HURIDOCS, Villa Montfleury, 48 chemin du Grand-Montfleury
CH-1290 Versoix, Switzerland
Tel: 41.22.755-5252 / Fax: 41.22.755-5260
e-mail: huridocs@comlink.org / website: http://www.huridocs.org

INTRODUCTION

Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International (HURIDOCS) is a global network of human rights organisations. A main component of the mission of HURIDOCS is to develop tools and techniques that groups and individuals can use in the defence and promotion of human rights. The network members work collectively in the development of tools and techniques and in providing training on these.

One of the long-term goals of HURIDOCS is to see the devolution of training to regional and national locales. In 2000, a large part of the activities fell under three interrelated areas in the pursuit of this goal:

• improvement of the HURIDOCS training curriculum, modules and teaching aids
• production of and making easily accessible a wide variety of tools and techniques
• enhancing training skills at regional and local levels

A particular strategy is the formation of pools of trainers. Efforts along this line have been bearing fruit, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where a number of activities were initiated and carried out by the network members in the region.

As usual, the many activities of HURIDOCS were implemented under its five programmes: Tools and Techniques Development; Training; Consultancy, Advice and Support; Outreach and Information; and Networking and Institutional Development. Below are the activities carried out by HURIDOCS in detail.

From its inception, HURIDOCS has been developing specific tools and techniques that can be used by human rights organisations in their monitoring and information work. HURIDOCS has recognised that it should go beyond the tools and also address related areas like data gathering and data analysis. This would in effect cover the whole dimension of response to human rights events -- from fact-finding and information gathering to recording to data analysis and dissemination. In this light, HURIDOCS has developed a training curriculum consisting of different modules that could stand alone or could be combined with some of the others. Most of these modules are specifically on tools and techniques developed by HURIDOCS, such as on the use of HURIDOCS standard formats. Some other modules cover other aspects of information handling (e.g., basics of documentation, content description) for which HURIDOCS trainers have also developed expertise. There are other modules which are on more general subject matters (e.g., human rights mechanisms, fact-finding) and which are relevant in some types of HURIDOCS courses.

In 2000, HURIDOCS added two more modules to its curriculum -- the modules on Meta-tagging and on Examples of Human Rights Thesauri -- bringing the total of training modules to twenty-six, shown below. It can be noted that the core topics in the HURIDOCS curriculum are embodied in Modules 18 to 26.

General topics on human rights and information

Module 1: Human Rights Concepts
Module 2: Human Rights Mechanisms
Module 3: Importance of Information in Human Rights Work
Module 4: Fact-Finding
Module 5: Basics of Monitoring Violations
Module 6: Information Dissemination

General topics on information and communications technology

General topics regarding documentation

Specific tools and techniques

The draft training manual being developed by HURIDOCS was used as the main course material during the Asia-Pacific trainers' training course held in Manila in April 2000. It was found very useful and comprehensive. The manual discusses training in general as well as methods on how to teach the various HURIDOCS tools and techniques. It also contains practical pointers on organising training courses and similar activities.

Based on feedback from a selected number of experienced trainers to whom copies of the draft manual were sent, as well as the lessons of the Manila course, the draft was edited further. The Secretariat has also started developing some basic training aids to be used together with the manual. The next testing of the manual and the accompanying aids is to take place during the Anglophone Africa trainers' training course scheduled for early 2001.

1. Training of trainers in the Asia-Pacific region

The course was held from 27 April to 4 May 2000, with 16 participants from Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia. It was organised by the Asia-Pacific Committee for the Training of Trainers (ACTT) and implemented by the Coalition against Trafficking in Women--Asia/Pacific (CATW). ACCT is the HURIDOCS regional network for Asia, while CATW is the regional focal point.

The training course covered the following subject matters:

• basics of training
• the HURIDOCS tools
• teaching the HURIDOCS tools
• appropriate training modules for the region
• teaching aids
• how to organise training courses

The training course went very well, and the level of participation was very high. The objectives of forming a trainers' pool, planning for the development of appropriate training modules and aids, and drawing up a regional training plan were all met.

2. Training of trainers in Anglophone Africa

Initial planning has been done between the HURIDOCS Secretariat and the International Advisory Council members from Africa. An agreement was reached to hold the course in Uganda. The Secretariat has since then coordinated preparations with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative which will serve as the local host. Plans are in place to hold the course in April 2001. Around 16 participants are to be invited representing human rights NGOs in English-speaking African countries.

