Every database comes with its own terminology for it various components. For our Human Rights Policy Database, you have probably heard or seen us reference to “entities”. In our case, an “entity” refers to a result type.

We have two main entity types – documents and paragraphs, each of which have their own set of properties, or connected information, as well as their own unique URL. While our database starts with documents, we also include each of its subsequent paragraphs as individual results which you can interact with.

Continue reading this page if you’d like to learn more about each entity and their connected properties.

As mentioned in the previous section, our database includes all individual paragraphs from our documents as singular entities. Consequently, each paragraph then has a set of properties by which we can filter, organise, and sort. Paragraphs are tagged with:

• Parent document title
• Producing body
• Parent document type
• Legal Status
• Means of adoption
• Topic(s)
• Person(s) affected
• Year
• Paragraph type
• Paragraph number

Most of these properties are inherited form their parent document, meaning they are not unique to the individual paragraph. However, properties like topic(s), person(s) affected and paragraph number or type are individual to the paragraphs. For example, two paragraphs which come from the same parent document will have the same Year and Legal Status – because that is based on the parent document they share – but will have different topic(s), as that depends on the context of each entity.

Our Database starts with full documents. Key information is then taken from these documents to be able to filters, organise and sort each document entity according to set properties. Documents are tagged with the following information:

• Document title
• Producing body
• Legal Status
• Means of Adoption
• Year
• Document code
• Date added

While results on the Database include both full documents and their subsequent individual paragraphs, we also ensure that these results are appropriately connected.

This allows people to search through the information in the database as they please, to yield the best results, but still ensures they have access to both kinds of entities, regardless of where they start. In simple terms, if you search the database using paragraphs, you can always then find your way back to see its full parent document with ease.

If you start your search through a document, in both the side-base preview and in the document full view, you will see small icon in the top right-hand corner that looks like a back and forth arrow. When you click on this, you will then have a full list of the paragraph entities within the Database which are connected to this parent document. You can then click on any of them to view the paragraph.

The same goes for the other way. When starting a search with paragraphs, in both the side-base preview and in the document full view, you will see the small back and forth arrows icon. When you click on this, you will then a link to the full parent document entity within the Database. You can then click on this to see the full document.