IV. >> Illustrating the Framework - Indicators for Some Rights >> Selecting the indicators The second step relates to the selection of process indicators. It is vital as process indicators are a critical element of the framework for monitoring human rights. The basic objective here is to identify all the measures, by way of policies and programmes, to attain outcomes that can be related to the realization and enjoyment of rights. It helps therefore to keep such outcomes in mind, when identifying the duty bearers and their roles, the institutions and the activities that the State mandates them to carry out when accepting its human rights obligations, and the nature of ongoing public programmes (and their shortcomings), as well as gaps in public policy that if addressed could help in realizing human rights. Based on this analysis, a set of process indicators is identified. Ideally, good process indicators provide a link between the structural and outcome indicators, are “flow indicators” (see chap. II, sect. B 2) and relate to physical rather than financial variables (output from an activity or programme instead of the public resources spent on it, e.g., increase in immunization coverage instead of budgetary allocations to the immunization programme, or proportion of persons imprisoned in accommodation meeting legally stipulated requirements instead of the budget for prison upkeep). Detailed information on process indicators is provided in chapter II. The third step involves the articulation of outcome indicators. It is important that the selected outcome indicators can be easily related to the enjoyment of the attribute of the right or the right in general and to the selected process indicators. Moreover, as outcome indicators are more like summary indicators (reflecting the cumulation of multiple processes, e.g., the overall or age-specific literacy rate is a summary measure of the process to improve school enrolment, public incentives and support for attending schools for the target population groups), they could be few in number and common across several attributes of a right. Finally, the selection of indicators also involves a review and validation of the selected indicators and their levels of disaggregation based on country evidence. 2 Some further considerations in selecting indicators The consideration of linkage or implicit causality between the structural-process-outcome categories of indicators is important in the selection of indicators. Once a structural indicator has been identified to capture a duty bearer’s human rights commitment, it is desirable to identify a process indicator that captures the efforts under way to meet that commitment and also an outcome indicator that consolidates the results of those efforts over time. Thus, for instance, a structural indicator on the right to education like “time frame and coverage of the plan of action adopted by the State to implement the principle of compulsory primary education free of charge for all” can be linked to a process indicator like “proportion of primary schoolteachers fully qualified and trained” and to an outcome indicator like “proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5” or “literacy rate”. Even a loose causality between the selected indicators, across the three categories, could make monitoring more effective and help in improving accountability of the duty bearer. It is also possible that in certain instances there is no obvious link between different categories of indicators and yet they are included. This is true, for instance, for the right to health, where some Human Rights Indicators 79