0:00:18.635,0:00:22.829
You understand the importance of light [br]and the truth, right?

0:00:23.755,0:00:26.102
Imagine a world without them.

0:00:26.533,0:00:29.793
I’m here to talk about[br]how we need more, of both.

0:00:31.153,0:00:33.934
I’m going to start with a true story

0:00:34.384,0:00:36.144
about the kinds of things that happen

0:00:36.144,0:00:39.403
when too much of the world[br]is operating in darkness.

0:00:42.394,0:00:45.536
On a warm October day in 2018,

0:00:45.536,0:00:49.186
a Saudi Arabian journalist[br]called Jamal Khashoggi

0:00:49.186,0:00:51.983
walked into the[br]Saudi Consulate in Istanbul,

0:00:51.983,0:00:56.142
to get some papers he needed [br]to marry his Turkish fiancée.

0:00:57.329,0:01:00.981
She waited outside for him for hours.

0:01:01.451,0:01:03.749
She never saw him again.

0:01:05.113,0:01:07.065
You may remember hearing about this case, [br][br]

0:01:07.065,0:01:10.195
because it made headlines [br]around the world.

0:01:10.966,0:01:14.916
We know from a number[br]of different investigations

0:01:14.916,0:01:19.050
that Saudi government agents[br]went into the consulate,

0:01:19.050,0:01:20.570
killed Mr. Khashoggi

0:01:20.570,0:01:23.253
and dismembered his body.

0:01:24.317,0:01:27.357
Let me be clear about what I just said.

0:01:27.677,0:01:33.097
Government agents killed a journalist [br]to silence his truths.

0:01:34.102,0:01:39.112
These kinds of happenings are both [br]shocking and surprisingly common.

0:01:41.696,0:01:44.926
But I’m pretty sure[br]that if the Saudi government had known

0:01:44.926,0:01:49.096
that this case would make[br]headlines worldwide,

0:01:49.096,0:01:51.316
and stay there for weeks,

0:01:51.316,0:01:53.367
they wouldn’t have done it, right?

0:01:53.870,0:01:57.800
They wanted to commit[br]their crimes in the dark,

0:01:57.800,0:02:00.737
not in broad daylight for all to see.

0:02:01.392,0:02:03.572
Which raises some questions.

0:02:05.031,0:02:07.642
What if we could shine a brighter light [br]

0:02:07.642,0:02:10.490
on the world’s injustices [br]and wrong-doings?[br]

0:02:10.490,0:02:14.826
And what if, by doing so, we could[br]incentivise governments everywhere

0:02:14.826,0:02:17.426
to treat people with more respect

0:02:17.426,0:02:22.270
and listen to the voices of their critics [br]rather than silencing them?

0:02:26.080,0:02:29.290
This is the world[br]that I’m working to create.

0:02:31.537,0:02:33.605
I’d like you to take a moment -

0:02:34.025,0:02:36.035
you’re welcome to close your eyes -

0:02:36.465,0:02:38.865
and ask yourself this question:

0:02:39.312,0:02:42.399
what is it that you and your family need

0:02:42.399,0:02:47.119
to live in dignity and fulfill[br]your potential as human beings?

0:02:56.603,0:03:00.363
You might be thinking about good food[br]or a roof over your head,

0:03:00.363,0:03:03.495
access to healthcare or education,

0:03:03.495,0:03:06.195
or a good job, or social security,

0:03:06.195,0:03:09.990
or you might be thinking about [br]the freedom to be yourself

0:03:09.990,0:03:16.050
and speak your mind without fear[br]of arrest, torture, imprisonment or worse.

0:03:17.149,0:03:21.389
These things are not luxuries. [br]They are human rights.

0:03:21.413,0:03:25.863
They have been defined and set out [br]in international human rights law.

0:03:26.102,0:03:29.672
Countries have made promises [br]to respect them.

