V. >> F ramework in Practice - Implementing and Monitoring Rights
>> Interpreting statistical information from a human rights perspective
Box 36
Monitoring the human rights content of budgets – some examples
Education budget
Proportion
of public and private education budget spent on primary education, including direct or
indirect costs (e.g., transport, books, clothes) that may have to be borne by households (International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, arts. 2 (1), 13 and 14)
Net primary enrolment ratio and dropout rate for primary education, disaggregated by vulnerable or
marginalized groups and by prohibited grounds of discrimination (art. 2 (2))
Time frame and coverage of the plan of action to implement compulsory education free of charge for
all (art. 14)
Proportion
of children covered under public nutrition supplement programmes (arts. 11 and 13)
Justice and law enforcement budget
Proportion
of law enforcement budget on human rights training of law enforcement officials
Proportion
of law enforcement officials trained in human rights
Proportion
of requests for legal assistance and free interpreters met annually
B. Interpreting statistical information from a human rights
perspective
As highlighted in the Guide, commonly available
socioeconomic indicators have been variously
used to infer the state of human rights at international, national or sub-national levels. This is despite
the lack of an adequate conceptual framework to
guide their selection for use in human rights monitoring. The UNDP Human Development Report 2000
brought together some analytical practices and
methodologies for using available statistical information to show how human rights denial and policy
failures contribute to perpetuating deprivation and
inequality in the enjoyment of rights.20 With the kinds
of indicators for human rights identified in this Guide,
such analytical practices and methodologies can
20. S
ee also Eitan Felner, “A new frontier in economic and social rights advocacy? Turning quantitative data into a tool for human
rights accountability”, SUR-International Journal on Human Rights, vol. 5, No. 9 (December 2008) and Eitan Felner, “Closing the
‘escape hatch’: a toolkit to monitor the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights”, Journal of Human Rights
Practice, vol. I, No. 3 (2009).
126 Human Rights Indicators
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