Ítem
Acceso Abierto
The Work of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch: Evidence from Colombia
Título de la revista
Autores
Vargas Duque, Juan Fernando
Spagat, Michael
Ballesteros, Ándres
Restrepo, Jorge
Archivos
Fecha
2007
Directores
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Centro de Recursos para Análisis de Conflictos
Citations
Métricas alternativas
Resumen
Abstract
We process the main written output of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Colombia covering the period 1988-2004, recording all numerical conflict information and accounts of specific conflict events. We check for internal consistency and against a unique Colombian conflict database. We find that both organizations have substantive problems in their handling of quantitative information. Problems include failure to specify sources, unclear definitions, an erratic reporting template and a distorted portrayal of conflict dynamics. Accounts of individual events are fairly representative and much more useful and accurate than the statistical information. We disprove a common accusation that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch rarely criticize the guerrillas, but do find some evidence of anti-government bias. The quantitative human rights and conflict information produced by these organizations for other countries must be viewed with scepticism along with cross-country and time series human rights data based on Amnesty International reports.
Palabras clave
Keywords
International human rights , Government watc
