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QuantitativeHuman Rights Indicators

Some Conclusions from a Survey

Rajeev Malhotra & Nicolas Fasel

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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

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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

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• 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;

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• 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.

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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 Comms.

+ HR dimensions of indicators is concrete

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

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• 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

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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.

+ ‘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);

- Representativenes and comparability limitations.

+ ‘Quick and effective for getting first assessments;

- Emphasis on subjective undermines reliability and validity of indicators;

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• 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

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• 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;

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• 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

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Towards a Conceptual Framework

Respect

Protect

Fulfil

Structural Indicators

Process Indicators

Outcome Indicators

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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 IndicatorsCapture 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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I llustrative list of I ndicators on the Right to Life

Arbitrary Deprivation of life Disappearances of Individuals Health and Nutrition Death Penalty

Structural

Number of international human rights instruments, relevant to the right to life, ratified by the State; Number of provincial /local govts. following a national policy framework and institutional structure with clear demarcation of duties

and responsibilities to promote the health and nutrition status of the people, in keeping with culturally sensitive norms for the country Issues on which quantitative structural indicators can be contextually formulated: Major constitutional measures and legal- regulatory safeguards to protect the right to life; Implementation of law prohibiting abortions, if applicable; Implementation of law prohibiting pre-natal determination of sex to prevent sex- selection of an unborn child, if applicable

Process

Police and para-military

personnel per 100,000 of population, by sex;

Share of police budget spent on training programmes for law enforcement officers;

Proportion of reported cases of arbitrary deprivation of life taken-up by independent reporting/ investigating mechanisms;

Average time spent by an under-

trial in police custody before judicial examination;

Number of cases of Habeas corpus and similar judicial mechanism filed in courts;

Proportion of reported cases of disappearances taken-up by independent reporting / investigating mechanisms;

Average calorie intake of bottom three income deciles as a proportion of the top three;

Proportion of vulnerable population covered under public/social programmes to supplement nutrition intake;

Proportion of population with access to water and sanitation;

Share of budget spent on Public health & nutrition.

Number of convicts on

the death row; Average time spent by

convict on the death row ;

Proportions of convicts exercising the right to review by higher court;

Proportion of under -trials receving free-legal aid.

Outcome

Incidence of life threatening

crime reported per 100,000 of population;

Reported incidence of arbitrary loss of life;

Proportion of perpetrators of the reported cases, identified and brought to justice.

Reported incidence of

disappearances/ arbitrary detention

Incidence of custodial death; Proportion of perpetrators of the

reported cases of disappearances, identified and brought to justice.

Infant mortality rate; Life expectancy at age 1; Incidence of death per

100,000 of population due to HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases;

Proportion of under-weight children below age five.

Executions carried out

under death penalty in the reporting period;

Proportion of death sentences commuted;

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I llustrative list of Indicators on the Right to Adequate Food

Nutrition Food Safety &Consumer Prot. Food Availability Food Accessibility

Structural

Number of international human rights instruments, relevant to the right to adequate food, ratified by the State; Number of provincial /local govts. following a national policy framework on food and nutrition, and institutional structures with clear

demarcation of duties and responsibilities to promote the right to adequate food for people, in keeping with culturally sensitive norms. Issues on which quantitative structural indicators can be contextually formulated: Major constitutional measures and legal- regulatory safeguards to protect and promote the right to adequate food with special regards

to, children, women, and other vulnerable groups; Nature of public and civil society institutional mechanisms at local level that assist in the promotion and protection of right to food.

Process

Average calorie intake of bottom three income deciles( vulnerable groups) as a proportion of top three (population);

Proportion of vulnerable pop

(children, expectant mothers, aged persons) covered under public nutrition supplement progm,

Share of public social sector

budget spent on nutrition education.

The disposal rate/ average time

taken to dispose a case registered in a consumer court:

Share of public social sector

budget spent on food safety and consumer protection advocacy, education and implementation of law and regulations.

Extent of land and tenure reforms in support of domestic agri-capacity;

Proportion of female headed households with clear title to agriculture land;

Coverage of public agri- research and extension services;

Proportion of average buffer-stocks to annual domestic production;

Share of public budget spent on agri-extension, irrigation and marketing infr

Share of household consumption of major food items met through publicly assisted programmes;

Unemployment rate /

average wage rate of vulnerable segments of labour force;

Work participation

rates by gender & other vulnerable groups.

Outcome

Proportion of under-weight

children below age five years; Proportion of population

consuming less than the desired normative calorie requirement of adequate diet,

Proportion of population suffering from malnutrition/ relevant nutrition deficiency;

Number of recorded deaths/

incidence of food poisoning related to adulterated food;

Number of persons prosecuted

under food safety & consumer protection law.

Per capita availability of

major food items of local consumption

Per capita availability met through domestic production and through food-aid

Incidence of hunger in the country;

Incidence of poverty in the country;

Average household expenditure on food for the bottom three deciles of population.

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I llustrative list of I ndicators on the Right to Adequate Housing

Habitability Accessibility to Services Housing Affordability Security of Tenure

Structural

Number of international human rights instruments, relevant to the right to adequate housing, ratified by the State; Number of provincial /local govts. following a national policy framework and institutional structure with clear demarcation of duties

and responsibilities to promote adequate housing for people, in keeping with culturally sensitive norms for the country Issues on which quantitative structural indicators can be contextually formulated: Major constitutional measures and legal- regulatory safeguards to protect and promote the right to adequate housing with special

regard to women, handicaps and other vulnerable groups; Nature of public and civil society institutional mechanisms accessible at local level that provide information on and assistance for

redress of housing rights

Process

Proportions of habitations (cities ,towns and villages) covered under by provisions of building codes and by- laws;

Share of public development

budget spent on social housing.

Proportion of household budget spent on access to utilities including water supply, sanitation electricity and garbage disposal;

Share of public development

budget spent on provision and maintenance of sanitation, water supply and physical connectivity of habitations.

Average rental of bottom three income deciles as a proportion of the top three;

Proportion of households

that receive public housing assistance including those living in subsidised rented housing and households subsidised for ownership.

Average time taken to settle disputes related to housing rights in courts and tribunals;

Proportion of displaced

or evicted persons rehabilitated / resettled over a five year period.

Outcome

Proportion of population (persons per rooms or rooms per household) with sufficient living space;

Proportion of households living in permanent structures in compliance with building codes and bye-laws;

Proportion of households living near hazardous sites.

Proportion of households with

access to potable water; Proportion of households with

access to adequate sanitation; Proportion of urban population

living in slums.

Proportion of households spending more than ‘X’ percent of their monthly income/ expenditure on housing;

Homeless persons per 100,000 population, over a five year period;

“X” being defined normatively for the context

Proportion of households with legally enforceable, contractual, statutory or other protection;

Proportion of women among individuals with titles to property/ house;

Persons subjected to forced eviction per 100,000 over a five year period.