In 2024, HURIDOCS continued strengthening partnerships, evolving tools, and expanding its reach.
“I see our contribution not just as code, but as something living—like the root bridges of Northeast India, grown with care and shaped by community. This is how I envision HURIDOCS: building human rights infrastructure that is resilient, collaborative, and deeply rooted in justice.” — Danna Ingleton, HURIDOCS Executive Director
Supporting the global community
This year, HURIDOCS partnered with 73 organisations across 38 countries, helping develop documentation strategies, launch new platforms, and provide targeted support. This means 73 documentation projects were reimagined and refined through bespoke customisation through our flagship tool, Uwazi. From databases mapping attacks on environmental defenders to resources preserving collective memory, our work continues to be shaped by those on the frontlines of human rights struggles.
Uwazi: Built with and for civil society
In 2024, our open-source platform, Uwazi, continued to grow with new machine learning tools for translation and metadata extraction, tighter security, and full integration with the Tella mobile app, making it more responsive, secure, and aligned with the needs of human rights defenders worldwide.
Convening global conversations
In 2024, HURIDOCS engaged in key global events, including a side event at the 56th Human Rights Council, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, the first Google Impact Summit, and a Human Rights Day webinar highlighting four global initiatives powered by Uwazi.
Through these events, we advanced vital discussions on the ethical use of AI, digital monitoring technologies, and the future of technology infrastructure in support of human rights.
Navigating fundraising challenges while building resilience and sustainability
HURIDOCS continued to navigate a complex funding landscape in 2024, strengthening our financial foundations to ensure long-term resilience.
We remain committed to aligning our resource strategies with our mission, providing steadfast support, insight, and partnership to those advancing human rights globally
Strengthening our foundations
2024 marked the second year of Danna Ingleton’s leadership as Executive Director. It was a year of growth and transition, including the appointment of Grace Kwak Danciu as Chair of the HURIDOCS Board, and a heartfelt farewell to Lisa Reinsberg, whose contributions shaped the organisation for more than five years.
To ensure the long-term sustainability of our mission, we launched a new Development and Communications team under the leadership of Yolanda Booyzen. We also welcomed new staff across programmes, tech, and product, each one contributing to a stronger, more agile HURIDOCS.
As our team grows and our documentation tools evolve, we strive to build a fit-for-purpose civil society equipped to achieve justice, accountability, and the protection of human rights.
Looking ahead, we hold hope that the years to come will bring renewed compassion as we work towards a world where human rights are upheld for all.
Cities of Rights – 75th UDHR Anniversary: The city of Utrecht wants to be city of human rights
Mohammadi Narges is one of the most recognised Human Rights Defenders in the world. She has received 8 major human rights awards according to THF’s digest of human rights awards but no media outlets got it right…
More on the toolkit (available on website) to create workshops for youth about filmmaking and human rights.
HURIDOCS 40th anniversary
More on ISHR‘s #Right2DefendRights campaign for the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on HRDs .
Join in exploring the vital role the NGO HURIDOCS plays in shaping the landscape of human rights today. Hear from past and present directors, board chair and senior documentalist about our ongoing impact (admittedly including my good self).
As HURIDOCS celebrates 40 years of commitment to human rights, it shared a video which is not only a retrospective, but a testament to its ongoing role and impact in the world of human rights information.
In this video, the HURIDOCS team sat down with individuals who have been instrumental in shaping HURIDOCS throughout its history. This includes our co-founder, our senior documentalist, a dedicated board member, and past and present directors, all sharing their unique insights.
“Information has always been the key to human rights work and that is still the case. Being organised, sharp, learning from our history and not being afraid to go into the future fighting for truth, justice and human rights with all of the tools that are available to us. That is the civil society we want to see, that is the civil society we want to support!”
Danna joins HURIDOCS from the Amnesty Tech management team, where she played an integral role in growing globally distributed teams, securing and managing large grants, and providing strategic and operational leadership. She combines perceptive and empathetic leadership with a bright, organised, fearless approach to building organisational strength and resilience. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/danna-ingleton/
“At a time when the power of accurate, accessible and secure information has never been more important to those seeking justice and the fulfilment of their human rights, I am thrilled to be starting as the new Executive Director of HURIDOCS.”
It is exciting to be joining an organisation with such a rich history of harnessing the power of information to facilitate change. Together with my new colleagues and our diverse, valiant partners we will build on this history to ensure HURIDOCS is consistently at the sharp-edge of information management and technological developments, and always strategically growing.
