Methodological Approaches to Human Rights Indicators In order to promote and to protect human rights we need to make statistics the science of truth, not of lies. Quoting Goethe: “It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. But I’m sure figures show us whether it is being ruled well or badly”.  Emad Omar1 A conceptual framework that helps in identifying indicators for use in human rights assessments has to be backed by an effective methodological approach so as to populate those indicators with the required data. Indicators are not likely to be meaningful in promoting the implementation and monitoring of human rights, unless they are explicitly and precisely defined, based on an acceptable standardized methodology of data collection, processing and dissemination, and are available on a regular basis. Prudent choices in respect of at least three aspects of the methodological approach to developing indicators for use in human rights assessments can help in addressing these concerns. These choices are the subject matter of this chapter. Learning objectives 1 2 3 What are the ethical, statistical and human rights considerations in the selection of indicators? What are the principal data-generating mechanisms and sources for human rights indicators? What is the feasibility of the disaggregation of indicators for use in human rights assessments? 1. Senior Adviser to the Search for Common Ground, Middle East Program, Jordan, in his address at the Montreux Conference on “Statistics, Development and Human Rights”, September 2000. Human Rights Indicators 45