INTRODUCTION >> Targeted users of the Guide assessments. It could make the exercise more objective and transparent and provide a concrete follow-up methodology. While it is a tool to support qualitative or narrativebased, judicial or quasi-judicial and other comprehensive assessments, it is not a substitute for them and users need to be clear about its limitations. “Many agree with Lord Kelvin, the 19th-century physicist after whom the unit of absolute temperature is named: he reckoned that measuring something provides additional knowledge. And so it does, in the physical sciences. But where humans are involved, more data sometimes yield less truth”.3 This may be especially so regarding human rights, where the users and producers of data need to be well aware of the dangers and potential misuses of statistics. There are numerous examples of data on different population groups being used to support acts of genocide and other human rights violations (chap. III, box 9). Given these risks, should human rights stakeholders stay away from statistics and data collection? This Guide argues, on the contrary, that such risks call for a stronger involvement of human rights stakeholders in human rights measurement and documentation. Besides, statistical information is already being used in human rights reporting and monitoring systems, internationally, regionally and nationally. This Guide addresses the link between human rights and statistics, and proposes a set of tools to improve national statistical systems and ensure a more systematic implementation and monitoring of human rights. Targeted users of the Guide The objective of this Guide is to bring together materials covering the conceptual, the methodological and the empirical aspects of the approach underlying the identification of context-sensitive indicators to promote and monitor the implementation of human rights. The Guide provides elements of a framework for building the capacity of human rights monitoring systems and facilitating the use of appropriate tools in policymaking, its implementation and monitoring (fig. I). The Guide aims to reach all those who share a commitment to the promotion of human rights and those who are mandated, directly or indirectly, to address human rights issues in the course of their day-to-day work. The publication focuses on the stakeholders engaged in identifying, collecting and using indicators to promote and monitor the implementation of human rights nationally. It is directed at national human rights institutions, the United Nations human rights system in general and the treaty bodies in particular, the State agencies responsible for reporting on the implementation of human rights treaty obligations, as well as those responsible for policymaking across different ministries, public agencies at different levels of governance, statistical agencies, development practitioners, civil society organizations and international agencies with a mandate to further the realization of human rights. As a result, without compromising the distinct aspects of human rights, the publication presents the material in a non-technical, self-contained manner to reach all those potential users who are not familiar with human rights and its various national and international mechanisms. 3. “International rankings: Wrong numbers – Global league tables are interesting, but not always reliable”, Economist, 6 January 2011. 4 Human Rights Indicators