The Measuring Impact Program continued in the 2004 - 2005 academic year with a special focus on the issue of measurement in human rights. The Center has a project to address some of the most basic and yet most difficult questions in the field of human rights: How do we assess progress in promoting human rights, and how can organizations assess their own individual impact more effectively? There has been significant movement in the fields of development and governance to use quantitative indicators to supplement qualitative assessments of progress, with some measure of success. This Program aims to lead in this discussion as it applies to human rights and the way that human rights civil society organizations, international financial institutions, UN organizations, and governments use and misuse data.

The Cingranelli-Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset contains standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 13 internationally recognized human rights for 195 countries, annually from 1981-2004. It is designed for use by scholars and students who seek to test theories about the causes and consequences of human rights violations, as well as policy makers and analysts who seek to estimate the human rights effects of a wide variety of institutional changes and public policies including democratization, economic aid, military aid, structural adjustment, and humanitarian intervention.

Resource portal on 'Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation - Managing and learning for impact'. The website is developed by Wageningen International (a part of Wageningen University and Research Centre). Its objectives are: capacity building of individuals and organisations to effectively implement PPM&E systems; contributing to innovation in the field of PPM&E / managing and learning for impact; providing practical web based resource materials, experience sharing and learning. Though the resource portal is particularly directed at PPM&E for rural development, the resources presented may also be of interest for HRIA purposes.

Extremely useful website that provides instant access to observations and recommendations of: - The new Human Rights Council (since 2006); - the seven Treaty Bodies which monitor the implementation of the core international human rights treaties, including the work of all the special rapporteurs, working groups and international experts (since 2001) The website allows the user to search the recommendations and observations in combination with the following fields: - by region and by country - by right: right to life, right to work, etc - by cluster or rights: administration of justice, cultural rights, etc. - by body: CAT, CRC, CEDAW. etc. - by type of affected persons: internally displaced, rural women, street children, etc. The website makes it easier for civil society to monitor state compliance with particular treaties and allows for monitoring of the work of the Human Rights Council.

The purpose of the panel is to advise BP on the economic, political and social impacts of their Tangguh LNG project (Papua, Indonesia). You can find their two latest reports (and responses by BP) that provide recommendations on dealing with human rights.

The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) conducts statistical analysis on behalf of human rights projects and designs and builds information management solutions. HRDAG offers expertise and tools for the collection, management, processing and analysis of human rights data projects.

IOB's overall objective is to meet the need for independent evaluation in all fields of foreign policy. Specifically, the aim is to fit the results of the evaluations into the knowledge cycle of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reports of the evaluations are used as feedback to improve both policies and their implementation. With the results of previous exercises at their disposal, policymakers can prepare new interventions more purposefully and more effectively. IOB has been engaged over the last years in a major evaluation of human rights in Dutch foreign policy. A number of studies have been published in that context and can be found on this site. In some of the studies a serious effort was made to gauge impact.

US Department of State reports on the human rights situation in all countries and disputed territories in the world. Studies most civil and political rights, labour rights, children's rights and women's rights. Because of the publisher of the reports, the US Department of State, there has always been doubts about the objectivity of the reports. Human Rights Watch yearly publishes a document in which it reacts to the US Department of State Reports (see for the latest reaction: US State Department Human Rights Report 2004: Testimony to US House of Representatives). Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) also comments on the human rights reports (see for the latest available reaction: Human Rights First Comments on 2004 State Department Country Reports March 2005). The reports of the US Department of State are judged by both organisations to be increasingly objective and complete. The critique is usualy focussed on the fact the US Government does not seem to integrate the results of the reports in its foreign policy and own behaviour. Also since the 'war on terror' the objectivity of the reports has come under perssure. See also: Steven C. Poe, Sabine C. Carey, "How are these pictures different? A quantitative comparison of the US State Department and Amnesty International Human Rights Reports 1976-1995", Human Rights Quarterly 23 (2001), p.650-677. Fred Grünfeld, Alette Smeulers, "NGO's als informatieverschaffers in vergelijking met statelijke actoren", in C. Flinterman, W. van Genugten (eds.), Niet-statelijke actoren en de rechten van de mens; gevestigde waarden, nieuwe wegen, Boom Juridische Uitgevers Den Haag 2003.

This website is a guide to international procedures available in cases of human rights violations in Africa. It explains all the international procedures available for people living in Africa to claim their human rights. It offers many options for accessing the information: either by a list of the international instruments, article by article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, country by country or through the list of human rights topics.

The UNDP Human Development Reports can be accessed from this site (global, regional and national). These reports can be useful for human rights assessments, linkages between development and human rights, and human rights indicators.

IPEC is part of the International Labour Organisation. Here you can find more information on the work in the domain of impact assessment of IPEC, including documents relevant to the Strategic Programme Impact Framework (SPIF).

Monitoring and evaluation glossary of the United Nations agency IFAD. Can also be downloaded as a PDF. Is also available in Arabic, Spanish and French.

