The investigation and documentation of events as a methodology in monitoring human rights violations

Abstract

The investigation/documentation of events and the use of indicators are the two most common methodologies in monitoring human rights violations. The “events” methodology is often used for cases of direct violations such as killings and torture. Acts, whether of commission or omission, serve as the basic units of analysis, while events are used to ensure the coherent organisation of information on the various entities involved. Another type of entity used here is that of persons (whether individuals or groups), who could in turn be assigned different roles in different events. This method of deconstructing events can adequately and unambiguously show direct responsibility as well as multiple involvements (as victims, perpetrators, sources of information, etc.).

The methodology uses a number of categories at various levels, permitting a variety of statistical reports with greater facility at desegregation of data. Among the key categories used are: types of acts, kinds of methods employed, types of locations, victim characteristics, nationalities, etc. Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International (HURIDOCS) has developed 38 lists of categories used in classifying events, acts, persons, locales, etc. These list are used in conjunction with the HURIDOCS Standard Formats used for recording information on human rights events.