Internet & technology

XML for human rights: call for expression of interest

2002-06-27, Issue 70

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/8474

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Following discussions at the 25th meeting of ECCHRD, participants representing European based human rights NGOs and IGOs discussed the possibilities of embracing XML as a standard for the exchange of data on human rights, in particular of data with regard to violations of human rights, within the human rights community.

Concluding these discussions the meeting requested HURIDOCS to explore the ways XML and associated standards could be leveraged in conjunction with existing standards and tools, in particular, but not restricted to, the HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats, the Micro-thesauri and WINEVSYS developed and distributed by HURIDOCS in the NGO community worldwide, to improve the flow of human rights information between members of the human rights community notably with a view to submitting quality data in a useable format to control bodies. In this context special reference was made to the contribution NGOS could make to the future workings of the International Criminal Court.

Call for Expression of Interest
HURIDOCS therefore invites actors (individuals or organisations) in the human rights community worldwide to express their interest in this topic. This can be done by self-nomination or by delegation.

This expression of interest should include details of the responder:
1. name, address (including e-mail), affiliation and motivation,
2. mandate or field of activity,
3. expertise that could be made available to the initiative (not restricted to technical expertise)

It may also be supported by a paper providing information on activities already carried out or envisaged within this area as well as views on topics, methods and policies for future activities in this field.

Desired results of this Call for Expression of Interest

HURIDOCS hopes to evaluate the receptiveness of the human rights community to work in this area with a view to establishing XML based or related standards (DTDs, Schemas, Namespaces etc ) and facilitating their adoption by human rights organisations worldwide.

This would lead to more effective transmission of data between NGOs and regional or international monitoring or control bodies.

Transmission of Expression of Interest

Expressions of interest are to be transmitted by e-mail to info@huridocs.org Document attachments should be in Ms Office compatible formats.

Deadline for Expression of Interest

The deadline for receipt of Expressions of Interest by the HURIDOCS secretariat is set at 1 September 2002.

About XML

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a standard, which facilitates the electronic exchange of meaningful data among communities in a format that is independent of hardware or software choices of individual members of any given community. XML is being used or currently being implemented in many sectors; business, science, law, finance, etc.

About the HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats

The HURIDOCS Events Standard Formats form a tool to assist NGOs to develop an information system for recording information about human rights violations. The data model proposed structures information by events composed of one or more, acts of human rights violation, victims, sources of information, alleged perpetrators and interventions. Additional details on legal matters, deaths and killings, displacements and destruction of property as well as torture may also be used to further refine the system.

About the Micro-thesauri

The Micro-thesauri are a collection of 48 documents developed by HURIDOCS or adapted from various sources. They provide controlled vocabularies for the Events Standard Formats and WinEvsys as well as for other manual or computerised systems of documenting human rights violations.

About WINEVSYS

The WinEVSYS software has been developed by a HURIDOCS Design Team to provide a software for the revised Standard Formats - A Tool for Documenting Human Rights Violations. WinEVSYS is programmed in the widely used Microsoft Access software.

About HURIDOCS

HURIDOCS, established in 1982, is a global network of organisations concerned with human rights which aims to facilitate human rights documentation work by: developing tools and techniques for human rights monitoring and information handling (such as formats for the recording and exchange of information on documents, organisations, and human rights violations); organising training courses and workshops on human rights information handling in co-operation with organisations involved in the network, and by providing advice and support on the establishment and maintenance of documentation centres and information systems.

About the ECCHRD

The European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation (ECCHRD) is a long existing regional network for human rights information and documentation workers. It has held 25 meetings since it was established in the early 1980's. The meetings were first bi-annual, and over the last ten years annual.
The participants at the ECCHRD meetings see them as a possibility to exchange information and experiences. The ECCHRD as such does not envisage organising additional activities besides the annual meeting, but is certainly helpful in building up and maintaining contacts between the participating organisations.

For further information about HURIDOCS see <http://www.huridocs.org>. The HURIDOCS site contains a brief article which introduces the basics of XML: <http://www.huridocs.org/nl25exml.htm>.

For further Information about XML see inter alia :
http://www.xmlephant.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/
http://www.devx.com/projectcool/developer/xmlz/xmlzquick/index.html

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