Human Rights Data Analysis Group

@hrdag.org

660 Followers 178 Following

We're a nonprofit organization using data analysis, scientific research, and innovation in scientific methods in the field of human rights. Website: https://hrdag.org Substack: https://hrdag.substack.com/

White text on grey above a photo of a police officer: Naming Police Officers Who Kill in California. Structural Zero 12: New Functionality in the Police Records Access Project Highlights the Names of Individual Police Officers

A guy in front of a server looked down with the overlay text: What if instead of handing terabytes of crucial human rights data to private corporations, civil society built and maintained infrastructure for ourselves?

red and white candle graphic with the text: International Truth and Justice Project Naming Sri Lanka's Dead and Disappeared.

White candle graphic on brick red background with the words : International Truth and Justice Project Naming Sri Lanka's Dead and Disappeared

White and black text on green: How to use the national police index

Green and white graphic that says: Understanding Sampling Bias

A 4 panel comic strip about coding.

Green and white graphic with the text: understanding sampling bias

White text on orange background: Systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices -- about technology, language, geography, and risk. When certain voices don't appear in the data, their absence can be misinterpreted. We might think these voices weren't impacted when the true story could be these voices were afraid to speak out.

White text on orange: systems of data collection shape knowledge. Every dataset is produced by a set of choices—about technology, language, geography, incentives and risk. When certain voices don't appear in the data, their absence can be misinterpreted. We might think these voices weren't impacted when the true story could be these voices were afraid to speak out.

Black text on red background: The New National Police Index

Colorful poster that says "Justice for Yanar" and a photo of Yanar Mohammed

Graphic that has black text on red background: "The new national police index" and the url: national.cpdp.co

White text on orange: "The crucial bit of magic that makes the entire field of statistics work is understanding what the sample statistics is telling you about the population parameter."

HRDAG and partners gather around a large conference table with laptops for a data retreat.

HRDAG statisticians and friends gathered around a table for a data retreat with laptops.

Black text on white background: When a dictator delegates the power to commit violence to police, he needs a way to make sure that his agents do the violence he wants, rather than doing violence that benefits only the agents themselves.

This is called the principal-agent problem.

Black text on white background: one might assume that human rights violations are well-hidden and poorly documented. But that's not true at all.

Black text on white background: Our work has been used by truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, and non-governmental human rights organizations. We have worked with partners on projects on five continents.

HRDAG team brain storm: 4 data scientists gathering around a whiteboard at the HRDAG team offices, discussing a mathematical equation.

White text on multicolored background: Accompaniment is a practice taht emerged in response to violence against human rights defenders in conflict zones.

White text on multicolored background: Accompaniment is a practice that emerged in response to violence against human rights defenders in conflict zones.

Mural "Black Trans Lives: Rest in Power"

White text of multicolored background: The tools and methods that have become central to our work reflect a commitment to empower survivors and the broader movement that centers them.

White text on multicolored background: Scientific funders should be backing projects that center community involvement, not only out of a moral obligation but because it makes the results more reliable and precise.

White text on multicolored background: The tools and methods that have become central to our work reflect a commitment to empower survivors and the broader movement that centers them.

white text on multicolored background including the words: RightsX Summit | The future of human rights starts here| Solution roundtable | Pushing the limits Strengthening synergies between citizen data, AI & Official Statistics

White text on multicolored card including the words: RightsX Summit: The future of human rights starts here. Solution Roundtable: Pushing the limits | Strengthening synergies between Citizen Data, Ai & Official Statistics.

white text on multicolored background: "scientific funders should be backing projects that center community involvement, not only out of a moral obligations but because it makes the results more reliable and precise."

The HRDAG staff participating in a candle light vigil.

Dr. Patrick Ball describing statistical concepts on a whiteboard to a small gathered audience.

A cartoon image of 5 people standing shoulder to shoulder, with two holding laptops. There is a green stripe across the front and words in white that say "We Stand Against Tyranny"

A cartoon image of 5 people standing shoulder to shoulder, with two holding laptops. There is a green stripe across the front and words in white that say "HRDAG Stands Against Tyranny"

We developed LLMs to bring structure to the unstructured: analyzing the content of the documents, organizing the information, and shedding light on what is buried within them.

White text on orange: LLMs proved instrumental from the very beginning of this project, first by helping us identify when the documents we received were likely incomplete.

Black text on white background: we developed LLMs to bring structure to the unstructured: analyzing the content of the documents, organizing the information, and shedding light on what is buried within them." hrdag.substack.com

White text on orange background: LLMs proved instrumental from the very beginning of this project, first by helping us identify when the documents we received were likely incomplete.

White text on orange background: One of the most critical questions when assessing LLM outputs is accuracy - but accuracy isn't a single, simple measure. HRDAG.Substack.com

Text: "A hash is like a fingerprint for data: unique to each dataset, instantly revealing if anything has changed. If even a single number in database is altered, the hash changes completely."

Two people looking at a computer screen filled with lines of white text over a black background. The photo is shot from above so you see the tops of their head and the desk in front of them.

Text: More human rights workers and even everyday citizens are asking: how do we deal with the evolving and very real threats we are facing?

HRDAG.Substack.com

Text: To safeguard documents and important files, it is vital to decentralize them so there is no single point of failure -- no single office to raid or destroy or lose in a natural disaster.
hrdag.substack.com

text: hrdag.org

Text: To safeguard documents and important files, it is vital to decentralize them so there is no single point of failure - no single office to raid or destroy or lose in a natural disaster.

text: if uncovering that truth requires traveling into dangerous and volatile situations, then that is the price we pay for practicing our craft.

Text: more human rights workers and even everyday citizens are asking: how do we deal with the evolving and very real threats we are facing?

Words in front of stacks of paper files:

Dictatorships create a lot of data | Structural Zero Issue 01
HRDAG.SUBSTACK.COM

Research Director Patrick Ball giving a speech and pointing to a chart on a powerpoint slide. The title of the chart is "La Conclusion principal"

A map of the entire world with lots of blue pins scattered over it, including 3 pins in Africa, several in Europe and Asia, and a bunch in North and South America.