PHA-Exchange> Fw: Good things come in threes! (corrected)

[Claudio]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Human Rights Tools" <editors at humanrightstools.org>
To: <claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn>
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 3:49 AM
Subject: Good things come in threes! (corrected)


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This newsletter covers three tools:
1. HuriSearch, the human rights search engine
2. The Universal Human Rights Index
3. What Convention?
4. Varia (some really good stuff in this section too!)


Dear readers,

First of all, we wish you the best of health and luck for 2007!

Good things come in threes. In this issue would like to introduce three 
information and useful resources for human rights professionals: 
"HuriSearch", the "Universal Human Rights Index", and also "What 
Convention".


1. HuriSearch, the human rights search engine
http://www.hurisearch.org/

This search engine allows you to search over 3000 human rights websites: in 
total over three million pages.

This content is always fresh, because HuriSearch indexes the content of 
these 3000 websites every eight days for most websites, and every day for 
the larger ones. You can test the "freshness" by doing a search for a recent 
case that you are following: does it give good results?

As we know, the source of information is crucially important in human rights 
work. HuriSearch makes it possible to focus searches on information 
published in a particular country, by a particular type of organization, by 
a specific organisation, or in a specific language. Just to a first search, 
then look at the options in the right column of the results page - you will 
be impressed!

HuriSearch also used articifial intelligence to analyse your search results 
for keywords. It recognises terms which may be significant, such as "police" 
or "refugees". You then click on a keyword, to access all the results which 
mention it. You will also find these features on the right column of the 
search results.

We contacted James Lawson, who is a HURIDOCS board member and the initiator 
of HuriSearch:

Editors: James, why was it necessary to create HuriSearch? Doesn't Google do 
the job?

James: "No I don't think google, or any of the major search engines do the 
job well enough. The major commercial search engines tend to rank, well 
known, northern based organisations at the top of their results lists, with 
the more grassroots organisation's pages lost in the depths never to be 
seen. I have the greatest admiration for the work carried out by major NGOs 
like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to name just two of the 
sites that frequently top results lists for human rights searches, but there 
are literally thousands of human rights ngo's in the world, many working in 
extremely difficult conditions, who produce valuable first hand information 
on events. Without the work of these smaller NGOs, the major international 
NGOs would be much less effective, as they rely on these partners in the 
field for much of their information. HuriSearch allows journalists, 
activists and researchers to discover documents and organisations that would 
otherwise go un-notice
d."

Hurisearch was launched last December. HuriSearch is a HURIDOCS tool (see 
http://www.huridocs.org). It comes in seven language interfaces (including 
Arabic and Russian). And it can handle documents in 77 languages, and all 
kinds of alphabets.


2. The Universal Human Rights Index
http://www.universalhumanrightsindex.org/

The name is very long, and the interface could be more cheerful. But make no 
mistake: this tool is simply fantastic, so make sure you bookmark it in your 
favorites.

What does it do? It provides you with instant access to the observations and 
recommendations of the expert bodies:
- the new Human Rights Council (since 2006)
- the seven Treaty Bodies which monitor the implementation of the core 
international human rights treaties, including the work of all the special 
rapporteurs, working groups and international experts (since 2001)

Better still, you can search all of these recommendations and observations 
combining the following fields:
- both by region and by country
- by right: right to life, right to work, etc
- by cluster or rights: administration of justice, cultural rights, etc.
- by body: CAT, CRC, CEDAW. etc.
- by type of affected persons: internally displaced, rural women, street 
children, etc.

So.... this means you do all kinds of useful searches:
- a very simple search, for example retrieve all the recommendations which 
concern your country, and view them on the same page
- a more complex search: all the recommendations concerning street children 
in Asia, made by the CRC.

And if you want more than just the recommendations or observations, the full 
text it comes from is just a click away!

Of course, on of the major advantages of this tool is that is makes it very 
easy to see what the expert bodies have been saying to a particular country, 
making it easier for civil society to monitor what exactly this country is 
doing to improve its respect for human rights of its inhabitants.

