A/HRC/45/10 A. Methods of assessment and monitoring 1. Quantitative and qualitative monitoring 64. In general, the most widespread method of monitoring progressive realization is through the use of indicators and benchmarks. Particularly within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, indicators and benchmarks have come to form the dominant method of monitoring States’ progress in upgrading water and sanitation services. As custodians of monitoring progress in the implementation of targets 6.1 and 6.2 of the Goals, the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene provides information on the situation of access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene services worldwide and establishes the baseline for monitoring implementation of the Goals. Several other possibilities for monitoring exist, such as the “frontier analysis”58 and “easy-to-assess indicators”. 59 Structural, process and outcome indicators form a comprehensive framework specifically for monitoring the human rights to water and sanitation.60 65. The use of indicators and benchmarks has strong acceptance at the international level but it has also been criticized as inadequate to accurately measure States’ compliance with the obligation of progressive realization. Firstly, the question of legitimacy arises since monitoring using indicators and benchmarks requires access to detailed data about progress levels, which the State itself collects. Secondly, given the amount of data and the scope of coverage, data collection requires a lengthy collection period and the data collected are often published after a long lag. Furthermore, as data collection exercises focus on quantitative aspects and take place at the national level, they fail to address the context in which minimum core obligations are identified, i.e. at the subnational level. 66. There is a need to devise and implement qualitative monitoring of the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. Numbers only cannot give a full picture of the level of enjoyment of human rights, and the progress made cannot be measured merely by compiling numbers. The standard of reasonableness stipulated in article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the assessment criteria developed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provide a monitoring framework focused on the steps taken and the processes developed by States. This framework makes it possible to analyse, for example, how States decide to allocate resources and the time frame in which steps were taken, among other aspects.61 Additionally, reasonableness requires that decision-making in relation to the progressive realization of human rights is transparent and participatory. Despite such interpretation, the reasonableness standard is yet to clarify its interpretation in practice to avoid uncertainty in the monitoring of the progressive realization of human rights. 2. Static and dynamic monitoring 67. Monitoring can be static, in that they may analyse a situation on the basis of a snapshot taken at a specific point in time. In respect of resources, a static analysis examines the resources allocated for the achievement of the human rights to water and sanitation during a specific budget period compared to the allocations made to other areas of expenditure. This exercise indicates a State’s priorities and helps to show whether its expenditure on achieving the human rights to water and sanitation is adequate in the context 58 59 60 61 Benjamin Mason Meier and others, “Monitoring the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation: frontier analysis as a basis to enhance human rights accountability”, in The Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy, Ken Conca and Erika Weinthal, eds. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018). Ricard Giné-Garriga and others, “Monitoring sanitation and hygiene in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: a review through the lens of human rights”, Science of the Total Environment, vol. 580 (February 2017). A/HRC/27/55/Add.4, annex. E/C.12/2007/1, para. 8. 17