3. Presentation of tools in Barcelona, Spain

The HURIDOCS tools were presented in the course of the 23rd meeting of the European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation (ECCHRD) held in Barcelona from 23 to 25 March 2000. The ECCHRD is the Europe-wide network of human rights documentalists which has been in existence for almost 20 years now, formed with the support of HURIDOCS. A session during the meeting was devoted to the discussion of the HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats and to a demonstration of WinEvsys, the HURIDOCS software for documenting human rights violations.

4. Training for the Cooperation Centre for Afghanistan

HURIDOCS provided a one-month on-site training to the Co-operation Centre for Afghanistan, an Afghan NGO based in Pakistan in May 2000. The training aimed to result with the establishment of a human rights violations documentation system. The first part of the training was on skills development, while the second part involved the resource person overseeing the application of the skills in the establishment of a system. Ms. Agnes Camacho (International Advisory Council member from the Philippines) served as the resource person.

5. Training of Indonesian students in Canada

Judith Dueck, HURIDOCS Continuation Committee member, provided training for one week to two Indonesians on leave from the Indonesian National Commission of Human Rights and taking studies in Canada. The training was sponsored by the Canadian Human Rights Foundation and the McGill University. It covered human rights documentation, focusing on the use of WinEvsys, the HURIDOCS software for human rights documentation. Other tools were also introduced such as the bibliographic standard formats and resources for monitoring economic, social and cultural rights.

6. Training in Bologna, Italy

At the invitation of Amnesty International, Italian section, HURIDOCS provided training to documentation staff of the Regional Council of Emilia-Romagna and several Italian NGOs. This activity was held in Bologna on 27 and 28 November 2000. Bert Verstappen, HURIDOCS Information Officer, was the resource person. The course dealt with access to human rights information, with a focus on the Internet.

7. Training for Women's Groups in Asia

As part of a long-term project of CATW (Coalition against Trafficking in Women), a consultation among women's groups in Asia was held in Nepal last August 2000. It included training on WinEvsys as adapted for use in monitoring violence against women. Among the resource persons were three participants in the Manila trainers' training course held in April 2000.

8. Albania training course

This planned course is on documentation of human rights violations. The co-organiser is the Albanian Human Rights Documentation Centre (Qendra e Dokumentacionit per te Drejtat e Njeriut) based in Tirana. Preparations were made in 2000 for the eventual conduct of the course in the first half of 2001.

9. Indonesia training course

The Indonesian Women's Association for Justice has coordinated with the HURIDOCS Secretariat and the regional focal point for Asia regarding the holding of a course in Indonesia on the subject matter of fact-finding and documentation of violations, particularly in the form of violence against women. Preparations were made in 2000 for the conduct of the course in February 2001. Participants will be mainly women groups from the different provinces of Indonesia.

10. Cambodia training course

A training course on women's human rights advocacy is planned to be held in Phnom Penh in February 2001. Preparations were made in 2000. Some trainers who attended the Manila trainers' training course in May 2000 have been lined up as resource persons. The course will involve several Cambodian organisations that monitor violence against women.

11. Georgian training course

The Georgian NGO Independent Society for Human Rights has requested HURIDOCS to hold a national training course on human rights documentation in Georgia in 2001. It has developed a project outline in consultation with HURIDOCS and has been trying to raise funds for the training event.

TOOL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

In 2000, HURIDOCS worked for the publication of several new books. Three new publications came during the year, all of them for use in monitoring economic, social and cultural rights. Another two books which are on the "events" methodology for monitoring human rights violations were substantially finished in 2000 and prepared for printing in early 2001. In addition, HURIDOCS started the production of a series of brief how-to manuals covering different aspects of human rights monitoring, documentation, information handling and communications.

Revised Events Standard Formats, Microthesauri and WinEvsys

A distinct methodology in monitoring human rights violations, aside from the use of indicators, is the "events" methodology. It involves identifying the various acts of commission and omission that constitute or lead to human rights violations. HURIDOCS has promoted this methodology for several years now, with the publication of the HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats in 1993.

It has been seen that the "events" methodology can be employed for monitoring a wide range of concerns, including violations of rights of vulnerable groups and violations of economic, social and cultural rights. The Events Standard Formats together with their accompanying tool, the HURIDOCS Supporting Documents, were revised so as to widen the applicability of the methodology in monitoring. The revision, undertaken by Judith Dueck, Manuel Guzman and Bert Verstappen, was substantially finished in 2000. The result is two volumes -- the Revised Events Standard Formats and the HURIDOCS Micro-thesauri -- which are to be printed in early 2001. The HURIDOCS Micro-thesauri is a set of lists of terminologies used in recording and retrieving information.