Overview of General Comments of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Some General Comments are particularly useful in identifying benchmarks and indicators or as guides for monitoring and evaluating economic, social and cultural rights.

The human rights section of the Halifax Initiative website presents a number of interesting resources on human rights and trade, and human rights impact assessment for international financial institutions in particular.

Find information on the HRIA program of Aim for human rights, including information on their HRIA approach; the Human Rights and Business Project; and Measuring the Right to Health.

This project of Aim for human rights delivered significant input to the Human Rights and Business Project of the Danish Institute for Human Rights in the development phase of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment (HRCA). It is now promoting the HRCA in the Netherlands.

Part of the Aim for human rights website, this link brings you to the pages for the Women's Rights Watch project where more information can be found about the Health Rights for Women Assessment Instrument (HeRWAI).

Published the Thesaurus on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Terminology and Potential Violations.

Find all Amnesty International documents, including annual human rights reports. Particularly interesting for human rights analysis and monitoring. The library is in English, Spanish and Arabic.

Facet of the Australian Development Gateway portal. The section outlines current thinking and presents useful tools for implementing the elements of analysis, design, monitoring and evaluation.

This resource centre provides access to the Freedom in the World Reports of 2002-2005. Gives 'Maps of Freedom', essays, country reports and overview of methodology.

Fundar is a Mexican organisation which purpose it is to strengthen citizen participation and deepen democracy. Budget and policy analysis has become the core subject and area of activity of the institution.

This is the website of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment Tool for Companies which is presented under 'Instruments' in this database. This website is part of the larger Human Rights and Business Project website of the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The whole tool is restricted to registered users. It is possible however to get more background information on the Tool itself through this website and it is possible to view a demo version of the tool.

Description on the International Alert website of International Alert's work on peacebuilding issues related to business. Particularly important for human rights impact assessment (HRIA) as HRIA is integrated in their work.

The International Budget Project works together with civil society organizations in developing countries to analyze, monitor, and influence government budget processes, institutions, and outcomes. The aim of this is to make budget systems more responsive to the needs of poor and low-income people in society and, accordingly, to make these systems more transparent and accountable to the public.

This search engine allows anybody interested in the topic (not only those with a legal background) to easily access international rules binding a specific country. The search engine is easy to use. In addition it provides non-legal experts with a short introduction to International Public Law.

Justice is the British section of the International Commission of Jurists. Justice was founded in 1957 and has among its members: sollicitors, barristers, academics, judges, voluntary sector workers and legal professionals. Justice works to improve the legal system and the quality of justice, in particular by: promoting human rights; improving the legal system and access to justice; improving criminal justice; raising EU standards of EU justice and homa affairs. Justice has published a book entitled: "Auditing for Rights: developing Scrutiny Systems for Human Rights Compliance".

Metagora is a PARIS21 pilot project focusing on methods, tools and frameworks for measuring democracy, human rights and governance. Based on innovative initiatives, it aims at enhancing proper assessment methods. The Metagora Co-ordination Team is part of the PARIS21 Secretariat. It reports to the PARIS21 Steering Committee and to the Metagora Steering Committee of Donors. The Metagora initiative was born from the Montreux 2000 Conference 'Statistics, Development and Human Rights.' The project is funded by the EC, France, Sweden and Switzerland. The project focuses on methods and frameworks for measuring democracy, human rights and governance.

The Right to Education Project (RTE) is a public access human rights resource, the only such site in the world devoted solely to the right to education. Provides useful resources on rights-based approaches to education; state obligations for the right to education; elaboration of human rights indicators; formal commitment analysis.

This three-year project will build on Rights & Democracy's work on making human rights a central pillar of economic policy making and investment practices. Its goal is to develop a human rights impact assessment (HRIA) model for use by both policy makers and communities to increase accountability and ensure that investment and project financing do not undermine international human rights laws and norms.

The Human Rights & Business Project strives to combine the expertise of the human rights research community with the experience of business in order to develop concrete achievable human rights standards for companies, and to help companies live up to those standards in practice through training and advisory services.

Key documents, such as communications and guidelines, on impact assessment. EC impact assessment involves evaluation of environmental, economic and social effects. This involves human rights impact assessment.

International Business Leaders Forum has developed a toolkit which business managers can use to identify, assess and implement responses to human rights challenges in new or evolving business projects.

The International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), a registered UK charity, is the only international network run for and by HIV positive women. ICW was founded in response to the desperate lack of support, information and services available to women living with HIV worldwide and the need for these women to have influence and input on policy development. ICW was formed by a group of HIV positive women from many different countries attending the 8th International Conference on AIDS held in Amsterdam in July 1992

PHM works towards in world in which Health for All becomes available. This objective was determined in the Alma-Ata Declaration which promised Health for All by the year 2000.

Physicians for Human Rights mobilizes health professionals to advance health, dignity, and justice and promotes the right to health for all. Harnessing the specialized skills, rigor, and passion of doctors, nurses, public health specialists, and scientists, PHR investigates human rights abuses and works to stop them.