HRDAG Included In Science News Report on Humanitarian Statistics

March 29, 2008, Palo Alto, CA — Dr. Patrick Ball and Romesh Silva of Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) are included in a Science News story about statistical tools that help guide responses to human rights crises. The report, entitled "Humanitarian Statistics," describes HRDAG's analysis of deaths during the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste from 1974-1999. HRDAG's analysis for the Commision for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation concluded that the country suffered more than 100,000 deaths beyond what would have been expected in peacetime and that this rate of mortality was not driven by direct violence but rather famine-related deaths.

Dr. Patrick Ball Recognized as Cutting Edge Human Rights Statistician

Palo Alto, February 13, 2008 — The Christian Science Monitor has published a lengthy profile of Dr. Patrick Ball, the director of Benetech's Human Rights Program. The story entitled A Human Rights Statistician Finds Truth In Numbers documents Dr. Ball's role in analyzing some of the most prominent large scale human rights violations in recent history - including the migration of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kosovo. Dr. Ball presented this data as an expert witness in the case against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Holds Hearings

Palo Alto, CA, January 14, 2008 — The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which is partnering with Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), has launched a series of high profile public hearings to investigate human rights violations. The hearings come at a time when former Liberian president Charles Taylor is on trial at The Hague for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. Established by the 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended fourteen years of civil war in Liberia, the TRC is investigating widespread human rights violations and infringements of humanitarian law during the Liberian conflict. This initiative will help clarify Liberia's violent history and hold perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable for their actions. The TRC has requested Benetech's assistance to develop a data collection and analysis process that addresses key questions about the nature of the conflict and violations that occurred. The HRDAG web site includes a new case study detailing our multi-year project with the TRC.

HRDAG Releases Report on the Missing In Colombia

Palo Alto, CA, December 6, 2007 — Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) has released a report which provides a scientific estimation of the number of missing people in the Colombian department or state of Casanare, including those who have never been documented. The report will help guide further investigations of homicides and missing persons across Colombia where data collection efforts are vital to understanding the magnitude, trends and patterns of this phenomenon.

The report, "Missing People In Casanare" estimates that the total number of missing persons in Casanare from 1986-2007 is 2,553 compared to the 1,544 persons reported missing during this period. This analysis suggests that between thirty and forty percent of missing persons in Casanare were unreported during this period. While the rate of undocumented missing persons in Casanare does not represent the rate that could be found in all of Colombia's 32 departments, the report argues that additional data should be gathered throughout the country and made available for rigorous analysis by statisticians and social scientists. More information on the report can be found on Colombia project page of the HRDAG web site.

HRDAG Supports Liberia Truth Commission

November 9, 2007 &mdash The Benetech Human Rights Program (HRP) has embarked on a multi-year project with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to help the TRC establish a data collection and analysis process to address key questions about the nature of the conflict and human rights violations.. HRP Program Manager Kristen Cibelli has recently returned from Liberia where she helped staff members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission implement HRP's Analyzer software to collect and manage human rights information from victim and witness statements in preparation for statistical analysis. The results of this analysis will play an essential role in the TRC's inquiry into past violence, ability to address core elements of its mandate, and to support its findings and recommendations. In an effort to document the project, Benetech has initiated a partnership program between technologists and artists. The Liberian data analysis project will be documented by filmmaker Theo Lipfert of the University of Montana who will travel to Monrovia, Liberia early next year.

Critical Report Analyzes Sri Lanka's Disappeared

October 27, 2007 — Romesh Silva, a statistician for Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group, has co-authored a report that synthesizes the voices of 633 families and relatives of disappearance victims throughout Sri Lanka using descriptive statistical analysis. The report, "Clarifying the Past and Commemorating Sri Lanka's Disappeared: A Descriptive Analysis of Enforced Disappearances Documented by Families of the Disappeared" was written in collaboration with the non-governmental human rights organization, Families of the Disappeared (FoD) and the International Center for Transitional Justice.

The report is part of an ongoing initiative to create a massive, objective and undeniable statistical record of past and present human rights violations in Sri Lanka. This project aims to augment human rights monitoring and reporting by non-governmental groups in order to positively influence the Sri Lankan peace process. By ensuring that arguments about the total magnitude, pattern and levels of responsibility associated with mass violations are informed by science, human rights debates about truth and accountability will be enriched.

