Practical techniques BUDGET DATA FOR HUMAN RIGHTS In setting budget priorities, governments can unwittingly or deliberately disregard human rights standards. For example, budget cuts to the criminal justice system may leave lowincome defendants in pretrial detention for unreasonably long periods. A decision to reduce subsidies or increase taxes on particular households or hygiene products may indirectly discriminate against women. Budget data literacy can, therefore, be an essential component of Types of budgetary data It can be helpful to break a budget into three main parts: how revenue is generated, how budgets are allocated and how expenditures are actually made. Data on budget revenue Are tax policies generating sufficient resources? Are they doing so equitably? comprehensive human rights research, especially Helpful data for judging the sufficiency now that so much data is available online. of resources includes: ›› Government revenue as a percentage of GDP. ›› Tax revenue as a percentage of government revenue. ›› Tax effort (the ratio between the actual tax collection and taxable capacity). ›› Volume of illicit financial flows. ›› Tax revenue as a percentage of total tax revenue. Helpful data for judging the equity of resources includes: ›› Composition of taxes (e.g. percent made up of income tax, taxes on goods and services, corporate tax, etc.) ›› Tax as a percent of overall income paid by different groups. ›› Exemptions granted. 44