A third tool employing the "events" methodology is WinEvsys which is a computer software integrating the Revised Events Standard Formats and the Microthesauri. Human rights organisations can use WinEvsys in creating and maintaining a database of human rights violations, the actors involved (e.g., victims and perpetrators) and related information such as interventions made on behalf of victims. A design team was formed by HURIDOCS to oversee the development of the software. The design team met in August 2000 and reviewed the first version of WinEvsys. It decided on ways to improve the next version, to be released simultaneously with the newly-published books.

One need that is strongly felt by human rights organisations is the need to monitor access to and administration of justice. The "events" methodology can be employed for this kind of need. Towards this goal, HURIDOCS Continuation Committee member Aida Maria Noval has discussed with the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) the development of a project to adapt the HURIDOCS tools for the monitoring of access to and administration of justice. The project that was agreed upon involves several phases spanning a whole year, and starts with the development of specialised and appropriate terminologies by a working group. A centerpiece of the project is a workshop to be held in Managua where the output of the working group will be presented, discussed and enriched. The project is planned to be launched in 2001.

The HURIDOCS Bibliographic Standard Formats are a set of formats used in recording and exchanging bibliographic information on human rights. The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims programmed these formats in WinISIS, a free software developed and distributed by UNESCO. The customised software called INDEP/SERIAL is now available from the HURIDOCS Secretariat. In a similar initiative, the HURIDOCS Secretariat has started programming the Formats in Access, meaning that the electronic version of the Formats will be available on two platforms.

The joint project implemented by HURIDOCS and the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has entered its second phase. This new three-year phase is called Training and Capacity-Building for Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It consists of several interrelated activities to develop and promote the use of tools and resources for monitoring violations of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. These tools are intended primarily for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) world-wide, and especially in the global South.

The Project will be carried out in collaboration with a variety of partner organisations. These include organisations specialising in particular ESC rights, in producing five rights-specific resource manuals. The plan outlines work with NGOs in particular in Argentina, Guatemala, South Africa, and India or the Philippines, to develop and test training materials, as well as to adapt and refine the tools and resources to local circumstances. The phase started in the latter half of 2000 with the conduct of detailed planning, preparation and consultation with partner organisations.

The Thesaurus of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Terminology and Potential Violations by Stephen Hansen was published in April 2000. Its Spanish version was published in September 2000. The Thesaurus contains almost a thousand relevant terms that can be used in education, design of monitoring systems and information handling.

A third publication is the Promoting and Defending Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Handbook by Allan McChesney which came out in August 2000. The Handbook contains a wealth of information and guidance on implementing and monitoring economic, social and cultural rights. It is written in non-technical language, primarily for NGOs in recognition of their vital role in promoting, defending and monitoring human rights. All three publications are also available on-line.

New papers on minimum state obligations with respect to specific rights were received by the Project. These are on the rights to work, trade union rights, social security, intellectual property protection and cultural rights. Papers on the rights to health and education were revised and updated. The papers were submitted to an academic publisher for possible publication in book form.

Rights-specific resource manuals were also in the course of being written during the year. The series of manuals commissioned by the Project is intended to build on the Handbook by providing in-depth treatment of five of the rights in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with an emphasis on monitoring. The five rights that are the subject of commissioned papers are: health, work, housing, education and food.

The Project staff contributed substantially to the development and drafting of two new General Comments adopted in 2000 by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). At the end of the year, the staff were involved in the drafting of a third General Comment on intellectual property protection which was the subject of the Day of General Discussion at the CESCR's November 2000 session.

The joint AAAS-HURIDOCS Project co-sponsored a conference in South Africa on 28-29 August 2000 to discuss and identify minimum state obligations with respect to the economic and social rights in the 1996 South African Constitution. The intellectual foundation for the conference was provided by the papers on minimum state obligations commissioned by the Project and written by international experts.

HURIDOCS has aimed to develop and put into operation HURISEARCH, a search engine that will facilitate the search of human rights information on the Web by allowing users to search in one go through all sites in the project. HURISEARCH will regularly visit and index the sites of the participating organisations. In 2000, the Secretariat continued to update the list of potential participants in the project, while funds are being sought to enable the formal launching of the engine.

HURIDOCS has started the production of a series of how-to manuals aimed to help build the capacity of human rights organisations with regard to monitoring and documentation. One manual, What is Documentation?, has been completed and is ready for publication, while substantial work on three others was also done:

• What is Human Rights Monitoring?
• How to Set Up a Documentation Centre
• How to Index Documents

A working group was established in late 1999 to review the list of index terms that HURIDOCS recommends as a core list for the description of contents of human rights materials. The working group was composed of Genevieve Bador, Agnes Camacho, Stephen Hansen, Aida Maria Noval, Agnethe Olesen and Bert Verstappen. The group finished its work in June 2000 by agreeing on some 70 new terms for inclusion in the list. The revised list is among those contained in the volume HURIDOCS Micro-thesauri to be published in early 2001.

