I. INTRODUCTION

II. TOWARDS THE NEXT YEAR FIVE-YEAR CYCLE

• International Conference
• Fourth HURIDOCS General Assembly
• Strategic Planning

III. THE HURIDOCS PROGRAMMES IN 1998

• Training Programme
• Tool Development Programme
• Outreach and Communication Programme

IV. HURIDOCS INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Leadership and administration
• Resource mobilisation

V. CONCLUSION

I. INTRODUCTION

1998 was the year during which HURIDOCS held a major International Conference and its Fourth General Assembly. This main event for the HURIDOCS network is held every five years. The purpose of the international conference is to discuss the focus of HURIDOCS' work: human rights information handling, within a broader perspective of ongoing social and political developments, and in this way to provide guidance for the work of HURIDOCS. The General Assembly sets the directions that the network will take for the next five-year cycle.

HURIDOCS also engaged itself in many other activities in the areas of Training, Tool Development, Communication and Outreach, as well as Institutional Development. This report provides a summary of activities undertaken in 1998.

II. TOWARDS THE NEXT FIVE-YEAR CYCLE

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

The International Conference preceding the Assembly took place from 22 to 25 March 1998, in Gammarth (Tunisia). The theme of the Conference was Human Rights Information, Impunity and Challenges of the Post-Conflict Healing Process. The main focus was on the characteristics of human rights information in the framework of ongoing social and political developments, such as conflicts and conflict resolution, the democratisation process and impunity.

The conference was successful: it achieved to reach the aims set, and allowed for an exchange of experiences and opinions among the participants. Several issues which are expected to be important for the coming years were amply discussed, and the role of human rights information was discussed at length in relation to each major issue. Also, concrete proposals were made for activities to be undertaken by HURIDOCS and organisations in the network. In general terms, the Conference has posed the following new challenges:

• Prepare for the development of training activities, tools and methodologies needed to strengthen civil society organisations in different environments: transition from dictatorship to democracy - post-civil war - politically polarised societies - repressive regimes, etc.

• Broaden HURIDOCS field of active responsibility to include not just tools and methods for monitoring compliance with human rights norms but also monitoring tools and methods in relation to conflict, conflict resolution, reconciliation and sharing of grief.

• Ensure that HURIDOCS documentation, information dissemination, education and training tools and methodologies allow:
  a) an inclusive definition of rights, i.e., civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights
  b) a recognition of violations in the private sphere, such as domestic violence, as well as in the public sphere
  c) a recognition of violations by non-state actors such as corporations, including multi- national companies, organised criminal syndicates such as the mafia, as well as by state actors.

• Take account of "the large picture", i.e., anonymous data, through work on developing methods for statistical analysis of large amounts of data, including economic, cultural and social rights, to bring out the relationship between inequality and violations.

• Take account of "the small picture", i.e., respect for the individual, through work on identifying, developing and giving training in methods of interviewing of victims-survivors that are supportive, and sensitive to culture and gender.

FOURTH HURIDOCS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

These recommendations were brought forward to the HURIDOCS General Assembly that was held at the same location on 26 March 1998. 95 official delegates and 21 observers attended the General Assembly. The latter group consisted of delegates to the International Conference who were associating with HURIDOCS for the first time, representatives of donor agencies and the members of the HURIDOCS Secretariat.

Aurora Javate de Dios chaired the Assembly. The first part consisted of reports of activities. Kofi Kumado as Chairperson, Manuel Guzman as Executive Director and James Lawson as Treasurer reported on the highlights of the activities and developments concerning the HURIDOCS network since the Third General Assembly in Crete (Greece) in May 1992.

Their reports showed the tremendous gains of HURIDOCS as a network, through the establishment of several regional networks, the development of information handling tools, and the steadily increasing number of training courses and workshops over the years. The financial report showed that the five-year cycle ended on a balanced budget. The Assembly enthusiastically accepted all three reports.

HURIDOCS Task Forces also reported on their accomplishments. The Task Force on Communications and Task Force on Software presented the results of a survey on the current state of the network in terms of information handling capacities as well as information needs. They also presented future prospects, such as establishing e-mail directories and considering more Windows-based applications for the HURIDOCS tool development programme. The Assembly encouraged the two Task Forces to continue their work.

