Which Assessment to use?

National Assessment

The national assessment includes questions which measure states’ commitments and efforts to realize human rights at the national level, as well as the results related to the enjoyment of those rights. This is the most complete assessment, and it monitors a full set of 73 indicators. In that sense, it requires both an expert assessment to review legislation, policies, and other relevant documentation as well as access to national data on the cases related to the enabling environment for human rights defenders. This assessment is recommended for state institutions such as the National Human Rights Institution, Ministry of Justice, Statistical Offices, and for national organizations and networks of human rights defenders with the capacity to collect national data and conduct expert assessments on large sets of documentation.

Group Assessment

The Group Assessment focuses only on assessing states’ efforts and results and therefore this assessment has no questions requiring an expert review of, for example, national legislation and policies.  Instead, it assesses the measures and mechanisms that the state has put in place to implement the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and its underlying human rights and collects data on the degree to which human rights defenders are enjoying their rights.  This assessment is recommended for organizations or groups of human rights defenders of any size who wish to collect data on the enjoyment of the right to defend rights by their specific group. This can be done both at the micro level (by one group or organization collecting data on their specific situation), but also  at a macro level (collecting data about multiple organizations or groups working on similar issues, e.g., land, gender equality, children’s rights, or in a specific city, region or country).