Indicators

Indicators for Human Rights Based Approaches to Development in UNDP Programming: A Users’ Guide
UNDP, March 2006
This is a practically oriented Guide on indicators for human rights based approaches to development programmes for UNDP COs. The Guide contains separate sections on different aspects relating to the development and use of indicators across the key elements of human rights programming. The Guide summarizes the normative evolution in human rights and explains how human rights have been mainstreamed into the activities of all UN agencies. It also reviews the main existing indicators for human rights and discusses their limitations for human rights based programming. Two hypothetical programme examples on access to clean water and the prevention of torture are used to show how indicators can be used for human rights programming. Finally, the Guide offers advice on how COs can use indicators for all phases of programme design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

An Introduction into the Use of Human Rights Indicators for Development Programmes
Emilie Filmer-Wilson, June 2005, UNDG
This paper is a preliminary exploration into the use of human rights indicators in the context of development aid. It responds to the growing interest in and demand from the development community for human rights assessment tools that can be used for country analysis and programme evaluation and monitoring. This paper is thus written with the development practitioner in mind. It provides a general introduction to the notion of ‘human rights indicators'. Using the UN Common Understanding on the Human Rights-Based Approach to Development as a framework from which to design and use human rights indicators, this paper identifies the main ways in which human rights indicators differ from traditional development indicators. It also provides basic guidance as to how to apply these tools.

Using Indicators for Human Rights Accountability
UNDP 2000
Statistical indicators are a powerful tool in the struggle for human rights. They make it possible for people and organizations-from grassroots activists and civil society to governments and the United Nations-to identify important actors and hold them accountable for their actions. Working together, governments, activists, lawyers, statisticians and development specialists are breaking ground in using statistics to push for change- in perceptions, policies and practices.
This paper covers topics such as: creating indicators, ensuring key principles, identifying actors, ensuring key principles and action.

Summary Report of Material Collated Regarding Practical Guidance to Implementing Rights-Based Approaches, Human Rights Analyses for Poverty Reduction and Human Rights Benchmarks from Development Actors and other Relevant Communities
March 2005, Prepared by Emilie Filmer-Wilson, Independent Consultant, for DFID
This report brings together material collated from development organisations and other relevant communities in four key areas: i) practical guidance on rights-based approaches, including case studies and checklists; ii) analytical tools which feature human rights for understanding the causes and characteristics of poverty; iii) human rights impact assessment; and iv) human rights indicators to measure development progress.

Quantitative Human Rights Indicators - A survey of major initiatives
Rajeev Malhotra and Nicolas Fasel
This paper provides an overview and assessment of some major attempts and approaches to develop quantitative human rights and related indicators that have been variously used for human rights monitoring in recent times. A major objective of the paper is to show the depth and scale of information and indicators that have been used by States, inter-governmental organisations and civil society in this context. The paper surveys initiatives on indicators that are explicitly anchored in human rights standards, as well as those that are commonly categorised as "socio-economic statistics". More specifically, the paper seeks to highlight the main categories of initiatives on human rights indicators, illustrate them with representative examples and analyse the elements that each category of initiatives could potentially bring to the process and methodology for human rights monitoring

Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Developing Indicators on Democracy and Good Governance
July 2003, University of Essex - Human Rights Centre
The report is based on a study which analysed the main initiatives to develop indicators for measuring democracy, human rights and good governance by academics, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The paper then goes on to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the main initiatives; assess the links (or missing links) of the different initiatives with on-going academic research on indicators; and develops some general recommendations on priority setting and basic orientations for developing related indicators.