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The purpose of this indicator is to ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.

This indicator seeks to measure enjoyment of fundamental freedoms (e.g. freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and access to information, the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of association) on the premise that killing, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, kidnapping and other harmful act against journalists, trade unionists and human rights defenders have a chilling effect on the exercise of these fundamental freedoms. What distinguishes this indicator from Indicator 16.1.1 (number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population by sex and age) aside from the broader scope of violent incidents, is the motivation or causal factor, i.e. that the violation was motivated by the victim having stood up to defend the rights of others, exercise fundamental freedoms, or have occurred while the victim was engaged in such activities. Alongside indicator 16.10.2 (number of countries that adopt and implement constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information) this indicator provides both a micro and macro-level snapshot of the state of the aforementioned fundamental freedoms in various contexts, as well as a link to the processes and structures required to meet human rights obligations with respect to those fundamental freedoms.

Ministry of Natural Security, Belize Police Department

Ministry of Natural Security, Belize Police Department

Annual

Percentage (%)

This indicator is defined as the number of verified cases of killing, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, kidnapping and other harmful acts committed against journalists, trade unionists and human rights defenders on an annual basis. The operational definitions of the cases, victims and other elements of the indicator have been patterned as far as practicable after corresponding categories in ICCS. The task of classifying cases entails observing events from both statistical standards and international law perspectives. For example, intentional homicide (ICCS code 0101) is included as a component of the violation type ‘killing’ and is in turn supplemented by applicable human rights standards. This conceptual approach is necessitated by the confluence of three factors. First is the principle that all the violent acts tracked by the indicator are motivated by the exercise of fundamental freedoms that are guaranteed by human rights law to all persons. Second, while human rights abuses are not always explicitly criminalized in domestic jurisdictions, ICCS has achieved a certain level of success in terms of integrating human rights elements in the classification of crimes. Third, irrespective of definitions provided by national legislation or practices, all events – whether ordinary crimes or human rights violations – that meet the elements provided in the definitional framework will be counted for statistical purposes.

Journalists’ refers to everyone who observes, describes, documents and analyses events, statements, policies, and any propositions that can affect society, with the purpose of systematizing such information and gathering of facts and analyses to inform sectors of society as a whole, and others who share these journalistic functions, including all media workers and support staff,   as   well  as   community   media  workers   and   so-called  “citizen journalists”  when  they momentarily play that role, professional full-time reporters and analysts, as well as bloggers and others who engage in forms of self-publication in print, on the internet or elsewhere.

‘Trade unionists’ refers to everyone exercising their right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of their interests. A trade union is an association of workers organized to protect and promote their common interests.

‘Human rights defenders’ refers to everyone exercising their right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at national and international levels,6 including some journalists and trade unionists. While the term ‘human rights advocate’ is broadly speaking a synonymous of ‘human rights defender,’ the latter is preferred as it is more consistent with internationally agreed human rights standards and established practice.

‘Killing’ is defined as any extrajudicial execution or other unlawful killing by State actors or other actors acting with the State’s permission, support or acquiescence that were motivated by the victim, or someone associated with the victim, engaging in activities as a journalist, trade unionist or human rights defender; or while the victim was engaged in such activities; or by persons or groups not acting with the support or acquiescence of the State whose harmful acts were either motivated by the victim engaging in activities as a journalist, trade unionist or human rights defender, and/or met by a failure of due diligence on the part of the State in responding to these harmful acts, such a failure re motivated by the victim or associate engaging in activities as a journalist, trade unionist or human rights defender; and other unlawful attacks and destruction in violation of international humanitarian law leading to or intending to cause the victim’s death.

Using the minimum data requirements, the indicator seeks to provide the following disaggregation:

• Sex and Age groups
• Type of violation or abuse
• Perpetrator status, e.g. State actor vs non-State actors
• Geographic location of the incident

The indicator is calculated as the total count of victims of reported incidents occurring within the preceding 12 months. 

Drawing on the ICCS, which is an incidents-based international classification system, the indicator counts victims based on cases of violations or abuses using a classification framework developed for the purposes of the indicator.

For reporting purposes, the recorded offences will be ordered considering a hierarchy of violations or abuses drawing on the “most serious offence” rule commonly applied in crime statistics:

• Killing
• Torture
• Enforced disappearance
• Arbitrary detention
• Kidnapping
• Other harmful acts

If an incident incorporates elements of more than one category, it is coded to the higher category. Thus, for an incident in which the victim was subjected to prolonged incommunicado detention without medical access in the course of an unlawful detainment, the violation would be counted under torture.

This indicator helps the Police department to measure enjoyment of fundamental freedoms on the premise that killing, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, kidnapping and other harmful act against journalists, trade unionists and human rights defenders have a chilling effect on the exercise of these fundamental freedoms.

As for other crime statistics and other statistics based on administrative sources, this indicator is sensitive to the completeness of reporting of individual events. There is a real but manageable risk of underreporting. Moreover, reporting rates and statistical accuracy are influenced by various factors, including changes and biases in victim reporting behaviour, changes in police and recording practices or rules, new laws, processing errors and non-responsive institutions. Regional and global aggregates may underestimate the true incidence and volume of victimization, overcompensate for robust and inclusive national data collection systems. In most instances, the number of cases reported will depend on the access to information, motivation and perseverance of national stakeholders, of human rights defenders themselves, and the corresponding support of the international community.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.