V. >> F ramework in Practice - Implementing and Monitoring Rights >> Setting up human rights monitoring systems Step 1 Identification of monitoring stakeholders As a first step, it is necessary to identify the various institutional and non-institutional stakeholders that will be contributing to the monitoring process as information providers, as independent interpreters of the available information or as the ultimate users of that information for articulating the claims and monitoring the realization of human rights. This may involve, inter alia, the administrative agencies, including the relevant line ministries, the national human rights institution, relevant civil society organizations engaged in monitoring human rights, consumer groups, other social groups, including parliamentary committees and rights holders at large. Potentially, the process could also involve and be supported by OHCHR or other United Nations entities. The monitoring stakeholders have to come together in a participatory process where their competencies and perspectives, based on complementarities in objectives (such as a focus on different aspects of the right) and methods of information collection (line ministries for administrative data, Step 2 statistical agency for survey-based data and NHRIs or CSOs for events-based data), contribute to the monitoring process. It is also important to identify an independent institution to take the lead in interpreting the available information from a human rights perspective and, perhaps, also lead and coordinate the other partners in the exercise. This could well be an NHRI or human rights CSO. For instance, while the public agency concerned or the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of health could be responsible for generating information on programmes implementing the right-to-food obligations of the State, some CSOs could track and collect information on cases of denial or abuse of rights, and an NHRI, or an appropriate CSO, could interpret the relevant data. Institutions would have distinct but complementary roles to play in monitoring human rights implementation. Moreover, the approach to identifying institutions and their responsibilities and to collecting information must adhere to cross-cutting human rights norms of participation, transparency and accountability (see chap. III). Facilitation of country-owned monitoring mechanisms As a second step, it is necessary to bring together the different local stakeholders to monitor the human rights concerned. The process must be country-owned and sufficiently decentralized, as well as inclusive for the different stakeholders to reflect their concerns. Only in such a case can the information used for monitoring human rights be empowering and contribute to the realization of people’s rights. Such a group of stakeholders could be led by an independent institution (e.g., NHRI or appropriate human rights CSO) as indicated in step 1. Human Rights Indicators 135