Patrick Ball

Patrick Ball, December 2013

Patrick Ball (* 26. June 1965 ) is an American scientist and human rights - activists , who as part of its activities with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group several times (HRDAG) witness was in international litigation. Ball appeared, for example, as an expert at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the case against Slobodan Milošević . In the trial against the former Guatemalan dictator José Montt , he proved his genocide against the Ixil .

Career

Ball is a graduate of Columbia University and a graduate student from the University of Michigan with a Ph. D. in statistics . He first applied his area of expertise to the Truth Commission for El Salvador , analyzing the available raw data on deaths with regard to time and military unit, and was thus able to identify individual officers responsible - and also sort them according to brutality . After the commission became aware of his calculation model, it used his methods independently.

“It's easy to think the world is totally different because we have cell phones now. It has changed our understanding of public violence - but most violence isn't public. "

“It's easy to believe that the world would be completely different by now just because we have camera phones. That has changed our understanding of public violence - but most violence does not take place in public. "

- Patrick Ball

In the course of the 1990s Ball worked for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for the " Science and Human Rights " program , through which he was sent to various truth commissions , human rights groups and international courts of law - including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for reappraisal of apartheid in South Africa - was conveyed as an expert. Through and in the AAAS , Ball was looking for colleagues and associates to found HRDAG, which he continued in the non-profit technology company Benetech during the 2000s .