As an activist myself who has been working in human rights for more than a decade I have seen how the battle for justice can take its toll on the people behind the movements. I am therefore also committed to ensuring HURIDOCS is an effective and accountable workplace that values health and the well-being of us all. – Danna Ingleton
Danna will officially assume her responsibilities on 1 July 2023
After more than 10 years, Friedhelm Weinberg will be leaving HURIDOCS in early 2023. Having worked with him in person on many occasions, I can testify that his leadership has been most impressive, for the NGO itself [see e.g. https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/category/organisations/huridocs/] and the in the area of networking with others, such as the MEA and THF [see e.g. his: https://youtu.be/zDxPbd9St9Y]. In his own announcement, he modestly refers to all his colleagues:
It has been an incredible decade with HURIDOCS, working with amazing colleagues and partners at the intersection of human rights and technology. Together, we have drastically increased support to activists to leverage technology for documentation, litigation and advocacy work. We have pioneered flexible, reliable and robust software tools such as Uwazi, while responsibly sunsetting the past generation of open source software.
None of this would have been possible without the team we have built, and that was collaborating remotely across the globe well before 2020. It’s a committed, humorous and professional bunch, and I have learned so much with every single one of them, as we made things happen and as we hit walls and then picked each other up. I am also grateful to our board that brings together wisdom from leading NGOs, technology companies, the financial sector, but, more importantly, people that were generous with guidance, encouragement and critique.
It has also been a decade of many heartbreaks. From partners whose offices have been raided, that have been declared foreign agents, threatened, attacked. From wars and conflicts breaking out, affecting people we work with. From the difficulties of all we’re doing sometimes not being enough. From worrying how to raise the money to sustain and grow a team that can rise to these challenges.
It is a bittersweet departure, because it has been life-affirming – and yet it is for a perspective that fills me with warmth and excitement. For a while, I will be with our children, with the second one due to arrive in early 2023.
As I have made the decision to leave HURIDOCS, I also have felt really down and much of the stress built up over a decade manifested physically. Seeking treatment, I have been diagnosed with burnout and depression, and have been recovering with the support from specialists, friends and family. This is neither a badge of honor nor something I want to be shy about, it’s just the reason you haven’t seen much of me recently in professional circles. It’s getting better and I am grateful to have the time and space for healing.
Currently, Nancy Yu is leading HURIDOCS as Interim Executive Director, as Lisa Reinsberg as the Board Chair holds the space and directs the succession process. I am grateful to both of them to step up and step in, as well as the team, our partners and funders for a decade of working together to advance human rights.
As the search for his successor has started, please have a look at the recruitment announcement and consider applying or sharing it with suitable candidates: https://lnkd.in/e7Y7smqT
HURIDOCS has been working with urgency to meet the needs of our Ukrainian partners to enable effective, comprehensive and safe documentation of human rights violations. The HURIDOCS Team on 19 April 2022 tells how:
A maternity ward and children’s hospital are hit by an airstrike. Schools and apartment blocks are shelled. A psychiatric facility is attacked. Residential areas are targeted by cluster bombs. Critical infrastructure is struck by missiles. Mass civilian graves are discovered.
These horrendous attacks on civilians in Ukraine, some of them on healthcare facilities, are labelled by the United Nations as ‘acts of unconscionable cruelty’. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which started on 24 February 2022, is unfolding as a series of atrocities committed against civilians.
Indiscriminate attacks using missiles, heavy artillery shells, rockets and airstrikes on civilians and non-combatants are in contravention of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. Apart from attacks on civilians, Russia is reported to be shelling agreed-upon humanitarian corridors from conflict zones and therefore halting mass evacuations.
Borodyanka, a Ukrainian commuter town near Kyiv, was among the first places to be hit by Russian airstrikes.
Kyiv Declaration calls for support to groups actively documenting violations
Leaders of more than 100 Ukrainian civil society organisations have published the Kyiv Declaration, which defines the invasion as “a war against the fundamental principles of democracy”. The #KyivDeclaration asks for solidarity and immediate action, and outlines six urgent appeals to the international community. The organisations are collectively calling for the creation of safe zones in Ukraine, military aid, sanctions against Russia, humanitarian aid, freezing assets and revoking visas of prominent Russian families, and providing equipment to track war crimes. This includes technology and support to groups who are actively documenting the events in Ukraine, as well as human rights groups and lawyers who will be supporting accountability efforts in the long run.
