Module 5 – Information Gathering

Information gathering

Information gathering is the staple of monitoring. Without reliable information you cannot get to the facts. Learn how you find information, what types information you need, and to what end.

After learning about information gathering in this module you will be able to test your knowledge in practice by playing an online educational game, just click Starlight Stadium.

Enjoy!

Estimated time: 1h45m

• Video lecture

  Information gathering

  Please, make sure you turned on Subtitles option on YouTube.

• 1 Quiz

  Take the quiz and test your knowledge!

  1. Primary sources of information in human rights monitoring are:

  A. Media reports and reportages

  B. Social media posts by people making allegations

  C. Documents, official statistics medical letters, financial documents, eyewitness/victim social media posts

  Correct! Wrong!

  2. If I asked for official information and did not get any answer from State actors:

  A. It means I have no information that I can use in my human rights investigation,

  B. It means that State actors (police, local authority, ministry, etc.) have certainly committed a human rights violation,

  C. It means I have the information that a particular State actor (police, local authority, ministry, etc.) is unwilling to provide details about the case I investigate

  Correct! Wrong!

• Game

  Starlight Stadium is an online learning game that will send you on a virtual human rights monitoring mission in a fictional country, where you will gradually learn and apply the core skills needed to investigate human rights violations i.e. monitoring, digital security, data collection, interviewing and much more.

  A colleague in crisis asks you to continue an investigation he started which quickly unfolds into systemic human rights violations with links to your country’s top leadership. Set in a fictional country ahead of a global sports event, the government fails to protect laborers who have been compelled to work in untenable conditions by the company constructing stadiums. Players must find witnesses and victims, interview them and systematically document the abuses without putting themselves or their collaborators at risk. They must choose carefully the right thing to say, record, and report as well as how to communicate securely. Just as in real life human rights work, each choice has potentially dire consequences and you don’t know who to trust.

  Click here to start Starlight Stadium Game.

  Your opinion is important to us, therefore, don’t forget to fill in the survey after playing the game.