Changing standards or political whim? Evaluating changes in the content of US State Department Human Rights Reports following presidential transitions

Cordell, Rebecca; Clay, Khelani; Fariss, Christopher J.; Wood, Reed M.; Wright, Thorin M.

doi:10.1080/14754835.2019.1671175

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…While modeling the exact mechanism by which information enters text is beyond the scope of our paper, we also explore the relationship between our measure of taxonomic depth in the US State Department Reports and available information density in comparison with two other potential conjectures. It could be the case that (a) there is a deterministic time trend that better captures changes in depth over time (compared with our measure of information) or (b) that bureaucratic changes in US Presidential administrations are driving taxonomic evolution (Cordell et al 2020). We find that information availability provides a more accurate crossvalidated prediction of future depth one and two years into the future, compared with models that are fit with either features that represent a deterministic trend or shifts in administration.…”

Section: Structurementioning

confidence: 77%

Human Rights are (Increasingly) Plural: Learning the Changing Taxonomy of Human Rights from Large-scale Text Reveals Information Effects

2020

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This manuscript helps to resolve the ongoing debate concerning the effect of information communication technology on human rights monitoring. We reconceptualize human rights as a taxonomy of nested rights that are judged in textual reports and argue that the increasing density of available information should manifest in deeper taxonomies of human rights. With a new automated system, using supervised learning algorithms, we are able to extract the implicit taxonomies of rights that were judged in texts by the US State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch over time. Our analysis provides new, clear evidence of change in the structure of these taxonomies as well as in the attention to specific rights and the sharpness of distinctions between rights. Our findings bridge the natural language processing and human rights communities and allow a deeper understanding of how changes in technology have affected the recording of human rights over time.

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Section: Structurementioning

confidence: 77%

Human Rights are (Increasingly) Plural: Learning the Changing Taxonomy of Human Rights from Large-scale Text Reveals Information Effects

2020

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“…Additionally, there is some concern about a changing standard of accountability in the reports due to the emergence of new human rights issues and new forms of human rights abuse that lead to the assignment of lower scores (Fariss 2014). Recent work by Cordell et al (2020) argues that the language and length of the USSD reports has changed over time for some rights but not for physical integrity rights, so the critiques affect physical integrity scores less, if at all. Other scholars have conducted research showing that there is no convincing support for either critique (Haschke and Aaron 2020; Cingranelli and Filippov 2018; Haschke and Gibney 2017; Richards 2016).…”

Section: Using Human Rights Reports To Identify Atrocitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Brutality-Based Approach to Identifying State-Led Atrocities

Cingranelli

Mark

Garvey

et al. 2022

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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The comparative study of atrocities and atrocity prevention faces several obstacles including a lack of consensus on the universe of cases and too few cases to statistically test alternative theories. The brutality-based (BB) conception is based on the idea that widespread, state-led violations of physical integrity rights constitute an assault on the personhood and human dignity of the members of society— a mass atrocity. Applying this idea to all countries annually systematically identifies a larger number of atrocities and facilitates categorization into three levels of intensity. The BB methodology for generating annual atrocity lists is replicable and transparent. The findings show that, between 1981 and 2019, the frequency of atrocities as defined and identified by other projects has been decreasing, but BB atrocities have been increasing. The sequence of different types of widespread physical integrity violations suggests new avenues for research on atrocity occurrence, escalation, de-escalation, and cessation.

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“…Approaches to rights measurement are numerous, and consensus remains elusive (Fariss & Dancy, 2017;Green, 2001;Harrison, 2010;Landman, 2004;Welling, 2008). Procedures vary depending on how the problem is defined; whether the scope of research is at national, subnational, or district level; the time frame; the type and scale of public authorities held accountable (central government, or metropolitan, regular, and district municipalities); and whether the research is conducted by public authorities or civil society organizations (CSOs) (Chan & Lockey, 2017;Cingranelli & Filippov, 2020;Clark & Zhao, 2020;Cordell et al, 2020;Harrison & Sekalala, 2015;Lappalainen et al, 2015;Randolph et al, 2010).…”

Section: Approaches To Human Rights Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment (ESRF) Index based on six core economic and social rights is an example of a metric that combines capabilities and rights perspectives to create global rankings for the progressive realization of rights (Fukuda-Parr et al, 2009;Randolph et al, 2010). As empirical human rights research has advanced, studies have questioned methodological limitations, proposed innovations in techniques, and used new non-governmental data sources to move human rights research forward (Cingranelli & Filippov, 2020;Clark & Zhao, 2020;Cordell et al, 2020;Fariss & Dancy, 2017).…”

Section: Approaches To Human Rights Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These indicators are used to evaluate specific urban life functions such as mobility, governance, and transportation, or problem areas such as safety/security and gender equality. 5 Elimination of gender inequalities and discrimination against women and LGBTI + communities has received considerable attention in human rights normative frameworks, international, national, and local policy discourses, and human rights research and practice (Cordell et al, 2020;Elson, 2006;Elson et al, 2013;Khan, 2017;Molyneux & Razavi, 2003;Starl et al, 2014). However, much less attention has been paid to measures of gender-based discrimination and human rights violations at the city level (Peake, 2017, pp.…”

Section: Approaches To Human Rights Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capabilities Indicators for Human Rights Cities in Turkey: A Gender-Specific Approach

Yücel

2021

Soc Indic Res

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There has been a growing movement around human rights cities (HRCs) in the last two decades, supported by citizens, public institutions, civil society organizations, and academia. Diverse HRC practices and approaches have accompanied this development. Most work to date has focused on processes and institutionalization and remains case-specific; comparative rights-based empirical research at the local level is rare. To fill this gap, this paper proposes indicators as a tool for assessment of human rights in cities. The development of the indicators forms part of a broader project initiated by Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) Research Worldwide Istanbul and the Union of Turkish World Municipalities, in which seven Turkish municipalities have been collaboratively developing HRC capacities since mid-2017. This study focuses on gender as a cross-cutting component of the multidimensional human rights space. It utilizes a capabilities approach to transform an abstract notion of rights into concrete, observable concepts and indicators that connect human rights and the provision of public goods and services through the capabilities of citizens. The proposed gender indicators have been tested through a series of semi-structured interviews with contact persons in participating municipalities. The HRC processes in these municipalities serve as an exemplar for research and activism regarding HRCs, especially in a developing country context.

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Changing standards or political whim? Evaluating changes in the content of US State Department Human Rights Reports following presidential transitions

Cited by 12 publications

References 19 publications

Human Rights are (Increasingly) Plural: Learning the Changing Taxonomy of Human Rights from Large-scale Text Reveals Information Effects

Human Rights are (Increasingly) Plural: Learning the Changing Taxonomy of Human Rights from Large-scale Text Reveals Information Effects

A Brutality-Based Approach to Identifying State-Led Atrocities

Capabilities Indicators for Human Rights Cities in Turkey: A Gender-Specific Approach

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