1 Quantitative Human Rights Indicators Some Conclusions from a Survey Rajeev Malhotra & Nicolas Fasel

2 Human Rights Indicators What are human rights indicators ? A possible approach to identify and design human rights indicators? What were the objectives of the survey?  Major findings and conclusions  Some Illustrations

3 Human Rights Indicators that addresses and reflects the human rights concerns and principles; and that can be related to human rights norms and standards; that are used to assess and monitor promotion and protection of human rights. Quantitative Information

4 Review and assess major initiatives on quantitative human rights indicators; Contribution of these approaches to a framework for monitoring the compliance of States parties with international human rights instruments. Objectives of the Survey Kind of information and human rights indicators that have been used under various initiatives;

5 Socio-economic & other administrative statistics; Categories of Initiatives on Human Rights Indicators Events-based data on human rights violation; Household perception and opinion surveys; and Data based on expert judgements.

6 Describes acts, identifies victims & perpetrators Events-based data on human rights violation Information related to events characterised by occurrence of human rights violation: Mainly focused on Civil and Political rights HURIDOCS, CSOs, NHRIs (Chile) Truth Comms. + HR dimensions of indicators is concrete - Bias towards under-estimates, comparability problems, limitations in use for ESCRs

7 Census, household surveys, civil registration system and administrative data; Socio-economic & other administrative statistics Information mainly related to standard of living and other facets of living, collected through administrative records and statistical surveys: Focused on ESCRs but covers large aspects of Civil and Political rights; NSA, CSO (Social Watch) IGOs; - HR dimensions of indicators- not always obvious + Objective standardised methodology for data collection- high level of reliability and validity + Data source for HR monitoring not fully explored

8 Information is predominantly qualitative and subjective; Household perception and opinion surveys Information based on sample of individuals on their personal views: Covers ESCRs and Civil and Political rights; CSO (Gallup, Afrobarometer); - Representativeness and comparability limitations. + ‘Voice of the people’ dimension in assessments; - Emphasis on subjective undermines reliability and validity of indicators;

9 Use of diverse sources of information; Data based on expert judgements Information based on qualitative assessments of limited number of ‘informed experts’: Frequently used for cross-national comparisons; CSO (Freedom House); - Representativenes and comparability limitations. + ‘Quick and effective for getting first assessments; - Emphasis on subjective undermines reliability and validity of indicators;

10 No ready to use framework for identifying and designing HR indicators for use in monitoring the compliance of States Parties; Findings and Conclusions from Survey Institutionalised approach based on objective methods of data collection, mainly in the public domain, is necessary to assist the State Parties in their reporting obligations for monitoring of HR treaties; Need for balance between universal & contextually relevant HR indicators

11 To the extent feasible, need to reflect human rights principles in the selection of indicators; Conceptual Considerations in human rights indicators Need to reflect the normative framework and content of human rights in indicators; Need to have a common approach to indicators for the ESCR and Civil and Political rights; To have indicators for ‘substantive’ as well as ‘procedural’ human rights; Importance of ‘accessibility indicators’ in the monitoring of realisation of human rights. Need to monitor the conduct of the ‘process’ for the realisation of both CPR and ESCR;

12 Obligation of State to respect, protect (violation and denial of rights) and fulfil (provision and facilitation); Suitable for temporal and spatial comparison; Quantitative indicators & qualitative assessments based on objective data generating methods; Amenable to disaggregation in terms of regions, gender and specific population segments. Methodological Considerations in Human Rights Indicators

13 Towards a Conceptual Framework Respect Protect Fulfil Structural Indicators Process Indicators Outcome Indicators

14 Structural Indicators Reflect the ratification / adoption of legal instruments and existence of basic institutional mechanisms deemed necessary for facilitating realisation of the concerned human right. Process Indicators Relate the State policy instruments with milestones (which cumulate into outcomes that can be more directly related to realisation of right), hence capture accountability as well as the notion of progressive realisation Outcome Indicators Capture attainments, individual and collective, that reflect the status of realisation of the human rights in a given context Towards a Conceptual Framework

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