Methodology
This monitoring tool is built on a set of 73 human rights-based indicators which are anchored in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and related human rights law. It also supports human rights-based data collection of relevant targets and indicators in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The 2030 Agenda emphasizes States’ responsibility “to respect, protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, disability or other status” (p.6). To achieve this, it includes, among others, a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.10 that aims to ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.
The SDG target 16.10 is central to and closely linked to the monitoring of the enabling environment for human rights defenders, not least in view of its global indicator 16.10.1. This indicator measures “verified cases of killing, kidnapping, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture of journalists, associated media personnel, trade unionists, and human rights advocates in the previous 12 months”. This is an important indicator to assess the extent of the most serious violations and abuses against human rights defenders. However, indicators of this type (known as outcome indicators) are often slow moving and fail to measure the more structural, procedural, and administrative measures that need to be in place to secure a safe operational environment for human rights defenders.
This tool was developed to address these gaps. It is, thus, built on a set of human rights indicators that can measure progress in securing an enabling environment for human rights defenders in a more comprehensive manner.