3.6 DATA ENTRY Uses of Thesauri In monitoring human rights violations, among the uses of thesauri are:  Precise categorisation of information. Recording follows an analysis of the information gathered. In other words: the investigation will have to lead to findings. For instance, an investigator has to categorise a case of killing whether it is an extra-judicial execution (premeditated and without any legal process involved at all) or whether it is indiscriminate and random. Such evaluations often have to be made by referring to human rights norms, whether international or domestic. Thus, a thesaurus that is exhaustive and that at the same time shows the fine distinctions among the terms would be of an invaluable help in processing information. The same goes for categorising other kinds of data like types of occupation, types of location or types of perpetrator.  Information storage and retrieval. The various terms in a thesaurus can be used in retrieving desired information, whether manually (such as by using index cards) or with the aid of computers.  Statistical analysis. The categories contained in a well-constructed thesaurus could serve as variables when preparing tables for analysis. 27