II. >> C onceptualizing Indicators for Human Rights >> Issues to address in human rights measurement A. Issues to address in human rights measurement There are several issues to consider in order to identify indicators for use in human rights assessments: What do we need to measure? How do we go about selecting potential indicators of what we want to measure? Will the identified indicators be used to rank countries according to their human rights performance? The approach to conceptualizing the indicators depends on how these issues are addressed and on the assumptions that are made. How many indicators are required to assess the implementation of a human right? What do we need to measure? The primary purpose is to measure the enjoyment of rights by rights holders; in other words, capturing a few outcomes that could be related to the state of realization of human rights. At the same time, it is also to assess the progress made by the duty bearer in meeting its human rights obligations. The aim is not to identify a fully comprehensive list of indicators for all human rights standards or all treaty provisions. That may, in fact, be next to impossible, given the nature and the scope of human rights standards and the treaty provisions, and the diversity of contexts to which they could potentially be applied. Human rights assessment will always have a strong qualitative character, which could benefit 28 Human Rights Indicators from the application of a few selected quantitative indicators. Furthermore, since the building blocks of all human rights treaties are standards on specific rights and cross-cutting human rights norms, it would appear logical to start by identifying and developing indicators for a specific human right and the cross-cutting norms that apply to it. Once these indicators have been identified, the next step of bringing them together in conformity with the various provisions of a treaty, for the purpose of monitoring its implementation, is easy.