Rajeev MalhotraProfessor and Executive Director

School of Government and Public PolicyO.P. Jindal Global University, Delhi NCR, India

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What framework could be used to identify human rights indicators?

Why use indicators and why human rights indicators?

How do you identify indicators and collect and compile the information on those indicators?

What are the important issues in setting up a country level human rights monitoring system?

Indicators for Human Rights Implementation and Monitoring

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Importance of Indicators & Statistics

What does an indicator /statistic do to information:

Concrete

Monitoring

Tangible Communication

Recording

pins down the content

well defined, more easily understood

becomes more effective, minimising errors

facilitates follow-up, appropriate policy response

facilitates recording and building of memory

Using indicators, as goals & benchmarks, helps in the design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation of public interventions.

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Importance of Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

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Human Rights Indicator

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 (& Qualitative) Information

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Approach to Identify Human Rights Indicators

Requires assessing political commitment to accept normative standards for public action, efforts made (by duty bearer) as a part of that required action and results of those efforts in realising human rights;

Recognition that human rights are indivisible, interdependent, inter-related & need to be co-realised, requires a common approach for CPR and ESCR implementation and measurement;

Ad infinitum focus, on the process to protect and promote human rights- CPRs and ESCRs- along with the corresponding outcomes; and

Based on the use of credible data acceptable to stakeholders in the country.

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A well defined methodology;

Need for an adequate conceptual basis;

Using contextually relevant indicators at country and local level; and

Challenges in Identifying Indicators

Recognising specific monitoring requirements of national and international mechanisms and selecting appropriate indicators in that context.

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Framework for Human Rights Indicators

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Indicators for Human Rights Principles

Accountability

Non-discrimination and Equality

Participation

Effective Remedy General Proxy Indicators

Defining indicators for this procedural right in terms of substantive rights

Disaggregated data

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Ukraine’s NSHR Human Rights Standards & Attributes

Keeping in mind national and international human rights standards, and their normative elaborations, what aspects /attributes of the right or rights are relevant for monitoring the prioritised issue(s)?

To begin with, what aspects of NSHR prioritised human rights issue would you like to focus on for implementation and monitoring?

What are the human rights or human rights issues prioritised in NSHR Plan of Action and if they need to be addressed sequentially over the plan period?

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From Standards to Indicators

What kind of indicators will be relevant to monitor legal and institutional (executive) role / context for implementation of NSHR prioritised issue in Ukraine?

What kind of indicators will be relevant to monitor steps being taken by govt. and CSOs in advancing the implementation of obligations emanating from the human rights standards applicable to the issue?

As a summary measure, what kind of indicators will be required to monitor the results of those efforts, to capture the realisation of relevant human rights?

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Ukraine’s NSHRs: Mapping the Strategic Areas with OHCHR Guide

Ensuring the Right to life; Combating torture & cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; Ensuring the right to freedom and personal inviolability; Ensuring the right to a fair trial; Ensuring the freedom of thought &speech, of expression, access

to information and free development of personality; Ensuring freedom of peaceful assembly & association; Ensuring right to participate in public admin. & vote; Preventing and combating discrimination; Ensuring equal rights for women and men; Combating gender-based violence, human trafficking and

slavery; Combating domestic violence:

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Ukraine’s NSHRs: Mapping the Strategic Areas with OHCHR Guide

Ensuring rights of national minorities & indigenous peoples; Ensuring the right to work and social security; Ensuring the right to health care; Creating conditions for the freedom of entrepreneurship; Ensuring the right to education; Ensuring the right to privacy; Ensuring the rights of the child; Ensuring the rights of refugees, persons in need of

additional protection, foreigners & stateless persons; Rights of participants of ant-terrorist operations Protection of rights of internally displaced persons; Area specific issue & rights- occupied territories, settlement

of Donetsk & Luhansk, and hostages rights

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Translating the narrative on applicable legal standards of the right(s) into a limited characteristic attributes to facilitate identification of appropriate indicators:

Right to Health: Maternal & reproductive health; Child mortality & health care; Public health & hygiene; Prevention & disease control; Accessibility to health services & essential medicines

I. Identifying Human Rights Attributes of the Issue

Right to Liberty & Security of Person: Arrests & detention based on criminal charges; Administrative deprivation of liberty; Effective review by court; Security from crime & abuse by law enforcement officials

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Structural /Commitment IndicatorsReflect the ratification / adoption of legal instruments and existence of basic institutional mechanisms deemed necessary for facilitating realisation of the concerned human right.Process / Effort IndicatorsRelate 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 realisationOutcome /Results IndicatorsCapture attainments, individual and collective, that reflect status of realisation of the human rights in a given context

Categories of Human Rights Indicators

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Socio-economic & other administrative statistics;

Categories of Data Generating Methods for Indicators

Events-based data on human rights violation;

Household perception and opinion surveys; and

Data based on expert judgements.

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• 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 Commissions.

+ HR dimensions of indicators is concrete

- Bias towards under-estimates, comparability problems, limitations in use for ESCRs

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• Censes, 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

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• 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 and therefore useful more for policy direction & not so much for policy design & implementation.

+ ‘Voice of the people’ dimension in assessments;

- Emphasis on subjective undermines reliability and validity of indicators;

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• 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);

- Representativeness & comparability limitations and therefore useful more for policy direction & not so much for policy design & implementation.

+ Quick & effective for getting first assessments;

- Emphasis on subjective undermines reliability &validity of indicators;

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Criteria for Indicator Selection

Amenability to disaggregation by age, sex and region, as required, and more generally on the applicable prohibited grounds of discrimination; and

Few in numbers and “SMART” in scope; Instrumentally driven i.e. a policy action should

directly drive change in magnitude of indicator;

Ideally objective in nature and based on objective data generating methods (that follow international statistical standards), to enable inter-temporal and spatial comparability;

Administratively feasible to collect information on indicators, ideally annually for improved comparability, temporal & spatial/ cross sectional.

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Rights-based Monitoring

Is rights-based monitoring different from monitoring as commonly understood?

Focus on specific data that embodies and reflects realisation of human rights, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalised population groups

Rights-based monitoring requires:

Certain institutional arrangement for data collection

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Establishing a Rights-based Monitoring System

Identification of monitoring stakeholders and assigning nodal functions;

Facilitation of a country owned monitoring mechanism - data generation & interpretation;

Identification of major vulnerable groups – in a transparent and accountable manner;

Capacity building for data collection and disaggregation; and

Reporting periodicity, publication, access to information /dissemination and follow-up.

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