Human Rights Monitoring and Reporting

What is human rights monitoring and how does it differ from similar activities? Human rights monitoring is a broad term describing the collection, verification, and use of information to address human rights problems. Monitoring is usually temporary over certain period of time. The purpose of human rights monitoring is to obtain an improvement in the human rights situation.

Elements of Human Rights Monitoring gathering data about nature and extent of HR violations (note might be caused by law itself or how it is applied), overview of the general human rights situation and/or to collect information about a specific cases of alleged human rights violations analyzing the obtained data and comparing it to human rights standards (constitutional, international) identifying the causes of HR violations and making recommendations about what should be changed collecting materials needed to assist in the future action – to achieve the change

Function of Human Rights Monitoring Investigative function – to gain knowledge about the nature and extent of human rights violations and what changes in the law or its application can reduce the violations Supplementary function – to gather facts and evidence of violations and use them as a arguments to advocate for the change Preventive function – the fact that the public authorities are being observed may prevent violations (elections monitoring missions, trial monitoring), transformation of the situation

Where do we place monitoring as an element of our human rights work? monitoring represents one part of wider range of action that aims to bring about change the way we plan to use findings of a monitoring study affects the approach how we conduct it (legal action, public action, political action) to change the law, its interpretation or practice of state entity, to mobilize public opinion

What are the possible objects of the human rights monitoring? how particular law is respected in particular area or how specific law affects human rights (Act on Protection of Personal Data, Act on Mental Health) HR of social minorities (ethnic, national, religious minorities, refugees, uneployed etc.) HR of people in closed/open institutions (detention cells, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, children‘ care homes) episodic contacts between members of the public and representatives of state institutions (arrest, trials, evictions, demonstrations how human rights are respected by public authorities (police, custom officers, local government etc.) focused on institution as such how human rights are respected by state institutions in one-time events (elections, expropriation of property) how HR are respected by people with police like functions(security guards, private detectives, ticket inspectors) compatibility of legal regulations enacted by the state or local-level legislative and executive bodies with the country’s constitution or with international human rights standards

Human rights monitoring includes gathering information about incidents, interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations observing events (elections, trials, demonstrations, etc.), visiting sites such as places of detention and refugee camps, discussions with Government authorities to obtain information and to pursue remedies and other immediate follow-up.

Techniques of gathering and processing information Social research techniques (gathering comparable data to estimate the scale of the pehonomemnon) Investigation techniques (to document specific cases of HR violations and collect reliable evidence)

Sources of information in monitoring Written sources Individuals Observations

Techniques of obtaining information from written sources 1.Analyzing normative acts 2.Secondary comparative analysis of statistical data 3.Investigation or records 4.Analyzing complains 5.Analyzing an institution’s internal documentation 6.Analyzing the press

Techniques of obtaining information from individuals 1.Unstructured interview 2.Focus group interview 3.Partially structured interview 4.Structured (questionnaire based) interview 5.Questionnaire based surveys

Techniques of obtaining information by means of observations and measurements 1.Participatory observation 2.External Observation 3.Experiments 4.Physical Measurements

Monitoring requires! Monitoring must be conducted objectively and professionally and its conclusions must be drawn properly. Its necesssary to gather complete, accurate and unbiased information. The credibility of the information has to be assesed.

Monitoring requires! Active information gathering – a passive approach to information gathering is likely to result in the information collected being coincidental and thus inadequate (do not sit in the office waiting for people to bring you complains) Verifying the information (reliability of the source, consistency with information collected from independet sources, fit the information into the context) Documented information (signed statements of victims or witnesses)

Basic principles of monitoring (UN manual) Do not harm Credibility (explain the purpose of the monitoring, the confidentiality of the information) Confidentionality Accuracy and precision (well-documented) Impartiality Objectivity Sensitivity (to suffering of the victims) Integrity Visibility

HR Reporting Analysis and identifying trends Recommendations for remedy – as specific as possible based in domestic or international law Report should mention response of the government or lack of that

Monitoring Step by Step 1.Formulating and choosing a monitoring task 2.Analyzing the law 3.Identifying research issues within selected task 4.Posing research questions on specific issues 5.Choosing research techniques and methods of their applications – developing tools for collecting information

Monitoring Step by Step 6.Planning who will make up the monitoring team, schedule and budget 7.Pilot study and preliminary assessment of the information collected 8.Assessing and adjusting the concept of the study based on the outcomes of the pilot study 9.Training monitoring team

Monitoring Step by Step 10. Conducting the monitoring study 11.Preparing findings of the study 12.Writing the report 13.Planning how to use the outcomes of the study (legal or political action)

How do we concretize our general monitoring task? Research task – exactly what is it we will study? Research task – linked with working goal EXAMPLE: working goal to guarantee that human rights are respected when individuals are arrested by police while monitoring research task „to study the behaviour of the police while arrests are being made.“