II. >> C onceptualizing Indicators for Human Rights >> Some considerations in conceptualizing the indicators Box 8 Validation of the conceptual framework In the course of the work undertaken to identify human rights indicators and prepare the resource material presented in this Guide, OHCHR made use of a standard module to raise the awareness of different stakeholders and validate the work at national and regional levels. The stakeholders included human rights institutions, policymakers and agencies responsible for reporting on the implementation of human rights treaties, statistical agencies with a mandate to collect data and representatives from civil society. The module contained exercises to sequentially build the conceptual and methodological blocks of the framework. It also sought to validate the framework and illustrated lists of indicators identified for selected human rights by demonstrating that: Using appropriate indicators helps in making communication concrete and effective; facilitates  monitoring, follow-up and recording information; Human rights indicators are not entirely unknown or new indicators. Most of the commonly known indicators or administrative data could be reconfigured and linked to the relevant standards and the obligations that flow from those standards to make their human rights content explicit; Human rights standards and the corresponding obligations are not alien concepts, they reflect local  values and, in most instances, local concerns as well and relate easily to development and good governance; Stakeholders can easily identify several key attributes or aspects of standards on specific human rights and several corresponding indicators for monitoring them without any formal knowledge of human rights instruments; and Human rights indicators are instrumental in meeting local development and good governance goals  and also reinforce human rights advocacy by emphasizing the intrinsic importance of human rights in human well-being. The participatory methodology adopted for the workshop sessions helped overcome the initial scepticism that was expressed by many participants at the start of the workshop on the apparent complexity of the human rights framework, its legalistic language, or even on its relevance to addressing development and good governance. Participants appreciated the working sessions during which they were requested, based on their work experience and knowledge of their countries, to identify first the main content or characteristic attributes of the rights considered, followed by some relevant indicators on the attributes of the rights, to capture human rights commitments and efforts of State parties, as well as outcomes flowing from those efforts. The result of this exercise was a striking consistency between the attributes and indicators identified by the participants and the tables prepared by OHCHR. This helped validate the OHCHR framework and the list of illustrative indicators. It also helped build a certain sense of familiarity with and ownership of indicators for potential use in promoting and monitoring human rights at country level. National and regional workshops took place with participants from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Source: OHCHR reports on national and regional workshops. Available from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indicators/index.htm (accessed 30 May 2012). Human Rights Indicators 43