Human Rights Violations Database (BR0114)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Currently, there are many discussions about ensuring decent living conditions for all people, emphasizing that paying attention to human dignity is urgent and of utmost importance. Over the last few decades, several initiatives aimed at valuing and respecting others have been consolidated, improving living conditions for people around the world. Despite these efforts, much has yet to be done before there is universal respect for Human Rights, so that they are, in fact, enjoyed by all people. Today, a series of violations are still occurring daily and throughout the world. Talking about full human dignity is therefore at the same time a struggle for construction, recognition and against social setbacks. In Brazil, the situation is even more challenging when the size of the country is taken into account. A central problem related to human rights violations involves the lack of information and indicators at the national level. This hinders a more efficient and effective engagement of the government, leading to loss of information as records are not made or are scattered in various systems that do not communicate due to the lack of standardization.

What is the commitment? The commitment is an effort to overcome the lack of a computerized system to consolidate data on human rights violations and enable standardized integration with systems already implemented by states and municipalities. In addition, the system database will be published in open data format.

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? The establishment at the national level of a unified and computerized database of human rights violations allows public bodies to act more effectively and efficiently.

Why this commitment is relevant to OGP values? Commitment is relevant to transparency. When implemented, the commitment will make available an open-format database, with standardized cataloging and taxonomy, at the highest possible level of data breakdown, contributing not only for a more effective performance of government bodies, but also for the design of public policies based on reliable data (transparency). The commitment will also enable: i.greater dissemination of and access to reporting channels through apps, website, messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.), in addition to building a database of information and knowledge on the theme; ii.universal access to government data related to human rights violations, as well as cross-referencing with other databases, such as IBGE, DATASUS, SINESP, etc.; iii.consolidation of human rights violation data and integration with the National Open Data Policy; iv.accessibility to channels for reporting human rights violations for the entire population.

Additional information Funds have already been approved for implementing the commitment (included in ONDH/MMFDH budget, within the scope of the project portfolio of the National Integrated Human Rights System). The commitment implementation will be linked to the project “MMFDH Human Rights Observatory.” This commitment helps implement the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): • SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. • SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. • SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. • SDG 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. • SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. • SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. • SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries. • SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. • SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Milestones (with verifiable deliverable) Start Date: End Date: Milestone 1 - Definition of system features and requirements December 2021 February 2022 Milestone 2 – Development of a standardized taxonomy of human rights and preparation of a glossary of data definitions December 2021 August 2022 Milestone 3 - Establishment of a minimum list of data elements to be included in the system and of the level of data breakdown December 2021 March 2022 Milestone 4 – Definition of national and subnational actors that will feed and use the system January 2022 March 2022 Milestone 5 – Holding of a working meeting to engage national and subnational actors who will feed and use the system March 2022 December 2022 Milestone 6 - Launching of the system beta version for testing and validation with actors March 2022 August 2022 Milestone 7 – Preparation of the user guide February 2022 December 2022 Milestone 8 - Delivery of the computerized system December 2022 December 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4. Human Rights Violation Database

Context and objectives:

Human rights are a pressing issue in Brazil, where, according to the latest Amnesty International 2021/2022 report, social groups historically facing discrimination and poor living conditions were disproportionately affected by the negative economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[1] In the same line, the 2020 Brazil report by Human Rights Watch [2] points out many recent setbacks in areas such as police brutality, gender-based violence, and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community and against migrant groups.

The Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), one of the pillars of the region’s human rights protection system, states in its 2021 country report that two main categories of discrimination persist in Brazil: one historical (against black and black traditional—also known as quilombola—people, indigenous populations, and women), and another socioeconomic (against rural workers, peasants, and migrant people, as well as disadvantaged populations living in the cities). As the IACHR analyzes, these two types of discrimination are directly intertwined with chronic inequalities. ^[3]

Out of the 34 thematic groups suggested by CSOs, the issue of human rights and open data was one of the top five topics that stood out from an online consultation held at the action plan co-creation phase. ^[4] For the current action plan, the topic of human rights is a new priority policy area, as in the 2018–2020 action plan it was not among the 29 defined CSO thematic groups. [5]

Commitment 4 entails an important task, as there is no digital system that gathers all data from human rights violations in a standardized, open-source, and readily available manner. Building such a database meets the OGP value of transparency and can be a useful tool for human rights civil society organizations in their advocacy efforts to counter violations against vulnerable groups. This is particularly important in the context of setbacks in the field of human rights, as pointed out by many national and international nongovernmental organizations. ^[6]

