Part III Assessing resources 10.2. WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS PRINCIPLES ARE RELEVANT TO RESOURCE ALLOCATION? As discussed in Chapter 9, what a government spends its money on has implications in terms of its human rights obligations. Resources are needed to ensure the availability and accessibility of services, while also addressing equality and non-discrimination. At the same time, participation, transparency and accountability directly influence resource allocations. To recap, the following norms should be considered when evaluating a government’s allocation of resources. Minimum core obligations: Allocations should prioritize the achievement of basic levels of rights enjoyment for all. Non-discrimination: Governments are obliged to allocate resources in a way that reduces inequalities and tackles the disadvantages of less powerful and marginalized groups. Progressive realization: Allocations should generally increase as available resources become greater, and not unjustifiably backslide. Process principles: The process of deciding on allocations should reflect the principles of participation, access to information, transparency and accountability. 10.3. HOW CAN WE ASSESS IF ALLOCATIONS REFLECT HUMAN RIGHTS PRINCIPLES? Budget documents can be intimidating. They are long, filled with numbers and often use very technical language. As a result, the idea of trying to read and make sense of a budget is daunting, let alone trying to interpret it from a human rights perspective. The good news is that not all budget analysis techniques are highly technical and sophisticated. Using straightforward arithmetic – adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing – there are some simple ways to determine whether a budget is in line with the human rights principles outlined above. After reviewing the budget documents, you can use the information provided to: 1. Calculate: • Ratios or shares (percentage of something out of a total) • Averages (mean value of budget allocations) • Per unit or per capita expenditure (value per person) 2. Make comparisons (identifying priority areas and groups) 3. Analyse trends (comparing progress over time): • Adjusted for inflation (converting nominal figures into real figures) 4. Evaluate the budget process. This section explains each of these techniques in more detail. Chapter 10: Analysing public budgets | 105