HRDAG Statistician Advisors Speak In Guatemala City

August 7, 2007 — Statisticians Paul Zador and Gary Shapiro, who have provided pro bono technical assistance to Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), gave a presentation today in Guatemala City entitled ¨The Application of Statistics to Human Rights Violation Research.¨ They were joined by HRDAG statistician Daniel Guzmán who also spoke.

Zador and Shapiro, who are members of the American Statistical Association, have consulted to HRDAG on the scientific sampling method used at the National Police Archive project. The estimated 80 million records in the archive contain critical information about police procedures during Guatemala's 36 years of armed internal conflict that resulted in 200,000 deaths and disappearances. The archive is the largest single cache of documents made available to human rights investigators in Latin America.

The event was hosted by the United Nations Development Program and the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman which is overseeing the archive project.

The Human Rights Data Analysis Group Analyzes the Guatemalan National Police Archive

June 4, 2007 — Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) is analyzing the first collected data from the Guatemalan National Police Archive, the largest single cache of documents that has been made available to human rights investigators in Latin America. The estimated 80 million records in the archive contain critical information about police procedures during Guatemala's 36 years of internal armed conflict that resulted in 200,000 deaths and disappearances. HRDAG director, Dr. Patrick Ball, developed a plan to collect a multi-stage random sample of the documents and secure the data with Benetech's Martus information management tool. Benetech has created a photo essay about the project and its historical significance. More background material on HRDAG's past work in Guatemala can be found here.

Benetech's Dr. Patrick Ball Testifies in Kosovo Human Rights Case

March 21, 2007 — The Director of the Benetech Human Rights Program, Dr. Patrick Ball, provided testimony last month for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in its case against six former Serb military and government leaders who are charged with crimes against humanity.

The defendants were indicted together with former Serb and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in May of 1999 in connection with the deaths and displacement of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo province during the spring of 1999. Dr. Ball originally testified for the ICTY in the trial of Milosevic in March of 2002. Read the press release here.

Article on open source technology in the fight for human rights features Martus and Analyzer

March 21, 2007 — Independent Online Technology, a South African webzine, features Benetech technologies Martus and Analyzer in its article, Open Source used in fight for human rights.

Article Highlights Martus Project in Guatemala

February 7, 2007 — The IDG News Service interviewed Jorge Villagrán of the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman Office, which is using Martus to manage and encrypt information from the Guatemalan National Police Archives. The Archives contain an estimated 80 million pages of official documents detailing the activities of the National Police during Guatemala’s 36-year internal conflict. The story, Digging for the Truth, discusses the historical significance of their work and the ways the Ombudsman Office is employing Martus technology to secure the information in the Archives for future analysis and dissemination.

Benetech HRDAG Analyzes Key Data for Bangladesh Human Rights Report

December 14, 2006, New York, NY — A report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented abuses committed by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite anti-crime force that has been implicated in alleged torture and unlawful killings of people in custody.

The statistical analysis presented in the report, “Judge, Jury, and Death: Torture and Executions by Bangladesh’s Elite Security Force,” was conducted by Romesh Silva, a statistician with the Benetech Human Rights Program. The report concludes that between June 2004 and October 2006, the RAB killed at least 367 people in Bangladesh and tortured hundreds more.

Benetech's statistical analysis helped HRW explain the statistical patterns of the killings over time and with respect to the specific units with the RAB that were most responsible for the violence.

Timorese Truth Commission Report Officially Released in Australia

November 12, 2006, Sydney, Australia — The 2,500-page official report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR, by its Portuguese acronym) was publically released today in Sydney. Benetech congratulates the CAVR and the Timorese people on this historic achievement. The report is a detailed account of past human rights abuses in Timor-Leste during the internal party conflict and Indonesian occupation of the territory.

It brings together more than 3-years of meticulous analysis by historians, statisticians, demographers, lawyers, anthropologists and sociologists. Benetech is proud to have provided long-term technical assistance to the CAVR in its data collection and statistical analysis. Read the press release here.