Potential for results: Modest

Through the national open-data portal, ^[7] the Brazilian government currently makes data on received human rights complaints available. The portal publishes data sets on reports received by the Ministry of Women, Families and Human Rights through the Dial Human Rights (Disque Direitos Humanos, or Disque 100) service, and on complaints for human rights violations and violence against women registered by the National Human Rights Ombudsman (Ouvidoria Nacional de Direitos Humanos), which managed over 314,000 cases in 2021 alone. ^[8] However, human rights organizations are, in many cases, in the dark when it comes to their ability to gather information about violations, making their work to push for change even harder. There is a lack of information and indicators at the national level. Existing information is often outdated and scattered on many different websites, making the task of monitoring progress and setbacks challenging. Another problem pointed out by civil society was a lack of specific data on women, black people, indigenous people, and the LGBTQIA+ community. ^[9] By realizing this commitment, Brazil can provide a concrete advocacy tool for civil society organizations to shed light on patterns of violations in order to guarantee human rights for all.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

Commitment 4 could lead to important results, as it involves building a completely new system to support different databases. However, it lacks information to understand the extent to which the commitment could lead to strong results. The commitment text could improve in two key aspects: First, the coordinator office in charge of this commitment should identify and state which databases will be included (at least preliminary in the first version) of the digital system; second, it should ensure that the system is user-friendly and that it contains all the functionalities required by stakeholders—before the validation stage of the system.

This is partially contemplated by milestones 1 and 3, and it would be important to make clear that there should be civil society involvement from the early stage of the work. As the commitments are written, the broader engagement of other actors comes only in a later stage, after the definition of the data, data disaggregation and functionalities have been defined. This sequencing issue might result in a risk: inadequacy of parameters vis-à-vis the needs of the users or the feasibility of obtaining the defined data at the subnational level. Therefore, the IRM recommends starting a consultation process with civil society organizations and subnational bodies for milestones 1, 2, and 3 in order to avoid this risk and prioritize data use.

Results Report

Commitment 4. Human rights violation database

Human rights violations are a pressing issue in Brazil. During the most recent elections, human rights protection was reported to have deteriorated further. [47] During co-creation, the commitment identified the lack of information and indicators on human rights violations in a central and accessible manner as the key problem. [48] From its design, the commitment was linked to a larger policy initiative of the National Integrated System of Human Rights (SINDH). [49] Through its eight milestones, the commitment aimed to build a human rights observatory platform that consolidated data from multiple sources, allowed integration and standardization with systems already in place, and published data in an open format and at the highest granularity. [50] Milestones 1–3 dealt with defining the platform features, taxonomy and data glossary, and a minimum list of data elements. Ministerial Ordinance N. 503 of 22 February 2022 defined the human rights content portal and other human rights systems as part of the SINDH. [51] For the taxonomy, the work was marked as completed, given the existence of a Human Rights Taxonomy Manual that was published during the commitment’s implementation period. [52] However, this work is part of a 2020 improvement project that evaluated multiple systems that dealt with human rights complaints. [53]

Similarly, the minimum data elements list was marked as completed based on the work done in the 2020 project to standardize these elements and the already existence and publication of human rights data in an open format through different systems/portals. [54] Milestones 4 and 5 dealt directly with defining and engaging the actors that will feed and use the observatory/portal, while Milestone 6 aimed to receive feedback from them via pilot testing. As with the previous milestones, the established structures of the SINDH and work from the 2020 project were given as evidence of completion. [55] Milestones 7 and 8 referred to the publication of a user guide for the system and the actual delivery of a portal with a human rights violation database respectively. For Milestone 7, there is evidence that the work was started, but no final user guide was published. [56] Milestone 8 signified the most important delivery of the commitment, but the launch of the portal had not happened by the end of the implementation period. [57] Nevertheless, there is evidence that a human rights portal was launched in December 2023 via ObservaDH. [58]

While the human rights platform was launched a year after the end of the implementation period (December 2023), it is a content portal with key information rather than a platform with a human rights violation database that is granular, centralized, and has data in open formats, as the commitment intended. [59] The IRM was unable to secure interviews with the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, which led the commitment, to clarify this deliverable. [60] Additionally, the commitment lacked an early consultation design with the different actors on the platform to be launched as recommended in the Action Plan Review. [61] As recognized in the government self-assessment, most of the work was done by the coordinating body. [62] In general, the presented evidence reflects that the commitment was absorbed by the work done on other parts of the SINDH. Nevertheless, there is recognition that this overall work elevated the governance of human rights systems through the SINDH, improved services to citizens, centralized human rights violation reporting, as well as educated and increased public participation. [63] As such, the IRM considers the commitment to have had moderate early results.