The Martine Ennals Award is given annually by the Martin Ennals Foundation to deserving human rights defenders, especially those who face great risk at their work. The 7^th Martin Ennals Award was conferred on Immaculé Birhaheka from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The awarding was held during the North-South Media Festival held at the Television Suisse Romande in Geneva in April. The ceremony was very well attended, with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson handing out the award.

The HURIDOCS Secretariat continued to discharge Secretariat functions for the Martin Ennals Foundation, a role that it has performed since the Foundation was formed seven years ago. Among the services it rendered is the dissemination of the call for candidates for the 2001 Award, and the compilation of the resumés of candidates for the selection of the next winner. It maintained contacts with the French-speaking Swiss television in view of the preparations for the 2001 award ceremony.

HURIDOCS presented its Economic, Social and Cultural Rights project, and its resources at the NGO Forum at the Social Development Summit that took place from 25 to 30 June 2000 in Geneva. The presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slide show prepared by AAAS and HURIDOCS, followed by an open forum with the audience. The three-day slot of HURIDOCS was well attended, and the HURIDOCS staff received useful feedback about the tools.

This international Conference was held in Montreux, Switzerland in September 2000. It was an event that was a first of its kind, bringing together national statistical officers and human rights and development activists. The possible developments that can arise are very interesting, such as collaboration with national statisticians in the development of appropriate indicators for measuring progress in the areas of development and human rights. Manuel Guzman, HURIDOCS Executive Director, presented a paper on the "events methodology" of monitoring human rights violations, a paper that generated enthusiastic discussion among the participants.

HURIDOCS News no. 24 was published in February 2000 on the Web, in HTML and PDF formats, and in March in printed form, in English, French and Spanish. It includes a summary of the 2000 programme, an update on the regional networks, summary reports of the training courses in Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo, updates on the projects on Documenting Human Rights Violations (including WinEvsys) and Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and articles on the International Development Markup Language and on the Web site of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe.

The HURIDOCS Secretariat has maintained and has been actively involved in three public mailing lists and two internal lists for its governing bodies (the Continuation Committee and the International Advisory Council). The mailing list huridocs-tech-1, dealing with the relationship between the development of information and communication technologies and the protection of human rights, has reached almost 600 subscribers, while over 150 persons and organisations subscribe to huridocs-gen-l, the mailing list for more general human rights issues. Also, indi-health-l, the more specialised list on health rights and indigenous peoples, continued to be maintained by the HURIDOCS Secretariat.

The HURIDOCS Web site was regularly updated. New additions include the 2000 programme and 1999 report, the HURIDOCS Newsletter, the WinEvsys and WinIsis manuals (published in PDF format, so that it can be printed in the same form as the printed edition), the French translation of the Bibliographic Standard Formats and a list of links for electronic publishing (HTML, XML, meta-tagging).

It has also been made possible to carry out searches on the HURIDOCS site. The site received almost 11,000 visitors in the past year. HURIDOCS is also referred to in many other sites. For instance, a search of the term "HURIDOCS" with the general search engine Altavista has yielded 572 pages with 2950 occurrences.

A standard system had been set up for use by the various documentation centres supported by the Council of Europe to enable the efficient transfer of bibliographic data among them. This warranted the conversion and enhancement of bibliographic records held by the Human Rights Information Centre of the Council of Europe. HURIDOCS provided service by undertaking the conversion and enhancement of the bibliographic records.

NETWORKING AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Networking

The 23rd meeting of the European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation took place in Barcelona from 23 to 25 March. It was hosted by the the Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya and attended by 35 participants. Sessions included an introduction to the work of Nizkor-Derechos, an introduction to XML standards, an overview of HURIDOCS activities and an introduction-demonstration of the Events Standard Formats and the WinEVSYS software. There were also several small formal and informal meetings of thematic networks, and the meeting was also useful to establish bilateral contacts. Preparations have started for the 2001 annual meeting of the European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation. The meeting will be hosted by the Harold and Selma Light Centre for Human Rights Advocacy (contact person: Leonid Lvov) and is to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia on 20 and 21 April 2001.

As for the Asia-Pacific region, the Asia-Pacific Committee for the Training of Trainers (ACTT) has successfully held its first major activity in the form of the trainers' training course held in April 2000. Right after the training course, ACCT, through HURIDOCS International Advisory Council member Kathleen Maltzahn, has set up a listserv for the training participants as a way to maintain contacts with each other and to share information and experiences.

