Public opinion data is vital for evidence-based research and strategy. To build legitimacy, grow support, and win hearts and minds, human rights groups must know where public opinion currently is, and how it can be modified to support rights-friendly principles and policies.
The OpinionHub offers data collected by our team through statistically representative surveys called Human Rights Perception Polls (HRPPs). We design each survey from scratch, customizing to the project's unique needs. We work closely with local NGOs and survey partners, monitoring each phase of the data-collection effort. Visit the OpinionHub Countries page to learn more and explore survey data.
Some of our Human Rights Perception Poll questions:
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What, in your view, are the country's most pressing human rights priorities?
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Do you think "human rights" are a Western-imposed concept used by the U.S. government to promote its interests?
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Do you trust human rights organizations and other NGOs?
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Under what conditions might you be willing to donate money or time to local rights groups?
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What do you think of specific human rights messages and policies?
We regularly work with NGOs to put this data to use. In 2017, we began working with rights groups in Mexico City and Bogotá to explore the local public's willingness to donate money. Check out this short video to learn more.
View this video in Spanish
Want to promote respect for a specific human right? You'll need to know what the public thinks, and how much it trusts you and your funders. You'll also want to learn which segments of the population would be most willing to support your efforts, and which will be more skeptical.
Once you do your advocacy work, moreover, you'll want to learn whether your efforts had impact. Who has listened to your message and been persuaded? Who hasn't, and why?
The OpenGlobalRights Human Rights Perception Polls (HRPPs) are a battery of questions about the public's attitudes towards human rights principles, policies, and actors. They also include a wide variety of socio-demographic, religious, and attitudinal questions to help you analyze these data with greater nuance and understanding. Among many other question, the HRPP helps us identify the characteristics of human rights supporters and skeptics; understand the publics’ interpretation of the phrase, “human rights”; and assess public views of foreign funding for domestic NGOs.
The Nuts & Bolts
- We begin each project with a battery of rights-related questions, to which we add custom-designed items based on individual project requirements.
- We design and implement each project in consultation with funders and partners, carefully choose a local survey firm, and work on-site with survey implementors to ensure the highest quality translations, sampling, interviews, and data capture.
- We supervise enumerator training and survey pilots in person, carefully review all sampling decisions, and keep tight watch over all stages of the data-collection process.
- We typically interview respondents face-to-face, unless internet penetration is very high.
- We analyze the data, using sophisticated statistical techniques.
- We write comprehensive reports in practitioner-friendly formats.
Where We've Worked
As of fall 2017, we had fielded customized versions of the Human Rights Perception Poll in Colombia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, and India. We do our Latin America national surveys in partnership with the Americas and the World consortium based at CIDE in Mexico City. Consortium members have inserted many of our questions into their own surveys in other Latin American countries.
