User Guide

1. Explore all sections of the website to learn more about the purpose, concepts, methodology, and how to work with your data once your assessment is complete.   

2. Create an account and wait for approval. This serves to protect the validity of the portal, prevent spam, and keep your work saved when you login. You will be notified when your account is ready for use. Read the Step-by-Step Manual below if you need technical support. 

3. Create your “assessment”, which is your portal for the specific data collection. The button for this action is hidden until your account has been approved. Here you will, among others,  be asked to choose which of the two assessments you would like to use.  Read Which Assessment to use? to guide your choice

4. When your account is approved, you are considered the “Respondent”.  You can assign other colleagues as co-respondents to help you carry out the necessary research or document review and fill in the assessment.

5. You will be requested to assign a reviewer. That is someone who will conduct a thorough review of the responses submitted by the Respondent. The Reviewer is mandatory if you want to have the results of your data collection published in the database of the website. The Respondent cannot act as the Reviewer, but it can be someone from the same institution/organisation/group.

6. Start your data collection. Fill in your answers to the questions under the five categories or the categories relevant for your work. 

6.a. Please note that you will need to include the data references for ALL the answers. The assessment is only considered complete if all references are provided.

6.b. Every question includes a comprehensive guide to help understand the concepts and identify potential data sources.

6.c. When data for a question is not available, select “no data available”. Use this option only when the data does not exist nationally or is not accessible nationally. It should not be used as a “I do not know” answer.

6.d. You can skip a category or a question if necessary, although it is recommend that you try to assess all questions in the categories which are relevant to you.

6.e. You must click “Save” after answering each question. Questions will be marked in green colour when completed, and in yellow when in progress.

6.f. For additional guidance, read the Guidance for Responding to the Assessments.

7. Download or print your answers if you wish. You can always make a PDF of the assessment as you are filling it in. This function can be useful if you want to share your responses with a colleague before you conclude your work.

8. Submit your assessment for review when you have filled in all answers. Once you press “Submit for Review”, your designated Reviewer will receive a notification that the assessment is ready for review. The Reviewer must: ensure that: (a) responses include the respective references; (b) check the accuracy of the response based on the references; (c) ensure there is no sensitive personal data in the responses; and (d) critically assess whether a choice for “no data available” is accurate. The Reviewer can approve the complete responses or include comments in those that need to be addressed by the Respondent

9. Revise the questions flagged by the Reviewer and re-submit. You will be notified when the Reviewer concludes their work. Login to edit your responses and address the Reviewer’s comments.

10. Re-submit your revised assessment for review by pressing “Submit for Review”. If necessary, this cycle should be repeated until all questions have been approved by the Reviewer on the basis of step n.8.

11. Submit your data for publishing on the website database when all answers have been approved by the Reviewer.

12. Download or print a final report that summarizes your responses and indicates how well your country is doing in ensuring an enabling environment for human rights defenders. Read the Methodology note on the index calculation to understand how the questions are scored in the final report.

13. If it is feasible, we recommend that you submit your assessment for a second round of review by a relevant and independent external actor. This can be e.g., the National Human Rights Institution, the national branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a national committee or expert group with a mandate on the subject, a global committee of experts. An external review enhances the trust in the data and is also an opportunity for the data collector to build new or strengthen existing data partnerships with relevant actors.

If you experience any problems, don't hesitate to contact us.