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Testimony Database for Human Rights Victims
Published on July 31, 2022 by Mohammed Kamal


Many around the world are disappeared or harmed by authoritarian governments, more than can be tracked and verified by centralized organizations, so we set up a Testimony Database to collect accounts about all disappearances and violence anywhere. 

This database records testimonies about enforced disappearances and extrajudicial violence. That is, if someone is harmed or kidnapped by force and cannot go to their government for protection - either because the government itself is involved, corrupt, or ineffective, their story belongs here. In cases where the judiciary is or may be complicit, cases that have had "trials" may also be included.

The database includes stories people learned about directly as well as through news sources. You will be prompted for the source of your information and also will have the option to withhold specific names and contacts. You may also work anonymously with a volunteer of Raise the Voices. The database does not include any information that could endanger the individual. 

We provide as many sources as possible, it will be indicated what the sources for a story are. Journalists and NGOs are welcome to contact us for reports or data exports at [email protected]  We have many volunteers helping to enter.

You can see the cases here.  They are currently stored in a single centralized database, this award would help us move them to decentralized storage with cryptographic signatures, and form a dao for future administration, and train the volunteers on using decentralized technologies.