The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published the Human Rights Measurement Framework (HRMF), a new set of indicators that brings together information and evidence for analysing and assessing human rights in Britain. Commissioned in partnership with the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the HRMF has been developed by researchers at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE, with the British Institute of Human Rights.

The HRMF evidence base will enable the Commissions, Government, public bodies, Non-Government Organisations and others with an interest in human rights, to begin to evaluate compliance with, and progress towards, the implementation of human rights in England, Scotland and Wales. Based on the indicators framework developed by the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the HRMF indicator sets are built on recognised international best practice, and have been developed and agreed through a process of research and consultation with subject experts and stakeholders.

The HRMF covers both rights that have a clear basis for enforcement in domestic law through the Human Rights Act (HRA) and additional rights that are drawn from the international instruments that the UK has signed up to (such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)).

The framework brings together a broad range of information including the statutory, regulatory and public policy framework for protecting human rights; case law outcomes; concerns highlighted by domestic and international human rights monitoring bodies, regulators, inspectorates and ombudsmen; and allegations and concerns raised by NGOs and other civil society mechanisms such as media reports. The HRMF also draws on a wide range of statistical sources including administrative data and social surveys.

It is important to note that the framework is not a violations counting system. Many of the indicators go beyond the concept of ‘violations’ and ‘minimum compliance’. They aim to provide evidence of how human rights standards have been incorporated into broader public policy and the extent to which human rights are enjoyed by people in Britain.

Download the Human Rights Measurement Framework

You can download the HRMF as a complete 750-page volume, which is 5 MB.

Due to its size, the HRMF has also been made available as individual files in PDF format, which can be downloaded and read individually.

Please note that the complete report contains fully functional links to other parts of the document but, if you download the report as individual chapters, these links will not be activated.

• Full HRMF (PDF 5 MB)
• HRMF – Covers
• HRMF – Title page
• HRMF – Contents, Acknowledgements, List of Acronyms, Executive Summary
• HRMF – Chapter 1: Introduction and overview and Chapter 2: Research framework and methodology
• HRMF – Chapter 3: The underlying legal framework and Chapter 4: Using and interpreting the Human Rights Measurement Framework
• HRMF – Chapter 5: The Right to Life
• HRMF – Chapter 6: The Prohibition on Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
• HRMF – Chapter 7: The Right to Liberty and Security of the Person
• HRMF – Chapter 8: The Right to The Right to a Fair Trial
• HRMF – Chapter 9: The Right to Respect for Private and Family Life
• HRMF – Chapter 10: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health
• HRMF – Chapter 11: The Right to Education
• HRMF – Chapter 12: The Right to an Adequate Standard of Living
• HRMF – Appendices
• HRMF – References