The Danish Institute for Human Rights hosts United Nations expert group meeting on citizens data

For decades marginalised groups all over the world have been invisible in official statistics. They have been hard to reach by civil registration systems, censuses or household surveys. In addition, the perspectives and needs of social minorities have been lacking in data generated by governments and National Statistics Offices.

As a result, incomplete data has been informing policies and some issues of relevance for citizens have not been reflected in official statistics.

To counter this, the Danish Institute for Human Rights together with different partners has been collecting citizen data in Denmark and supporting rightsholder groups such as indigenous peoples and human rights defenders abroad to collect data on their situation.

Citizen-driven data is understood as data that people or organisations representing them produce to monitor, demand, or drive change on issues that affect them. These kinds of data can help monitor the implementation of rights and help shed light on inequalities in how different groups experience access to services.

In its 2023 report, the UN Statistical Commission, which is the highest decision-making body concerning statistics, recognized “the usefulness of citizen-generated data to fill data gaps, ensure citizens’ contributions to data production and better reflect the realities of less visible groups”.

The Commission also supported the establishment of a Collaborative on Citizen Data to foster knowledge exchange and guide the way forward for better generation and more use of citizen data to complement official statistics.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights has been advocating with the global statistical community to unleash the full potential of citizen data. As part of this effort, the Danish Institute for Human Rights is proud to host the second UN Expert Group Meeting on Citizen Data, which is organised by the UN Statistics Division.

During the two-day meeting, the expert group will review, discuss, and operationalise a draft Conceptual Framework on Citizen Data, which will address key challenges in engaging with citizen data such as data quality and building trust. The meeting is preceded by a one-day workshop on the same theme, focused on exchanging country experience in generating and using citizen data.

The International Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Mette Thygesen, is looking forward to host the participants.

“I am so excited that the United Nations Expert Group on Citizen Data is meeting here in Copenhagen. It is quite an achievement that the highest statistical body at the United Nations is recognizing the value of non-official data. Valid data and solid evidence are crucial for getting policy making right – in order to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights for vulnerable groups.”

Citizen data help fill critical data gaps for marginalized groups, ensuring that their experiences are reflected in the monitoring of their rights and advancing important human rights principles such as inclusiveness, non-discrimination, accountability, and transparency in statistics.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights have been working with citizens data in an international context through, for example:

• The right to defend rights monitoring tool that systematically monitor progress on the enabling environment for human rights defenders in accordance with human rights norms and standards;
• The Indigenous Navigator that provides a framework and a set of tools for indigenous peoples to collect data and monitor their human rights and ensure they are not left behind.

And in a Danish context in form of:

• LGBT+ barometer that measures living conditions and equal treatment for LGBT+ in Denmark;
• The Handicap Barometer that shows current status on equal rights and living conditions for people with disabilities in Denmark.

The National Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Maria Ventegodt, celebrates that the UN, National Statistical Offices, Civil Society organizations, National Human Rights Institutions, academia and other international organizations are now collaborating to improve access to citizen-driven data.

"Effective monitoring of human rights requires citizen-driven data which focuses on the lived experiences of citizens. Better collaboration between National Human Rights Institutions, National Statistical Offices and civil society has strong potential to improve data and human rights protection."