HURIDOCS

What HURIDOCS does

HURIDOCS, legally Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, is a non-profit association registered under Swiss law in the Canton of Geneva and founded in 1982. The organization develops open-source information management tools and advises human rights defenders on documentation strategies. Its core product is Uwazi, a flexible web-based database application launched in 2017 that allows human rights organizations to capture, organize, annotate, and share collections of documents, evidence, cases, and complaints; Uwazi supports 180+ languages (including right-to-left scripts), role-based access control, two-factor authentication, and machine-learning-assisted categorization using BERT and TensorFlow, with source code publicly available on GitHub. Legacy products include Casebox (litigation management, 2013-2020), OpenEvsys (violation documentation, 2009 onward), and HuriSearch (multilingual search engine, 2006-2016, retired after indexing 8 million+ pages). The code base is open-source and supplemented by advising services for customized partner implementations and a resource library of documentation methodologies.

HURIDOCS serves a global base of 350+ partner organizations spanning local activist groups, national human rights institutions, international NGOs, and multilateral bodies such as the OHCHR. Named deployments include UPR Info, the African Human Rights Case Law Analyser (with IHRDA), the SUMMA database (with CEJIL), Korea Future Initiative, Justice Project Pakistan, Migrant Forum Asia, and the OMCT/SOS-Defenders arbitrary detention database. The geographic footprint covers Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and increasingly the Pacific (Fiji, Samoa).

HURIDOCS is funded primarily by grants from philanthropic foundations and development agencies - including Oak Foundation (since 2011), Google.org ($1M, 2023), the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation ($400K, 2023), the European Commission, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Capital Group, and Temenos - supplemented by payments from partner organizations for customized setup, hosting, and implementation services, and by individual donations. Uwazi itself is free to download and self-host.

Name

HURIDOCS

Legal name

HURIDOCS (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems)

Website

https://huridocs.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

HURIDOCS is a Geneva-based non-profit founded in 1982 that builds open-source information management tools, principally Uwazi, for human rights organizations to document violations, manage cases, and publish evidence in 180+ languages.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Human Rights Documentation Software

NAICS

Human Rights Organizations (813311), Libraries and Archives (51921)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus & Resilience Programming (BPADAEAK)

Keywords

• Human rights documentation
• Open-source database software
• Case management platforms
• Information management systems
• Human rights technology

Headquarters

HQ city

Geneva

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grants from philanthropic foundations and development agencies: HURIDOCS receives funding from grants provided by philanthropic foundations such as Oak Foundation, Google, European Commission, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Temenos, and others. These grants support general operations and specific projects.
2. Payments from partner organizations: Human rights partner organizations pay for services that HURIDOCS provides, including customized support, hosting services, and collaborative implementation projects. These payments fund operations and activities.
3. Individual donations: Individual donors contribute to HURIDOCS, funding continued operations and activities.
4. Open-source tool (Uwazi) - Free download: Uwazi is free for anyone to install on their own server. Users can set it up independently using the documentation on ReadTheDocs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

HURIDOCS develops open-source technology tools and provides advising services that help human rights defenders document, organize, and use information for advocacy, litigation, and accountability. Its flagship product Uwazi is a flexible web-based database for curating, annotating, and sharing collections of documents, evidence, cases, and complaints, supplemented by customized implementation support, hosting, and a resource library of documentation methodologies.

Product overview

HURIDOCS offers a portfolio of open-source technology products and services designed to strengthen the global human rights community's documentation capabilities. The primary product is Uwazi, a flexible web-based database application launched in 2017 for human rights defenders to capture, organise, and search collections of information. Legacy products include Casebox (collaborative litigation management, 2013-2020), OpenEvsys (violation documentation, 2009-2020s), and HuriSearch (multilingual search engine, 2006-2016). These products are complemented by advising services for customised partnership support and a resource library of guides and frameworks. All products are open-source, and the organisation also integrates with tools like Tella and Digital Evidence Vault for enhanced data collection and evidence management.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Uwazi: A flexible database application designed for human rights defenders to capture and organise collections of information. It is a web-based platform that can be customised for a variety of needs and is open-source.

