Assessing Human Rights/scoring guidelines

These scoring guidelines are provided as part of the course on Assessing Human Rights. The basis for assessment is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The scores are to be recorded in the assessment grid.

The goal of this work is to increase world peace by improving protections of human rights, worldwide. Gaps identified by this assessment are used to identify, motivate, and direct changes that will improve human rights. Exemplary approaches to protecting and promoting human rights are described for use as learning resources.

Each cell in the summary table is scored 1-10 on the following basis:

• 10 Constitutional protections of the rights are in place, regularly enforced, and are routinely practiced. Exceptions are rare and are effectively and systematically corrected whenever they occur.
• 9 Various legal protections of the rights are in place, regularly enforced, and are routinely practiced. Exceptions are rare and are effectively and systematically corrected whenever they occur. Constitutional protections are lacking.
• 8 Rights are enjoyed by approximately 80% of the population.
• 7 Rights are enjoyed by approximately 70% of the population.
• 6 Rights are enjoyed by approximately 60% of the population.
• 5 Rights are protected for some members of the population, but are not equally protected for all members. For example, rights provided to women may not be equivalent to those provided to men.
• 4 Rights are enjoyed by approximately 40% of the population.
• 3 These rights are not protected and are routinely violated. Rights are enjoyed by approximately 30% of the population.
• 2 These rights are not protected and are routinely violated. Rights are enjoyed by approximately 20% of the population.
• 1 These rights are not legally protected and are routinely violated. Cultural norms promote violations of these rights. Rights are enjoyed by approximately 10% of the population.
• 0 Constitutional provisions deny these rights to some segments of the population, or deny some of these rights to many members of the population

More detailed scoring guidelines are being developed and refined as assessment experience is gained.