I. >> H  uman Rights and Indicators: Rationale and Some Concerns >> Human rights indicators - notion and rationale Although not part of the United Nations, regional and national human rights systems are key instruments for the protection and promotion of human rights at country level. There are several regional intergovernmental organizations that have set human rights standards and established monitoring mechanisms. National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are national bodies established for the protection and promotion of human rights. There are many types of NHRIs. The United Nations adopted the so-called Paris Principles to guide their work. The Paris Principles also form the basis for their accreditation by the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions,15 for which OHCHR also serves as the secretariat. C. Human rights indicators - notion and rationale In the context of this work, a human rights indicator is specific information on the state or condition of an object, event, activity or outcome that can be related to human rights norms and standards; that addresses and reflects human rights principles and concerns; and that can be used to assess and monitor the promotion and implementation of human rights. Defined in this manner, some indicators could be unique to human rights because they owe their existence to specific human rights norms or standards and are generally not used in other contexts. This could be the case, for instance, with an indicator like the number of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, or the reported number of victims of torture by the police and the paramilitary forces, or the number of children who do not have access to primary education because of discrimination by the authorities. At the same time, there could be a large number of other indicators, such as commonly used socioeconomic statistics (e.g., human development indicators used in the Human Development Reports of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)), that could meet (at least implicitly) all the definitional requirements of a human rights indicator as laid out here. In all these cases it is helpful to consider them as human rights indicators, to the extent that they relate to human rights standards and principles and could be used for human rights assessments.16 Such a broad understanding of the term indicator allows it to assume various forms, of a qualitative or a quantitative nature. This, in turn, may lead to plurality in the understanding of the concept and methodologies to identify and develop indicators, which can sometimes be a source of confusion. It becomes necessary, therefore, to have a minimum common understanding of the types of indicators that are the focus of this Guide. 1 Quantitative and qualitative indicators Indicators can be quantitative or qualitative. The former are narrowly viewed as equivalent to “statistics”, while the latter cover any information articulated as a narrative or in a “categorical” form. Unless otherwise specified, the term “quantitative indicator” is used in this publication to designate 15. Further information on the Paris Principles is provided in annex I (indicator 5) and http://nhri.ohchr.org. 16. The conceptual, methodological and operational criteria relevant to the identification and use of indicators for human rights implementation and assessment are outlined in the different chapters of this Guide. These criteria contribute to clarifying further the distinction between common indicators or statistics and “human rights indicators”. 16 Human Rights Indicators