Products and services

• Uwazi A flexible, open-source web-based database application designed for human rights defenders to capture, organize, and manage collections of information including documents, evidence, cases, and complaints. Supports multilingual interfaces in 180+ languages, role-based access control, two-factor authentication, machine learning-powered categorization, and bulk import/export. Available free on GitHub with self-hosting or secure hosting through HURIDOCS.
• Advising Services Partnership services in which HURIDOCS co-creates solutions with human rights groups to overcome documentation and information management challenges, including defining project goals, recommending strategies and tools, providing customized implementation support, configuration, migration, and hosting services for Uwazi.
• Resource Library A living hub of guides, frameworks, handbooks, methodologies, and online courses on how to mobilize information for advocacy, litigation, and other human rights work, including documentation methodologies, monitoring handbooks, and terminology resources.
• PDF Document Layout Analysis Service A service within the Uwazi ecosystem that converts messy documents (such as PDFs) into AI-ready text and translates across multiple languages, making large collections of documents easier to analyze with large language models.

Quantifiable outcome

• 550+ databases created worldwide with their tools
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability4 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and major.

• World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and SOS-Defenders networkcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2024HURIDOCS collaborated to build a multi-lingual Uwazi database to document arbitrary detentions of human rights defenders worldwide.
• National Human Rights Institutions in Fiji and SamoaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2024HURIDOCS supports national human rights institutions in Fiji and Samoa by implementing Uwazi to improve their complaints management systems.
• Google.org FellowsmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGroup of Google.org Fellows collaborated with HURIDOCS for several months, contributing skills in software engineering, product management and user experience design to automate tasks within Uwazi using machine learning.
• UPR InfocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHURIDOCS rebuilt UPR Info's database with machine learning features, resulting in faster updates and increased sustainability for accessing Universal Periodic Review recommendations.
• Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong collaboration to build the African Human Rights Case Law Analyser to improve access to rulings issued by regional human rights mechanisms.
• Plan InternationalmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHURIDOCS helped integrate machine learning into the international human rights law library on the Girls' Rights Platform, enabling staff to save and edit individual paragraphs.
• Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHURIDOCS worked with OHCHR to add machine learning classifiers to the backend of the Universal Human Rights Index to help keep the index consistent and alleviate burden on administrators.
• Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong collaboration to build SUMMA case law database making Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights rulings accessible to advocates.
• CYRILLAmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHURIDOCS joined a coalition to create CYRILLA, an open database compiling legislation, jurisprudence and analysis concerning human rights in digitally networked spaces.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Benetech (Martus): Benetech developed Martus, an open-source secure information management tool for human rights defenders — a near-identical product-category peer to HURIDOCS's Uwazi, targeting the same NGO and HRD customer segment with similar secure documentation capabilities.
• Meedan: Meedan builds open-source collaboration and verification software (Check, Tipline) used by journalists, human rights organizations, and civic actors for digital evidence workflows — directly comparable technology, business model (non-profit, grant-funded), and customer base.
• Tactical Technology Collective: Berlin-based non-profit that designs open-source tools, guides, and methodologies to help activists and human rights defenders use technology safely — directly comparable mission, open-source distribution, and HRD audience as HURIDOCS.
• Witness: Witness equips human rights defenders to use video and technology for documentation and advocacy — closely aligned mission, NGO business model, and target user community, with overlap on documentation tooling.
• Access Now: International non-profit defending and extending the digital rights of users at risk, with both direct advocacy work and technology initiatives (e.g., Digital Security Helpline) serving an overlapping HRD and at-risk-activist customer base.
• Frontline Defenders: Dublin-based NGO providing rapid response and security support to HRDs — same customer segment and NGO/grant model as HURIDOCS, with partial overlap where partner organizations receive documentation tooling from HURIDOCS and security/emergency support from Frontline Defenders.

Emerging players

• OpenArchive: OpenArchive builds open-source mobile tools (e.g., Verify, Save) for human rights defenders to ethically archive and verify digital media — a more narrowly focused emerging player in the same secure-documentation-for-HRDs category.
• Digital Rights Foundation: Pakistan-based digital rights NGO led by Nighat Dad (HURIDOCS advisor) — directly overlapping HRD/digital-rights mission and customer segment, but with a regional focus and a smaller technology footprint than HURIDOCS.

Broad incumbents

• Article 19: Established international human rights organization working on freedom of expression and information — broader mandate than HURIDOCS but overlapping target audience (HRDs, journalists, NHRIs) and comparable grant-funded NGO model.

Regional players

• CiviCERT: Network of organizations providing rapid-response digital security support to civil society worldwide — comparable mission and HRD customer base, with complementary (rather than overlapping) service offering to HURIDOCS's documentation tooling.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/huridocs
• GitHubgithub.com/huridocs
• YouTubeyoutube.com/huridocs1982
• Facebookfacebook.com/HURIDOCS
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/huridocs
• Instagraminstagram.com/huridocs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HURIDOCS