Where does the information used to create the CIRI dataset come from?
A. The primary source of information about human rights practices is obtained from a careful reading of the annual United States Department of States Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Coders are instructed to use this source for all variables. For a group of four rights known as “Physical Integrity Rights” (the rights to freedom from extrajudicial killing, disappearance, torture, and political imprisonment) coders also use a second source, Amnesty Internationals Annual Report. Both reports can be found online for recent years. If there are discrepancies between the two sources, coders are instructed to treat the Amnesty International evaluation as authoritative. Some scholars believe that this step is necessary to remove a potential bias in favor of US allies, although Poe, et al, (2001) have found evidence of great agreement between these reports. Reference: Poe, Steven P., Sabine C. Carey, and Tanya C. Vazquez. 2001. “How are these pictures Different? A quantitative comparis
