The WORLD Policy Analysis Center is pleased to provide public access to its data on constitutional rights, laws, and policies. To date, the following databases have been made available for public access:
- Workplace Discrimination data was created to assess progress on laws prohibiting discrimination in all aspects of work through a systematic review of labor and equality legislation across all 193 UN countries as of May 2023. The dataset covers discrimination in hiring, promotions and/or demotions, employer-provided training, pay, and terminations, as well as provisions to support effective implementation, such as by prohibiting indirect discrimination, requiring employers to take steps to prevent discrimination, and prohibiting all forms of retaliation for reporting discrimination or participating in investigations. Prohibitions of discrimination are assessed across race and/or ethnicity, gender and sex, disability status, religion, political affiliation, social class, age, migrant status, foreign national origin, marital status, pregnancy, care responsibilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.
- Workplace Sexual Harassment Data was created to assess progress on laws prohibiting sexual harassment at work through a systematic review of legislation across all 193 UN countries as of January 2021. The dataset covers whether all forms of sexual harassment are prohibited, whether laws cover everyone in the workplace, and whether laws cover all perpetrators, as well as measures to support effective implementation including employer responsibility to prevent discrimination, employer liability, and protection from all forms of retaliation for reporting sexual harassment or from participating in workplace investigations.
- Paid Leave and Job Protection for Parents, People Who Are Sick and People Who Have Sick Family Members in the United States Data was released in June 2023. This dataset (abbreviated on maps and graphics as the US Paid Family and Medical Leave database) includes a variety of detailed indicators on paid parental leave, personal paid medical leave and paid family medical leave across 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Indicators include the length and wage replacement of paid leave, availability of job protection, and specific eligibility criteria linked to firm size, worker tenure, minimum hours, and earnings requirements.
- U.S. Short-term Paid Sick and Safe Days Data was released in August 2023. This dataset includes a variety of detailed indicators on laws and policies in U.S. states, cities, counties and the District of Columbia on earned time off for short-term personal and family members' illness and needs related to domestic violence, sexual assault and/or stalking. Measures include eligibility criteria, types of workers covered, types of needs and family members covered, duration available, job protection and protection against retaliation.
- Longitudinal Policy Data, Africa was released in partnership with DataFirst on International Human Rights Day (December 10), 2024. This data highlights the progress African countries have made over the past 20 to 30 years on advancing rights in areas spanning early childhood, including paid parental leave and tuition-free pre-primary education; access to education, including tuition-free and compulsory education from primary through the completion of secondary; prohibitions of early marriage, including legal loopholes; prohibitions of gender and caregiving discrimination at work, including all stages of work and provisions to support effective enforcement; and prohibitions of domestic violence, including penalties.
- Constitutions Data was created to assess progress on constitutional rights that matter to equal opportunities through a systematic review of national constitutions across all 193 UN countries as of January 2022. The dataset covers equality and non-discrimination across race and/or ethnicity, gender and sex, migrants and refugees, religion and belief, disability status, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, as well as the right to education, health, decent working conditions and non-discrimination in employment, and social protection.
- Paid Personal Health Leave Data includes detailed indicators on design of national paid sick and medical leave, and was released in February 2024 with data up to date as of January 2022. In addition to indicators on availability of leave from the first day of illness, duration and wage replacement rates of leave, and guarantees to self-employed workers, this dataset includes an assessment of specific eligibility criteria linked to minimum firm size, worker tenure, and minimum hours across 193 United Nations member countries.
- Family Health Needs Data was released in September 2022. This dataset includes a range of detailed indicators on legislative provisions that enable workers to balance work and caregiving needs by providing paid leave to support family health needs across the life course in all 193 United Nations member countries. These provisions matter to population health, family economic security, and women’s economic opportunities. For children, the data examines everyday, serious, and disability-specific health needs. For adults, the data captures a wide range of family relationships, including spouses, partners, parents, adult children, siblings, parents-in-law, and grandparents.
- Infant Caregiving Data was created to assess progress on laws that allow working parents to support their infants' caregiving needs and health through a systematic review of legislation governing paid parental leave and breastfeeding breaks at work across all 193 UN countries as of 2022. The dataset covers paid leave reserved for mothers of infants, paid leave reserved for fathers of infants, shared paid parental leave, and guarantees of breastfeeding breaks at work. The data assess key features of leave such as duration, wage replacement rate, job protection, and who is covered by paid leave laws. Longitudinal data is included on the availability of paid parental leave from 1995 to 2022.
