an Eldis Resource
Indicators for human rights based Approaches to development in UNDP programming: a users’ guide
How to use indicators for assessing human rights standards in development programmes?
Authors:
Publisher:
UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, 2006
This document is a practical guide on indicators for human rights based approaches to development programmes, for UNDP country offices.
The guide outlines existing human rights indicators, shows how they may be incorporated into human rights based programmes (HRBP), and develops a framework for assisting country offices in using indicators for assessing human rights standards and principles in project programming. It also discusses the limitations of these indicators for human rights based programming
The guide also presents two hypothetical programme examples on access to clean water and the prevention of torture to show how indicators can be used for human rights programming. Finally it offers advice on how to use indicators for all phases of programme design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
The guide specifies several critical areas for using indicators. These include:
- understanding the human rights situation at the country level through the identification and use of indicators that can be used to provide an assessment of the baseline human rights situation;
- understanding the capacities of individuals and groups as ‘rights holders’ to claim their rights as well as the capacities of state institutions as ‘duty bearers’ to promote and protect human rights on the ground;
- identifying and using indicators for ensuring the incorporation of human rights principles in the design, implementation and monitoring of UNDP programmes;
- identifying and using indicators to determine the likely impact of programmes on furthering human rights in the country
- part 1 reviews briefly the historical evolution of human rights principles and standards (including their different categories and dimensions) and the development of HRBA.
- part 2 reviews the main existing human rights indicators that have been developed and provides guidance on different information sources. It then shows how these sources can be used for in-country HRBP.
- part 3 shows how human rights indicators can be developed and/or applied in human rights based programming.
- part 4 provides guidance on using indicators in UNDP HRBP.
- part 5 contains a list of resources on human rights measurement and the use of indicators.
