The Process of Analysis and Report-Writing
last updated November 1, 2003


The second part of the human rights documentation process is to analyze the information gained through research and present these findings in a clear manner. Generally, documentation leads to the creation of a human rights report, but advocates can use the information to create other materials, such as briefing papers or urgent action appeal notices.

As discussed above, the purpose of human rights documentation is to demonstrate a violation of women's human rights, through government failure to comply with international treaty obligations, as well as any relevant national human rights laws. In the case of documenting violence against women, the perpetrator of the violence will generally be a private actor, not a person acting on behalf of the State. Therefore, the human rights report should clearly demonstrate and analyze State responsibility for protecting women from violence and punishing perpetrators. In order to make this argument, the report should focus on failures of government structures to prevent, punish and remedy acts of private actors who perpetrate violence against women.

In analyzing evidence of State noncompliance with human rights obligations, advocates should examine not only the existence of laws that protect women but also failures in implementation of the law, including analyzing cultural factors, such as the view that domestic violence is a private and family matter, that affect how State actors carry out the law.

In undertaking the actual writing of the report, advocates should follow the same types of guidelines for creating materials that will be distributed to a wide audience. The writing should not be overly technical, terms and acronyms should be defined and context should be given wherever possible.

In addition, the handbook Women's Human Rights Step by Step provides some key criteria which are useful for advocates to keep in mind throughout the research process, but are especially important at the stage of writing a human rights report:

Document Evidence from All Sides
It is crucial to ensure balance and impartiality in presenting information about human rights abuses.
Double-check the Facts
 

Researchers should be sure to corroborate all evidence, in order to ensure that all charges of human rights violations are well-founded. Sources of corroboration include further interviews, but also credible reports by other NGOs or government or intergovernmental sources.
Represent Only What Can Be Verified and Acknowledge Those Limitations
 

It is important that when analyzing the research, discussed below, that the researchers understand and acknowledge the information that is not or cannot be included in the report. For example, in many countries, the government does not compile disaggregated data on violence against women. While interviewees may provide some estimates of the prevalence of domestic violence, for example, or a review of court files may give some indication of the number of cases heard in a particular district in a specific time period, researchers should not indicate that such data are indicative of the situation in the country as a whole. The report can explain why only certain limited information is available.
Be Specific
 

last updated November 1, 2003

In analyzing the evidence and creating a report, the researchers should be careful to avoid general allegations. This is particularly important when writing recommendations on how the government should improve its response to violence against women.

In writing recommendations, advocates should think strategically about what they want to achieve through the publicizing of the human rights report. On one hand, very specific recommendations can be useful to guide the government toward implementing new legislation or policies to protect women from violence. At other times, however, if may be useful to write general recommendations, linked to international obligations, that can then be shaped and redefined by local NGOs. This is particularly the case when the group writing the report is from a country other than the one being investigated. While researchers are encouraged to learn as much as possible about the history and current conditions of the country where the research is undertaken, local NGOs will still be much more attuned to the particular needs of victims and the best strategy for approaching the government structures. For this reason, it may be advisable to provide these local groups with general recommendations that they can interpret in a manner consistent with their overall advocacy strategy.