Global Index of Human Rights (GloHRI)

Naming and shaming is a vital part of getting improvement in most systems. Given the wealth of information about countries around the world, what could be more obvious than a Global Index of Human Rights. The the 60th anniversary of UDHR here, my friend Richard has launched a campaign to get an index run by the UN.

The report is here and there is good coverage in the Guardian. This is the opening paragraph:

"Sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drawn up, it is time for the United Nations (UN) to initiate new mechanisms to encourage member states to improve their human rights (HR) record.

"The Green Party of England and Wales is proposing that the UN establish a Global Human Rights Index (GloHRI), which would measure and rank each country according to its conformity with international human rights standards.

"Using an objective points system, GloHRI would measure every country, based on its compliance with a check-list of agreed human rights norms, such as whether or not it has the death penalty, detention without trial, freedom of the media, the right to protest, equal rights for women and minorities and so on."