INTRODUCTION >> Using the Guide Using the Guide The basic structure of the Guide is geared towards supporting a systematic and comprehensive translation of universal human rights standards into indicators that are contextually relevant. This approach favours using objective information which is easily available, or can be collected, for monitoring the national implementation of human rights. This requires the reader to: Understand the conceptual approach so  as to identify indicators, after developing a preliminary understanding of the human rights normative framework; Explore the alternative data-generating  methods to populate the selected indicators; and Apply and interpret the numbers that go with  an indicator so as to build an assessment on the state of human rights. Each of these steps has been dealt with in separate chapters or sections, which are sequenced in a manner that allows a gradual build-up of concepts and methods for use in executing the said steps (fig. II). Although interrelated, the chapters are sufficiently self-contained that they can be read in a different sequence. A quick reading of chapter II is nonetheless helpful before looking at the other material in the Guide. For those who are familiar with human rights and are aware of commonly used statistics and indicators in development and governance assessments, it may be useful to start with the tables of illustrative indicators presented in chapter IV. The tables cover selected civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights that are frequently referred to in various human rights treaties. While relating concepts to application, these tables present indicators that can be assessed for their relevance to a given country. The information presented in the metadata of illustrative indicators (annex I), on the operational issues in using the identified indicators, is an integral part of the overall toolkit and facilitates the interpretation of those indicators. For those who wish to use the adopted framework to identify indicators on certain themes of relevance to human rights, an example has been provided in the form of a table of illustrative indicators on violence against women. With the help of this table, the Guide shows how the approach could be applied to addressing crosscutting and thematic issues from a human rights perspective. Although the publication presents a number of potential indicators for human rights, it is not meant to be static. It is an integral part of an online site maintained by OHCHR with tables, metadata sheets and other relevant documents that are periodically reviewed and updated.8 8. www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Indicators/Pages/HRIndicatorsIndex.aspx (accessed 30 March 2012). 8 Human Rights Indicators