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Send to friendMartus is a secure information management tool that allows you to create a searchable and encrypted database, and back up this data to safeguard it. The idea behind Martus was to bring efficiency and security to the documenting of abuses. This means that a practitioner can search for particular abuses or violations as well as identifying details in order to help sift through information more securely and quickly.
The program is used by organizations all over the world who wish to protect sensitive information and shield the identity of victims or witnesses who provide testimony to human rights abuses (the word Martus means witness in Greek). This would be extremely helpful in work with truth and reconciliation commissions, criminal tribunals, or for any practitioner who work with documenting rights abuses.
The program was launched in 2003 and was built to work as client software on your local computer. The Internet allows Martus users to connect to off-site servers to back-up data and also download updates. Currently, there are four active Martus backup servers located in Seattle, Manila, Budapest, and Thailand. Something great about Martus is that it is easy to use, can run on an inexpensive computer, and doesn't require constant access to the Internet. This would be really helpful for practitioners who are in places with less access to the Internet, and the program is still usable on computers that are older and slower.
Martus is an open source software tool, and is used by human rights workers, journalists, attorneys and others who need to secure their information from eavesdropping, equipment failure, theft or other threats. English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Thai, Persian and Nepali language translations are available which helps to make the program more widely usable in a variety of locations. Some of those who use Martus also use a program called Analyzer, which is a software program developed by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group to help human rights workers organize human rights information for analysis. Both Martus and Analyzer are supported by Benetech, which is a non-profit technology organization based in Palo Alto, California. Benetech was started as a way to find high tech solutions to aid in humanitarian work.
The Martus Team works with local and grassroots NGOs all over the world by offering outreach, training, and support. The Martus employs a "train the trainers" methodology in order to keep the community growing and maximize outreach. Also, because the program is an open source software any improvements that are made benefit a large audience and help make documenting rights abuses more efficient and secure.
Some of the functions of Martus include using strong, built-in data encryption to protect and safeguard data and permitting searchable text-based bulletins about human rights violations which can be created easily and quickly. The program also securely backs up human rights information and replicates it in multiple locations in order to avoid loss. This would be very helpful for people who are in locations where theft, fire, or electrical outages pose a threat.
An example of the way in which the Martus program could be beneficial in human rights work is its use in Guatemala. The Martus program was recently used in Guatemala to document and analyze secret police files (over 80 million documents) that were discovered. Documents were cleaned, organized, and scanned onto computers. Benetech then began to analyze the documents, and found that many of the documents contained a great deal of information concerning the state-sanctioned arrests and disappearances that occured during the decades of civil conflict. This information was integral to documenting the rights abuses that occurred in the past, and also helped family members to know what happened to their loved ones. However, this documentation process was not without its adversaries. Due to risks such as death threats and an attempt to firebomb the building, security cameras were installed, and copies of the files were encrypted and sent to Benetech servers outside the country for safekeeping. For more information on the Guatemala case, PBS Frontline did an article and video segment on the subject, and also interviewed Jim Fruchterman, who is the CEO of Benetech.
Since its launch in 2003, Benetech has been involved in projects in over 13 countries, including Afghanistan, Peru, Colombia, Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone, and represents a really great tool in information technology that can be used to help human rights workers, attorneys, and anyone documenting human rights abuses to do so more efficiently and securely.
