Getting started
INTRODUCTION
From online videos of rights violations, to
Mainly, human rights researchers appeared to be
satellite images of environmental degradation,
overwhelmed by the possibilities. In the face of
to eyewitness accounts disseminated on social
limited resources, not knowing how to get started
media, we have access to more relevant data today
or whether it would be worthwhile, most people
than ever before. When used responsibly, this
we spoke to refrained from even attempting to
data can help human rights professionals in the
strengthen their work with digital data.
courtroom, when working with governments and
journalists, and in documenting historical record.
field in navigating this complex environment,
Acquiring, disseminating and storing digital data
we convened a group of 16 researchers and
is also becoming increasingly affordable. As costs
technical experts in a castle outside Berlin,
continue to decrease and new platforms are
Germany in May 2016 to draft this guide over
developed, opportunities for harnessing these
four days of intense reflection and writing.
data sources for human rights work increase.
But integrating data collection and management
into the day to day work of human rights
research and documentation can be challenging,
even overwhelming, for individuals and
organisations. This guide is designed to help you
navigate and integrate new data forms into your
human rights work.
It is the result of a collaboration between
Amnesty International, Benetech, and The
Engine Room that began in late 2015. We
conducted a series of interviews, community
consultations, and surveys to understand
whether digital data was being integrated into
human rights work. In the vast majority of cases,
we found that it wasn’t. Why?
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To support everyone in the human rights