Beyond statistics: HRDAG 2020 year in review

We show that statistics have human consequences

WORKING WITH PARTNERS

Protecting the privacy of whistle-blowers: The Staten Island Files

HRDAG built a machine-learning tool to strip the raw data of any potentially identifying information such as names and court case numbers. There was no "acceptable error rate."
Learn more about The Staten Island Files.

Data science and police accountability

Human bias is baked into criminal justice data, from who gets arrested, to what charges they are booked on, to what happens after they are in custody. HRDAG investigates how these data inform the artificial intelligence that underpins tools used by police and judges. Read more.

Statistics and Covid-19

Most of the available data on the coronavirus pandemic are incomplete and unrepresentative, which creates uncertainty. But HRDAG excels at making sense of imperfect data sets. We identify and interpret the best science, and we provide guidance through original publications. Read more.

Finding Mexico’s hidden graves

For more than ten years, Mexican authorities have been discovering hidden graves. HRDAG creates models to predict the probability of finding a grave in each county, which helps families of the disappeared develop search strategies. Read more.

Lessons at HRDAG: Making More Syrian Records Usable

If we could glean key missing information from those fields, we would be able to use more records.

HRDAG Names New Board Member William Isaac

William Isaac joins HRDAG's Advisory Board, bringing expertise in fairness and artificial intelligence.

Estimating the Number of SARS-CoV-2 Infections and the Impact of Mitigation Policies

This Harvard Data Science Review article uses the least unreliable source of pandemic data: reported deaths.

We believe truth leads to accountability. Enabling accountability for human rights violations is our highest purpose.

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We are statisticians for human rights

Being independent, non-profit, and non-partisan, we can apply rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world. As scientists, we work to support our partners—the advocates and human rights defenders who “speak truth to power”—by producing unbiased, scientific results that bring clarity to human rights violence and by ensuring that the “truth” is the most accurate truth possible. Three directives guide our work:

Apply science to create new knowledge

We help to establish a scientifically defensible historical record of human rights abuses, including publishing public reports and providing expert testimony in war crimes trials.

Conduct basic research and development

We invent and extend scientific methods so that we can better understand patterns of mass violence.

Educate through outreach

Through speaking engagements, publications, and training graduate students, we help those working in the human rights community to better understand the role and power of statistical data and reasoning.

Inaccurate statistics can damage the credibility of human rights claims—that’s why statistics about human rights violations must be as scientifically accurate as possible.

Learn about our methods

Partners We Have Worked With

Who we are

Megan Price, PhD

Executive Director

Designs strategies and methods for statistical analysis of human rights data for projects in a variety of locations including Guatemala, Colombia, and Syria.

Patrick Ball, PhD

Director of Research

More than twenty years of quantitative analysis for truth commissions, non-governmental organizations, international criminal tribunals, and United Nations missions.

Tarak Shah

Data Scientist

As HRDAG's data scientist, Tarak cleans, processes and builds models from data in order to understand evidence of human rights abuses.

Suzanne Nathans

Operations Coordinator

Over 20 years of experience in non-profit administration. The operations hub for HRDAG, supporting Megan and the rest of the team from the San Francisco office.

Maria Gargiulo

Statistician

Maria joined HRDAG as a statistician in 2020, and interned with the organization in 2018.

Kristen Yawitz

Foundation Relations and Strategy Lead

Kristen helps to refine HRDAG's fundraising, communications and strategy.

HRDAG team members present talks around the world to communities who want to better understand the power of data analysis to defend human rights.

View all talks

Our work has been used by truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, and non-governmental human rights organizations. We have worked with partners on projects on five continents.

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