At HURIDOCS, we work with human rights organisations to preserve documentation for memory, advance accountability for abuses and bring key information on human rights at our fingertips. As we are nearing the end of 2018, I want to look back at some of the highlights that shaped our year. Personally, I have been thrilled to […]
Author Archive | Friedhelm Weinberg
HURIDOCS celebrates 30 years with Bert Verstappen!
On behalf of the team and board of HURIDOCS, it is our great pleasure to congratulate Bert Verstappen on his 30th work anniversary with HURIDOCS. A trained historian, Bert has been working with HURIDOCS since 1987. He has coordinated the work of different task forces and co-authored essential HURIDOCS publications. Today he is involved in […]
Community-sourced recommendations on sustaining open source products
Most of the technological aspirations and objectives that we pursue in the human rights and internet freedom communities–transparency, security, openness for modification/adaptation to different contexts, etc.– are necessarily based on Free and Open-source Software (FOSS). However, launching a successful FOSS project can present significant challenges. This March at the Internet Freedom Festival (IFF) in Valencia, […]
Need to Improve Organizational Security? Build Relationships
When a group of organizational security practitioners gathered in Prague this February, we were cautiously optimistic about what we could achieve. Organizational security is about empowering human rights organisations to protect themselves, the people they serve and their information – so that organisations can realize their missions. We added organizational security assessments and support to our […]
Solving challenges for human rights defenders in 2016
To maximize the impact of human rights organizations across the world this year, we’ll equip defenders with new systems for liberating information and adapt our support to meet the ever-changing challenges of our current partners. Effective information management is human-centered and requires an in-depth understanding of people, purpose, and goals. More than ever in 2015, we […]
Responsible Data Forum on Human Rights Documentation – Philippines, 21-22 March 2015
The Responsible Data Forum on Human Rights Documentation will bring together practitioners and researchers to explore the ethical, privacy and security challenges posed by the use of data and new technologies in human rights documentation. It will be held just outside of Manila, The Philippines, on 21-22 March, on the fringes of RightsCon. The Forum […]
Casebox Security Strongly Improved – Code Audit Report Published
This summer, the security of Casebox’ code and servers has been externally audited by Cure53, an expert software security company. Our software for human rights information management has become much more secure as a result of this, and we have made organisational changes to incorporate lessons learned into the software development process. “We were hoping […]
Boost to HURIDOCS’ Technology and Security Expertise
HURIDOCS technology and security expertise has been boosted considerably through the addition of a Chief Technology Officer and a new board member with extensive knowledge on information security for human rights. Dmitri Vitaliev, Director of equalit.ie, is one of the most renowned experts on information security in civil society and author of “Digital Security and […]
How To Make It Work – Our Approach to Capacity Building
It is the people that count. Our focus is technology with human rights organisations: We build databases, case management systems or websites. But a tool is always there for someone, be it a grassroots activist, who needs to swiftly and securely transfer information about what she witnessed; or an analyst, who monitors trends and alerts […]
What Privacy?
Privacy is a human right that may often feel elusive, but when it is violated its loss becomes tangible. When you cannot know if what you say will be heard only by those who are supposed to, how can you speak freely? If everything you do at home can be torn into the public realm, […]
No use for tech, if there are no hustlers – Our recap of the Open Knowledge Conference
It takes three days to show there is a great movement around the world that wants to open up data, and it will take a much longer time until this happens, the data will be used, re-used and understood by those it belongs to and affects. To speed up this process, share good ideas and […]
Ten tips to keep your website safe
You may have heard, GreenNet, which hosts many NGO websites, suffered a massive DDoS attack and as a result, their sites went offline, some for up to a week. Websites are becoming a key strategic tool for civil society communications, and so its perhaps natural to expect that some repressive governments, or large corporations who […]
NGO Forum website launched before crucial presidential elections in Zimbabwe
As Zimbabwe is heading for presidential elections on 31 July, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum launches an updated website, supported by HURIDOCS. It will be a major source for reliable information during the elections, while providing easy access to an archive of over 300 publications on human rights developments in Zimbabwe. In time for […]
Announcing OpenEvsys 2.0: Even more user-friendly, charts and maps, stronger security
We asked specialists to hack OpenEvsys, our software for documenting human rights violations, and we asked users what they want. The result is OpenEvsys 2.0, which will be launched 1 July. It is a major update to improve security, analysis features and design. With enhanced security and more powerful analysis tools OpenEvsys sees a major […]
No more sleepless nights at the library
A symposium on human rights law attracted a large number of students at the University of The Gambia eager to devote their future to the protection and promotion of human rights in Africa. Speakers at the symposium stressed the importance of thorough research for the students’ recent and future work and introduced the African Human […]
“It’s a long process, but a worthwhile pursuit“
Handling information effectively, using its potential to maximize the impact of advocacy – this is a serious challenge, and one that Janet Haven of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) has been working on for almost a decade. In this interview she talks about why she is convinced this is important, how she is constantly looking […]
“It really feels like we are at the edge of a tech revolution” – Interview with Loren Treisman
Three days after finishing her PhD, Loren Treisman went to East Africa and her life started to take a different turn. Now she is Executive of Indigo Trust, a philanthropic fund that awards mostly small grants to small, community-driven projects in Africa that use technology for social change. In this interview, Loren talks about what […]
“For us, it was a very good opportunity to get access to information that we usually could not get“
Originally from Ghana, Johannes Buabeng-Baidoo later moved to South Africa and is now a lecturer in human rights law at the University of the Gambia. He is an enthusiast about human rights, works closely with his students to help them understand the African human rights system and wants them to become ready to make sharp […]
How to organise 40,000 photos? (And why bother to do it)
Why is it important to keep things in order? It takes time and keeps you away from actual work. “Only the stupid need organisation — the genius controls the chaos”, Albert Einstein supposedly said. So why bother? Why have an organisation like HURIDOCS that helps others build databases, organise (and build) their websites and train […]