Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) designs and builds information management solutions and conducts statistical analysis on behalf of human rights projects. With our partners, we make scientifically-defensible arguments based in rigorous evidence.

Human Rights Data Analysis Group Studies Role of Former Chadian President in Prison Deaths

January 29, 2010, Palo Alto, CA, N'Djamena, Chad — The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) has released a study showing that former Chadian president Hissène Habré was well informed of the hundreds of deaths that occurred in prisons operated by his state security force. The release of the HRDAG report has been covered by the international press including AFP, Radio Netherlands and AllAfrica.com.

The report, State Coordinated Violence in Chad under Hissène Habré, A Statistical Analysis of Reported Prison Mortality in Chad's DDS Prisons and Command Responsibility of Hissène Habré, 1982-1990, is based on thousands of documents generated by the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), the security force that pursued political opponents and operated notorious prisons during the Habré regime. The DDS files were discovered by chance by Human Rights Watch in 2001 at the abandoned DDS headquarters in N'Djamena. Read a photo essay about the case against Hissène Habré in English or French.

This information could be critical in the long delayed prosecution of Habré who has been accused of killing and systematically torturing thousands of political opponents during his 1982-1990 rule in Chad. The public release of the HRDAG report in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena coincides with the 10th anniversary of the first indictment of Habré for crimes against humanity.

Read more here.

Christian Science Monitor Covers HRDAG Comments on Human Security Report

January 25, 2010, Palo Alto, CA — The Christian Science Monitor has quoted HRDAG director Patrick Ball in a story which examines the recently released Human Security Report. The story, entitled New Study Argues War Deaths Are Often Overestimated notes that Ball agrees with the authors of the report who assert that estimates made by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) of deaths due to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo are flawed.

But in the blog item posted below, HRDAG researchers question the HSR claim that "nationwide mortality rates actually fall during most wars" and that "today's wars rarely kill enough people to reverse the decline in peacetime mortality that has been underway in the developing world for more than 30 years."

Anita Gohdes, Megan Price, and Patrick Ball write that they are deeply skeptical of the methods and data used by the HSR authors to conclude that conflict-related deaths are decreasing. "We believe that the authors should examine their own data on mortality related deaths with the same rigor with which they critique the recent IRC surveys," write the HRDAG researchers. "If they did this, they would find that they have inadequate information to conclude anything about the trend in war-related lethality in recent decades." HRDAG's concerns about the estimates of war deaths by the HSR authors are discussed by noted statistician Andrew Gelman on his blog.

Benetech HRDAG develops database software, data collection strategies, and statistical techniques to measure human rights atrocities. Our technology and analysis is used by truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, and non-governmental human rights organizations around the world. Our analysis identifies the trends and patterns which is the evidence of crimes of policy.

The incorporation of HRDAG into Benetech brings together HRDAG's considerable field experience with Benetech's software engineering expertise. Together, we build tools and projects that help human rights workers gather and analyze critical information.

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The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) was incubated for more than a decade at the Science and Human Rights Program. AAAS supports the application of science to human rights as one way that science serves society.

HRDAG is now a Benetech project. Learn more.

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The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) applies information technology solutions and statistical techniques to help human rights advocates build evidence-based arguments.