II. >> C onceptualizing Indicators for Human Rights >> The conceptual framework monitoring bodies and other human rights mechanisms and instruments may remain quite general and many human rights appear to overlap. So human rights treaty provisions are not particularly helpful in the identification of appropriate indicator(s). As a starting point, it is therefore important that the narrative on the legal standard of a human right is transcribed into a limited number of characteristics or attributes of that right. By identifying the attributes of a right, the process of selecting and developing suitable indicators or clusters of indicators is facilitated as one arrives at a categorization that is clear, concrete and, perhaps, more “tangible”. Indeed, the notion of attributes of a right helps in making the content of a right concrete and makes explicit the link between identified indicators of a right on the one hand and the normative standards of that right on the other. There are three considerations that guide the identification of the attributes of a human right. These are: To the extent feasible, the attributes should be based on an exhaustive reading of the standard, starting with the provisions in the core international human rights treaties, so that no part of the standard is overlooked either in the choice of the attributes of a particular human right or in identifying the indicators for that right; To the extent feasible, the attributes of the human right should collectively reflect the essence of its normative content, be few in number and their articulation should help the subsequent identification of the relevant indicators; and To the extent feasible, the attributes’ scope should not overlap. In other words, the selected attributes should be mutually exclusive. For those human rights for which illustrative indicators have been identified (see chap. IV), on average about four attributes are able to capture reasonably the essence of their normative content. Thus, for the right to life, taking into account primarily article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and general comment No. 6 (1982) on the right to life of the Human Rights Committee, four attributes, namely “arbitrary deprivation of life”, “disappearances of individuals”, “health and nutrition” and “death penalty”, were identified. In addition, articles 10 to 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, articles 5 (b) and 5 (e) (iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, articles 1 to 16 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 9 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also informed the selection of these attributes. Similarly, for the right to health, five attributes, namely “sexual and reproductive health”, “child mortality and health care”, “natural and occupational environment”, “prevention, treatment and control of diseases”, and “accessibility to health facilities and essential medicines”, were identified. They were based primarily on a reading of article 25 of the Universal Declaration, article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and general comment No. 14 (2000) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general recommendation No. 24 (1999) of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and general Human Rights Indicators 31