Statistical Imagination & Creativity in the Analysis of Large-Scale Human Rights Atrocities

What this episode covers

Human rights atrocities that occur on a massive scale are often the result of deliberate policy, and international legal accountability requires that we prove not only that abuses occurred, but that violence was the deliberately planned. Statistical patterns in the violations may provide evidence of policy, but finding these patterns requires a creative use of data and models. This talk will review the use of data ranging from official border registries to cemeteries, declassified documents, and qualitative victim interviews, each analyzed by a wide range of techniques. Examples will be presented from El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, Timor-Leste, and Chad. About the Speaker: Patrick Ball, Ph.D., is the Director of Human Rights Programs at the Benetech Initiative. Since 1991, he has designed information management systems and conducted quantitative analysis for large-scale human rights data projects for seven truth commissions, many non-governmental organizations, two tribunals and various United Nations missions in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Peru, Chad, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Timor-Leste, and others.