1. Global and National Indicators
Day 5
Measuring
Human Rights:
Global and National Indicators
Jeong-Woo Koo

2. Can, should, and how we measure?
Global Human Rights Measures
Can, should, and how we measure?

3. Global Human Rights Measures
The PTS
Focusing on state-sponsored terrorism
Especially, personal integrity rights
Considering two annual sources
A five point coding scheme (1 best, 5 worst)
Scope, intensity, and range

4. Global Human Rights Measures
The CIRI
Conceptualizing and measuring the same human rights
Using same data sources
Yet, disaggregating into several sub-dimensions
A nine point additive coding scheme (0 worst, 8 best)

5. Global Human Rights Measures
Issues
♂ Imagine that Country A, security officials storm a labor rally and kill 100 labor union members. In Country B, however, 100 labor union members are arrested and imprisoned, tortured, and then killed. Which is worse? why?
♀ It is reported that fifty tortures occur in China in 2008, and in the same year Brunei is also accused of toturing fifty citizens. Which is worse? why?

6. Global Human Rights Measures
♣ Other Measures:
Freedom Index: By Freedom House based on 17 types of civil rights and 19 political rights; ranges from 1 to 7 for civil rights and political rights; combined measure from 1 to 14.
Human Development Index (HDI): By UNDP; capturing economic and social rights; considers life expectancy, standard of living (GNI per capita), literacy rates, and school enrollment ratio.
Humana’s Index: Designed 40 four point scales; countries are ranked from 0 to 100 (from 1984)

7. Political Terror Scale CIRI Human Rights Index Political Terror Scale
Global Human Rights Measures
Country
2008
Political Terror Scale
Freedom index
CIRI Human Rights Index
amnesty
state
polr
civilr
PHYSINT
EMPINX
WEMR
Australia 5 7 11
Republic of Korea 4 6 9
Thailand 3 2
Hong Kong
N/A
Country
2009
Political Terror Scale
Freedom index
CIRI
amnesty
state
polr
civilr
PHYSINT
EMPINX
WEMR
Australia 5 7 6 13
Republic of Korea 3 4 9
Thailand
Hong Kong
N/A
Note: amnesty (Amnesty Int'l), state (US State Dept.) , polr (political rights), civilr (civil rights),
PHYSINT (physical integrity rights), EMPINX (empowerment index), WEMR (women's rights)
Political Terror Scale (1~5), Freedom Index (1~7), PHYSINT (0~8), EMPINX(0~14), WEMR(0~6)
Ranges from no respect to full respect

8. Global Human Rights Measures
Political Terror Scale (PTS)
Freedom Index
Human Development Index (HDI)
Human’s Index

9. PTS A (Amnesty International, Korea-Focused)
Note: Constructed by Koo, Kong, Chung (2011), “인권으로 읽는 동아시아”

10. PTS A (Amnesty International, Japan-Focused)
Note: Constructed by Koo, Kong, Chung (2011), “인권으로 읽는 동아시아”

11. PTS B (US State Department, Korea-Focused)
Note: Constructed by Koo, Kong, Chung (2011), “인권으로 읽는 동아시아”

12. PTS B (US State Department, Japan-Focused)
Note: Constructed by Koo, Kong, Chung (2011), “인권으로 읽는 동아시아”

13. Political Terror Scale(2005-2012), South Korea
* Scale(Reverse-coded): 1-5

14. Freedom Index(Freedom House, 2005-2014), South Korea
Scale : 7-point, 1(freedom)-7(non-freedom)

15. Global Human Rights Measures
Political Terror Scale (PTS)
Freedom Index
Human Development Index (HDI)
Humana’s Index

16. HDI (UNDP, Korea-Focused)
Note: Constructed by Koo, Kong, Chung (2011), “인권으로 읽는 동아시아”

17. HDI (UNDP, Japan-Focused)
Note: Constructed by Koo, Kong, Chung (2011), “인권으로 읽는 동아시아”

18. Global Human Rights Measures
Limitations of Global Measures
Comprehensive enough in capturing the multi-dimensional nature?
Sophisticated enough to use it for a particular county?

19. Global Human Rights Measures
More Specifically
First, the list of global indicators is so short that it naturally curtails the much longer list of human rights.
Second, global indicators rarely take into account the developmental stage of a particular country.
Third, global indicators have a tendency to underestimate the level of abuses of human rights for the countries ranked high on the ladder (e.g., Finland scored 99 in 1991).

20. National Human Rights Indicators
Proposed by Koo, Kong, and Chung in Human Rights Quarterly (Forthcoming).
Designing a research strategy for creating national human rights indicators and the resultant composite indexes.
Embed the indicators in the legal frameworks of ICCPR and ICESCR, especially the Concluding Observations (COs).
In this way, it is possible to maintain the “legitimacy” of measurement efforts by connecting national dimension to the international legal authorities.
Using extensive data, they obtain both continuous and discrete measures and consequently create the composite indexes for the assessment of Korea’s human rights performance from 1990 to 2007.

21. Table 1. Korea’s Status on Periodic Reports for ICCPR and ICESCR
Year of Ratification
Due
Submitted
Reviewed
Response
Comments
ICCPR
1990
1991
1992 SR
1996
1997
1999
2000 CO
2003
2005
2006
2008
2010
ICESCR
1993
1995
2001
2007
2009
Figure 2. Composite Index of Human Rights: Korea,
Both dimensions of human rights have advanced by about 1 standard deviation on average
(about 38.3%, Pr (0.5 ≤ Z ≤ 0.5)=0.3830).

22. Figure 3. Thematic Indexes of Human Rights:
Civil and Political Rights, Korea,

23. Figure 3. Thematic Indexes of Human Rights:
Civil and Political Rights, Korea,
How to Compare these Six Areas?
Areas in CPR Improvements in probability
(1) Administrative justice %
(2) Rights of prisoners or detainees %
(3) The freedom of thought/belief/expression %
(4) The freedom of association/assembly %
(5) Rights of women and children %
(6) Rights of minorities %

24. Figure 4. Thematic Indexes of Human Rights:
Economic and Social Rights, Korea,

25. Figure 4. Thematic Indexes of Human Rights:
Economic and Social Rights, Korea,
How to Compare these Five Areas?
Areas in ESR Improvements in probability
(1) Labor rights %
(2) Social security %
(3) Rights of women and children %
(4) Adequate standard of living %
(5) Right to education %

26. The Level of Human Rights Protection in South Korea, Civil and Political Rights, 1990-2012

27. The Level of Human Rights Protection in South Korea, Economic and Social Rights, 1990-2012