Center for Economic and Social Rights : Monitoring Tools

NGOs and other advocates need practical tools and publications on how to monitor the realization and demand accountability for denials and violations of economic and social rights.

CESR believes that governments must be held accountable to their obligations under international law to respect, protect and fulfill economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights.

Holding governments accountable for their economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights obligations has however proved to be a serious challenge for human rights advocates. While traditional human rights methodologies (developed for civil and political rights) can work for monitoring the obligations to respect and protect ESC rights, it is not possible to use traditional human rights monitoring tools to monitor the state's positive obligation to fulfill ESC rights.

This is because ESC rights are subject to 'progressive realization' and the 'maximum of available resources'. But how can these be measured and monitored? CESR works to develop new methodologies that fill this gap.

CESR has developed a simple and comprehensive four-step framework for analyzing various aspects of the obligation to fulfill economic and social rights. More information about the OPERA framework - which stands for Outcomes, Policy Efforts, Resources and Assessment - can be accessed here. A series of discussion papers addressing monitoring issues are meanwhile listed below.

Case study - Assessing public policies from a human rights perspective: the use of available resources to realize ESC rights in Guatemala

This case study provides a step-by-step explanation of how the OPERA methodology was deployed to to assess Guatemala’s compliance with its development and human rights commitments.

Seminar: New Horizons in Economic and Social Rights Monitoring

CESR has staged a major two-day seminar on economic and social rights monitoring in the Spanish capital Madrid.

National Human Rights Institutions and Economic and Social Rights

This 2011 CESR briefing examines national human rights institutions as monitors of economic, social and cultural rights.

Measuring Economic and Social Rights to Hold Governments Accountable

This CESR contribution to the OECD Journal on Development "Measuring Human Rights and Democratic Governance: Experiences and Lessons from Metagora" presents a framework for measuring economic and social rights

A new frontier in economic and social rights advocacy?

Developing rigorous monitoring tools has been an uphill battle for those working on advancing economic and social rights. CESR offers a contribution to that ongoing work with this new publication.

Developing an ESC rights index: Measuring the fulfilment of ESC rights

CESR Board member Sakiko Fukuda-Parr introduces the idea of an index to measure the fulfillment of ESC rights. She proposes two different methodologies that could be used to try to capture and measure the progressive realization of human rights subject to available resources.

Key Links and Resources for Monitoring ESC Rights

Many other organizations and individuals are also working on developing new methodologies for monitoring human rights.

Databases: Statistics and Indicators for Monitoring ESC rights

International statistical databases that provide international and national statistics and key indicators that you can use in monitoring ESC rights.

How can we use quantitative methods to monitor government compliance with their ESC rights obligations?

This discussion paper by Edward Anderson, lecturer in development economics at the University of East Anglia, examines how quantitative methods of economics could be incorporated into human rights work in order to assess the compliance of governments with their human rights obligations.

How can we measure and monitor non-discrimination?

Non-discrimination is a key human rights principle. But how can we measure whether government policies are meeting this objective? This discussion paper examines the tools used by social scientists to measure inequalities between different population groups to see how this can be applied in human rights work to hold governments accountable to the principle of non-discrimination.