Leadership and Administration

The Continuation Committee, HURIDOCS' policy-making body in between General Assemblies, met twice during the year. The first meeting was in May 2000, when the Committee reviewed the activities for the year. The second meeting was held in November 2000, when the Committee made detailed plans for the year 2001 and approved the budget among other things.

The Task Force on Structure is a task force composed of five individuals from the network assigned the task of reviewing the structure of HURIDOCS and drawing up recommendations for improving it. The Task Force leader, Mary Robinson, prepared a paper that was circulated to the task force members in November 2000, outlining a series of steps that the Task Force can take to finish its task.

Throughout 1999, the HURIDOCS Secretariat consisted of three members: Manuel Guzman (Executive Director), Bert Verstappen (Information Officer) and Néjib Ghali (Administrative Officer). The Canton of Geneva continued to give free office facilities to HURIDOCS for the whole year.

A staff development activity undertaken by the Secretariat is studying Access together. This has resulted in understanding better the software WinEvsys and in producing a preliminary version of the Bibliographic Standard Formats in Access.

Resource Mobilisation

1. Contributions from donors

In the course of 2000, HURIDOCS received general grants for its programme from the following donor agencies:

1. Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2. Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3. Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
4. The French Prime Minister’s Office
5. Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, United States
6. Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD)
7. Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

In addition, the following donors provided financial support to particular activities undertaken by HURIDOCS in the course of the year:

1. Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2. Department for International Development, United Kingdom

The International Development Research Centre, Canada also provided a grant, coursed through the Canadian NGO MEDA, which allowed Continuation Committee member Judith Dueck to attend HURIDOCS events within the year.

HURIDOCS would like to sincerely thank all these donors for their generous support. It also wishes to thank the Council of the Canton of Geneva, for granting use of office space to HURIDOCS in Versoix, near Geneva.

2. Voluntary service and other contributions

During 2000, several persons and organisations voluntarily contributed time and expertise to the work of HURIDOCS. HURIDOCS would like to thank all contributors, and in particular the following:

1. the members of the HURIDOCS Continuation Committee
2. the members of the HURIDOCS International Advisory Council
3. the Task Force on Structure and its leader, Mary Robinson
4. the HURIDOCS List of Index Terms working group
5. the regional networks and their Secretariats, namely: - the Arab Human Rights Information Network (AHRINET) and the Arab Institute for Human Rights
   - the Asian Committee for Training of Trainers (ACTT) and the Coalition against Trafficking in Women (CATW)
   - the European Human Rights Documentation Coordination Committee and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
   - the Red de Informatica y Documentación en Derechos Humanos para America Latina y el Caribe (RIDHUALC) and the Asociación pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH)
   
6. the WinEvsys Design Team members, among them Ricardo Cifuentes, Judith Dueck, Romilly Gregory and Bjørn Stormorken
7. Judith Dueck, co-author of the revision of the HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats: A Tool for Documenting Human Rights Violations
8. the East Timor Human Rights Centre, for intensive testing of the Standard Formats on Events and WinEvsys
9. the Coalition against Trafficking in Women, for hosting the trainers' training course in Manila and for initiating and carrying out national training courses on documentation of violence against women
10. James Lawson for developing a prototype of a human rights search engine
11. HURINet and its director, Debra Guzman for all her contributions to the HURIDOCS mailing lists
12. Comlink, Germany for hosting various HURIDOCS mailing lists and the HURIDOCS Website
13. Human Rights Education Associates for hosting and co-ordinating the huridocs-tech-l mailing list
14. the Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya for hosting the 2000 ECHRDD meeting

CONCLUSION

Overall, HURIDOCS is very pleased to have achieved much along the directions it has set for itself at the start of the year. A comprehensive array of training modules has been developed and teaching aids to facilitate training were started to be produced. Several new books and other materials have also come out, providing adaptable tools for monitoring and documentation by human rights groups. The progress in the areas of training curriculum development and tools development has tied in nicely with the planned series of regional trainers' training courses that was started in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, HURIDOCS did not neglect specific training needs such as those of an Afghan human rights NGO.

The audited financial report of HURIDOCS may not accurately reflect the extent of HURIDOCS activities. For one, many activities in the HURIDOCS network were administered largely by partner organisations, where the funds or part of them were received directly by the co-organisers. Also, voluntary service and other forms of contribution have not been adequately included in the financial report.

In summary, it can be said that HURIDOCS succeeded because its members actively did their part in carrying out tasks and activities that the network set out to accomplish.