What makes HRMI special? That was one of the questions a recent organisational review started with, and we want to share some of the findings with friends of HRMI like you.
We learned a lot about what we do well, and what we could do better, so we're now busy celebrating achievements and making plans for improvements. One of the encouraging discoveries is captured in this word cloud, where HRMI team members from all over the world answered the question: 'What kind of person would be a good fit to join the HRMI team?'
What stands out to you?
For me, it's 'kind'. We have always believed, at HRMI, that human rights organisations need to have a firm ethical foundation that includes treating each other well - very well. We're far from perfect, but we work hard to foster a team culture of authentic kindness and respect. We have an always-evolving HRMI Culture Handbook (you can take a peek if you like, just ask!) that outlines all kinds of practical ways to be good to each other, from being open about our preferred methods of communication, our body clocks, and our religious and cultural patterns and practices, to a commitment to a growth mindset and a no-blame approach to solving problems and continually improving.
There's a lot that makes HRMI special, including, of course, the work we do to create useful human rights data tools and put them into the hands of change-makers (read on for more about that). And all of it is possible because we are committed to deep, real kindness.
As 2025 opens, and the world's challenges continue to be pressing, and sometimes overwhelming, we will continue to choose kindness, as we do our part to uphold human dignity everywhere.
Please read on for some more specifics of what we are doing at HRMI, and how you can be part of our work to improve people's lives through better data. We're particularly excited about the five new countries we are running our annual survey in, two new funding partners, and upcoming participation at the United Nations and RightsCon 2025. Read all about it below!
And we would love to hear your own stories of kindness, and of group cultures and practices that underpin world-changing work. Please be in touch anytime.
In service,
Thalia Kehoe Rowden, on behalf of the global HRMI team.
2025 Survey
In 2025 we are thrilled to have added five new countries to receive our annual survey, which helps us produce scores and other data tracking the human rights performance of governments. This year we are running the survey for the first time in Eswatini, Kenya, Nigeria, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe, taking, taking us to a current total of 52 countries and territories.
Would you like to take part? We continue to look for human rights workers (lawyers, researchers, advocates, defenders or other practitioners) who can share their knowledge with us and help us create better human rights data. If you are interested in participating, or know of someone, please email survey@humanrightsmeasurement.org.
You can see the difference between countries where we run our annual survey, such as India, and where we don’t, such as the Netherlands.
HRMI co-executive directors Melissa and Thalia will be leading a series of events in Geneva the week of 17-21 February, including a presentation on using HRMI data in the Universal Periodic Review, a panel discussion at the Geneva Academy of the International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and a briefing for members of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Please get in touch if you will be in town.
Thalia and Digital Rights Lead Meridith Lavelle will be at RightsCon 2025 in Taipei, 24-27 February, where HRMI will lead two workshops, and have a stall to meet conference attendees. Please say hi!
Recent Events
HRMI and the Centre for Environmental and Corporate Accountability Research held a webinar about HRMI data and the possibility of taking civil and political rights research to Zimbabwe.
Our regional engagement team led a survey webinar for prospective research participants in January. You can watch the link on our Youtube here.
Pilot: Donations to Charities Nominated by Survey Respondents
In 2024 we piloted a new way of acknowledging the valuable contributions of the thousands of human rights experts around the world who participate in our research. Our annual survey is completed anonymously and confidentially, so we are unable to offer direct compensation to participants for security reasons.
This year, for Liberia, and countries in the Pacific, we invited participants to nominate a registered charity of their choice to go into a draw to receive a donation from HRMI.
We are thrilled to announce the winners of this inaugural charity draw:
In 2024 we were excited to find strong enthusiasm in many African countries for us to produce more human rights data to reflect their experiences.
Sharon Wangechi Muriuki, our longstanding Kenya Ambassador, is now rolling out the HRMI survey for the first time, and Nkosikhona Sibanda from Zimbabwe has joined us as our new East and Southern Africa lead.
A warm welcome also to several new Ambassadors for countries in the region, some anonymous, and some now featured on our website.
Staff Updates
A warm welcome to Keshia Mahmood who joined us is in late 2024 to support regional engagement efforts as a Consultant for Southeast Asia.
We also have had the pleasure of several new interns working on important projects: a warm welcome and grateful thanks to Sarah Casey, Sam Turner, Lucy Peake, and Regan Joyce from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Bodhi Ramteke from the University of Roehampton, and Nupur Desai, joining us from the University of Georgia in the United States.
New Partnerships
We are thrilled that two new funders have decided to support HRMI’s work financially, enabling us to continue producing robust, useful data tools to improve people’s lives.
HRMI is doing incredible work with very limited resources, and we are delighted to see the global coverage, recognition, and use that our data is getting. Building on our people power and expertise, HRMI is poised to scale its global and thematic reach.
Our aim is to measure every country’s performance of every human right in international law.
But we cannot do this alone. We need sustained operational funding to increase our resiliency and strengthen our capacity to ensure the continuity of the Rights Tracker, HRMI’s ground-breaking digital public good.
If you can help with suggestions of potential funders or by making a small donation to HRMI yourself, please get in touch by replying to this email or visiting our donations page.
Please keep in touch!
Thanks for your interest in HRMI. You are also most welcome to follow us on LinkedIn, BlueSkyFacebook, YouTube and X to keep up to date in between newsletters.
Please also feel free to contact us directly with feedback, ideas, and requests. We're here to help
Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), PO Box 24390, Wellington, New Zealand
