Implementation Guidelines for Regional Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders identifiable information of HRDs or the violations should be disclosed unless authorized by them, or their associates. For example, while the NHRI of South Africa interviewed HRDs and people working with them for its report on the national situation of HRDs, no direct quotes are referenced.95 A protocol and digital security practices should be developed to ensure the identities of defenders and their families are protected and that no personal data are shared. Records with information of HRDs or the violations suffered can be kept in a secure location (both physical and digital)96 and, as an additional precaution, your NHRI could identify cases by numbers, rather than by the names of HRDs, with the corresponding names kept separately.97 For further information, including on secure data storage, see the APF Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning: A Guide for National Human Rights Institutions.98 The NHRI of Argentina, as well as the Prosecutor’s office of Guatemala provide good examples on how to record anonymised information on human rights violations.99 Both gather and publicise statistics of violence against women, while maintaining in anonymity the identity of the victims and specificities of the case.100 The protection mechanism of Brazil contains a database to register defenders at risk.101 Secure handling of information will ideally also encourage more HRDs to come forward and denounce violations. This will make the system more efficient and increase the impact on the situation of HRDs in your country. iii. Disaggregation of data All collected information should be disaggregated by multiple elements, including race, gender, age, type of human rights work, type of violation, date and time, and possible perpetrators, among others. This information will help your NHRI understand the magnitude of the issue, adopt preventive and investigative actions when necessary, and identify similar cases that could demonstrate patterns or criminal organisation.102 See National Action 2 for more information on disaggregation of data according to gender. Disaggregation of data will also help to indicate other factors, for example the fact that some groups do not present complaints may not be because they’re not suffering violations, but rather because other elements prevent them from accessing the NHRI. For example, a study on children’s rights at NHRIs considered that some children abstained from denouncing violations to their rights because of insufficient digital infrastructure for telephone or online helplines, which were easy to access, rather than because no violations were occurring.103 36 95 https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/Human%20Rights%20Defenders%20Publication.pdf page. 10 96 https://www.asiapacificforum.net/resources/monitoring-evaluation-accountability-and-learning-guide-national-human-rights-institutions/ p.65 97 asiapacificforum.net/resources/preventing-torture-operational-manual-national-human-rights-institutions/ p.41 98 https://www.asiapacificforum.net/resources/monitoring-evaluation-accountability-and-learning-guide-national-human-rights-institutions/ 99 http://observatorio.mp.gob.gt/ 100 Observatorio de Femicidios de la Defensoría del Pueblo de la Nación Argentina 101 https://undocs.org/A/HRC/13/22 par. 79 102 https://undocs.org/en/A/74/159 par. 60 103 ganhri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GANHRI-UNICEF-Children%E2%80%99s-Rights-in-National-Human-Rights-Institutions.pdf p.29