How Do You Perform Human Rights? Measurement, Audit and Power through Global Indicators

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of indicators within the global arena. Several international actors have started to design an array of human rights (HRs) indicators. HRs indicators mean different things when used by scholars and advocates, ranging either from pure statistical information, or numbers-based representations, or any other piece of information on the state of the HRs field. By rendering complex data simple to understand, indicators document HRs abuses through the qualification, quantification and aggregation of a wide range of data. This chapter maintains that, well-beyond measuring processes and outcomes, indicators constitute a system of knowledge, audit and governance. While the knowledge derives from indicators’ ability to diagnose the legal phenomena, the auditing function follows the use of indicators as a technology of control and an assessment of distant relationships. Governing powers inhabit indicators since they both orient the priorities of the those measured and envisage the measurers/producers as regulators. Overall, these devices lack transparency and need to enhance stakeholders’ participation in the preparation stages.