MacArthur Award Attracts Press

October 16, 2006, Palo Alto, CA — Since Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship last month, both he and Benetech have been the focus of increasing media coverage. Profiles of Jim have appeared in the San Jose Mercury News which published a news story, a column and a business section feature story which describes Martus. Forbes also wrote about Jim noting that he is "one of a handful of people at the forefront of starting not-for-profit technology companies."

Benetech Reaps Benefits From Free Software

October 6, 2006, Palo Alto, CA — Patrick Ball, Benetech CTO and Human Rights Program Director, was interviewed by NewsForge about Benetech's use of free software. The story, High-tech Social Enterprise Reaps Free Software's Benefits notes Benetech's use of Ubuntu and other well-designed free software tools. NewsForge is the online newspaper for the Linux and Open Source community.

Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman Receives 2006 MacArthur Fellowship

September 18, 2006, Palo Alto, CA — Jim Fruchterman, CEO of The Benetech Initiative, has been awarded a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Each of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows learned this week that they will receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” funding over the next five years.  Read press release here.

Palo Alto, CA (11 Sept 2006) The Benetech Initiative today announced the much anticipated release of Martus Client 3.0. The Martus secure information management tool allows users to create a searchable and encrypted database and back up this data remotely to their choice of publicly available servers. The Martus software is used by organizations around the world to protect sensitive information and shield the identity of victims or witnesses who provide testimony on human rights abuses.

The Martus Client 3.0 release includes a new reporting feature and gives users more options for customization. The 3.0 release also provides enhanced speed, import and search features. The full release notes and download of the new release are available for download. Martus 3.0 is available in English and Spanish, with "Language Packs" for other languages placed on the documentation page as they become available.

Palo Alto, CA (28 August 2006) National Public Radio's Morning Edition program broadcast an extensive feature story on the Guatemala National Police Archive project, which is supported by Benetech's Human Rights Program (HRP). Benetech helped the Guatemalan government and local NGOs develop a plan to analyze the archive's 80 million documents which document murders and disappearances during Guatemala's 30-year civil war. The story featured HRP director Patrick Ball, who noted that the archive contains..."by far, the largest single cache of documents that's been made available to a human rights process in history." A transcript and audio file of the story reported by NPR's John Burnettt is available at NPR - Guatemala Police Archive Yields Clues to 'Dirty War'.

Palo Alto, CA (5 July 2006) The China Rights Forum published an essay in their July issue written by Patrick Ball, the director of Benetech's Human Rights Program and Ann Harrison, Benetech's Communications Director. The essay, entitled Asking and Answering Hard Questions: Technology in the Service of Human Rights noted that human rights analysts can use tools adopted from computer science, mathematics, statistics and demography to transform human rights arguments from political polemic to a scientific debate. The authors assert that the job of human rights investigators is to gather all data that can possibly be relevant and store it in a way that is accessible to colleagues, secure from perpetrators and difficult to destroy. The China Rights Forum is the Journal of the international Chinese non-governmental organization, Human Rights In China, which promotes universally recognized human rights and advances the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China.

Palo Alto, CA (31 July 2006) The Benetech Initiative today released an Op-Ed thanking the Australian military for defending the offices of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) during the recent violence in Dili and urging the United Nations not to squander the opportunity for accountability in Timor-Leste.

In 2005, the CAVR compiled a definitive report entitled "Chega!" ("Enough!") detailing human rights abuses during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor from 1975-1999. Benetech has now released a PDF of its statistical report which contributed to the CAVR's findings by establishing that at least 102,800 (+/- 11,000) Timorese died as a result of human rights violations in Timor-Leste from 1974-1999. Read the new FAQ which answers questions about this study and coverage by Wired Magazine.

Martus In Africa

February, 2006, Palo Alto, CA — The Digest of the Open Society Initiative for South Africa has posted an extensive story about Martus use in Southern Africa. The story, Information Communications Technology For Human Rights in Southern Africa, points to a recent survey that assessed the use of Martus in Southern Africa by human rights organizations, particularly women's NGOs.

Washington, D.C. (20 Jan 2006) The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation (ABF) for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy in Iran has released their on-line memorial, Omid. Omid honors over nine thousand victims killed by the Islamic Republic of Iran since the revolution in 1979. Click here for more on HRDAG's collaboration with ABF.