0:03:33.686,0:03:35.496
But until now,

0:03:35.496,0:03:38.756
no one has been tracking[br]how well each country is doing

0:03:38.756,0:03:43.826
on making sure every person [br]is able to enjoy each human right.

0:03:44.342,0:03:47.092
I know, I was surprised to learn this too.

0:03:47.908,0:03:50.658
For 20 years, I was an economist.

0:03:50.688,0:03:54.194
In the mid-2000s, I was working[br]at the OECD in Paris,

0:03:54.194,0:03:57.364
giving economic policy advice [br]to governments.

0:03:57.364,0:03:58.496
I really loved my job.

0:03:58.496,0:04:02.886
I found it super interesting to look at[br]each country through the economist lens

0:04:02.886,0:04:05.266
and figure out what advice to offer.

0:04:05.777,0:04:07.614
But there was one problem.

0:04:08.014,0:04:11.694
In every country, there were[br]human rights violations.

0:04:11.694,0:04:15.432
I was reading about mistreatment[br]of Kurds in Turkey

0:04:15.432,0:04:17.762
and Roma in Slovakia,

0:04:17.762,0:04:19.718
and I was always kind of looking for ways

0:04:19.718,0:04:23.554
that I could try and bring these[br]human rights issues into my reports.

0:04:23.554,0:04:26.366
But there was only so far I could go,

0:04:26.366,0:04:28.396
because when economists give advice,

0:04:28.396,0:04:31.704
it always has to be based[br]on empirical evidence,

0:04:31.704,0:04:36.204
and what I learned is that there was[br]no comprehensive database

0:04:36.204,0:04:39.354
tracking the human rights[br]performance of countries.

0:04:40.547,0:04:42.047
This is a problem.

0:04:42.462,0:04:44.062
This was a problem.

0:04:45.048,0:04:47.302
When you’re assessing [br]the state of the world,

0:04:47.302,0:04:52.605
chances are you’re going to be looking [br]first at the things you’ve got data for:

0:04:52.605,0:04:55.805
income per person, [br]trade and investment flows,

0:04:55.805,0:04:57.385
carbon emissions ...

0:04:57.787,0:05:00.022
It’s very difficult for any government

0:05:00.022,0:05:02.922
to put human rights[br]at the heart of its agenda,

0:05:02.922,0:05:05.752
if they don’t have the data they need.

0:05:07.047,0:05:11.307
After that, I just couldn’t let go [br]of the fact that there was this data gap.

0:05:11.729,0:05:14.703
A few years later,[br]after moving back to New Zealand,

0:05:14.703,0:05:18.197
I can remember being at home[br]with my son when he was little,

0:05:18.197,0:05:21.542
and after putting him to bed[br]for his afternoon nap,

0:05:21.542,0:05:24.937
I felt this magnetic pull[br]back to the computer

0:05:24.937,0:05:28.286
where I was researching [br]who was measuring human rights.

0:05:28.286,0:05:32.686
I was contacting the world’s experts [br]and asking them questions.

0:05:33.461,0:05:36.941
Why were human rights[br]not being systematically measured?

0:05:37.516,0:05:38.816
Could it be done?

0:05:39.985,0:05:43.225
Lots of the emails I sent got no reply.

0:05:44.592,0:05:46.172
But many of them did.

0:05:46.822,0:05:48.512
There were a few people who told me

0:05:48.512,0:05:51.522
that this idea of systematically[br]tracking human rights

0:05:51.522,0:05:54.594
was a good idea, but too ambitious

0:05:56.379,0:06:00.759
Only one or two people told me [br]it was impossible, ridiculous even.

0:06:01.307,0:06:03.077
I wasn’t too bothered.

0:06:03.409,0:06:06.469
My philosophy was to go[br]where the energy was.

0:06:06.798,0:06:08.310
And by following the energy,

0:06:08.310,0:06:11.920
I linked up with two super clever[br]human rights academics

0:06:11.920,0:06:13.518
who shared my vision,

0:06:13.518,0:06:15.418
Susan Randolph and Chad Clay,

0:06:15.418,0:06:19.195
and together we founded the[br]Human Rights Measurement Initiative,

0:06:19.195,0:06:21.145
or HRMI (pronounced 'hermi') for short.

