This is the presentation we used in the webinar about the events method. HURIDOCS and its network developed the Events Standard Formats methodology to provide a container specifically for organisations documenting human rights violations. https://huridocs.org/2019/02/community-discussion-the-events-method-for-documenting-human-rights-violations/

1. Harnessing the power of human rights information

2. March 2019
Bert Verstappen
HURIDOCS
info@huridocs.org
Events Methodology
for documenting human rights violations

3. Events-based methodology
“A single case of killing
is one too many”
● Has been used by human rights groups and NGOs for decades for
visible types of violations, such as: killings, abductions, torture and
detention.
● Involves investigating events and determining which acts within
the event may be or lead up to violations.

4. History
1988 HURIDOCS’ Task Force created
+ Task Force Detainees of the Philippines
+ Catholic Commission for Justice and
Peace of Zimbabwe
+ CODEHUCA of Costa Rica
+ APRODEH of Peru
+ CELS of Argentina
+ Amnesty International
+ World Organisation against Torture
+ International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions

5. History
1993 The Task Force produced the
first edition
of the Events Standard Formats in
1993.
1998 The first software was
launched (EvSys) that supports this
data model, followed by WinEvSys,
then OpenEvSys.
2001 The second edition was
published

6. “Of course, human rights work is about much
more than methodology. It is about right and
wrong framed in the legal and moral
dimensions of international human rights
instruments.
But by doing the technical work right, we can
greatly strengthen our ability to make claims
about human rights, and ultimately, to
advocate for a more respectful world.”
Patrick Ball

7. Why do we need a method for documenting
human rights violations?
1. Lead
information
10. Additional
information
2. Testimonies and
similar information
4. Findings
5. Data entered into
standard formats
6. Narrative &
similar reports
8. Information for
internal analysis
9. Materials for
dissemination
7. Storage & retrieval system
3. Physical and
documentary
evidence
Adapted from Guzman, M. 1997, Getting the facts down: Documenting Human Rights Violations,
Asia Forum of Human Rights. Thailand. p. 4 (wwww.huridocs.org/tools/getfacts.pdf - 5.2mb)

8. Familiar Documentation Scenarios and Pitfalls

9. Hypothetical Example:
Event “Silva et al arrest”
On November 25th, 2008 four members of a womens collective were
detained at Veracruz International Day for the Elimination of Violence
protest; and presented ten hours later to the municipality. One suffered
sexual assault, and another suffered torture while in detention.

10. Pitfall: that each victim is thought of to suffer
one and only one violation
Victim’s
Last Name
Victim’s
First Name
Violation Perpetrator Place Date
Silva Patricia Arrest Man in police uniform 1 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Rodriguez Roma Arrest Man in police uniform 1 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Ali Geraldine Arrest Man in police uniform 2 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Perez Carla Arrest Man in police uniform 3 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008

11. Solution: allow for more than one violation
Victim Violation Perpetrator Place Date
Last
name
First
name
Arrest Sexual
assault
Torture
Silva Patricia x x Man in police
uniform 1
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008
Rodriguez Roma x Man in police
uniform 1
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008
Ali Geraldine x Man in police
uniform 2
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008
Perez Carla x x Man in police
uniform 3
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008

12. Pitfall: that each victim is connected to one
perpetrator.
Victim Violation Perpetrator Place Date
Last
name
First
name
Arrest Sexual
assault
Torture
Silva Patricia x x Man in police
uniform 1
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008
Rodriguez Roma x Man in police
uniform 1
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008
Ali Geraldine x Man in police
uniform 2
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008
Perez Carla x x Man in police
uniform 3
Municipality
Park
Nov 25,
2008

13. Solution: perpetrator 1 and perpetrator 2
Victim Violation Perpetrator Place Date
Last
name
First
name
Arrest Sexual
assault
Torture Perp 1 Perp 2
Silva Patricia x x Man in police
uniform 1
Man in police
uniform 2
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Rodrigue
z
Roma x Man in police
uniform 1
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Ali Geraldin
e
x Man in police
uniform 2
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Perez Carla x x Man in police
uniform 3
Man in police
uniform 2
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008

14. Victim Violation Perpetrator Place Date
Last
name
First
name
Arrest Sexual
assault
Torture Perp 1 Perp 2
Silva Patricia x x Man in police
uniform 1
Man in police
uniform 2
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Rodrigue
z
Roma x Man in police
uniform 1
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Ali Geraldin
e
x Man in police
uniform 2
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Perez Carla x x Man in police
uniform 3
Man in police
uniform 2
Municipali
ty Park
Nov 25,
2008
Pitfall: which perpetrator did what violation?

15. Solution: each violation connects to perpetrator
Victim Violation Perpetrator Place Date
Last
name
First
name
Arrest Sexual
assault
Torture
Silva Patricia x Man in police uniform 1 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Silva Patricia x Man in police uniform 2 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Rodrigue
z
Roma x Man in police uniform 1 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Ali Geraldine x Man in police uniform 2 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Perez Carla x Man in police uniform 3 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008
Perez Carla x Man in police uniform 2 Municipality Park Nov 25, 2008

16. The events-based approach enables
complex scenarios
to be documented in a straightforward
manner,
while representing the relationships between
the cases of individual victims involved in
each event.

