[huridocs-tech] Silicon Valley Group Uses Technology to Help the Truth Commission Answer Disputed Questions about Massive Political Violence in Timor-Leste

The Benetech Initiative, a Silicon Valley nonprofit, has released two
free and open source software tools:
- The Martus Human Rights Bulletin System: designed to assist human
rights organizations in collecting, safeguarding, organizing and
disseminating information about human rights abuses.
{http://www.martus.org/} 
- The Analyzer Human Rights Violation Database: used to structure
human rights information using the "Who did What to Whom" data model,
and to maintain and analyze information about large-scale human
rights violations from multiple sources.
{http://www.hrdag.org/resources/data_software.shtml}

 
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Silicon Valley Group Uses Technology to Help the Truth Commission Answer
Disputed Questions about Massive Political Violence in Timor-Leste

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Romesh Silva at Benetech - (650) 475-5440

Palo Alto, CA, February 9, 2006 - The Benetech Initiative today released a
statistical report detailing widespread and systematic violations in
Timor-Leste during the period 1974-1999. Benetech's statistical analysis
establishes that at least 102,800 (+/- 11,000) Timorese died as a result
of the conflict. Approximately 18,600 (+/- 1000) Timorese were killed or
disappeared, while the remainder died due to hunger and illness in excess
of what would be expected due to peacetime mortality.

The magnitude of deaths in Timor-Leste has long been a subject of
contentious debate, and Benetech's results help to place the debate on a
factual basis. These estimates are the most accurate and scientifically
rigorous ever made for conflict-related mortality in Timor-Leste. They are
based on a database compiled from three independent sources: narrative
statements, a retrospective mortality survey, and a census of public
graveyards - all of which were developed jointly by Benetech's Human
Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) and the Commission for Reception,
Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR in Portuguese), the truth commission for
Timor-Leste. By collecting new data and using well-established statistical
and demographic methods, HRDAG assisted CAVR to become the first official
truth commission in the world to draw on a household survey and public
graveyard records.

HRDAG is led by Dr. Patrick Ball, and is composed of other human rights
statisticians, outreach experts and computer programmers. The report,
written by HRDAG statistician Romesh Silva and Dr Ball, includes and
extends the statistical chapter of the CAVR report. The CAVR's final
report was presented by Timor-Leste's President Xanana Gusmao to the
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on January 20th, 2006 in New
York.

In partnership with the CAVR, HRDAG has injected new scientifically
defensible analysis into the debate about crimes of policy during the
Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste. HRDAG's analysis describes the
patterns of abuses reported to the CAVR in approximately 8,000 narrative
testimonies which describe arbitrary detentions, torture, rape, and
massive property destruction.

These analyses were integrated into the CAVR Report alongside
multi-disciplinary research including legal reasoning, history,
anthropology, and sociology.

Dr. Ball says "The terrible violence in Timor-Leste has long been hidden
from the world's attention. Even recently, as press coverage of the CAVR's
report began, there have been political debates about the scale, pattern,
and responsibility for the violence. Our analysis helps shift the debate
from politics to science, moving from data, to knowledge, to official
recognition of the crimes, and ultimately to accountability."

Benetech, a local nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California, creates
technology that serves humanity by blending social conscience with Silicon
Valley expertise. In the human rights area, Benetech's HRDAG (Human Rights
Data Analysis Group) is using science and technology to engage established
international human rights norms and answer hidden questions about massive
political violence. HRDAG, in accordance with its legal agreement with the
CAVR, will publish anonymized versions of the data used to conduct the
analysis. See http://www.hrdag.org 

 
More About Benetech and HRDAG:

HRDAG is a program of Benetech, a nonprofit based in Palo Alto,
California, that develops sustainable, technology-based solutions to
address pressing social challenges in areas such as human rights,
disability, education, and literacy. The Benetech Human Rights Program's
goal is to redefine the debate about large-scale human rights violations
with scientifically defensible analysis, using science and technology to
substantiate human rights arguments and support the human rights
community's efforts to establish the truth about past atrocities, promote
accountability for the violence and to advocate for a world in which there
are fewer abuses.

The program brings 15 years' experience in more than a dozen countries,
conducting and publishing statistical analyses of genocide, ethnic
cleansing, and other large-scale human rights abuses. Its analysis has
helped support the argument that genocide was committed in Guatemala,
reveal that Slobodan Milosevic's defense theories about what happened in
Kosovo were inconsistent with empirical data, and to demonstrate that the
Perúvian civil war was approximately 2.5 times more severe than the
capital elites in Lima ever imagined. By putting science at the service of
these societies, the Benetech Human Rights Program has helped write the
history of the past to improve the prospects of the future. More
information on Benetech and the HRDAG program can be found at
www.benetech.org or by calling +1 650 475 5440.

 

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Anna Berns 
Product Manager, Human Rights Program
Benetech 
480 California Ave., Suite 201 
Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609 USA 
(650) 475-5440
(650) 475-1066 fax 
www.benetech.org

The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

 
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