The ubiquity of mobile phones means that conflicts are increasingly recorded by eyewitnesses and uploaded to the internet. This open-source audio and video footage has potential to inform human rights investigations and trials into war crimes and mass atrocities.
However, there are challenges in:
- finding this information
- verifying authenticity
- eliminating bias
- processing and cataloguing evidence, due to huge volumes of data
The OSR4Rights research group, which was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Transformative Research Grant, aimed to strengthen the use and understanding of open-source information by investigators, lawyers and, judges in the pursuit of justice for human rights violations.
The team, led by Professor Yvonne McDermott Rees at Swansea University, developed technical tools to make investigations more efficient and systematic. They provided training and guidance to organisations, including UN fact-finding bodies and Europol, on evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of open-source information.
The project has enabled investigators and legal practitioners to overcome some of the barriers faced in conducting open-source research and, in doing so, help achieve justice for victims of human rights violations.
About the project
The multidisciplinary team were from:
- Swansea University
- Queen Mary University of London
- Heriot-Watt University
- The University of Manchester
- University of California, Berkeley
- Human Rights Watch
- HMSoftware
They carried out a review of primary and secondary data in mapping the use of open-source research in UN human rights investigations.
The team also conducted in-depth interviews with practitioners to pinpoint key issues facing investigators and legal systems in using open-source information. Professor McDermott Rees explains:
One of the main problems of using evidence from the internet is that the source is often unknown – does it belong to the person who posted, or has it been reposted from another account? Is it misinformation or misattributed, claiming to be footage from Gaza in 2024 when it’s actually from Syria in 2017, for example? Platforms often strip the metadata that includes information on the time, date and location of capture, making it more difficult to verify.
Also, with thousands of hours of footage, open-source investigations can generate enormous data sets. Investigators needed something to help filter the most relevant information, and ensure it can be preserved in line with legal standards.
Drawing on socio-legal research, computer science, natural language processing, and geospatial analysis methods, the OSR4Rights team developed a suite of free online tools to aid human rights investigations.
These included a hate speech detection tool and FireMap, which enables investigators to map patterns of fires, such as the burning of villages.
Previously, investigators would manually screenshot and store online information, but its Auto-Archiver tool automates the process, both capturing the information and preserving the chain of custody.
The team also developed training and guidance for legal practitioners on evaluating open-source information. Professor McDermott Rees explains:
It’s a completely new type of evidence for lawyers and judges, and not currently covered in law schools. So, we drew on the principles of the Berkeley Protocol on the conduct of digital open-source investigations and worked closely with investigative and human rights organisations to develop specific methodologies for evidence to be admissible in court. By conducting a mock admissibility hearing with investigative organisation Bellingcat and the Global Legal Action Network, we tested how prosecution and defence lawyers and judges would engage with open-source evidence in a realistic fictional scenario.
Impact of the project
OSR4Rights has provided training and tools for the investigators, lawyers and judges pursuing accountability for human rights violations. The ultimate beneficiaries are the brave eyewitnesses to atrocities, who often take enormous personal risks in recording and sharing evidence, and the victims of those violations seeking justice.
Methodologies for human rights investigations
The OSR4Rights team has delivered training to groups as diverse as:
- UN fact-finding bodies
- Syrian investigators
- Uyghur expat groups
- the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
- INTERPOL
- Europol
- US congressional staffers
The training was to ensure that best practices for conducting investigations are followed and incorporated into methodologies.
By providing methodological guidance, they have ensured that investigations are carried out to the highest international ethical and legal standards, and that open-source evidence is admissible in court.
Gearóid Ó Cuinn, Executive Director, Global Legal Action Network, which works with affected communities to pursue legal actions for human rights violations, says:
[OSR4Rights’] research and invaluable input has been critical to the development of our state-of-the-art methodology, which has formed the basis of training for lawyers and judges in Ukraine and elsewhere. The evidence we have gathered through this work has underpinned legal actions taken to halt the sale of arms to actors involved in committing war crimes.
Development of tools to assist investigations
The technical tools developed to facilitate the conduct of open-source investigations are saving investigators time and resources – enabling them to focus on critical analysis rather than admin – as well as preserving the chain of custody of information.
The Auto-Archiver tool has been used to preserve over 3TB of evidence of human rights violations in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Iran, and Myanmar, while FireMap and the hate speech detection tool have been used in investigations in Ethiopia and Sudan.
Adam Rutland, Executive Director, Centre for Information Resilience, says:
[OSR4Rights’] work has preserved the integrity of our investigations, has given us confidence in our methods, and has saved our team huge amounts of time and resource through the deployment of advanced technical tools.
Informing use of open-source information in legal settings
The OSR4Rights team has extensively shared its research findings in bespoke training and presentations delivered to thousands of lawyers and judges from a range of domestic and international jurisdictions. These include:
- the International Criminal Court
- the International Court of Justice
- the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals
The team worked on an open-access guide for judges on evaluating open-source information, which has been published in English, Ukrainian, Arabic, French and Spanish.
Ukrainian Supreme Court Judge, Nataliya Antonyuk, says:
As a result of [OSR4Rights] research, members of the judiciary in Ukraine now have a clear view of the advantages and disadvantages of using open-source evidence in court, and how such evidence can be preserved, authenticated, verified, presented, and evaluated.
And International Criminal Court Judge, Solomy Balungi Bossa, adds:
[OSR4Rights’ research] has informed my fellow judges and I at the International Criminal Court, of the key considerations to take into account in evaluating this type of evidence and enhanced our understanding of the challenges to its admission and weight.
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
Find out more
Find more information about OSR4Rights.
Watch the mock admissibility hearing with Bellingcat and GLAN (YouTube).
Mapping the use of open source research in UN Human Rights Investigations.
Guide for judges and fact-finders.
Top image: Credit: Jacob Wackerhausen, iStock, Getty Images Plus, via Getty Images