATORS TO SHOW MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS
From the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights

All state parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are obligated to measurably improve those rights guaranteed by the Covenant, and must prove this improvement by statistical data. Unfortunately, in failed/dysfunctional states such as Chad or Liberia, there is little to no data available. As such, there is no way to discern whether these states are meeting their obligations under the Covenant.

Furthermore, the governments of failed/dysfunctional states have little incentive to try to collect such data, as they are almost certainly not meeting their obligations. A look at the UNDP Development Index makes clear the sheer lack of data, for states such as Chad and Liberia, as almost all the categories that pertain to health, education and other human rights are non-existent.

A number of prominent human rights institutions around the world (such as the Danish Institute for Human Rights) and the UN Agencies (UNDP and OHCHR) have identified human rights measures/indicators, however they are presently not being applied in the failed/dysfunctional states.

Therefore, there is a grave need for the World Bank, the UNDP or another comparable international institution to collect information so that the increase or decrease in the respect of human rights can be measured. Once this is determined, further action under the Covenant can be taken to ensure that all states parties starts to meet their obligations.

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights is currently researching this issue. We are evaluating what data is currently available, what needs to be done to facilitate the gathering of sufficient data, and creating an advocacy strategy once the data is available to ensure that the state parties to the Covenant fulfill their obligations to improve their country's respect of economic, social and cultural rights.

For more information, contact Sarah Pray, pray@rfkmemorial.org, (202) 463-7575 x269 or Sushetha Gopallowa, gopallowa@rfkmemorial.org, (202) 463-7575 x270

See responses to RFK Memorial's statement at: http://portal.ohchr.org/tbforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=702