The investigation of human rights violations is important for accountability, as it holds perpetrators responsible for their actions and seeks justice for victims. It serves to document evidence, deter future abuses, raise awareness, and advocate for policy and legal reforms. Investigations contribute to supporting victims, upholding international human rights standards, and creating a culture of accountability and respect for human rights. The investigation of human rights violations requires a systematic and thorough approach. Before we dive into it, consider taking a look at the following more comprehensive resources.

• Human Rights Monitoring, Fact-finding and Investigation by the United Nations (OHCHR)
• The Handbook of Human Rights Investigation (Dermot Groome)
• Handbook on Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations (PILPG)

Note that in some cases you will not be able to follow the sequence of the steps outlined below. When I took photos and videos of human rights violations during the Egyptian Revolution, there was no time to define the scope or research applicable laws as outlined below. I had to start directly with step 4 which is collecting evidence.

#1 Define the scope

Define the scope of the investigation, including the broad human rights violations, affected individuals or groups, and the geographic and temporal boundaries.

In the first step, identify the alleged human rights violation that forms the basis of the investigation. This involves understanding the specific rights that may have been violated as defined by international human rights law or national laws. For example, the violation could relate to torture, freedom of speech, the right to life, or discrimination, among others. Part of defining the scope, is to narrow down the temporal scope of the violation. It could be a specific date, a time span or a range of dates. You may adjust the time frame as the investigation progresses, when new information is uncovered. The scope of your investigation also includes a geographic dimension. Specify the geographic boundaries of the investigation. This could be a specific location, a broader area, or even multiple areas in different regions or countries.

#2 Research applicable laws and standards

Familiarize yourself with relevant national and international laws, treaties, and human rights standards that apply to the specific violations being investigated.

To ensure the validity of your investigation, researching applicable laws and human rights standards is essential. This process includes reviewing international human rights treaties, regional human rights documents, domestic laws, customary international law and – if the violation occurred during armed conflict – international humanitarian law such as the Geneva Conventions. Remember, while laws and standards provide the framework for determining what constitutes a human rights violation, they do not replace the importance of thorough fact-finding, objective analysis, and sensitive handling of victims and witnesses in any investigation.

#3 Establish a methodology

Develop a clear methodology for the investigation, including data collection methods, interview techniques, and protocols for ensuring the safety and confidentiality of witnesses.

Investigating human rights violations requires a systematic approach to ensure findings are accurate, verifiable, and can withstand scrutiny. The choice of methodology will often be dictated by the context and circumstances. It may include desk research, field research, witness interviews and document/media analysis. Desk research may include media reports, academic articles, reports from human rights organizations, legal documents, and other secondary sources. Interviews, observations, surveys, and collection of physical or digital evidence may be part of field research. Field research should be planned and executed with care to ensure the safety and security of the investigators and those they interact with. Interviews with victims, witnesses, and other relevant individuals are a critical part of many human rights investigations. Interviews should be conducted in a sensitive and respectful manner, in a safe and private environment, and with the informed consent of the interviewee.

#4 Collect evidence

Gather evidence through various sources, including documents, photographs, videos, eyewitness testimonies, expert opinions, and forensic analysis. Ensure proper documentation and chain of custody for all evidence collected.

Collecting evidence during human rights investigations is a sensitive process that must be handled with utmost care and integrity. Different types of evidence may be relevant, including testimonial evidence (such as witness statements), physical evidence, documents, and digital evidence. The quality of evidence is often more important than the quantity. Meticulous record-keeping, preservation of original documents or items, and robust analysis and interpretation are crucial to ensuring that the evidence collected can effectively contribute to achieving justice and accountability. Verify and cross-reference the collected information and evidence to establish its credibility and reliability. Seek multiple sources and perspectives to ensure a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the violations. Consult and engage with relevant stakeholders, including human rights organizations, legal experts, and affected communities. Seek their expertise, input, and collaboration throughout the investigation process.

#5 Analyze and interpret data

Analyze the collected data and evidence to identify patterns, trends, and potential connections. Look for underlying causes, perpetrators, and potential systemic issues contributing to the human rights violations.

