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How the tables work

The Observer has compiled the Human Rights Index 1999 in two ways. The first - the simple ranking - represents the incidence of 10 headline abuses given a score that relates to the intensity of the abuses in each country. The controversy of this method of scoring is that it does not take into account the relative development and wealth of individual countries pushing some of the world's most disadvantaged countries to the top.

For this reason we have also calculated the data in a second way, doubling the score for the three most serious abuses - extra-judicial executions, disappearances and torture/inhuman treatment. In this weighted table the individual countries' so-called Human Development Index (HDI) has also been factored in. The use of the HDI, which is calculated by the UN on factors such as the country's economic status and literacy levels, has the effect of scoring wealthy abusers of human rights more harshly than countries with deep economic and social problems. In other words it penalises countries that should know better.

The tables were compiled by the Observer from the following sources: Amnesty International Report 1999; Amnesty International Country Reports; US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights 1999; United Nations Human Development Report (Human Development Index 1997)