A/HRC/33/49 discrimination against women be brought under the jurisdiction of a criminal court rather than be settled through mediation. 66. The ability to claim rights in front of the courts is important for changing social and cultural attitudes. The courts play a role in condemning practices that reinforce gender stereotypes and can require the State or third parties to adopt measures to address them. Recently, a group of students asked the Supreme Court of India whether menstruation could be a criterion for denying women of a certain age the right to enter a temple and worship in it. 64 The Supreme Court addressed the following questions to the administration of the Sabarimala temple: “If men can go till a point (near the temple) without undertaking austere activities, why can’t women go? … Are you associating menstruation with impurity? You are making a classification. Can a biological phenomenon be a reason for discrimination? All practices are acceptable till there is no distinction between genders.”65 2. Monitoring progress on the equal enjoyment of the human rights to water and sanitation 67. Human rights-based monitoring can be built on a framework of structural, process and outcome indicators that serve to monitor not only the commitments made by a State but also the State’s ongoing efforts and whether progress is being made to achieve targets on gender equality. Useful examples of indicators to monitor gender equality in access to water, sanitation and hygiene can be found in the OHCHR framework on indicators 66 and by the World Health Organization-United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme Task Force on monitoring inequalities. Indicators on menstrual hygiene facilities, for example, could be used to track gender equality and help to break related taboos. 68. It is of crucial importance to monitor, in a rights- and gender-sensitive manner, progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and to make sure that national and local mechanisms track compliance with and progress made to realize the rights to water and sanitation, including in terms of gender equality. Gender equality is central to the Goals (see Goal 5) and is reflected in several targets, including target 6.2. Gender equality in access to water, sanitation and hygiene will have a positive impact on other goals and targets, including those on ending poverty (Goal 1), on promoting decent work and economic growth (Goal 8), on reducing inequality (Goal 10) and on making cities and human settlements inclusive and sustainable (Goal 11). Since gender inequalities are so profound in water and sanitation and, at the same time, manifest themselves in all human rights and throughout the entire development agenda, a comprehensive approach would allow for using similar indicators and information collected through the monitoring of different human rights and development targets. 69. Filling the existing data gap should be a priority in order to support gender-sensitive indicators. Systems need to be developed to improve the collection of data disaggregated by sex and other relevant factors, which are necessary to assess the impact and effectiveness of policies and programmes that aim to mainstream gender equality and enhance women’s enjoyment of their human rights. Also, the collection process must take into account stereotypes and social and cultural factors that may induce gender bias in the data and be 64 65 66 18 See www.thehindu.com/news/national/sabarimala-temple-entry-ban-can-menstruation-be-a-factorasks-supreme-court/article8472787.ece. See www.firstpost.com/india/sabarimala-supreme-court-women-entry-trupti-desai-2748036.html. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Human_rights_indicators_en.pdf and A/HRC/27/55, annex.