0:06:22.515,0:06:25.851
Even before HRMI had $1 of funding, [br]

0:06:25.851,0:06:30.752
we’ve been working with human rights[br]practitioners from around the world

0:06:30.752,0:06:32.802
to make sure that we produce data

0:06:32.802,0:06:37.962
that accurately reflects the situation[br]on the ground in different countries.

0:06:38.433,0:06:41.062
Our goal is to make sure[br]that you can see more

0:06:41.062,0:06:44.632
than just those few headline cases,[br]like Mr. Khashoggi's,

0:06:44.632,0:06:46.352
that make it into the news.

0:06:46.352,0:06:49.967
We are turning on[br]more lights around the world.

0:06:50.656,0:06:55.956
I feel both privileged and humbled[br]to be able to do the work that I do

0:06:55.956,0:07:01.695
because I know that in many other [br]countries around the world

0:07:01.695,0:07:07.122
human rights defenders are putting [br]their lives at risk every single day,

0:07:07.122,0:07:11.312
just for documenting [br]the injustices that they see.

0:07:11.748,0:07:17.091
So I’m really pleased that HRMI is [br]helping to amplify the voices

0:07:17.091,0:07:19.111
of these amazing people

0:07:19.111,0:07:22.361
so that their work can have more impact.

0:07:22.361,0:07:26.201
And I’m really pleased [br]that the collective vision that HRMI has

0:07:26.201,0:07:30.031
is no longer just a vision;[br]it’s now a collective endeavour.

0:07:30.339,0:07:35.557
We already have hundreds of human rights[br]practitioners around the world

0:07:35.557,0:07:40.547
contributing, on a volunteer basis,[br]their time and knowledge

0:07:40.547,0:07:44.627
to help turn on more lights,[br]fill these data gaps,

0:07:45.537,0:07:48.287
bring more attention[br]to what really matters.

0:07:50.706,0:07:54.706
So how do we measure the human rights[br]performance of countries?

0:07:55.412,0:07:58.662
So far, we’ve got two main methodologies.

0:07:59.415,0:08:04.065
First, whenever possible,[br]we use publicly available statistics.

0:08:04.602,0:08:06.236
For Quality of Life rights,

0:08:06.236,0:08:11.046
things like the rights to food,[br]education, health, housing and work,

0:08:11.496,0:08:15.156
this gives us really great[br]country coverage.

0:08:15.791,0:08:19.865
This map shows, in blue, all 169 countries

0:08:19.865,0:08:23.345
where we are tracking country performance [br]on the right to health.

0:08:23.915,0:08:27.634
A lot of the statistical indicators[br]that we look at are the same ones

0:08:27.634,0:08:32.084
used to monitor the United Nations' [br]Sustainable Development Goals.

0:08:32.434,0:08:36.727
But here’s the difference: [br]we don’t just look at the raw statistics.

0:08:36.727,0:08:39.037
We do something much more vital. [br]

0:08:39.037,0:08:43.888
We convert them into numbers that make [br]sense from a human rights perspective.

0:08:44.750,0:08:47.560
To do this, we have adopted[br]an award-winning approach

0:08:47.560,0:08:51.898
that was developed by my HRMI co-founder,[br]Susan, and her colleagues.

0:08:51.913,0:08:56.433
And what it does is it judges [br]each country by a different benchmark

0:08:56.433,0:08:59.640
depending on that country’s [br]level of income.

0:08:59.640,0:09:03.515
So both richer countries [br]and poorer countries will get low scores

0:09:03.515,0:09:06.385
if they’re not using [br]their available resources

0:09:06.399,0:09:09.948
as effectively as other countries [br]at those income levels have done;

0:09:09.948,0:09:12.738
for example, to bring about[br]good health outcomes.

