Towards a Human Rights Accountability Index

Bibliographic Data

ID22992937
AuthorsPhilip Alston (European University Institute, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume1
Issue2
Pages249-271
Publication date2000-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Human Development (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9888 • E-ISSN: 1469-9516
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/713678039
OpenAlexW2012443250
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited9

The international human rights regime is one of the most important positive legacies to emerge from the twentieth century. The principle of accountability is one of its indispensable characteristics. It is not surprising, then, that the greatest challenge confronting the international community in this domain at the beginning of the twenty-first century is to develop approaches that give substance and meaning to that principle. New initiatives are required at both the national and international levels. While this is a multi-faceted challenge, an important contribution could be made by the development of an index that measures the degree to which governments respect the obligations of international accountability for their human rights performance. These flow both from the United Nations (UN) Charter and from the specific international treaty commitments that they have undertaken. This paper explores the role that indicators have played to date in the human rights field and then explores the shape that a new Human Rights Accountability Index (HRAI) might take in the future. Careful consideration is given both to the advantages and drawbacks of the proposal, and to the ways in which such a concept might best be launched in the context of the Human Development Report. It is important to emphasize that, although the paper takes account of both indicators and composite indices that seek to measure the human rights performance of governments, the proposed HRAI does not aspire to measure performance in the sense of compliance or non-compliance with substantive human rights obligations, such as the right to non-discrimination, the right to free elections or the right to freedom from torture. Rather, it is an index of the extent to which governments have accepted both the principle and the practice of international accountability in the sense of participation in the international human rights treaty regime and of responsiveness to concerns raised or requests expressed by international human rights mechanisms.

Accountability · Human rights · Index (typography) · Political science · Computer Science · Human Rights and Development · International Human Rights and Reproductive Law · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa

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