How do you measure whether
government is effectively
delivering on its children’s rights
obligations?
Sara Boyce, Children’s Human Rights Advisor
Children’s Law Centre and Save the Children
Purpose of workshop
To explore how human rights indicators
could be developed to monitor government
compliance with its international human
rights obligations and what some of the
potential benefits and challenges involved
in doing this might be
Overview of international work on
human rights indicators
“It seems clear that we still know more about what
to measure conceptually and legally than how to
measure it” (Dr. Todd Landman)
Definitions
…a human right indicator derives from, reflects and is
designed to monitor realization or otherwise of a specific
human rights norm, usually with a view to holding a dutybearer to account.
(OHCHR. 2002. Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights
Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies, pp. 7-8)
So how does that differ from a
social indicator?
Essentially, what tends to distinguish a human
rights indicator from a standard disaggregated
indicator of socio-economic progress is less its
substance than (i) its explicit derivation from a
human rights norms and (ii) the purpose which is
put viz-a-viz human rights monitoring with a view
to holding duty-bearers to account
(OHCHR. 2002. Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights
Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies, pp. 7-8.)
Key principles
Explicit linkages with
international human rights
instruments
Recognition of the
indivisible,
interdependent and interrelated nature of human
rights
Emphasis on
participation, an
inclusionary and an
empowering process of
development.
Non-discrimination and a
process of promoting
equality
Accountability and the
rule of law
Recognition that some
human rights can be
realised only
progressively, others that
could be directly
guaranteed need to be
protected from denial,
non-retrogression and
violations
Recourse to redress;
legal as well as
administrative
International work on developing
child rights indicators
Call by UNCRC Committee in mid 1990s
for development of indicators related to
various articles of the UNCRC that could
meet some basic requirements such as
validity, objectivity, sensitivity,
comparability, accuracy and
disaggregation
General Comment No 5
“Sufficient and reliable data collection on children,
disaggregated to enable identification of
discrimination…needs to extend over whole period of
childhood…nationally applicable
indicators…qualitative as well as quantitative
studies…evaluation requires the development of
indicators related to all rights guaranteed by the
Convention…in many cases only children themselves
are in a position to indicate whether their rights are being
fully recognised and realised” (UNCRC/GC/2003/5 paras 48 and 50)
Projects to develop child rights
indicators
UNICEF global
conference in 1998 on
developing a set of core
child rights indicators for
global monitoring
Used the six interconnected clusters of
CRC articles and added a
seventh ( general
principles)
Result was an inventory
of 119 indicators
Good illustration of how
CRC framework can be
used as basis for
developing indicators
Common process rather
than a common set of
indicators
Actual indicators selected
are often not transferable
across countries
www.childwatch.uio.no/c
wi/projects/indicators/mon
itoring
UNCRC Clusters of Rights
General principles
non-discrimination (art 2)
best interests (art 3)
right to life, survival and development (art 6)
respect for the views of the child (art 12)
General measures of implementation
Civil rights and freedoms
Family environment and alternative care
Basic health and welfare
Education, leisure and cultural activities
Special protection measures
From child well-being to child rights
indicators – a case study
 Social policy thinking on measuring progress in
children’s lives has moved from using the
concept of the child’s welfare to that of the
child’s well-being
 While many of the indicators associated with
well-being could meet the criteria of a child
rights indicator there will inevitably be some
gaps
Child well-being indicators for
education
Attendance at school
Enrolment in
childhood care and
education
Enrolment in
education/completion
of school
Parental education
level attained
Quality of childhood
care and education
(Source: National set of wellbeing indicators in Ireland
NCO)
Suggested additional child rights
indicators for education
Proportion of adolescents
who are literate,
disaggregated by group
Proportion of school
leavers with recognised
qualifications,
disaggregated by group
Policy of school
attendance for school age
mothers
Legislation in place on
education provision for
children with disabilities
Existence of a policy on
bullying
Anti-bullying forum
working effectively to
monitor operation of the
anti-bullying policy
Policy on teaching
English as a 2nd language
School council to facilitate
student participation in
decision making
% of schools using such
a mechanism
Conclusions
There is a need to systematise the approach to
indicators by using a human rights framework
Potential to combine existing social indicators and those
which are uniquely children’s rights indicators
Children’s rights principles should be reflected in the
indicators developed
Children’s rights indicators should provide
measurements in relation to both the duty bearer and the
rights holder
Not only one set of children’s rights indicators
Need for greater dialogue between the different sectors
Challenges
How to move from the abstract to the
concrete?
How to address the lack of convergence
between work on social indicators and
human rights indicators ?
Methodological issues including how to
come up with a realistic and workable
number of indicators and how to tackle the
existing gaps in data?