17. Arrest
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Sexual assault
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Torture
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
1. An “act”

18. Arrest
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Patricia
Silva
Man in police
uniform 1
Roma
Rodriguez
Geraldine
Ali
Carla Perez
Sexual assault
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Man in police
uniform 2
Man in police
uniform 3
Torture
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
2. Victim and Perpetrator

19. Arrest
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Patricia
Silva
Man in police
uniform 1
Roma
Rodriguez
Geraldine
Ali
Carla Perez
Sexual assault
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Man in police
uniform 2
Man in police
uniform 3
Torture
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
P
P
P
P P
V
V
V
V
Roles

20. Arrest
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Patricia
Silva
Man in police
uniform 1
Roma
Rodriguez
Geraldine
Ali
Carla Perez
Sexual assault
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Man in police
uniform 2
Man in police
uniform 3
Torture
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
P
P
P
P P
V
V
V
V
W
One person can have several roles

21. Who is the victim?
An act of surveillance
can subject a whole
Organisation to
victimisation
An act reducing the
budget for education
victimises the youth
The act of imposing a
curfew victimises the
whole population
An act of beating
victimises an
individual

22. Arrest
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Patricia
Silva
Man in police
uniform 1
Roma
Rodriguez
Geraldine
Ali
Carla Perez
Sexual assault
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Man in police
uniform 2
Man in police
uniform 3
Event
Torture
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
3. Event

23. Arrest
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Patricia
Silva
Man in police
uniform 1
Roma
Rodriguez
Geraldine
Ali
Carla Perez
Sexual assault
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
Man in police
uniform 2
Man in police
uniform 3
Torture
Municipality Park
Nov 25, 2008
What is the events methodology for
documenting human rights violations?

24. The events method standard formats
Event format
Person format
Act format
Involvement format
Information format
Intervention format
Chain of event format
Biographic details format
Additional details format
EVENT FORMAT
101 Event record number
102 Event title
111 Geographical term
112 Local geographical area
113 Initial date
114 Final date
115 Event description
116 Impact of event
150 Remarks
151 Violations status
152 Violation index
153 Rights affected
154 HURIDOCS index
155 Local index
160 Date received
161 Date of entry
162 Entered by
163 Project title
164 Confidentiality
165 Comments
166 Supporting documents
167 Files
168 Record grouping
170 Date updated
171 Updated by
172 Monitoring status

25. Example of completed format
101 Event Record Number 000001
102 Event Title Desacula et al Arrest
111 Geographical Term Philippines
112 Local Geographical Area National Capital Region [00040101000]
113 Initial Date 18 November 1987
114 Final Date
115 Event Description Edgar Desacula was arrested together with Ramon Aguilar by members of the
Pasay City Police Force at Roxas Boulevard at about 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon of 18 November 1987.
When brought to the police headquarters, they were passed to the Intelligence and Special Operations
Group (ISOG.) which conducted tactical interrogation and subjected Desacula to torture.
116 Impact of Event 2 victims
150 Remarks
151 Violation Status Confirmed
152 Violation Index Arbitrary / unlawful action
153 Rights Affected Liberty / Freedom from torture
154 HURIDOCS Index Detention / Torture
155 Local Index
160 Date Received 19871119

26. Sources of error when entering data into
standard formats
● Source 1: spelling mistakes or multiple spellings
● Source 2: indiscriminate use of synonyms, overlapping or related
concepts
● Result: unreliable retrieval and searching
● How to eliminate errors? By using controlled vocabularies, or
micro-thesauri
● HURIDOCS produced 48 micro-thesauri relevant for human rights
work

27. The vocabularies
TYPES OF ACTS
● 01 Violations of the right to life
● 0101 Deliberate killings of specific individuals
● 010101 Summary execution
● 010102 Extra-judicial execution outside any legal proceedings
● 010103 Legal execution (capital punishment)
● 010104 Politically-motivated killing by non-state agent(s)
● 010105 Murder (deliberate killing which ought to be seen as a
common criminal act)
● 01010501 Dowry death
● 01010502 Bride burning
● 01010503 Death as part of a ritual
● 01010504 Rape-slay
● 01010505 Death in snuff films

28. Structured vs free text
Structured Text Free Text
Easy to search, compare, count,
identify patterns and trends,
count, make statistics
Good for when you cannot
translate everything into fields
and labels.
Possible import into a database People relate well to narrative
accounts, structured data is
cold.
Easy to input data, writing skills
not important skills
With free text you can convey
the cumulative effects of
several violations on a person

29. Analysis
There are four basic kinds of analysis that can performed on
this kind of information:
● lists,
● case summaries,
● ad-hoc query results, and
● counts

30. Analysis: lists

31. Analysis: lists

32. Analysis: counts

33. Analysis: counts

34. Analysis: case
summaries

35. Customisation
What we have presented is a general framework for documenting human rights violations.
Each organisation should adapt this based on various factors, such as:
● The objectives of the monitoring and documentation work (provide support to victims, bring
perpetrators to justice, get a better understanding of characteristics of victims and perpetrators
and trends over time
● The types of violations to be monitored
● The outputs that you would like to produce, which can be collaboration on individual cases;
input for reports; trends, graphs and statistics
● The human, financial and other resources available
● Who is responsible for and participating in the different stages of monitoring and
documentation

36. For your documentation project to be successful, the most important recommendation
that we can give is that you and your colleagues take sufficient time to develop the data
model, formats, fields and thesauri that are most useful to you on the long term.
It helps to draft an initial system and try it out with a limited number of typical cases. You
then review them on basis of the experiences gained.
A main challenge is to have a system that delivers all the outputs that you require in a
smooth way and that at the same time can be easily maintained by those collecting,
recording and analysing information. Monitoring and documentation of violations should
serve your organisation and not become an administrative, bureaucratic burden.

37. Share with us your
thoughts & questions!

38. Contact us!
info@huridocs.org
/HURIDOCS
@huridocs