We contacted Andrea Aebi, the project director, for her views on who should 
be using this tool, and why.

Andrea replies: "The Universal Human Rights Index was primarily conceived 
for diplomats negotiating at the Human Rights Council, human rights experts 
in governments and national human rights institutions, NGOs and 
universities.

One of the main added values is to considerably accelerate access to 
official UN documents. No need to read through hundreds of pages anymore; 
with a few clicks, you will see what international experts said, or did not 
say, about the implementation of each right in a specific country or region. 
All countries are covered and all rights as well as cross-cutting issues 
such as human rights and counter-terrorism or human rights and structural 
adjustment.

Moreover, we believe the Index compiles objective and reliable information. 
It comes from independent international bodies and experts that are 
independent, and it is classified by rights, strictly following the legal 
approach of the experts. We did not interpret this information, we compiled 
it. Thus the Index can serve as a basis for discussion on the human rights 
situation in the world, for instance in the debates of the Human Rights 
Council. "

UHRI was developed by the University of Bern, Switzerland (Institute of 
Public Law ) and  the University of Montreal (LexUM).


3. What Convention?
http://www.whatlaw.org/

This database also provides access to the text of treaties and conventions, 
and information on ratifications. Its not exactly as new as the other two, 
but is also rather good.

We must admit we really like this little database, because it can do some 
really nice things:
- you can can get a list of all the treaties signed by a particular country, 
on about a particular domain or topic
- if a country has signed some reservations in a treaty, it will tell you in 
bold and you can click to see those reservations
- it also gives you the list of countries which have ratified each treaty

And best of all: you can actually search for individual articles from 
treaties, also by domain and by treaty. For example:
- all the articles concerning disabled persons, or education, or fair trials 
(topic/issue)
- all the article about indigenous peoples (domain), from treaties signed by 
Russia (country)

"What Convention" comes in English, French, and Spanish versions, which is 
very nice. But if you want Russian, Arabic, or Chinese, then the best is to 
visit the good old Minnesota human rights library:
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/treaties.htm

This resource was launched by Mandat International last year 
(http://www.mandint.org/). We have spoken with them, and they have some 
really exciting features to add to it! We will not kill the surprise, but 
promise let you know when the time comes.


4. Varia

- Our blogger community now has over 50 blogs, and its great! Have a look, 
we are sure you will discover something new here. And a particular tribute 
to blogger Sarah Meyer, who has put together some useful research on a 
possible  war between the US, Israel, and Iran, on her blog "Index Research:
http://www.humanrightstools.org/news/bloggers.htm
http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/01/iran-war-resource-info.html

- Some more jobs available, and interesting ones too. United States, 
Ukraine, Sri Lanka:
http://jobs.humanrightstools.org/


- If you are planning to take a sabbatical to study for a Masters this year, 
then beware of approaching deadlines - send in your application as soon as 
you can. Apply several schools to be safe - and not only the famous ones!
http://www.humanrightstools.org/hrt/hrt/masters.htm


- OHCHR has at last updated their database on human rights education and 
training - its very good. Check it out here and bookmark it while you're 
there:
http://hre.ohchr.org/hret/intro.aspx


- We came across this excellent really fascinating presentation by Swedish 
professor Hans Rosling. He uses freely available statistical data to debunk 
some myths we have about developing countries.... We guarantee you will be 
amazed!
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=hans_rosling
bigger version here: 
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4237353244338529080&q=hans+rosling


- A nice way to end a newsletter is with some humor. Our friends who work at 
the UN will have a chuckle about this Dilbert comic strip:
http://www.planetd.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/Dilbert_at_UN.jpg



OK, hope you enjoyed the tools we describe above and that they will help you 
be even more effective in your work. As usual, please share this newsletter 
with friends and colleagues, and feel free to post it to your blog or 
translate it into another language.

And if you have received this from a friend, then you can sign up for coming 
editions of the newsletter here:
http://www.humanrightstools.org/news/newsletter.htm

Best regards,
Daniel D'Esposito, editor
editors at humanrightstools.org
http://www.humanrightstools.org




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