“We’re not used to having data scientists on our side...”


Human Rights Data Analysis Group
2021 year in review

What It Means to Partner for Justice

As a result, we always try to convey to our partners the “why” for all of our methods and interpretations.

Why do we use this tool and not another?
How are we reaching a particular conclusion?
Why can (or can’t) we make an important statement of fact?

For those partners who do want to dig deeper, we value training the next generation of data analysts as part of our mission. Our team spends hundreds of hours training partners, teaching them how to train their partners, building tools to help with their work, and empowering them to take the lead in their communities.

Growing the field of experts with the skills to do this work, and accompanying those already doing the work, are two ways in which HRDAG is on the side of our partners. It’s all part of our model of radical service.

Each partnership begins with a conversation. The stories highlighted in the following pages are just two examples of projects that can result when technical experts and subject matter experts work together. I hope they prompt you to consider what questions you might have about data, and what conversations you want to begin.

The Quest for Answers in Colombia

GUIDING A PARTNER THROUGH COLLABORATION, TOOLS, AND TRAININGS

After decades of armed conflict, a peace accord was reached in Colombia in 2016, triggering a formal peace process. In June 2020, HRDAG’s team began working with Colombian analysts, marking the tenth truth commission HRDAG has advised.

Current project: 18 months and counting
Analysts trained: 20+

María Alejandra Ortiz is an analyst with the Colombian truth commission (formally La Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad, la Convivencia y la No Repetición, or CEV). When she started this project she was nervous about all the new technical tools the team would be using. Now she confidently teaches those same tools and principles to new colleagues.

Colombia’s formal peace process involves investigations and a lot of documentation. With 40 organizations contributing unique datasets describing the violent conflict, there are 20 million records to integrate and analyze. We are working with Colombian researchers to tackle this enormous task.

Typically for this kind of project we would go on-site to work with and teach our colleagues in person. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we adapted our training to be virtual. The HRDAG team led three 90-minute sessions a week, in Spanish, to train our colleagues in Colombia. Those colleagues, like María Alejandra, are now training new analysts at their own institutions.

Maria Gargiulo spent the summer of 2018 as an intern with HRDAG. She returned in 2020 as a statistician on our team and, together with Patrick Ball, she led much of the training of the analysts in Colombia. This is one example of how we grow the field of data scientists working on the side of activists.

In her role as HRDAG statistician, Maria noted, “The science communication aspect of this work is crucial. Helping the analysts grasp the concepts, math, and code takes time and trust. After learning these skills comes the hard part — comprehending and sharing what the data really means.”

Uncovering Hidden Violations by Police

A CHICAGO PARTNER RECRUITS HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS EAGER TO ANALYZE POLICE DATA

Complaint Records contain detailed descriptions of interactions with police. A record may specify multiple violations, but these can be obscured by official coding procedures that flatten accounts into a single category, like “Improper search of person” or “Conduct unbecoming.” A team of volunteers in Chicago is working to uncover these vital details and share with their community what they’re learning.

Current project: 8 months and counting
Volunteers-in-training: 200+

Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Data Director at Chicago nonprofit the Invisible Institute, knows the power of data analysis. And she wants to put that power in the hands of more community members, who are eager to be trained. Trina leads teams processing and analyzing hundreds of thousands of pdf files turned over as a result of two lawsuits: Jamie Kalven v. City of Chicago (2014) and Charles Green v. Chicago Police Department (2020). These files represent decades of citizen complaint reports filed against the Chicago Police Department.

Trina and Tarak Shah from HRDAG offer weekly virtual training sessions with a Chicago-based group of analysts and volunteers to identify all the violations described in a complaint. This approach both raises the visibility of under-documented forms of misconduct (such as gender-based violence) and enables a single record to serve as evidence in multiple different types of investigations.

As Trina realized, “It was a little bit overwhelming, because I was really unsure how we would process so much information, and where do we start?”

It’s the mission of organizations like the Invisible Institute and HRDAG to help affected communities and their allies discover how to collect, preserve, and analyze data to hold institutions accountable and challenge impunity. One important step is teaching communities how to get the most out of the data they have worked so hard to get.

2021, AND 30 YEARS OF RADICAL SERVICE

As you read this year in review, we mark 30 years of using data science to advance human rights, and we are steeped in the work of our 10th truth commission. Over the course of the next year, we look forward to sharing more stories from three decades of radical service, accompanying and training partners. Much of HRDAG’s work happens behind the scenes — providing training and support to our partners — and we generally prefer it that way. But we are also gratified when our work is highlighted and celebrated in more public forums. This year we were especially satisfied to hear the United Nations High Commissioner present our analysis of conflict-related deaths in Syria during her report to the Human Rights Council. And we were honored and humbled to be named the 2021 recipients of the Rafto Prize for Human Rights, and to see our work acknowledged alongside that of 35 previous Rafto laureates from around the globe. At HRDAG, we are profoundly grateful to our loyal and generous community for believing in and supporting the role we serve with our partners, and for sharing our commitment to rigorous scientific methods in the fight for human rights and justice.

Megan Price
Executive Director