The Task Force on Structure presented recommendations for modifying the organisational structure of HURIDOCS, based on responses to a questionnaire sent to network members in 1995. The questionnaire asked members for their views regarding organisational issues such as membership, electoral procedures, and regional bodies. The participants exchanged views on the proposals of the Task Force, and decided that the process of examining the structure has to continue, especially with regard to the issues concerning membership and regional networks.

HURIDOCS has played an active role in a number of regional networks dealing with human rights information (see under Outreach and Communication), and reports of these networks were presented to the General Assembly. Svend Bitsch Christensen reported on behalf of the European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation (ECCHRD), Lucie Lamoureux reported for the Canada-U.S. Human Rights Information and Documentation Network (CUSHRID Net), Rosario Narvaez for the Red de Informatica y Documentación en Derechos Humanos para America Latina y el Caribe (RIDHUALC), Ayesha Iqbal and Kathleen Maltzahn for the Asian Committee for the Training of Trainers (ACCT), Hannah Forster on human rights networking in Africa, and Naceur el Kefi for the Arab Human Rights Information Network (AHRINET).

A number of participants made recommendations with regard to activities to be undertaken by HURIDOCS. These recommendations were agreed upon by the General Assembly, and the Continuation Committee and the International Secretariat were mandated to find ways towards their implementation. Among these proposals were:

• More stress on networking during training courses

• Conduct of training on getting the right information, in view of the increasing information overload

• Establishment of a Task Force on Electronic Publishing.

• Continued development of a gender-sensitive tool that considers human rights violations against women.

• Integration of the International Refugee Documentation Network (IRDN) within the HURIDOCS network

• Encouragement of the use of meta-tagging within the network

• Greater attention to issues related to children, including the customisation of HURIDOCS tools to reflect these specific concerns.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

On basis of the discussions and recommendations of the General Assembly, the Continuation Committee started in mid-1998 a process of developing a Five-Year Strategic Plan. The strategic planning process is expected to be completed in early 1999 and involves deeper study into the needs of the network in addition to those expressed in the General Assembly.

The Strategic Plan gives an overview of the general aims which HURIDOCS seeks to achieve during this period, in its four areas of activities (Training, Tool Development, Outreach and Communication, and Institutional Development). The new Strategic Plan will cover the years 1999 to 2003.

III. THE HURIDOCS PROGRAMMES IN 1998

TRAINING PROGRAMME

In the course of 1999, the focus of the Training Programme of HURIDOCS was somewhat modified, taking into account the needs of human rights organisations as expressed during the Conference and General Assembly. Emphasis was given to training human rights organisations in tools for documenting cases of human rights violations.

1. Training sessions during meeting of the European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation

2. Regional training course for NGOs from Central and Eastern Europe

3. Training session during CUSHRID Net Meeting

4. National Training Course in Croatia

5. Regional Training Course in South Africa

6. Training for Women’s Groups in the Asia-Pacific

7. African Course on Information Handling

8. National Training Course in Argentina

9. African Human Rights Camp, Morocco

10. Training Course in Ethiopia

11. Training manual

The HURIDOCS Standard Formats: A Tool for Documenting Human Rights Violations and Supporting Documents constitute a system for documenting cases of human rights violations. The two books were published in 1993, as the outcome of the work of a Task Force led by Judith Dueck. On basis of feedback from users and experts, the experiences gained during several training courses and a workshop held in Mexico in 1997, HURIDOCS has embarked upon a substantial revision of this tool.

During 1998, Judith Dueck, Manuel Guzman and Bert Verstappen worked on this revision. Among the work done is the development of specific formats to better reflect the reality of a human rights violation, and the development and amendment of a large number of lists of terminology applicable to human rights documentation. It is expected that the revision will be finished in early 1999.

Regional networks on human rights documentation are a main tool to enhance collaboration and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences. HURIDOCS has played an active role in the establishment and in the activities of such networks. The various regional networks held meetings during the International Conference in Tunis. They also presented reports on their activities during the General Assembly, thereby enabling the exchange of experiences among regions.

