A Data Set for Human Rights Research

以前关于政府尊重人权的许多理论建设和实证研究都试图解释为什么一些政府尊重其公民的人权，而另一些却不尊重。在每一种情况下，重点都是试图解释为什么政府尊重某一特定权利或某一类人权。没有一项研究试图解释政府在尊重所有国际公认的人权方面的差异。虽然人们普遍认为，所有政府都比其他政府更尊重某些人权，但由于缺乏统一的理论，我们理解政府尊重不同人权的原因和方式的能力受到了阻碍。因此，该提案提出的问题是：“当一个政府允许其公民享有某些人权而不允许其他人权时，哪些权利最有可能被剥夺，为什么？”为了回答这个问题，这个建议提供了一个政府尊重人权的不稳定理论，表明政府最愿意尊重那些对精英的经济特权构成最小威胁的权利。从这个理论框架中得出了几个可检验的假设。通过对现有数据使用概率、一维、累积缩放技术，预测试的结果已经为这些假设提供了支持。这项研究允许对假设进行更严格的检验，利用大量的案例和关于政府尊重国际法所承认的人权的更全面的信息。该项目产生了一个独特的信息数据库，描述了从1981年到2002年160个国家的政府对大约30种不同的国际公认人权的尊重。该数据库将通过一个独特的基于互联网的分发系统立即免费提供，允许用户在线创建自己的子集，并以自己选择的流行文件格式下载。通过独特的基于互联网的分发系统，本项目产生的数据集的可用性将使政策制定者、学者研究人员、非政府组织和国际组织以及学生能够构思和参与一系列前所未有的研究，这些研究涉及国际公认的全面人权。该项目的贡献超越了基础研究，促进人们更好地了解政府尊重和侵犯人权的方式。也许美国政府目前面临的最大挑战是准确理解全球安全环境。世界各国政府对人权的不尊重往往会增加对美国政府的怨恨，这反过来又降低了美国免受外部威胁的安全。更好地了解世界各国政府侵犯人权的模式，可能会提出减少侵犯人权行为的战略，从而改善全球安全环境。例如，决策者将能够利用这些数据来帮助评估公共政策（如发展援助）对政府尊重特定类型人权（如妇女权利和工人权利）的影响。这将有助于他们了解并最终影响国际安全环境。

Much of the previous theory building and empirical research concerning government respect for human rights has attempted to explain why some governments respect the human rights of their citizens while others do not. In each case, the focus has been on trying to explain why governments respect a particular right or a single category of human rights. No study has tried to explain government variations in respect for the full range of internationally recognized human rights. While there is general agreement that all governments respect some human rights more than others, our ability to understand the reasons why, and ways in which, government respect for different human rights varies is hindered by the lack of a unified theory. Thus, this proposal asks, "When a government allows its citizens to enjoy some human rights but not others, what rights are most likely to be withheld from citizens and why?" To answer this question, this proposal offers a destabilization theory of government respect for human rights suggesting that governments are most willing to respect those rights that pose the least threat to the economic privileges of elites. Several testable hypotheses are derived from this theoretical framework. Using a probabilistic, one-dimensional, cumulative scaling technique on existing data, results of a pretest already have provided support for these hypotheses. This research allows for a more stringent test of the hypotheses, utilizing a substantially larger set of cases and more comprehensive information about government respect for the human rights recognized in international law. The project produces a unique database of information describing government respect for approximately 30 different internationally recognized human rights in 160 countries from 1981 to 2002. This database will be made immediately and freely available through a unique internet-based distribution system allowing users to create their own subsets online and download them in their choice of popular file formats. The availability of the dataset resulting from this project via a unique internet-based distribution system will permit policy-makers, scholar-researchers, non-governmental and international organizations, and students to conceive and engage in a never-before-possible range of studies involving a full range of internationally recognized human rights. The project contributes beyond basic research by promoting a better understanding of the ways governments respect and violate human rights. Perhaps the greatest challenge currently facing the US government is attaining an accurate understanding of the global security environment. Low levels of respect for the human rights by governments around the world often increases resentment towards the US government, which, in turn, reduces the security of the United States from external threats. Greater understanding of the patterns of human rights abuse by governments around the world may suggest strategies for reducing human rights abuses and, thereby, improving the global security environment. For example, policy makers will be able to use the data to help assess the impacts of public policies such as development assistance on government respect for specific types of human rights such as women's rights and workers' rights. This will help them understand and ultimately affect the international security environment.