III. >> M  ethodological Approaches to Human Rights Indicators >> Sources and data-generating mechanisms Quantitative indicators derived from events-based data usually present the incidence of recorded human rights violations in terms of the number of victims. For instance, an indicator based on eventsbased data could be the “reported number of persons arbitrarily executed”. It would capture the number of persons killed by an agent of the State or any other person acting under Government authority or with its complicity, tolerance or acquiescence, but without due judicial process. Similarly, there could be an indicator on the number of people who died of hunger and hunger-related diseases owing to displacement or the systematic destruction of food crops, livestock and agricultural implements. These violations are identified and determined by applying human rights standards as codified in the various treaties. Historically, the use of events-based data has been confined to monitoring civil and political rights violations, such as those related to the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture and the right to liberty and security of the person. However, information on violations of economic, social and cultural rights has also been increasingly collected using a similar methodology (e.g., forced evictions,9 deliberate use of starvation as a weapon, denying primary education to specific groups, failure to provide available essential medicines).10 Events-based data initiatives have been developed primarily by non-governmental organizations that collect information with the intention of preventing and denouncing human rights violations and of providing assistance to victims.11 Quantitative analyses, carried out in the framework of official “truth and reconciliation” commissions, have also contributed to the development of standardized documentation tools to support the collection of information using this method.12 Among the initiatives in this category, HURIDOCS presents perhaps the most comprehensive set of standardized tools (including computerized systems) for recording events-based information on human rights violations.13 Compared to other categories of data-generating mechanisms, the human rights dimension of indicators derived from events-based data is, a priori, far more concrete as it is explicitly linked to specific incidents that demonstrate compliance or non-compliance with human rights standards. The use of events-based data in uncovering gross and systematic violations of human rights, as done for instance by truth and reconciliation commissions, has demonstrated the usefulness of the methodology not only for human rights monitoring but also for gathering hard evidence in support of the administration of justice. 9. A number of NGOs are maintaining data on evictions, see www.hic-net.org, www.cohre.org, www.hlrn.org, www.internal-displacement.org. 10. An extended list of potential violations is provided in the Thesaurus of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights developed by the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International (HURIDOCS), available from http://shr.aaas.org/thesaurus/ (accessed 10 May 2012). 11. In collecting this information, structured household surveys have also been used in addition to information reported in the media or to the redress mechanism, particularly when the events happened a long time ago. For example, the work of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) on forced evictions also included a global survey (2007–08), see www.cohre.org. 12. See, for instance, P. Ball, H. Spirer and L. Spirer, eds., Making the Case: Investigating Large Scale Human Rights Violations Using Information Systems and Data Analysis (AAAS, 2000) available from http://shr.aaas.org/mtc/ (accessed 10 May 2012) and “Witness to truth; report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission”. 13. For further details, see www.huridocs.org. 54 Human Rights Indicators