1. Asian Committee for the Training of Trainers

2. Canada-U.S. Human Rights Information and Documentation Network (CUSHRID Net)

3. European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation

4. Red de Informatica y Documentación en Derechos Humanos para America Latina y el Caribe (RIDHUALC)

5. Martin Ennals Award

6. Participation in meetings of other organisations

7. HURIDOCS News

8. HURIDOCS web site and mailing lists

9. Other activities

IV. HURIDOCS INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION

1. Continuation Committee

2. International Advisory Council

3. Secretariat

RESOURCE MOBILISATION

In the course of 1998, HURIDOCS received general grants for its programme from the following donor agencies:

• Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  
• Diaconical Work of the Evangelical Churches in Germany
  
• Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  
• French Prime Minister’s Office
  
• Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, United States
  
• Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD) and
  
• Swedish International Development Agency.

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

• CEBEMO, the Netherlands
  
• Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  
• Diaconical Work of the Evangelical Churches in Germany
  
• International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Canada
  
• International Development Research Centre, Canada.
  
• Interchurch Organisation for Development Co-operation (ICCO), the Netherlands
  
• Misereor, Germany
  
• Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  
• Norwegian Embassy in Tunisia

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.

During 1998, 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 Forces on Software Development, Electronic Communication and Structure, and their leaders, respectively James Lawson, Debra Guzman, Ramon Martinez and Mary Robinson

4. the regional networks and their Secretariats, namely:
   
   
   1. the Arab Human Rights Information Network (AHRINET) and the Arab Institute for Human Rights
      
   2. the Asian Network for Training of Trainers - Agnes Camacho, Ayesha Iqbal and Kathleen Maltzahn for developing a training plan for the region
      
   3. the Canada-U.S. Human Rights Information Network (CUSHRID Net) and the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
      
   4. the European Co-ordination Committee for Human Rights Documentation and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
      
   5. the Red de Informatica y Documentación en Derechos Humanos para America Latina y el Caribe (RIDHUALC) and the Asociación pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH)

5. the Evsys/WinEvsys Design Team - Ricardo Cifuentes, Romilly Gregory and Bjørn Stormorken

6. Judith Dueck, co-author of the revision of the HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats: A Tool for Documenting Human Rights Violations

7. James Lawson for developing a prototype of a human rights search engine

8. Lise Bruun for developing a standard for meta-tagging Web documents based upon the Dublin Core

9. HURINet - Debra Guzman for her contributions to the HURIDOCS mailing lists

10. Comlink, Germany for hosting various HURIDOCS mailing lists

11. Human Rights Education Associates for co-ordinating the huridocs-tech mailing list

12. the co-organisers of training activities, and in particular
    
    
    1. the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Romania
       
    2. the Direct Protection Centre for Human Rights, America's Development Foundation and Marija Laszlo;
       
    3. the Human Rights Institute of South Africa
       
    4. the Moroccan Association for Human Rights and the Human Rights Advisory Group (Norway) - Lalaine Sadiwa

13. the Direct Protection Centre for Human Rights, Zagreb and the Harold Light Centre for Human Rights, St. Petersburg for their translations of HURIDOCS tools in Croatian respectively Russian.

V. CONCLUSION

The various programmes of HURIDOCS were remarkably implemented, despite the fact that the network devoted much of its time and energy to its Fourth General Assembly. For instance, 10 training events were conducted within the year. This is consistent with the HURIDOCS thrust of intensified training which the past several years have witnessed.

The training activities also showed the progress of HURIDOCS in enhancing collaboration and building of alliances, not only among traditional human rights networks but also with networks of varied thematic concerns.

The tools of HURIDOCS were reviewed and revised in view of making them more comprehensive and holistic, at the same time flexible so as to be appropriate for local or specialised application.

Over and above all these, HURIDOCS successfully convened its Fourth General Assembly. This gives the network a sense of purpose for the next several years.

The financial report of HURIDOCS likewise shows that it was a very satisfactory year. The figures may be misleading in the sense that income was relatively small. What can be appreciated is the high level of accomplishments, and this can be attributed to the great volume of voluntary work. Moreover, there were many activities of HURIDOCS, such as most of the training courses, where the funds or part of them were received directly by the co-organisers.

In other words, HURIDOCS lived to its mandate of making things happen as a network.