Last Thursday, July 10, Oriana Bernasconi, director of the Millennium Nucleus Data Justa, she was interviewed on the radio program Libres e Iguales, from the National Institute of Human Rights, Los Ríos office and Radio UACh. During the conversation, led by Patricia Cocq and Miriam Ramírez, the academic addressed some of the main challenges facing the Chilean State when it comes to producing, organizing and using information on victims of serious human rights violations.
Data Justa brings together researchers from diverse disciplines—sociology, law, data science, psychology, communications, and victimology—with the goal of identifying gaps in how the State records and responds to these cases. The team focuses on three cases: attempted femicide, human trafficking, and institutional violence in the context of the social uprising.
A data-driven society, but without a common system of registration
During the interview, Bernasconi recalled how the 2019 social uprising highlighted the lack of a unified national registry system for addressing instances of institutional violence. Unlike the experience of organizations such as the Vicariate of Solidarity during the dictatorship, the Chilean state today lacks a common structure for systematically and comprehensively documenting human rights violations.
“We live in a data-driven society. (…) We are all capable of recording; the question is how we can think of a recording and documentation structure that allows this information to be used for recognition practices and for victims, and that serves as evidence to achieve justice.”, señaló la investigadora.
The gaps are numerous: data dispersion among institutions, legal obstacles to information sharing between institutions, and disparate criteria for verifying facts. This not only hinders the possibility of justice, but also means that victims must repeatedly recount their experiences to different government agencies.
The way victims are perceived and the logic behind how cases and their trajectories within the system are documented poses a profound challenge: can we design public policies specifically for victims of human rights violations? Is it possible to develop indicators that reflect long-term reparations processes, going beyond mere numbers?
The role of academia and data justice
Bernasconi emphasized that Data Justa does not aim to replace the State, but rather to contribute with knowledge, tools, and critical reflection. The team works collaboratively with public sector professionals and seeks to create training opportunities such as local workshops related to data justice, international standards, critical data analysis, and other topics relevant to the project.
“We know there is important work to be done in disseminating information, educating the public, and promoting digital literacy on topics such as data justice. This field is much broader than the cases we work on, and it refers to the recognition that we live in a data-saturated society. Everything can become data. Technology allows us to produce and circulate data very easily.”
You can listen to the full interview again at the following link: