Announcement of the 24th Meeting of the European Coordination Committee on
Human Rights Documentation
and Minutes from the 23rd Meeting, Barcelona, March 2000
Dear Friends and Colleagues
As the year draws to a close, it is time to remind you of the 24th Meeting
of the ECCHRD, which (as agreed at the 23rd Meeting in Barcelona, March
2000) will be held in St.Petersburg, Russia, and has now been scheduled
for April 18-21, 2001.
Below please find below the announcement for the 2001 meeting, including a
DRAFT agenda (on which you are welcome to comment, and suggest additional
topics), plus the Minutes of the 23rd ECCHRD Meeting.
The formal invitation for the 2001 meeting, including registration
information etc., will be sent to you early in the new year.
We at the Secretariat would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a
Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. We hope to see MANY of you in St.
Petersburg!
Best regards
Sven-Erik Baun, Head of Documentation
Anja Zuschlag, Secretary, Advocacy and Information Dept.
The ECCHRD Secretariat
IRCT, The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
Borgergade 13
P.O.Box 2107
DK-1014 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Phone: +45 33 76 06 00
Fax: +45 33 76 05 00
e-mail: sven_baun@irct.org
anja_zuschlag@irct.org
ECCHRD
The European Coordination Committee for Human Rights Documentation
Announcing the
24th meeting, St. Petersburg, Russia - April 20-21, 2001
With two introductory sessions:
Introductory session for Russian-speaking participants 'Human Rights
Documentation in Europe' (Other 'newcomers' to the network are also welcome)
April 18
Introductory training session on the HURIDOCS Bibliographic Standard
Formats and the UNESCO WinISIS software (for all interested participants -
with Russian translation)
April 19
_______________________________________________________________________________
Dear friends and colleagues
As decided at the 23rd Meeting of the ECCHRD in Barcelona in March this
year, the 2001 meeting of the ECCHRD will be held in St. Petersburg,
Russia, and hosted by Leonid Lvov and his colleagues at the Harold and
Selma Light Center for Human Rights Advocacy. Dates have now been fixed for
April 20-21, with two introductory sessions on the 18th and 19th.
The meeting will be held in the Hotel Rus'. (The address will be
communicated with the formal invitation early in 2001 - see below). A
number of rooms have been booked by Leonid in the hotel, at a price of
approx. $42 per night for a single room (the price for double rooms is not
available to us at the time of writing).
Below you will find a draft agenda for the meeting - please note that at
this time the agenda is still subject to change, and also consider that
your suggestions for points on the agenda could still be taken up by the
organisers, who are:
The Secretariat: Sven-Erik Baun (sven_baun@irct.org)
Anja Zuschlag (anja_zuschlag@irct.org)
IRCT, the International Rehabilitation Council for
Torture Victims
Copenhagen, Denmark
The Host organisation: Leonid Lvov (labal@mail.wplus.net)
The Harold and Selma Light Center for Human Rights
Advocacy
St. Petersburg, Russia
HURIDOCS: Bert Verstappen (huridocs@comlink.org)
HURIDOCS Head Office
Geneva, Switzerland
We hope that this announcement will enable you to start planning for your
participation in the 2001 meeting. You will receive the formal invitation
to the meeting, including registration forms and final agenda, as early in
the new year as possible.
Please remember: As announced in Barcelona, this is - definitely! - the
last meeting for which the IRCT will act as ECCHRD Secretariat. After 8
years of service we resign, trusting that another organisation will take
over, so that there WILL be a 25th JUBILEE meeting of the ECCHRD in 2002!
Please consider taking a turn at this admittedly somewhat time-consuming,
but also enjoyable and rewarding (no, not financially!) task.
Best regards
Sven-Erik Baun & Anja Zuschlag
Secretariat of the 24th Meeting of the ECCHRD, St.Petersburg 2001
___________________________________________________________________
24th ECCHRD Meeting. St. Petersburg, 18-21 April, 2000
DRAFT AGENDA
Wednesday 18 April
>From 9:00
Registration of participants Introductory Sessions in Hotel Rus'
12:30 Lunch
Introductory session
13:30- 15:30 Introductory session for Russian-speaking participants:
issues in Human Rights Documentation in Europe
15:50-18:15 Introductory session (continuation)
Thursday 19 April
Introductory Training Session
The HURIDOCS Bibliographic Standard Formats
and the UNESCO WinISIS software
Morning session:
9:15-13.30 Bibliographic Standard Formats (BSF)
Afternoon session:
14:30-18.50 WinISIS software
19:30 Reception (Light-center, Citizens' Watch)
Friday 20 April
Meeting of the European Co-ordination Committee
on Human Rights Documentation (ECCHRD)
09.00 - 09.10 Opening of the meeting
09.10 - 09.20 Opening address by representative of the Harold and Selma Light
Center for Human Rights Advocacy
09.20 - 09.30 Election of the chairperson
09.30 - 10.45 Presentation of participants and their organisations
10.45 - 11.00 Coffee Break
11.00 - 11.20 Minutes of the 23rd meeting (Barcelona 2000)
11.20 - 13.00 Electronic publishing
13.00 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 16.00 Human Rights Documentation in Russia:
Issues and Challenges (Discussion)
16.00-16.15 Coffee Break
16.15 - 17.45 Copyright and Human Rights
Saturday 21 April
09.00 - 10.00 Developments within HURIDOCS
10.00 - 10.45 Standardisation in the Internet: from HTML to XML
10.45 - 11.00 Coffee Break
11.00 - 11.20 Introduction to Thematic networks and Task Forces
11.20 - 13.00 Separate meetings of Thematic networks and Task Forces,
including:
* Refugees/minorities/migration
* Torture
* Children
* Freedom of Expression
* Interface IGO/NGO
* Information technology - IT
* Client Documentation
13.00 - 14.00 Lunch
14.15 - 15.00 Thematic networks and Task forces (continued)
15.00 - 16.30 Reports of Thematic networks / Task Forces
16.30 - 16.45 Coffee Break
16.45 - 17.15 The future of the ECCHRD (including new Secretariat)
17.15 - 17.30 Date, place and secretariat of next meeting
18.00 - Closing
Minutes of the 23rd Meeting
of the European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation
24-25 March 2000, Barcelona, Spain
Rapporteur: Lotte Albret Wissing (IRCT)
The year 2000 meeting of the European Co-ordination Committee on Human
Rights Documentation (ECCHRD) was organised by the Internationa
Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (IRCT), which served a
secretariat of the meeting, and the Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya
(IDHC), with the assistance of HURIDOCS.
The meeting was held at the Civic Centre Pati Llimona of Barcelona.
1. Opening of the meeting
Sven-Erik Baun, IRCT, welcomed the participants to the meeting and presented
the organisers: Montse Tafalla (IDHC), Bert Verstappen (HURIDOCS) and staff
from IRCT. A special thank you was extended to IDHC, the local organisers
of the meeting, also for hosting a very nice reception in the IDHC office
the previous evening.
On behalf of IDHC, Montse Tafalla welcomed the participants to Barcelona and
provided practical information.
2. Adoption of the agenda
The presentation of the European Human Rights Internet Site (EHRIS)
announced in the draft agenda was cancelled, since the presenters from
EHRIS could not attend the meeting. It was replaced by a presentation of
XML.
3. Election of the chairperson
James Lawson (Council of Europe) was elected chairperson with acclamation.
4. Presentation of participants
All participants presented themselves and their organisation (final list of
participants in annex).
James Lawson welcomed the new participants and stressed that the ECCHRD
meetings were very informal, allowing people with similar interests to meet
and share information and experiences. The work in smaller sub-groups
(thematic network groups) should allow for more interaction.
5. Minutes of the 22nd meeting in Berlin, March 1999
The minutes were adopted.
6. Presentation of and reports from Thematic Networks and Task Forces
The Chair re-iterated that issues taken up in thematic networks and task
forces should focus on but can also go beyond using tools and techniques
for information handling and exchange.
Refugees/minorities/migration
Genevieve Bador (UNHCR) reported about latest developments of the refugees
network, IDRN. The network had reduced its ambitions, with currently no
co-ordinator and hence a more informal structure. A smaller task force
composed of the UN library, IOM, the ICRC Refugee Studies Centre, and UNHCR
had been reconstituted.
The International Thesaurus of Refugee Terminology was currently too complex
to be published on the Web, but an international working group was in the
process of reviewing and simplifying it.
Torture
Sven-Erik Baun, IRCT, informed about the International Torture Documentation
Network (ITDN) which currently had an informal structure of 31
rehabilitation centres for torture victims. There was however a wish to
re-establish the network, supported by IRCT's regionalization project
through the establishment of information-documentation activities.
Questionnaires had been used to identify needs, wishes and capacities in
the network.
A wish for increased European networking along the lines of the global
approach was expressed in this connection.
Index terms on torture
Sven-Erik Baun informed about the current manpower constraints of this task
force. There was thus nothing to report on this issue this year.
The Psychotrauma Documentation Network (PDN)
Marc van Kuik (Foundation ICODO) presented this new network. The ICODO
Foundation is mainly dealing with consequences of war and violence, but saw
a problem of keeping up with new information in a multidisciplinary
environment. In response, the PDN was launched in November 1999 in Utrecht.
The network currently consisted of 11 participants, but was open to new
members, especially to users of the network. Users would be defined
eventually, but it was also necessary to disseminate information about the
services of PDN.
Children
Frederiek Eggink (Foundation ICODO) had received no response to solicited
feedback on this subject. ICODO covers rights of children in war and
conflict situations, Defence for Children International was another
existing network, and Frederiek Eggink recommended that interaction with
other networks be sought.
Freedom of expression
No reporting.
Interface IGO/NGO
James Lawson (Council of Europe) advised of the Council's intention to work
on a more bilateral basis, but due to reorganisations there had been a lack
of networking.
Genevieve Bador (UNHCR) informed that a guide on protecting NGOs in the
field had been issued by UNHCR.
It was suggested that some IGOs in Geneva should organise a meeting with
some Geneva-based NGOs for a discussion on increased collaboration between
IGOs and NGOs.
Information Technology
No reporting.
Client documentation
Sven-Erik Baun (IRCT) cautioned that this was a sensitive issue closely
related to confidentiality, client protection, etc., but that IRCT was
looking at the possibilities of some recording and documenting in
connection with the development of a torture incidence reporting system.
Detention
Patrick Muller (CPT Documentation Centre, Council of Europe) reported on
the different approaches to the topic among the task force group members.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) works primarily
within prisons, Penal Reform International (PRI) promotes a reform of the
entire prison system.
Patrick Muler was working on index terms for detention issues for
eventual publishing on the website for public use. The development was
based on internal work and requirements, with some expected adjustments for
external use.
General list of index terms
Agnethe Olesen (Danish Centre for Human Rights) presented the final draft
list of suggested added terms to the list. After the last deadline by
end-March, the final list will be distributed in the HURIDOCS network. Bert
Verstappen is co-ordinating global input from a HURIDOCS working group. The
list could eventually ALSO be used as keywords for meta-tagging.
7. Utilizing the Internet for Human Rights Documentation: Practical
experiences of Nizkor/Derechos
Antonia Macias and Gregorio Dionis (Nizkor International Human Rights Team)
gave a presentation of their organisation and how they used the Internet
for human rights documentation and dissemination.
Nizkor originated in the seventies when global communication systems began
to grow. In the early nineties, with human rights organisations' increased
access to Internet and electronic information, Nizkor developed a system of
making documents from grassroots human rights organisations in Latin
America available in electronic formats in Spanish, due to the lack of
documentation in Spanish in these areas, and undertook an analysis to
understand systematic violations.
A computer system was established in the USA, and work started on the
principles of international law from the human rights activism viewpoint,
with impunity as a main topic. Eventually Nizkor looked into cases before
international courts, co-operating with national human rights
organisations. Another line of work was on conflict areas, to prevent
conflict and reach peaceful solutions (active in the Philippines, Colombia,
Mexico, Peru). Another activity was the Global Internet Liberty Campaign,
to promote freedom of expression, cryptography, privacy and access to
Internet.
The main philosophy of Nizkor was to disseminate information about human
rights violations as soon as they occur in support of documenting the
events, and also in an attempt to prevent the violations. Use of all known
technology, basically the Internet (web pages with documentation and links
to situation and information related to each country).and electronic mail
were used in this effort. Nizkor is currently active in 120 countries in
collaboration with local human rights organisations, especially on cases
not covered by mainstream media. The activities covered both information
messages and urgent actions. Through its network, Nizkor delivered daily
250-300 MB =3D 130,000 A4 pages which could not be distributed in printed
format. It enabled even very small organisations to make public
dissemination of documentation. The Spanish network reached 3,500 human
rights activists and organisations.
Nizkor was experiencing an enormous development, but lack of resources
prevented analysis and dissemination of all incoming information.
8. Reports from separate meetings of Thematic Networks and Task Forces
**
The Torture Network
The plans for further development of the torture thesaurus initiated by
Kirsti Sparrevohn (OASIS) and Sven-Erik Baun (IRCT) were presented. An
initial draft of preferred terms, based on existing terms in other areas
(e.g. UNHCR), will be circulated. The possibility of a joint clearinghouse
on documentation had been discussed, but requires further work.
On the issue of training in torture documentation, IRCT would develop a
questionnaire to make a needs assessment, funding might be available at
IRCT for participants outside Europe.
A journal in Russian was required for post-totalitarian countries, the
International Medical Rehabilitation Center (IRC) had taken on this
initiative and solicited inputs (such as articles, etc.).
Electronic publishing was another issue dealt with by the group, including
the problem of copyright especially for scientific articles. A 'pool' of
general clearing of texts by collaborating organisations was suggested, an
idea for a special topic at next year's meeting.
9. From HTML to XML
Fiona Bolt and Carolyn Eager (Amnesty International) gave a general
presentation of the developments in Internet text languages, based on
seminars at Amnesty.
XML was good for searching (unlimited meta-tags could be added according to
own needs, but unified search engines were still missing), viewing (flexibi
lity in the sense that different style sheets could be applied to suit
different needs), and data exchange (standardised, not platform dependent -
Mac, PCs, etc.).
The HURIDOCS standard terms had already been developed and could be
translated easily into XML, with the possibility of displaying different
characters from different languages in the same document. Unfortunately,
Microsoft was not currently supporting XML.
A small HURIDOCS project on embedding Dublin Core meta-tagging into HTML
coding was mentioned, the document was available on the HURIDOCS website.
HURIDOCS was encouraged to establish relevant links on the issues (now
available at www.huridocs.org/elecpubl.htm).
A working group on XML was proposed, consisting of Jeff Howarth
(Anti-Slavery International - co-ordinator), James Lawson, Carolyn Eager,
Fiona Bolt, and Patrick Muler. Others interested were most welcome. A
short article in HURIDOCS News was suggested, as well as taking up the
issue as a theme at next year's meeting, including a workshop.
10. Human Rights Developments within the Council of Europe
James Lawson briefed that there had been many changes in structure within
the Council in Europe (CoE), which now included 41 member states. Working
from a number of treaty bodies on human rights, a range of monitoring
activities were carried out in the CoE. Within the Convention on Human
Rights, the changes had resulted in a single court (the European Court on
Human Rights) divided into smaller chambers, with only major cases
presented in plenary. Decisions were now only available in one language for
publication in the Official Series, others were only published in HUDOC.
Surveying execution of decisions was now becoming a crucial issue.
All public documents were available on the web site, divided currently into
four different topics. New web sites on social charter and police would be
launched soon. Web sites on minorities, media, and equality between women
and men were in the final stages. Country by country reports were mostly
not on the web, due to resources not currently available. By the end of
2000, the CoE expected to have a search facility on all web sites.
11. Developments within HURIDOCS
Bert Verstappen gave a summary of latest developments within HURIDOCS (for a
full description, including background information about HURIDOCS, please
consult the HURIDOCS web site at WWW.HURIDOCS.ORG.
As part of a new strategic plan to meet the challenges of the new
millennium, the HURIDOCS activities have been reorganised into five
programmes.
Tools, Standards and Techniques Development
Among new tools mentioned were: (1) adaptations of WinEvsys (the
Windows-based software for monitoring human rights violations), HURISEARCH
(a search engine), and various tools and resources for monitoring economic,
social and cultural rights.
Training
The HURIDOCS Training Programme focused mainly on the use of its tools. A
major goal for HURIDOCS is to expand its training capacities with a series
of training courses for trainers and with the issue of comprehensive
training and users manual.
Consultancy, Advice and Support
This new HURIDOCS programme was designed to give more attention to providing
constant on-site support to users of the growing number of HURIDOCS tools.
