The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) has named renowned human rights investigator and advocate, Adama Kiatamba Dempster, as its Liberia Ambassador. The decision was officially published in December 2021.
Dempster is a Liberian human rights and justice campaigner, with over 10 years of experience in the field of human rights and transitional justice nationally and internationally. He is the Founding National Director and Lead Investigator of the Independent Human Rights Investigators (IHRI) and Secretary General of the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia.
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) is a collaborative venture between human rights practitioners, researchers, academics, and other supporters. It is hosted by Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, a non-profit research institute based in New Zealand, ranked in the top ten economic think-tanks worldwide. HRMI is also collaborating closely with a number of academic organizations, and a range of NGOs working to advance human rights.
The HRMI team includes some of the world’s most experienced experts in the field, including developers of some of the most widely used existing measures of civil and political rights, and the prize-winning authors of the best existing measures of economic, social and cultural rights.
A range of other human rights researchers and academics are also contributing to the development of our methodologies and practices.
As HRMI’s focal person, Ambassador Dempster analyzes and draws the attention of the government and other agencies to human rights issues and periodically read the HRMI survey report to enable them identify the human rights areas of concern to effect change.
As Human Rights Ambassador to Liberia, Dempster will coordinate various groups working on human rights issues, identify experts who work in relations to human rights, including academicians, journalists, women rights advocates, lawyers and other professionals.
Additionally, like other ambassadors, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) allows Ambassador Dempster to select number of survey respondents to complete questionnaire through data collection.
Speaking to the Hot Pepper in relations to his appointment by the international group, Ambassador Dempster said, “To have a global human rights group naming Adama Dempster as an Ambassador is an international recognition and a task any human rights activist would love to achieve. I am honored for this.”
Meanwhile, Ambassador Dempster has encouraged all experts to follow-up on the report published by the HRMI team.