20
March
2023

Implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Human rights indicators

This guide helps independent national monitoring frameworks to fulfil their monitoring responsibility set out in Article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It focuses on the use of indicators. It does not deal with aspects such as compliance with the Paris Principles or the efficiency of complaints mechanisms. Its objective is to support national monitoring frameworks in designing or improving indicators for assessing progress of CRPD implementation at national level.
Overview

Developing appropriate indicators and benchmarks is an integral part of national efforts to monitor the implementation of the rights enshrined in the CRPD and to measure progress towards the realisation of the CRPD commitments.

Indicators are not simply a set of benchmarks. They are instrumental in translating globally agreed standards into specific legal, policy-making and practical steps towards realising fundamental rights, so long as they are properly designed and used. In essence, indicators break down legal standards into measurable elements and clearly defined questions or lines of enquiry, into which quantifiable data and information are fed.

Indicators also support evidence-based policymaking grounded in human rights. They do so by enabling the identification of gaps and tracking of progress over time.

Indicator frameworks provide a solid evidence basis for the following groups to establish the extent of unequal outcomes and identify where policy intervention is required:

  • policymakers;
  • independent monitoring bodies;
  • national human rights bodies;
  • persons with disabilities and their representative organisations; and
  • wider civil society.

In this report:

  1. Role of independent national monitoring frameworks
  2. Filling the gap in data
  3. Using human rights-based indicators to assess progress in implementing fundamental rights obligations – OHCHR indicator framework
  4. Data sources for populating outcome indicators
  5. Monitoring CRPD implementation across the European Union – national practice examples
  6. Challenges and ways forward