To mark International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2005, Maplecroft, the Corporate Responsibility specialist, has updated its ‘Global map of human rights risk 2005’. The global map of human rights risk is an awareness-raising and risk management tool. It identifies the different types of human rights violations to companies operating in a region may be exposed and defines an intrinsic country human rights risk index.

The map features 194 countries, and reports 19 types of human rights violations. Violations have been verified by the Amnesty International Report 2005, Human Rights Watch World Report 2005 and the US Department of State: 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, to compile a human rights risk profile for each country. The ‘intrinsic country human rights risk index’, combines information on both the breadth (number of different types) of human rights violations, and their relative prevalence or degree of endemicity (frequency with which they were contravened). The Human Rights Index (HRI) also reflects the relative gravity of the particular type of infringement. Countries are given an individual HRI rating and also a ranking and are shaded to indicate relative levels human rights risk.