Getting the insights for your model
Designing your data structure is a main need. Try to summarize what you want to reflect in
your database in one sentence. Making your design visual is a good way to reflect the
specific purpose of your project.
Abstractly speaking, most of the things you do might fit into these or similar proposals:
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Capture facts: registering events by capturing all the elements that will help you to
have a clear understanding of the fact. This general purpose could apply, for
instance, to document HR violations and abuses through the victim-act-perpetrator
model, summarized in the sentence who did what to whom? Of course, you can add
as much complexity as you need to this model, but these are the three basic things
(victim, act and perpetrator) you will need to describe in your database, as a starting
point.
●
Track processes: monitoring series of activities normally extended over time, with a
chronological order or, at least, based on a model of action-result. Think, for
instance, about the whole process through which laws are made, or the different
stages of the complaint handling procedure. Most of these processes have
something in common: they are guided by a well-defined workflow in which
different paths are clearly identified.
●
Check facts against a benchmark or HR standard: measuring values by comparing
them with other values to show progression over time (from a baseline) or the
degree of compliance with a standard taken as reference. Monitoring the
progressive realization of human rights is a representative case of this objective.
●
Improve document accessibility: although the work of HR documenters is always
supported by documents, sometimes the document accessibility becomes an aim in
itself. Facilitating the organization and retrieval of laws, caselaw, evidence, reports,
media pieces or court resolutions contributes to other processes which ultimately
aim to protect and promote HR.
Certainly, there will be many cases that do not fit exactly these examples or that might add
many complexities to them. However, it is always useful to reach a certain level of
abstraction in order to discover the general patterns behind your activity.
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