0:09:13.465,0:09:15.628
This approach is genius,

0:09:16.198,0:09:19.268
not only because it measures[br]how countries are doing

0:09:19.268,0:09:23.460
on the basis of how these rights are [br]defined in international law,

0:09:23.460,0:09:26.325
but also because it’s just logical. [br]

0:09:26.325,0:09:31.413
It makes sense to hold high income [br]countries to a higher standard of account [br]

0:09:31.413,0:09:32.962
for their health outcomes

0:09:32.962,0:09:35.144
than poorer countries, right?

0:09:36.032,0:09:40.642
Second, for civil and political rights, [br]we collect the data ourselves.

0:09:41.201,0:09:43.223
These rights include all sorts of things [br]

0:09:43.223,0:09:47.773
from killings and torture [br]to voting rights and free speech.

0:09:48.540,0:09:51.773
You might be surprised to learn[br]that these are all things

0:09:51.773,0:09:55.293
that official statistics[br]just don’t keep track of.

0:09:56.153,0:09:59.449
So we brought in experts[br]from Amnesty International,

0:09:59.449,0:10:01.854
organisations like Human Rights Watch,

0:10:01.854,0:10:06.877
and together we developed an expert survey[br]so that we could collect this information

0:10:06.877,0:10:10.847
from people who are monitoring events[br]on the ground in each country.

0:10:12.332,0:10:16.882
We’re really happy with how well[br]our expert survey is working out.

0:10:16.882,0:10:20.172
So far, we have data[br]for these 19 countries,

0:10:20.172,0:10:22.772
and that number is growing every year.

0:10:23.316,0:10:26.046
Most importantly, people tell us

0:10:26.046,0:10:31.236
that our scores accurately reflect[br]the situation on the ground

0:10:31.236,0:10:34.555
in the countries that they [br]are knowledgeable about.

0:10:37.061,0:10:41.286
Let me introduce you[br]to some of our data insights

0:10:41.286,0:10:44.556
by sharing with you one quiz question.

0:10:45.918,0:10:49.152
'Which of these countries performs best

0:10:50.172,0:10:55.482
on respecting the right to freedom[br]from extrajudicial execution?

0:10:56.982,0:11:02.332
Jordan, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, [br]the United States or Mexico?'

0:11:02.834,0:11:04.473
Now, while you think about it,

0:11:04.473,0:11:06.973
just let me give you[br]a little more information.

0:11:07.583,0:11:09.005
First, a definition:

0:11:09.005,0:11:12.545
extrajudicial killings are killings[br]by government agents,

0:11:12.545,0:11:14.884
like what happened to Mr. Khashoggi,

0:11:14.884,0:11:17.904
but more commonly things[br]like police shootings.

0:11:18.791,0:11:22.591
And let me also tell you a little more[br]about where the scores come from.

0:11:23.010,0:11:25.655
In February and March this year,

0:11:25.655,0:11:30.405
we sent our expert survey[br]to people monitoring human rights

0:11:30.405,0:11:33.627
in all five of these[br]countries, and others,

0:11:33.627,0:11:37.857
and each person told us[br]how well they think their country is doing

0:11:37.857,0:11:40.555
on respecting this right, and others.

0:11:40.555,0:11:44.425
And we use some really sophisticated[br]statistical techniques

0:11:44.425,0:11:47.059
for ensuring that different[br]people’s responses

0:11:47.059,0:11:50.016
can be made comparable with one another.

0:11:52.344,0:11:54.292
Okay, so do you have in mind

0:11:54.292,0:11:57.075
what you think the answer[br]to this question is?

0:11:58.521,0:12:00.429
The answer is Jordan.

0:12:00.761,0:12:05.957
And here you can see the scores[br]for all five of these countries.

0:12:07.211,0:12:11.149
The little vertical solid lines[br]that you see are our best estimate

0:12:11.149,0:12:13.759
of what the score is for each country.

0:12:15.038,0:12:18.728
Countries with wider uncertainty bands,[br]like Saudi Arabia’s,

0:12:18.728,0:12:23.478
tell us that we are less certain [br]exactly where the true score lies,

0:12:23.478,0:12:28.240
perhaps because there may[br]have been less agreement

0:12:28.240,0:12:32.370
among the respondents who filled in[br]our survey for Saudi Arabia.

0:12:33.114,0:12:35.341
Narrower uncertainty bands, like Mexico’s,

0:12:35.341,0:12:39.221
tell us that we are more certain[br]about what the score is for that country.

0:12:40.012,0:12:42.292
The overlap of the bands is important.

0:12:42.292,0:12:45.872
We can be confident that Jordan[br]is performing better than Venezuela

0:12:45.872,0:12:48.706
because their bands don’t overlap.

0:12:48.706,0:12:52.446
We're less confident exactly[br]what the relative ranking would be

0:12:52.446,0:12:54.504
of the countries that come next.

0:12:55.572,0:12:59.817
Of course this is just a subset of all [br]the countries we have data for.

0:12:59.817,0:13:02.037
Let me add in some more.

0:13:02.827,0:13:07.657
Here you can see New Zealand, Australia,[br]South Korea and the United Kingdom.

0:13:08.148,0:13:10.645
No country gets a perfect score

0:13:10.645,0:13:13.195
because in every country,[br]even New Zealand,

0:13:13.195,0:13:15.215
there is room for improvement.

0:13:16.422,0:13:18.452
How is this information useful?

0:13:19.376,0:13:22.056
HRMI is not an advocacy organisation,

0:13:22.056,0:13:26.926
so we don’t tell governments[br]what they could be doing differently.

0:13:26.926,0:13:29.694
But you can use our data for that purpose.

0:13:30.442,0:13:32.906
So let’s say your country[br]had a lowish score,

0:13:32.906,0:13:35.665
so it’s down this end of the scale,

0:13:35.666,0:13:37.657
and you want to move it that way.

0:13:37.657,0:13:39.417
What can you do?

0:13:39.417,0:13:43.367
I’m sure the possibilities are endless, [br]but let’s just discuss a few.

0:13:43.919,0:13:49.889
You could encourage your country to embark[br]on the challenging but vital task

0:13:49.889,0:13:52.119
of retraining your police force.

0:13:52.493,0:13:56.230
You could meet with vulnerable[br]and minority groups

0:13:56.230,0:14:00.900
and take their advice[br]on how to reform your institutions.

0:14:01.573,0:14:06.608
You could look at the laws and policies [br]of your better-performing neighbours

0:14:06.608,0:14:09.548
and you could also choose to do better.

0:14:10.774,0:14:16.034
We have a scoreboard like this for eight[br]different civil and political rights,

0:14:16.034,0:14:19.628
and for each one of them,[br]for each country and for each right,

0:14:19.628,0:14:24.618
we also collect information[br]on what is driving their scores.

0:14:24.855,0:14:26.373
So let’s say you wanted to know

0:14:26.373,0:14:31.153
why the United States[br]is performing so poorly on this right.

0:14:32.123,0:14:34.125
You could learn that part of the reason

0:14:34.125,0:14:38.505
is because there are too many[br]police shootings of people of colour.

0:14:38.946,0:14:41.836
Our US experts told us

0:14:41.836,0:14:47.546
that the people who are most at risk of[br]extrajudicial killing in the United States

0:14:47.546,0:14:49.708
are African Americans,

0:14:50.206,0:14:52.182
Latinx people,

0:14:53.216,0:14:55.231
Native Americans,

0:14:56.068,0:14:58.891
and children detained at the border.

0:15:01.450,0:15:03.801
These insights I've shared[br]from our database

0:15:03.801,0:15:07.181
are just some of the thousands[br]that you can find there,

0:15:07.181,0:15:12.601
and that’s before we have even expanded[br]our survey to all countries in the world.

0:15:15.275,0:15:18.948
I know that all of this[br]can feel quite heavy.

