That is one hell of a question! I would suggest the scale is unmeasurable.

There is no scale which can measure human rights violation on any ground as it is dynamic concept and it changes with time and place,what we consider human rights in one country, that same right is not even recognized in another country for eg right to livelihood. Now talking about freedom of speech- it always comes with reasonable restrictions and what is reasonable restriction again it's a dynamic concept and it changes with time and place.

"Freedom Necessarily Includes the Freedom to Act Self-Destructively"

I remember this statement since early 1990s. Would you agree?

Alex

That is a fascinating observation. The idea was incorporated into Roman philosophy and law under fructus and usufruct.

The Roman's idea of human rights centred on rights to own property, including of course human slaves. This had the curious notion of defining property as something its owner had a right to destroy.

Dear Darius,

Thank you for raising a discussion that points to the key problem in the field of human rights: MEASUREMENTS, and how political approaches distract from the fact that there are some good measures that meet both international law standards and social scientific measures standards, others that fail because they focus simply on measuring symptoms but without focusing on causes and putting them in context, and others that need to be created (and could be using existing techniques but have not been). Most human rights programs and organizations actually are co-dependent (have conflicts of interest) such that they falsely promote the belief that there are no measures or they use ideological approaches that distort measures (the U.N. system) and create the false idea that there are no measures or that there cannot be measures and even that there should not be measures. Those who have started answering this question, above, represent this view that wrongly makes it seem as if measurements are impossible.

If you are interested in an examination of the measures that exist, others that could be generated, the flaws of some current measures and approaches, and how there is a consensus in the international community for universal approaches to human rights and for measures (despite beliefs to the contrary), I have published a long piece on "Measuring Progress and Regress in Human Rights" that you can find on my ResearchGate page. In that article, I point to some of the measurements that I have designed or used/improved that you can find in some of my published articles, such as a "Red Book for Endangered Cultures". I hope that others who participate in this discussion will alert us to new measures that they have created to fill the missing measurement gaps.

Best,

David Lempert, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A., E.D. (Hon.)

International Human Rights Lawyer and Consultant

It seems that the problem with measuring human rights stems from the multiple interpretations of what those rights might actually be. This is in the main culturally determined rather than politically or ideologically.

Conflicts of interest are found in all cultures, although they are far less pronounced in hunter-gatherer groups than hierarchical societies. It is virtually impossible to eliminate them. We may very well be able to consider one human rights abuse worse than another but not by any truly empirical standard.

It is interesting to read the comment on international consensus on human rights. The history of human rights is a long one and can be traced in the earliest written codes, suggesting that it was understood even earlier than writing. The problem appears to be that even apparently slight variations in their interpretation can lead to an enormous confounder in any empirical measurement. Consensus in that respect must therefore be qualitative rather than quantitative.

We divide human rights into categories. They are somewhat arbitrary and impose boundaries on those rights. The most obvious one being freedom of expression. We all know that unbridled free expression can effectively mean one person using their right to violate the rights of others. An obvious conflict. In a free society we cannot entirely suppress free expression but we unleash it at our peril. Paradoxically free expression is the worst enemy of free expression.

The case of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain 542 U.S. 692 (2004) may indicate that since rights themselves are constrained by interpretation of national laws that measurement of any human rights violation was in some respects determined by the limits of the right itself.

We might all conclude that abduction and kidnapping for the purpose of delivering up an individual to a jurisdiction would be a violation of rights to freedom of movement and to a right not to be arbitrarily detained without due process but clearly, since it does not give a right to sue in tort it is a qualified right only.

Does the division of human rights into two categories (inalienable & qualified) confound any system of measurement or do we avoid this by simply having ‘two scales?’

This is well worth catching. It demonstrates how politicians deliberately conflate freedom of expression with freedom of the press for effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAELuliWhJM

Barry Turner The road to hell is paved with good intentions

The scale is too high. I think that maybe the different understanding or definition of what constitute human rights. This is usually prevalent in instances where people want to disregard a particular right. In the instances where disregard of certain rights and discriminatory behaviour the proponents of such would use culture and other beliefs they hold to supress such rights especially equality.

Human Rights Advocates, Among Them Minors and the Disabled, Unlawfully Detained In Egypt

Rights groups in Egypt warn that minors and the disabled are among those being imprisoned for long periods without trial, putting them at risk of torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect.

"At least 158 people, including four minors, have been arrested for protesting Israel’s attack on Palestinians, and now face charges under the Anti-Terrorism Law.

Among them is a 19-year-old university student, accused of leading the group, who suffers from severe physical disabilities and was detained over a year ago.

Human rights monitors say the charges in such cases are part of a larger system of judicial abuse marked by unfair trials, years-long pretrial detention, and a practice known as “rotation,” where political prisoners are kept behind bars indefinitely by being recharged with similar offenses after acquittal, completion of a sentence, or reaching the maximum legal period of pretrial detention.

Calls for international attention on Egypt’s prisons have grown following the deaths of three inmates in separate facilities last month. CFJ has documented 1,321 deaths in Egyptian custody since July 2013, including 14 this month alone, with a total of 39 reported since the start of 2025."

https://www.occrp.org/en/news/dozens-of-arrests-one-message-human-rights-advocacy-is-a-crime-in-egypt

Dariusz Prokopowicz Human rights violations, like discrimination and restrictions on freedom of speech, are serious problems happening all over the world. Many people face unfair treatment because of their race, gender, religion, or other differences. This leads to unequal opportunities in things like work, education, and healthcare.

Freedom of speech is also under threat in many places. People who speak out, whether they're journalists, activists, or regular citizens, can face violence, censorship, or even jail time. This stops important conversations from happening and allows abuses to continue without anyone being held accountable.

The scale of this problem is huge, affecting millions of lives, and it needs more attention from the world to make sure everyone's rights are protected.