Information and Outreach Programme
This programme encompasses among others participation in and presentation at
meetings and conferences, publication of the HURIDOCS Newsletter, and
dissemination of tools and information with publishing via the Internet and
CD-ROMs as supplement to other means of distribution.
In addition, HURIDOCS intends to convene an international conference in 2000
under the theme: From Gross Violations to Reconciliation and Justice: An
International Conference on Truth Commissions, Tribunals and the
International Criminal Court.
Networking and Institutional Development
This programme aims to make the entire HURIDOCS network continue and to
increase its dynamism.
12. Reports from separate meetings of Thematic Networks and Task Forces
(point 8 continued)
The PDN Network
Frederiek Eggink (Foundation ICODO) reported from the session that had
brought the refugee and the PDN networks together.
The refugee area had an extensive thesaurus to be updated with approx. 200
terms, with world-wide coverage and a new lay-out to be expected. The
thesaurus was not currently on the web, but solutions are being sought.
In the psychotrauma area, a merge with torture and refugee terms was
envisaged. This thesaurus was on the web via ICODO, who requested input for
new terms. A list would be sent to UNHCR for review.
The UNHCR web site carried many relevant publications, the PDN web page (via
the ICODO web site) included library addresses and useful relevant links.
Possible interface between the UNHCR and PDN web sites should be explored,
including the possibility of incorporating trafficking issues.
13. Presentation of the new version of EVSYS and the Huridocs Standard
Formats for Documenting Human Rights Violations
General presentation:
Bert Verstappen explained about the principles of human rights monitoring:
to record specific time-limited acts/human rights violations as they occur,
including involvement, intervention, etc. An event in this context was a
combination of relations between person, act, role, etc. HURIDOCS was
continuously trying to improve access to the documentation and information
with a series of tools adapted to specific needs. The benefits of standard
formats were facilitation of data analysis (e.g. patterns), record
tracking, communication and exchange of information, and design of
information gathering tools such as interview questionnaires.
EVSYS, the initial DOS-based programme, was not able to handle the increased
complexity of recording and exchanging information. It was thus further
developed into WinEvsys, a more user-friendly windows format.
The presentation was followed by a practical demonstration of the programme.
Comments and presentation of suggestions for additions to formats (medical
aspects/client documentation
Ion Iacos (IRCT) informed that a global system combining extensive recording
of torture incidences and to be used in medical process day-to-day work was
in the preparatory/feasibility stage at IRCT. Adding information about
perpetrators was currently being discussed.
An important part of the system was intervention, i.e. the medical part with
a lot of clinical data. This had raised the problems of data protection,
and the issues of confidentiality and transmission of data would need to be
addressed. Regional information gathering could take place as part of
IRCT's regionalization project. It was necessary to develop a simple tool
to ensure use by all. There was a wish to cover as many regions as
possible, assessing needs through questionnaires, surveys, etc.
14. Closing comments from participants
It was briefly mentioned that EHRIS is a project undertaken by the
University of Belfast in an attempt to try and make an Internet site that
gives access to a distributed search engine, mainly in the legal field. A
prototype was available on the Internet, at the address .
15. Date, place, secretariat and theme of next meeting
On behalf of the Harold and Selma Light Center for Human Rights Advocacy,
Leonid Lvov invited the ECCHRD to hold its year 2001 meeting in St.
Petersburg, in connection with local training. The generous offer was
accepted with acclamation.
In the absence of other volunteers, IRCT accepted to continue as Secretariat
for the next meeting. IRCT emphasised, however, that the 2001 meeting will
be the final one for which they will be the secretariat, and that this is a
definitive decision on their part. The IRCT Documentation Centre will, of
course, lend advice and support in order to facilitate the transition and
transfer of the secretariat for the 2002 meeting to its new host. The
willingness of ECCHRD members to act as secretariat is a necessity for the
continuation of the annual meetings, and all members are urged to seriously
consider taking a turn at this task.
Suggested themes were: Copyright and XML follow-up.
Next year's agenda should allow more time for thematic network meetings at
the beginning or at the end of the meeting, as well as ample time for
introduction of Russian NGOs.
Sven-Erik Baun adjourned the meeting by thanking once more the local
organiser, Montse Tafalla and IDHC, as well as the participants and
chairperson James Lawson in particular.
1
7
Final draft 22/12/00
Final draft 22/12/00
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