Invitation to Attend AAAS Science and Human Rights Program The Role of Statistics and Statisticians in Human Rights Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:30-2:00PM (refreshments will be provided following the seminar) AAAS Headquarters Auditorium 1200 New York Ave NW Washington DC 20005 This seminar, designed with human rights practitioners in mind, outlines some examples of situations in which statisticians were asked to contribute to human rights projects. Our hope is to allow networking between the statistical community and the human rights community so that the unique contributions that statisticians can make towards human rights advocacy will be utilized in the future. Presentations A Katrina Experience David Banks, Ph.D. Professor, Duke University Durham, NC In 2005 the NSF sponsored a number of research projects on the aftermath of Katrina. This talk describes a survey led by Duke, UNC-Charlotte, and Tulane to study the factors that affected whether or not New Orleans residents chose to evacuate in advance of the storm, and what factors affected their post-Katrina experience. As part of this effort we found that some aspects of classic survey methodology do not work well with unsettled populations, and we developed workarounds that often were surprisingly successful. Guatamala Police Records Gary Shapiro, M.S. Westat Washington, DC Several warehouses were discovered in Guatemala that contain millions of documents belonging to the National Police prior to 1996. The documents are of interest because some provide information on instances of police violence. The Human Rights Data Analysis Group at Benetech was asked to provide technical assistance for understanding and analyzing the archives. In turn, a group of ASA members provided assistance to Benetech on how sampling of these documents could be done. This talk discusses the complex structure of the archives, the sampling that is now being done, and the type of assistance provided to Benetech. Darfur - What Could Have Been Paul L. Zador, Ph.D. Westat Washington, DC Several estimates of deaths during the Darfur crisis will be summarized. The methods used to derive them, and their reliability, will be reviewed and critiqued based in part on comments recently published in GAO's report on the Darfur crisis. The question will be raised: How do we determine the practical difference having precise disaster estimates of deaths, hunger, injuries, etc. might make? A volunteer group designed a survey of refugee camps in Chad, but the survey was never conducted. We will describe the survey's design, and discuss why it never happened. Discussant Erik Voeten, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, George Washington University Washington, DC Sponsors * Human Rights Section, Washington Statistical Society (WSS) * Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (SHRP-AAAS) * Washington-Baltimore Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (DC-AAPOR) * Capitol Area Social Psychologist Association (CASPA) * District of Columbia Sociological Society (DCSS) * District of Columbia Psychological Association (DCPA) RSVP Science and Human Rights Program American Association for the Advancement of Science 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005 Tel: 202 326 6600; Fax: 202 289 4950 Email: < > ======== North American Human Rights Education listserv ======= Send mail intended for the list to < >. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education-na/ **You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the original and listserv source.
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