The Dark Side of Numbers: The Role of Population Data Systems in Human Rights Abuses

Social Research, Summer, 2001 by William Seltzer, Margo Anderson

As important as the existence of agreed-on statements of ethical norms may be, continuing discussions of ethical issues among statisticians and major users of statistics may be even more important in promoting sensitivity to ethical issues in ongoing work. Indeed, Roger Jowell, chair of the committee that developed the ISI declaration, considered the educational role of a statement on ethics to be its paramount function; one of the reasons for adopting or revising a statement or code of ethical principles is the opportunity it provides for education and discussion (Jowell, 1981). It is also important to be alert to opportunities that foster wider discussion of ethical issues. One aspect of such discussions is the examination and review of possible past ethical lapses in official statistics. Forthrightness about the past is an important element in both strengthening ethical awareness and in building a network of other defenses against possible future misuses.

Needs

The line of research related to the misuse of population data systems reviewed in this paper suggests several distinct areas of further work that may be grouped under two headings: research and development, and exposition and dissemination.

Research and Development

Most of the studies of the misuses or attempted misuses summarized in table 1 also specified areas where further research was needed to clarify issues related to the case under study (Blum, 2000; Seltzer, 1998, 1999; Seltzer and Anderson, 2000). Based on the work by Sobye (1998) and Seltzer and Anderson (2000), archival research can be a critical component of such further research. Moreover, although the use of the population register in the 1994 Rwanda genocide has been established, its role has yet to be spelled out in detail. In addition, the further development of many of the technological and methodological safeguards noted will require further research on statistical and information theory, while the development of improved legal safeguards will require further legal research.

Two major statistical and national policy issues also need to be addressed: first, the continued routine use of official population data systems to collect data on the classification variables (i.e., race, ethnicity, religion, country of birth or ancestry, mother tongue) traditionally used to identify vulnerable populations; and second, the expanded use of comprehensive population registration systems. The use of ethnicity and similar classification variables is long established in most countries and the use of population registers is often proposed to countries without such a system (van Bochove, 1996; Phillips, MacLeod, and Pence, 2000). Nevertheless, given the recent research summarized here, it would seem only prudent to reexamine both issues as suggested in Seltzer (1998) and Seltzer and Anderson (2000).

Another important area for further research is other instances of human rights abuses that may have been assisted by the work of statisticians, national statistical services, or population data systems. Such a listing is far more problematic than the cases listed in table 1, since in these instances no clear link has been established and the level of the associated harms varies even more widely. A partial listing of instances where there is at least some measure of suggestive evidence that population data systems were associated with substantial human rights abuse include: