HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH
The enjoyment of the right is recognized in core human rights treaties as a fundamental human right. Nonetheless, human research is not exempt from restrictions necessary to guarantee respect for human rights. States in collaboration with CSOs must protect people from potential harms arising from and during scientific research
Our Approach to Human Rights Research
GCCYF human rights research approach has an in-depth analysis of government policy and practice which serves as the basis of lobbying and campaign efforts, and they provide the underpinnings of organizational reputation and credibility.
As an organization our genre of human rights research typically resembles evidence gathered for a legal argument rather than analysis in the tradition of social science. We do not seek to describe general social conditions; rather, the main objective of human rights reporting is to document patterns of human rights violations and expose the perpetrators, institutions and policies that facilitate abuse.
Forensic Evidence and Human Rights Reporting
While most human rights reporting relies on verbal testimony, sometimes the carnage is so horrendous and so complete that there are no survivors to provide a reliable account of events and circumstances. Forensic evidence has increasingly been used to corroborate, and supplement, accounts offered by survivors.
Forensic investigation including autopsies have long been a foundation of criminal investigation, including well known human rights cases. The 1979 Filartiga case, for example, relied on forensic analysis. Forensic evidence, however, was not systematically introduced to human rights reporting until the mid-1980s.