V. >> F ramework in Practice - Implementing and Monitoring Rights >> Using indicators for human rights strategies (reflected through process and structural indicators) for inclusion in the ongoing public programmes. In some instances it could involve additional targets (e.g., focusing on the target population group’s access to the public programme concerned), modifying the strategy (creating a special budgetary focus on a vulnerable population group), or highlighting the need for a new intervention that responds more comprehensively to the human rights obligation concerned (e.g., improving prison facilities to conform to the relevant legal instruments). A case could also be made for reviewing and modifying delivery mechanisms of ongoing development programmes to make them more effective in meeting the stated objectives and in the process anchoring them in the human rights framework. India’s recent attempt (box 33) to create legal entitlements to access information, to work, to education and now to food is an example of such an approach. 5 Human rights budgeting To facilitate the implementation of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights nationwide it is important for a State’s budgetary efforts to be aligned with its human rights obligations. This is only logical as budgets are the principal instrument for a State (Government) to mobilize, allocate and spend resources for development and governance. It is a means to create and support entitlements in implementing a State’s human rights obligations. At the same time, as a policy instrument a budget serves other interrelated objectives, which potentially makes it a vital tool for turning treaty obligations into a public programme of action. These other objectives are: Budget as a fiscal policy tool to align government spending with its revenues thereby creating an environment conducive to high employment and price stability; Budget as a redistributive tool to modify (through taxes and other revenues, social transfers and expenditures) the distribution of income and wealth so as to reduce inequalities; Budget as a planning tool to operation- alize a multi-year planning perspective by providing resources for meeting expenditure on activities in accordance with planning objectives and targets; Budget as a political tool to prioritize policies and development activities by allocating resources among competing ends;15 Budget as a coordination tool to address policy coherence challenges across sectors and at different levels of governance (federal, regional or local); Budget as an accountability tool to lay down the framework for monitoring and regulating public expenditure in accordance with (budgeted) allocations and revenues. There are two aspects to human rights budgeting. The first relates to the budget-making process and focuses on whether it is conducted in conformity with human rights cross-cutting norms or principles. The second relates to the actual content of the budget and focuses on analysing it from the perspective of the State’s human rights obligations. In both these aspects the use of appropriate indicators makes it 15. In a parliamentary democracy, the legislative approval of the budget is vital for the survival and continuation of an elected Government in power. Human Rights Indicators 121