Start by compiling all the collected data and organizing it in a manner that facilitates easy retrieval and analysis. This could include creating a database or using specialized software. All data should be handled with care to maintain confidentiality and integrity. Depending on the nature of the investigation, it may be helpful to categorize the data. Categories might include types of human rights violations, geographical locations, time stamps, or perpetrators and victims. Once you’ve understood the factual patterns, you must analyze the data within the framework of applicable human rights laws and standards. This involves assessing whether the facts amount to a violation of specific rights.

#6 Document findings

Prepare a detailed and well-documented report of the investigation findings, including the methodology used, the evidence collected, and the analysis conducted. Present the findings in a clear, objective, and compelling manner. 

A well-structured and comprehensive report enhances the transparency, credibility, and impact of the investigation. Describe in detail the methodology used in the investigation. This should include the methods of data collection and analysis, any challenges faced, and how these were overcome. Be transparent about any limitations of the methodology. Explain the legal framework used in the investigation. This should include the international, regional, and national laws and standards relevant to the alleged violations. Present your findings in a clear and structured manner. This could be organized by type of violation, location, perpetrator, victim group, or any other relevant categorization. For each finding, describe the evidence and how you arrived at your conclusion. Use direct quotes, case studies, or specific examples where appropriate.

#7 Advocate for justice and accountability

Utilize the investigation findings to advocate for justice, accountability, and remedial actions. Share the report with relevant authorities, human rights organizations, media outlets, and other stakeholders to raise awareness and support efforts to address the violations.

Once you’ve conducted a thorough human rights violation investigation and documented your findings, advocating for justice and accountability is the next important step. This process can take many forms depending on the context, the nature of the violations, and the available resources. You may want to make the investigation report public and ensure it reaches key stakeholders. This could include government officials, human rights organizations, the media, and the general public. Using various platforms (online, print media, public forums) can increase the reach and impact of the report. You may also want to advocate for policy changes to prevent future violations. This could involve changes to laws, regulations, or practices that contributed to the violations. Depending on the situation, it may be appropriate to engage with international bodies like the United Nations or regional human rights bodies. This could involve submitting reports, participating in reviews, or lobbying for resolutions or other actions. Raising public awareness and understanding of the violations can generate public pressure for accountability and change. This could involve public forums, educational programs, social media campaigns, or other awareness-raising activities.

The post How to Investigate Human Rights Violations appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

I was born and raised in Venezuela, therefore since a young age I was aware of who Hugo Chavez was and how 21st century socialism works.

When I finished high school I decided that I would study Law, back then the last thing I thought was that I would end up working in the ​​Human Rights field. However, in 2014 when I finished my degree and while I was waiting for my certificate, Venezuelan mass protests against the government started. These in particular were headed by university students and supported by people of all ages who were fed up with the economic, political, and social crisis Venezuela was going through. I was 20 years old at the time, so this was the first opportunity I had to consciously take part in the protests, to do it by my own choice and without any restriction from my parents.

As the protests developed and the number of and the number of participants in the street increased, police and military repression intensified aggressively, this involved arbitrary detentions, unauthorized and violent raids in residential areas, and unwarranted counter-insurgency strategies against the marchers. I was shocked by this kind of actions, I had just finished my degree and this was nowhere near as what I had been taught in Law school.

Coping with this, my immediate reaction was calling my former professors and asking them for help to take up the cases of people who had been arbitrarily detained. Although I received their support, most of them weren’t willing to go through all the judicial process. It was then when I met a group of volunteer lawyers who worked providing legal assistance to the arbitrarily detained, and that’s when I went from being a simple protestor to being this group of lawyers’ assistant.

Since then, my participation in the protests changed, and my days went by visiting detention centers in order to talk to the victims’ relatives and being in courtrooms assisting the lawyers. After a few weeks into this, one of my professors called me to warn me and my co-workers about something we were ignoring until then: that all the cases and information we were managing had to be documented and that we had to make the respective reports. If we didn’t do this, all the effort we were doing would be erased in time, and most importantly, we wouldn’t get an effective response and actions towards the human rights violations that had happened. Ever since then, I started documenting the cases of human rights violations with the help of a friend, colleague, and later co-founder of an NGO.

