3. TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES USED IN THE DOCUMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS EVENTS CONTENTS OF THIS CHAPTER       INFORMATION FLOW INFORMATION HANDLING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES STANDARD FORMATS AND DATABASES BENEFITS OF USING STANDARD FORMATS DIFFERENT KINDS OF DATABASES DATA ENTRY Uses of Thesauri 3.1 INFORMATION FLOW Information on human rights violations takes different forms. Often, the information gets transformed as action is undertaken on it. For instance, there could be initial information received such as a phone call reporting an ongoing violation. More information will certainly be discovered once investigation or fact-finding is carried out. The information that has been gathered can later be processed to allow it to be used and re-used, such as by recording with the use of standard formats. It can be rewritten as a press release to inform the public of the existence of the violation. Later, it can form part of a report presenting the trends and patterns of violations within a given period. A process or combination of processes takes place as one body of information is transformed to the next stage. For instance, when fact-finding is conducted, the initial body of information gets confirmed or rejected, enlarged as more information is gathered, and so on until sufficient information is amassed to arrive at some findings. Usually, for each body of information, a certain tool could be used. For instance, information gathered in fact-finding could be recorded in previously formulated questionnaires. On the next page: Figure 3.1 The information flow within a human rights organisation 21