Martus? What's that?

If you google for the word, you could get lost in a list of names, publications and even photography options. And, of course, there's also a human rights software tool named after the Greek word for "witness".

Martus is a new tool to battle human rights violations. It offers a global human rights reporting system, which creates, stores and retrieves abuse information. It addresses the special needs of the human rights community, especially of those working under dangerous conditions.

"It's very user-friendly. We've been using it in Kenya for a year-and-half," says Kipchumbah 'Kip' K. John, the sys-admin of The Citizens’ Coalition for Constitutional Change (4Cs Trust).

"You can customise it to fit your needs, for secure reporting for instance. It uses cryptology technology to back up information remotely," says Kip. "It's also in Open Source, so you can customise it to fit your needs."

Kenya is the third Martus server location. There are two others, in Budapest (Hungary) and Seattle (US).

"We have about 62 organisations working with it, in one way or another. Some use it locally, and don't upload it to a server. Organisations also share data among themselves. They are able to act (in a coordinated manner) on issues. Most organisations put out only a limited amount of information in the public sphere, as the information can be pretty sensitive," says Kip.

This 28-year-old Kenyan techie sees Martus as doing a range of jobs -- helping to gather your data and put it in an electronic format through a simplified method; and encrypting your data, which means unauthorised persons cannot read your data easily when its in Martus.

It can also help with a simple analysis of your work -- for instance, deciding what kind of issues emerge from which regions, and the outcome of certain issues. In addition it can help disseminating information by sharing it securely.

Finally, there's also a secure back-up system. Data stored remotely can always be recovered, adds Kip. It backs up information replicated across different locations, to protect against its loss.

"In most human rights organisations, security is always important. In most cases, organisations would trust a secure repository system. Their identity and confidentiality of information would not be breached," says he.

The 4C Trust, which Kip is part of, works for constitutional change in Kenya. "We are campaigning for a people-driven constitution," argues Kip. See details at http://www.4cskenyatuitakayo.org/

Even if someone grabs your hard-disk, they would not be able to read the data. You can't simply copy a folder and try to read it in another programme. It won't work, because it's encrypted. To get access to Martus data, you need three things -- a username, password and a key.

So, while the battle for human rights is grim, this is just another safeguard against hostile governments or malicious people who try to break into your office, seize your hard disk drive, or even sent in malicious virus.

• Martus
• http://www.martus.org/

• Publications on Martus
• http://www.martus.org/resources/publications.shtml

• Open Society Archives: Martus the human rights too
• http://www.osa.ceu.hu/martus/

• The 4C Trust
• http://www.4cskenyatuitakayo.org/