Now, documenting sounds pretty straight forward in theory, you explain the victim why you need to document it and how much better the process will go the sooner it gets documented, since the details are important to determine exactly which rights were violated, then you find a meeting place where the victim feels comfortable enough to share their testimony, among other things. However, this process turns out to be quite different when it’s done during times of protests and political persecution, starting with the fact that many of the victims weren’t even aware that their rights had been violated.

This way, not only did I get my first job as a defender, but I also learned how to do it under harsh and irregular circumstances, that’s the reason why through the next part of this article I will share some basics how to make an effective documentation during times of political crisis.

Establishing trust during interviews

Many of the people we managed to assist in Maracaibo were reluctant to report on their cases, since they didn’t know who we were and naturally doubted our good intentions. With that in mind, we decided to go to the detention centers and the residential areas, where the raids were taking place, in order to have a face-to-face conversation with the victims.

This way we had the chance to explain to them, first and foremost, that what was happening to them was something out of the ordinary, and that they had done nothing wrong. We also made sure they understood that the actions performed by the policemen were violating their constitutional and human rights, and consequently, they were being the victims, so the only way to place these events on record was reporting them.

As lawyer, professor, and human rights defender, reporting such kind of situations is absolutely imperative to me, but one must always respect the victim’s decision, this means keeping things private if so they want to, and never judging them for refusing to report.

Identifying the right location

Under these harsh circumstances, meeting with people who had been previously identified as “opposition” was quite difficult, because the Venezuelan Criminal Code states a type of crime called “criminal association,” referring to when two or more people gather to commit a crime. Evidently, in the eyes of government officials, documenting the human rights violation that they had done was more than enough for us to be prosecuted for this crime.

Because of that, one of the most important things to take into consideration is choosing a meeting place located far enough from the “crime” scene; therefore, the victim’s residence is often not an option to make the documentation. It also shouldn’t be a place directly linked to any of the people who carry out the documentation process, since this could lead to grave disservices not only to them, but also to their families.

Try to make separate appointments for each victim individually and at different hours, this is recommended in order to keep things more private and strengthen the trust you already established with them. Keep in mind that, on the one hand, the person probably won’t feel comfortable discussing their case around people they don’t know; they’ll feel safer talking only to the person that first contacted them, and on the other, the less people gather, the less you’re likely to attract any undesired attention. I also recommend to constantly change the meeting times and places in order to avoid a routine that might be easily detected and intercepted.

Choosing the right means of communication

When we find ourselves in an environment of political crisis, telephone communication must be avoided at all levels, since interception of calls and text messages is very common in this scenery, even more so when this involves people who have been previously identified and are now a target.

That’s why I recommend not mentioning any meeting place or times through phone calls, all the directions must be agreed personally. At the time, my co-workers and I used to have keywords to identify the specific places where the documentation process would take place and where we would go in case of an interception.

Creating backups

You must always have backups of the documentation, and backups of those backups, information collected shouldn’t be kept in only one place, it’s recommended to have an external hard drive with the data kept in a safe place, preferably someone you can trust and that is currently out of the work group.

Additionally, I suggest you to make regular backups of your cellphone so you don’t keep any information about the victims or their cases in it, because this is something you usually carry everywhere and in case you’re detained, it’ll be confiscated and inspected.

Having a security protocol

It’s important to be aware that, during a political and social crisis, documenting human rights violations for subsequent reports might have serious repercussions, and this is a reality you must accept. Therefore it is recommended to have a security protocol with your work team where you consider even the worst scenarios possible and decide which action plan you will use. This involves information like who to call in case you’re detained, what level of public visibility you’d like to be given to your case, etc.)

All of the information I’m sharing in this article was obtained by trial-and-error work. This was my first experience working as a lawyer, I had never done anything like that, and I never thought that would become my day to day. Right now, Venezuela’s political, social, and economic crisis has worsened, so have the protests, and so has the brutal repression from the government. Each one of the previous tips are being currently used, this time on a much more organized way through CODHEZ, an NGO I co-founded with my work team back in 2014, which is specially dedicated to defend, document, and give visibility to the increasing amount of human rights violation cases here in the Zulia state, Venezuela.

The post 5 Basic tips on documenting human rights violations during a political crisis appeared first on Human Rights Careers.