ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank-you to the following for their various contributions: The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) for hosting the second meeting of the Task Force on Events and the Conference "Human Rights Violations and Standard Formats: Towards Compatibility in Recording and Transferring Information", held in Utrecht, the Netherlands in July 1989; The Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH), Peru for hosting the third meeting of the Task Force on Events, held in Lima, Peru in October 1991; Aída María Noval for co-chairing and co-ordinating the “International Conference on Computerised Documentation of Human Rights Events” in Mexico; Romilly Gregory for hosting two Evsys Design Team meetings in Oxford; Bjørn Stormorken for hosting Evsys programming sessions in Oslo; The Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in particular Audrey Chapman, Patrick Ball and Stephen Hansen for their ongoing support, suggestions and other contributions. Financial support for the work of the Task Force on Events, culminating in the publication of the first edition, was supplied by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The “International Conference on Computerised Documentation of Human Rights Events” held in November 1997 in Mexico was supported by the European Commission and the John Merck Fund. This document is published with the help of grants from the general programme donors of HURIDOCS:  Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs  Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs  French Prime Minister' s Office  Human Rights Desk, Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical Church in Germany  Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation  Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation  Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency x