Human rights groups can use internet technology to collect, organize, protect, and share information about violations. The Martus Human Rights Bulletin System is a database tool that helps these groups with their technology needs. It improves their ability to manage information, document abuses, and prevent confiscation or destruction of information. Timely and accurate information is a powerful weapon against human rights violations. As a result, human rights groups worldwide invest many resources in collecting large amounts of data about these abuses.
Challenges in Data Protection
Unfortunately, government confiscation, destruction or neglect looses much of this information. Furthermore, some grassroots organizations lack the resources to document violations systematically. In Sri Lanka, for example, a human rights group lost five years of records to termites. Another group recorded their data on computers only to have their PCs stolen. This situation makes it difficult for prosecutors, truth commission and others to use such information as evidence and hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
Martus Software Function
The Martus Human Rights Bulletin System is an initiative developed by Benetech, a Silicon Valley nonprofit. It helps groups store the data on their PCs and also makes back-ups of their files on remote Internet servers. In doing so they prevent the loss of data even if the original PC is destroyed. Martus functions in three steps: it provides human rights monitors with a simple format for creating information bulletins about violations and encrypting them. It then backs up the encrypted bulletins on a remote Internet server. Finally, it replicates them to multiple cyber locations to safeguard the information from loss. Local NGOs can then decide what information they want to fileshare with other groups, and what information they want to keep private.
Martus software is all available for free download online so that everyone from small NGOs to large international groups can make use of it. Martus is now available in Arabic, English, French, Russian, Nepali, Persian, Spanish and Thai. The project is constantly working to support more languages. Martus can also be customised so that bulletins match the format that is most useful to a particular group or project. This system can serve grassroots NGOs through each stage of data collection and analysis. From documenting human rights data to analyzing this data and harnessing its power for change.
HRDAG Software
The HRDAG team builds software and applies scientific techniques to create unique knowledge about the patterns and size of human rights cases. These cases include mass killings, forced displacements, torture, sexual violence and detention. The software helps produce important information. This information is essential for truth commissions, victim advocates, and other groups. These groups work to clarify history, assist in reconciling societies, and bring the world’s worst criminals to justice.
At the core of HRDAG’s work is a software application known as Analyzer. First released to the public in 2002, Analyzer is a free and open source statistical database tool. It provides the structure and computing power required to quantify patterns of large-scale human rights abuse. Analyzer supports collection of thousands, if not tens of thousands data entrys. These include witness testimonies, government documents, household surveys and other data. The Analyzer helps groups capture vast data sets from various sources. It prevents the loss of information and makes all data available for consideration during analysis.
Impacts of the Software
As a result of the database tool Analyzer, scientifically-defensible answers to questions on large scale human rights violations are much more feasible. Analyzer, like Martus, is free and open source software. Both the software and its source code are available for download and review by anyone interested. The Martus and Analyzer software help social justice groups to monitor various issues. These issues include violence against women, human trafficking, environmental destruction, hate crimes, and other human rights abuses.