0:15:19.424,0:15:21.185
That’s because it is.

0:15:22.853,0:15:24.306
So I’m happy to share with you

0:15:24.306,0:15:28.576
that we also have some[br]really positive, good news stories

0:15:28.576,0:15:30.896
in HRMI’s database as well.

0:15:31.686,0:15:34.826
Here’s a good news chart[br]from the Africa region.

0:15:35.760,0:15:40.038
Each of the coloured sections[br]shows you one Quality of Life right,

0:15:40.038,0:15:45.128
and what you can see is there has been[br]slow but gradual improvement

0:15:45.128,0:15:49.628
in the performance, on average,[br]across the African continent.

0:15:50.026,0:15:51.937
And the good news story gets even better

0:15:51.947,0:15:56.537
because HRMI data also show[br]a gradual trend improvement

0:15:56.537,0:16:01.647
in the fulfillment of these rights[br]in all regions of the world.

0:16:02.325,0:16:06.418
This is a really positive[br]human rights story.

0:16:06.418,0:16:09.930
I love it and it fills me[br]with a lot of hope.

0:16:12.141,0:16:13.714
One thing that I’ve noticed

0:16:13.714,0:16:19.714
since making my career transition[br]from economist to co-founder of HRMI,

0:16:20.244,0:16:24.082
is that when I catch up[br]with old friends and I tell them

0:16:24.082,0:16:28.352
that what I’m now doing is measuring[br]the human rights performance of countries,

0:16:28.352,0:16:32.542
I sometimes get these[br]kind of somewhat blank looks.

0:16:32.826,0:16:36.501
When I used to tell people that I was[br]helping to improve economic performance,

0:16:36.501,0:16:39.848
I would get more nods of understanding.

0:16:39.848,0:16:41.318
And I get it.

0:16:41.318,0:16:46.858
The economy is really well measured. [br]People are used to hearing about it.

0:16:47.993,0:16:53.147
By contrast, human rights have been [br]under-reported, under-measured

0:16:53.147,0:16:55.790
and overlooked for too long.

0:16:56.547,0:16:58.167
Let’s change that.

0:17:00.328,0:17:02.723
Shedding a light on human rights

0:17:02.723,0:17:07.243
and bringing about a massive change[br]in the way our world works

0:17:07.243,0:17:09.995
is a huge global collaborative challenge,

0:17:09.995,0:17:11.775
and you can help.

0:17:11.775,0:17:15.395
We have started by shedding[br]a light on your country.

0:17:15.420,0:17:18.260
What does it reveal that you can act on?

0:17:19.542,0:17:22.192
What will you demand of your leaders?

0:17:22.490,0:17:24.948
What other countries can inspire yours

0:17:24.948,0:17:28.328
to better and bolder respect[br]for human rights?

0:17:28.873,0:17:34.995
What if world’s leaders summoned[br]their advisors and demanded answers?

0:17:34.995,0:17:39.306
What if they said not just, ‘Tell me how [br]to improve our economic performance!’,

0:17:39.306,0:17:43.536
but, ‘Tell me how to improve[br]our human rights performance'?

0:17:47.162,0:17:49.951
Numbers are not as sexy as stories.

0:17:49.951,0:17:52.058
They don’t pull on the heartstrings

0:17:52.058,0:17:53.716
in the same way.

0:17:54.218,0:17:59.888
But each one helps to light up our world, [br]showing us the way ahead.

0:18:00.882,0:18:05.292
Numbers help us figure out[br]what needs to change, and how.

0:18:05.768,0:18:09.638
Let’s build a world[br]where countries are competing,

0:18:10.428,0:18:14.198
not just in sport and to see[br]who can be the richest,

0:18:14.198,0:18:17.405
but to see who can treat[br]their people the best.

0:18:19.041,0:18:21.301
Let’s measure what we treasure.

0:18:22.054,0:18:23.360
Thank you.

0:18:23.360,0:18:25.770
(Applause)