In response to an increasing demand for rigorous monitoring of state accountability in meeting their human rights obligations, a growing literature on human rights measurement has emerged. Yet there are no widely used indicators or indices of human rights obligations fulfillment. This paper...

A critically important aspect of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is that they provide concrete, time-bound and quantitative objectives against which poverty reduction can be measured. Governments can be held accountable by their people. The international community can hold accountable,...

Building on previously proposed methodology for an index of economic and social rights fulfillment, this paper presents country scores and rankings based on the Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index (ESRF Index). Unlike socio-economic indicators, which are often used as proxies for the...

Building on previously proposed methodology for an index of economic and social rights fulfillment, this paper presents country scores and rankings based on the Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index (ESRF Index). Unlike socio-economic indicators, which are often used as proxies for the...

The current consensus objective of development aid in the international community is to reduce poverty in general and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular. In addition, the dominant view identifies economic growth as the principal means to this end. But the policy...

This paper summarizes findings and conclusions from our application of the Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index developed by Fukuda-Parr, Lawson-Remer and Randolph (2009) to the states of Brazil. The key features of this methodology in assessing economic and human rights fulfillment is...

This paper challenges the use of poverty incidence among female-headed households as a measure of feminization of poverty. It proposes an alternative framework of human poverty, focusing not on incomes but on human outcomes in terms of choices and opportunities that a person faces.

This paper uses Sen's capability approach to explore whether there are inherent contradictions between human rights and development. Sen's capability and human development approach provides a conceptual framework within which human rights principles can be incorporated into development planning...

Fukuda-Parr and Yamin explore the effects of global goal setting on international development agendas and thinking. They present a condensed synthesis of the “Power of Numbers” project, an independent research initiative, led by them, and involving 17 scholars. The project analyzed the...

This paper addresses the debate about the use of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as performance measures in three ways. First we clarify the concept; like other global goals, the MDGs are benchmarks for gauging progress toward important objectives and should not be treated as planning...