Information, Knowledge, and Truth: Replacing Secrecy, Ignorance, and Myth in the Wake of Atrocity

Thursday, May 7, 2009
5:15 PM - 6:45 PM
(Pacific)
Wallenberg Theater
Speaker: 
  • Patrick Ball, Ph.D.

This talk will describe the role of data analysis in political transitions to democracy. Transitions require accountability of some form, and in the aggregate, accountability is statistical. In this talk, I will present examples of using several different kinds of data to establish political responsibility for large-scale human rights violations.

Patrick Ball, Ph.D., is the Director of the Human Rights Program at the Benetech Initiative which includes the Martus project and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG). Since 1991, Dr. Ball has designed information management systems and conducted statistical analysis for large-scale human rights data projects used by truth commissions, non-governmental organizations, tribunals and United Nations missions in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Perú, Timor-Leste, Sierra Leone, and Chad.

Dr. Ball is currently involved in Benetech projects in Colombia, Burma, Liberia, Guatemala and in other countries around the world.