Examining the Practice of Developing Human Rights Indicators to Facilitate Accountability for the Human Right to Water and Sanitation

Authors

Benjamin Mason Meier, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillFollow
Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of LawFollow
Georgia Lyn Kayser, The Water Institute at UNC
Urooj Quezon Amjad, The Water Institute at UNC
Jamie Bartram, The Water Institute at UNC

Publication Date

3-2014

Journal

Journal of Human Rights Practice

Abstract

Flowing from the evolution of international legal obligations for water and sanitation, human rights practice has shifted to address state accountability for a human right to water and sanitation through the development of human rights indicators. This policy note focuses on efforts to develop indicators for state reporting to human rights treaty bodies, with human rights norms framing national reports and treaty bodies employing indicators to monitor the progressive realization of the human right to water and sanitation. In supporting evidence-based treaty monitoring through the United Nations (UN), both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation have sought to develop indicators. This process of developing indicators for the human right to water and sanitation seeks to draw on previous indicator development practices, looking to these practices in framing, identifying and reviewing indicators. As part of a larger drive to facilitate rights-based accountability, there arises an imperative to study the political process of developing indicators, looking to past models in structuring future processes to assess the realization of the right to water and sanitation. Exploring the development of indicators for the human rights to health and education, this policy note analyses the indicator development process, proposing an indicator development process model as a basis for developing indicators that reflect the attributes of the right to water and sanitation, enlist key stakeholders in the policymaking process and have political relevance for state reporting to treaty bodies.

Volume

6

Issue

1

First Page

159

Last Page

181

Publisher

Oxford University Press

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/hut031

Keywords

accountability, water and sanitation, indicators, human rights treaty bodies, post-2015 agenda, United Nations

Disciplines

Human Rights Law | Law | Legal Education | Water Law

Recommended Citation

Benjamin M. Meier, Jocelyn G. Kestenbaum, Georgia L. Kayser, Urooj Q. Amjad & Jamie Bartram, Examining the Practice of Developing Human Rights Indicators to Facilitate Accountability for the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, 6 J. Hum. Rights Pract. 159 (2014).
https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/hut031