An appeal from 100 Ukrainian civil society leaders
HURIDOCS has been working with urgency to meet the needs of our Ukrainian partners to enable effective, comprehensive and safe documentation of human rights violations.
“When Russia started its full-scale invasion in February this year, we revived the work of EuromaidanSOS. We are faced with a large number of war crimes that need to be documented. Among these are indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, deliberate killings, torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, enforced disappearances and other crimes listed in the Rome Statute. Such acts are not justified by any circumstances of the war. Russia is simply using war crimes as a way of waging war.
Our volunteers from EuromaidanSOS are based in different parts of the country, and some of them work directly in hot spots, where they face constant connectivity issues. This is why usable technical solutions are indispensable. As this work is undertaken in the context of war, it is important to have qualified technology support. We are very grateful to the organisations, such as HURIDOCS, providing it in this difficult time for us.”– Oleksandra Matviychuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties and Board Member of HURIDOCS
Documenting violations is vital for accountability
Four days into the Russian invasion, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor opened an investigation into war crimes being committed in Ukraine. In conjunction with the investigation, the ICC launched a contact portal and anyone with relevant information is urged to come forward and share the details with the ICC. The United Nations Human Rights Council expressed that it is gravely concerned about the escalating human rights and humanitarian crisis and passed a resolution to establish a Commission of Inquiry. The Commission will first and foremost collect evidence of violations and those responsible, and subsequently submit reports to the Human Rights Council and General Assembly. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Germany has launched an investigation by collecting evidence of suspected crimes on civilians and critical infrastructure. Germany’s probe is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute crimes against international law outside of its borders.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement where she expressed horror by the images of civilian bodies on the streets and in improvised graves in the town of Bucha. She stated that reports of egregious crimes raise serious questions about possible war crimes and grave breaches of international and humanitarian law. She urged that “it is vital that all efforts are made to ensure there are independent and effective investigations into what happened in Bucha to ensure truth, justice and accountability, as well as reparations and remedy for victims and their families”.
In addition to these and other measures already underway to investigate possible war crimes and breaches of international and humanitarian law, some of the most authoritative civil society organisations in Ukraine have established a global initiative to seek justice and hold perpetrators accountable. The ‘Breaking the Vicious Circle of Russia’s Impunity for Its War Crimes’ initiative was jointly established by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and the Center for Civil Liberties, and is also known as the ‘Tribunal for Putin’.
The Tribunal for Putin aims to document events which can be classified as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Tribunal for Putin will also collect evidence and facts on the crimes committed and will work with existing international mechanisms of the United Nations, Council of Europe, OSCE, EU and the International Criminal Court. The initiative has called for support from various actors such as international organisations, networks, government agencies, public associations, volunteer initiatives and groups who all share the common goal of restoring peace in Ukraine and ensuring that justice will prevail.
Civil society plays a crucial role in seeking justice
In this context, it is clear that the systematic documentation of human rights violations, irrespective of who is committing the transgression, is critical to achieving justice and accountability. Documentation should not only be undertaken to assist future justice and accountability mechanisms but also to support the process of reckoning and healing.
Civil society plays a key role in efforts to document and monitor violations, and to build and strengthen cases for accountability. Civil society actors are usually the first to respond to crises, have the deepest community reach and can mobilise the people who are living through these experiences. Documenting human rights violations as they happen is imperative in the process of restoring justice. To effectively and safely assist the community there is a need for strong digital tools to gather, process, preserve, manage, protect and analyse the rapidly growing bodies of potential evidence, including large amounts of storage-intensive video. In addition, deterrence against the worst violations can also be established through credible documentation strategies.
HURIDOCS is a longtime supporter of civil society organisations and human rights defenders who use human rights documentation strategies and tools as a means to strengthen accountability and advocate for justice. We are already supporting a number of groups working on documenting human rights violations in Ukraine and HURIDOCS invites other initiatives who need support with their documentation efforts to contact us. We value diverse approaches to documenting violations, as it may strengthen accountability measures and aid in articulating narratives during the process of memorialisation.
Support for documenting violations in Ukraine
With the increased need for support to document violations in Ukraine to strengthen accountability, the Alfred Landecker Foundation has partnered with HURIDOCS to increase our capacity to support civil society-led initiatives where our expertise can be helpful. HURIDOCS is grateful to the Foundation for the support, as it comes at a time when documenting threats to peace, justice and democracy is critical. The support from the Alfred Landecker Foundation will be used to assist groups who are already participating in documentation efforts, and to aid other initiatives related to documenting violations in Ukraine.
