A/HRC/17/25 Divergence stems from a number of factors, including practical disciplinary differences; development is largely the domain of economists and human rights that of lawyers and advocates. Additionally, there exists the long-standing contention that human rights are more prescriptive than operational, while development projects have focused on implementation and are more programmatic in nature. 54. These issues are partly addressed by the work of actors such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which developed, at the request of the human rights treaty bodies, a framework for indicators to monitor compliance with international human rights instruments, which takes into account the various ways in which human rights relate to development. The framework establishes three sets of indicators: structural, process, and outcome, and a list of illustrative indicators on the right to health have been developed.65 However, monitoring and evaluation of human rights-related issues in the development field has thus far been largely limited to outcome indicators. This raises some key concerns with respect to the way indicators are used in development and their impact on human rights. 55. Effective monitoring and evaluation is a core component of any human rights-based approach, and like other phases of the programming process it should be guided by human rights principles.66 Moreover, rights-based approaches, including those concerning the right to health, require transparency and accountability in decision-making processes, actions or omissions, for which effective monitoring and evaluation are necessary requirements. However, monitoring and evaluation must be undertaken carefully, to avoid the potential pitfalls associated with a “culture of evaluation”,67 wherein an overreliance on the use of easily quantifiable data and evidence-based evaluation practices can lead to neglect or disregard of development strategies whose effects are more difficult to quantify: for instance, those relating to capacity-building. 56. In many cases, it is very difficult to conduct evidence-based evaluations of human rights-based health interventions with the same level of methodological rigour applied to, for instance, clinical drug trials. As evaluation unavoidably feeds back into, and threatens to dictate, strategy, this can lead to distortion of prioritization in relation to interventions that can be more easily based on available evidence. Human rights-based interventions may be especially susceptible to this distortion precisely because they are less amenable to evidence-based evaluations. Given the difficulty of plainly illustrating the cause and effect relationship between the realization of human rights and intended health outcomes (for instance, the empowerment of sex workers, their increased use of condoms, and the resultant lower levels of HIV infection) it is imperative that a broad range of evidenceinformed practices are used when evaluating human rights-based interventions.68 57. Thus, overreliance on easily quantifiable data threatens to erode the core concept of the realization of human rights as ends in and of themselves. The instrumental value of the incorporation of human rights into development practice must not overshadow the proper understanding of human rights as constitutive components of human development. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has noted that the MDGs “embody basic 65 66 67 68 HRI/MC/2006/7; HRI/MC/2008/3. United Nations, “The Human Rights Based Approach to Development Cooperation – Towards a Common Understanding Among UN Agencies”, p. 2. Paul Gready, “Reasons to Be Cautious about Evidence and Evaluation: Rights-based Approaches to Development and the Emerging Culture of Evaluation”, Journal of Human Rights Practice, vol. 1, No. 3 (2009), p. 380. Swarup Sarkar, “Community Engagement in HIV Prevention in Asia: going from ‘for the community’ to ‘by the community’ – must we wait for more evidence?”, Sexually Transmitted Infections, vol. 86, No. 1 (February 2010), i2-i3. 17