- Child Marriage Data was created to assess progress on laws prohibiting child marriage which jeopardizes educational attainment, health, economic opportunities, and gender equality through a systematic review of legislation governing the legal minimum age of marriage across all 193 UN countries as of May 2023. The dataset covers the legal minimum age of marriage for girls and boys, as well as exceptions to minimum ages with parental consent and under religious and customary law. WORLD’s public use legislative repository is also available for download through Harvard dataverse (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/N4DNHL) which provides legislation used to code each country.
- Education data was created to assess progress on constitutional rights, laws, and policies affecting access to education through a systematic review of legislation governing education across all 193 UN countries as of September 2019. The dataset covers tuition-free and compulsory education from primary through the completion of secondary, prohibitions of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in education, and prohibitions of disability-based discrimination and guarantees of integration in education.
- SOGIESC Discrimination at Work data was released in March 2025 alongside the publication of the journal article "Mapping Progress in Workplace Protections: A Study of Global LGBTQI + Workplace Antidiscrimination Legislation in 2016 and 2023". This data assesses the quality of laws prohibiting discrimination at work based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics in all 193 UN member states. This data is an expanded module of the Workplace Discrimination Database.
- Age Discrimination at Work was released in December 2023. This dataset includes an update to May 2023 of all age discrimination variables included in previous versions of the WORLD Workplace Discrimination and Harassment dataset, including workplace discrimination on the basis of age in multiple aspects of work, such as hiring or pay; indirect discrimination; harassment; exceptions that permit age discrimination in terminations; and provisions around employer responsibilities and retaliation for bringing forward claims of age discrimination.
- Gender Equality in the Economy Data was released in February 2023 alongside the publication of Equality within Our Lifetimes. This dataset includes a range of detailed indicators on laws and policies in 193 countries that are critical to advancing gender equality in the economy. Areas addressed include: laws prohibiting gender, caregiving, and intersectional discrimination at work; laws prohibiting sexual harassment at work; implementation and enforcement of laws prohibiting discrimination and sexual harassment at work; paid leave policies to support balancing work and caregiving across the life course including during infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age; and laws that remove barriers to girls’ education. Longitudinal data is included to show how far the world has come in key areas, and how far it has to go.
- Disability Data: Originally released in 2019 and updated in 2023, this dataset includes a range of policy indicators aligned with important commitments outlined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Areas addressed include: legislative guarantees to reasonable accommodation at work; legislative prohibitions of disability-based discrimination in hiring, pay, training, promotions and demotions, harassment, terminations, and prohibitions of indirect discrimination; legislative guarantees to non-discrimination and inclusion in education; and constitutional rights to non-discrimination and access to education, health, and work.
- Emergency Childcare Leave during COVID-19 Data was released in September 2022. This dataset includes a range of detailed indicators on country approaches to addressing the markedly increased care needs during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 182 United Nations member countries. The data examines both policies in place prior to the pandemic, and emergency policy approaches during the pandemic to meet care needs during school and childcare center closures.
- Child Immigration Detention Data is the world’s first systematic effort to evaluate protections against immigration detention for migrant and asylum-seeking minors across the 150 most populous UN member states. Released alongside research findings in the International Journal of Human Rights, this dataset describes the conditions under which accompanied and unaccompanied minor migrants and asylum-seekers can be detained, as well as whether they are guaranteed access to education and healthcare during their detention.
- Child Labor Data was created to assess progress on laws protecting children from work that harms their health, education, and development through a systematic review of legislation governing child labor across all 193 UN countries as of October 2016. The dataset covers minimum age of work, light work, and hazardous work; exceptions to legislated minimum ages; restrictions on night work; and restrictions on hours of work on a school day.
- The Annual Leave & Weekly Rest dataset was created to assess progress on laws guaranteeing paid annual leave and a weekly day of rest through a systematic review of labor legislation across all 193 UN countries as of April 2015, supplemented with detailed data on OECD countries as of September 2016.
- The Income & Social Protection dataset was created to assess progress on laws guaranteeing adequate income and social protection through a systematic review of legislation governing minimum wage, unemployment, and family benefits across all 193 UN countries as of March 2012. The dataset covers minimum wage (2010-2011), unemployment benefits, family benefits including supplements for children with disabilities, and pensions.
- Climate Adaptation Data was created in partnership with McGill University’s Climate Change and Adaptation Research Group. This dataset contains key information about countries’ efforts to identify and address the vulnerabilities associated with climate change, including the types of responses countries have undertaken to increase resilience and the types of actors involved in planning, designing, and implementing adaptation.
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