ACM Honors Dr. Patrick Ball

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) presented the 2003 Lawler Award for humanitarian contributions to Dr. Patrick Ball for his leadership in the creation of Analyzer and Martus, the open source technologies that enable non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to document and analyze human rights violations around the world.

Read the press release here.

Timor-Leste (4 Jan 2006) — Numerous press reports about the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR) have been published based on a leaked version of the report. Today the CAVR clarified the key statistical findings in a press release. Read more...

Sierra Leone (21 Dec 2005) — We are pleased to announce the publication of the data and the accompanying data dictionary from the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The statistical dataset is available on the Internet.

All of the personal information about victims and statement-givers has been removed from the published dataset, but the dataset offers a rich resource for continuing analysis of statistical patterns of human rights violations in Sierra Leone documented by the TRC.

The variable definitions are available in English and in Spanish. The data were prepared for publication by Daniel Guzmán, Tamy Guberek, Kristen Cibelli, Romesh Silva, Richard Conibere, Rafe Kaplan, Scott Weikart, Jana Dudukovic and Patrick Ball.

Timor-Leste (30 Nov 2005) — The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), presented their final report entitled "Chega!" (Portuguese for 'no more, that's enough') to the President of Timor-Leste on 31 October 2005. The report was presented by Mr. Aniceto Guterres-Lopes, Chairperson of the CAVR. As part of Timor-Leste's 30th anniversary celebrations of its Proclamation of Independence, His Excellency Xanana Gusmaô, President of Timor-Leste presented the CAVR final report to the National Parliament on 28 November 2005. These events culminate more than two years of multi-disciplinary research, spanning legal reasoning, history, demography, statistics, anthropology and sociology. Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group is honored to have contributed empirically-based statistical and demographic findings to CAVR's final report. We extend our congratulations to the commissioners, staff and partners of the CAVR and especially to the people of Timor-Leste.

As per CAVR's mandate, codified in UNTAET Regulation UNTAET/REG/2001/10, the President of Timor-Leste will hand over the CAVR Final Report to the Secretary General of the United Nations in early December 2005. When the CAVR final report is made public, HRDAG has agreed to co-publish the "Profile of Human Rights Violations in Timor-Leste, 1974-1999" chapter. Furthermore, Benetech will publish anonymized versions of the data from the CAVR interviews, the gravesite census, and the retrospective mortality survey conducted by the CAVR. These data will promote further research on past violations in Timor-Leste. For more information about HRDAG's work with CAVR in Timor-Leste, please refer to HRDAG Timor-Leste Project.

Hissène Habré Indicted — Belgium has issued an international arrest warrant for former Chad-dictator, Hissène Habré, charging him with atrocities during his 1982-90 rule. Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) helped make the case against Habré with its analysis of files belonging to his secret police discovered by Human Rights Watch.

More on the case against Habré at Human Rights Watch's website.

Click here for more on HRDAG's collaboration with Human Rights Watch.

MarArthur Foundation Summer 2005 Newsletter Profiles Benetech Human Rights Programs — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation just published an article on Benetech's human rights program in their newsletter. The Foundation has been a steady supporter of our work in the human rights field, and they recently renewed that commitment with a three year, $800,000 grant to Benetech.

Our human rights program is meeting its sustainability plan thanks to support from people like MacArthur. Our costs are covered by a combination of core support and project-specific funding that we raise in partnership with other human rights groups. Multiyear support for our human rights programs is especially helpful, as it provides us with continuity as well as the ability to invest in core capabilities such as software development for which no one customer can bear the cost. Our goals with core funding, such as the MacArthur support, is to expand our ability to strengthen the global human rights movement with science and technology to make the case for human rights as strong as possible.

We appreciate the support from the MacArthur Foundation, and we look forward to three very productive years!

Read profile here.

Patrick Ball Receives 2005 EFF’s Pioneer Award — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) presented Dr. Patrick Ball with a Pioneer Award at their 14th Annual Pioneer Awards presentation on April 13, 2005. Read the press release

ACM Honors Dr. Patrick Ball — The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) presented the 2003 Lawler Award for humanitarian contributions to Dr. Patrick Ball for his leadership in the creation of Analyzer and Martus, the open source technologies that enable non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to document and analyze human rights violations around the world.

Read the press release here.

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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.