HURIDOCS

Description

HURIDOCS (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems) is a non-profit organization that helps human rights groups gather, organize and use information to create change.

Founded in 1982, it is registered as a non-profit association under Swiss law and keeps a small office in Geneva, Switzerland, while most of its staff work remotely around the world. It supports local activist groups, national human rights institutions and international NGOs working on issues such as arbitrary arrest, freedom of expression, the rights of migrants and refugees, and transitional justice. It has contributed to human rights projects on every continent except Antarctica, in languages including English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian.

HURIDOCS works through three main activities: advising partner organizations on documentation and information management, designing tools such as its free and open-source database Uwazi, and exchanging guides and frameworks on using information for advocacy and litigation. Uwazi lets human rights defenders organize collections of facts, testimonies, evidence and complaints.

Earlier tools it developed include the Events Standard Formats, a methodology for recording abuses of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and now-retired databases such as OpenEvsys and Casebox, along with the human rights search engine HuriSearch.