O desafio da mensuração nos direitos humanos

Abstract

Up until recently, the human rights movement has been reluctant to engage on the topic of measurement, highlighting the difficulties involved and resisting pressure from donors to comply with impact assessment standards developed in other fields. This paper argues that measurement techniques are, indeed, very problem specific and that they must be linked to a refined understanding of the mechanics of a problem. Given the need for progress on the pressing issues of human rights, it is all the more important that civil society organizations move out of their defensive position regarding measurement and begin developing models for the two large measurement challenges: (1) how do we size the problem and understand how it is developing over time? and (2) how do we understand the impact that we are having on the problem itself? This paper outlines how Civil Society Organizations can increase their effectiveness by using measurement and data to gain a clearer idea of what problem they are trying to solve, a better idea of how to mark their progress in striving toward that goal, and an understanding of what place their efforts have in a broader context of civil society problem-solvers. While addressing the specific difficulties that human rights organizations face in the process of self-evaluation, this paper proposes steps that would guide human rights organizations on the road to increasing their impact.

A Qualitative Study of the Interaction between Human Rights Defenders and Society in Russia: Assessing the Impact of the 'Foreign Agents' Law

“…Yet, our research demonstrates that with the decline of external support, the civic sector in Russia began to catalyze efforts to strengthen alliances with their constituents. This finding supports the argument that the closing civic space phenomenon often correlates with organizations' heavy dependence on external financing and their weak ties with the local populations -with foreign aid in development sphere having a particularly negative impact (Medelson 2015, Raine 2006. As Raine (2006) notes, 'any organization that depends on a narrow number of donors and does not have a broad base of citizen support risks losing touch with the people whom it is trying to serve'.…”