HURIDOCS is currently supporting our partners in the following ways:
Training and consultation on information collection, protection and management techniques and associated tools, such as Uwazi;
Setting up digital information repositories to securely store sensitive data;
Refinement and integration of existing technology solutions to document, protect and analyse evidence of human rights violations; and
Hardening and scaling infrastructure to preserve and protect large amounts of information.
There is a significant and growing need to support organisations with their efforts to gather, process, preserve, manage, protect and analyse information on abuses. Reliable documentation of violations is essential for the restoration of justice in the pursuit of upholding democracy and human rights.
A new database project is memorializing the “footprints” of people taken by North Korea
With support from HURIDOCS, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) and its partners recently launched Footprints, an open archive that documents arbitrary detentions, abductions and enforced disappearances committed in and by North Korea. The database, which was created in Uwazi with HURIDOCS support, features files on nearly 20,000 cases since the 1950s. The collaboration is profiled in a newly published blog post: <https://5if28.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/cl/f
With the launching of the new Digest of human rights laureates by True Heroes Films (THF) today, 2 February 2021, I have decided to centre my blog more on human rights awards and laureates. It will give the blog more focus and this will also help the Digest to stay up to date. After many years of work, True Heroes Films (THF) has made public its gateway to human rights awards and their laureates at www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest. The Digest is a new free online tool that gives everybody access to information on human rights awards, including the list of people who received such awards. Over the last 20 years, the human rights movement has discovered the value of awards. The Digest tells that story and makes human rights defenders more visible as an encouragement and role model for others.
Here some specialised user comments: The Digest “will help us demonstrate to the world how many human rights defenders there are in the world and the different human rights they defend and fight for” stated Guadalupe Marengo, Head of Global Human Rights Defenders Programme at Amnesty International.
“It is a useful resource that places individuals, the laureates, at the heart of the search process,” commented Eleanor Davies of the Centre of Applied Human Rights at York University.
“With a simple and straightforward way to find what you are looking for, it helps initiate partnerships,” says Friedhelm Weinberg, Executive Director of HURIDOCS, an organisation specialised in information technology.
For human rights defenders, the Digest allows finding awards and people concerned with similar causes worldwide. Award givers can quickly check their candidates. For media, the Digest means instant access to information on human rights defenders or an award announcement to complete their story.
The Digest was created during 8 years with support from the City of Geneva, Brot für die Welt and the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations Office.
The SIM team in 1984, Bert Verstappen on the right
It is usually not a compliment when somebody is described as ‘furniture’. But Bert Verstappen, senior documentalist at HURIDOCS, is the exception. And the furniture in mind is an expensive, solid oak Dutch cupboard where all valuables are kept. Bert Verstappen – an historian by education – started working as a conscientious objector doing alternative service in the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (SIM) in approximately 1983, soon after I became the founding director.
He proved his value immediately by working on themes such as documenting human rights violations and together we started a long term research project on the practice of fact finding by NGOs, which resulted in the first-of-its-kind publication of Human Rights Missions, a Study of the Fact‑Finding Practice ofNon‑governmental Organizations, published in 1986 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (ISBN: 90 247 3355 3). Morever, as SIM had become the initial ‘secretariat’ of the new HURIDOCS network created in 1982, Bert gave a lot of support to the fledgling unit. In 1987 HURIDOCS moved to Oslo and Bert moved with it, learned Norwegian very quickly and kept the flame burning for many years. He moved to Geneva with HURIDOCS after the big Crete conference in 1992.
Bert (l.) 1993 in Geneva with Theo van Boven and Oldrich Andrysek
There he continued to coordinate the work of different task forces and co-authored essential HURIDOCS publications. He was involved in many capacity building projects, providing expertise mainly from the documentation angle. As from 1 October 2019 he goes into retirement but will remain involved in some HURIDOCS projects on a part-time basis until the end of the year, ensuring a “soft bertxit”.
“The development of new tools deeply changed HURIDOCS’ work throughout the years. We renew ourselves constantly. I have committed my career to this exciting challenge because I want to feel useful to human right defenders. Their courage is a source of inspiration for all of us” says Bert Verstappen on the HURIDOCS website
If you want to know more about the history of HURIDOCS in which Bert has played such an important role, see:
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 