8. SCOPE NOTES For purposes of manual recording, HURIDOCS recommends the use of the format DD Month YYYY (e.g., 1 January 2001). 10 For uncertain dates, it is recommended to qualify the entry with an indication as to whether the date is an estimate, or has an unknown month, or an unknown month and date. Use a dash ( - ) to separate the qualifier. Enter 1 for an unknown day and January for an unknown month. If the date is entirely unknown, leave the field blank. Examples: 8 May 1989 Around 1934 June 1999 2001 Approximately 15 July 1999 In July 1999 Approximately July 1999 1999 1 January 1999 January 1999 Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: Entry: 8 May 1989 1 January 1934 - estimate 1 June 1999 - unknown day 1 January 2001 - unknown day and month 15 July 1999 - estimate 1 July 1999 - unknown day 1 July 1999 - estimate 1 January 1999 - unknown day and month 1 January 1999 1 January 1999 - unknown date 8.3 FORMATS TO COVER WHAT HAPPENED – THE EVENT, ACT, ADDITIONAL DETAILS AND CHAIN OF EVENTS FORMATS The Event and Act Formats are used mainly to describe what happened. The Act Format covers a specific human rights violation or similar act. The Event Format covers an event consisting of only one act or of several related acts. For certain types of acts, the Additional Details Format is used as an extension of the Act Format. The Chain of Events Format meanwhile is used to link Event records together. 8.3.1 EVENT The Event Format provides for the recording of the basic information about a human rights event or “story”. Specifics related to parts of the event can be entered in the Act Format or elsewhere. Persons (both individuals and groups) can be connected to the Event via the link formats (Act, Involvement, Information and Intervention), to indicate their specific roles (Victim, Perpetrator, Source and Intervening Party). Events can be linked via the Chain of Events Format. 10 This format replaces the previous format for dates YYYYMMDD (based on ISO standard 8601). 88