Guiding Worldwide Digital Investigations

Across the globe, delegations conducting digital investigations of international criminal and humanitarian violations are learning best practices from Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center.

Partnering with the International Center for Transitional Justice, these free five-day programs recently took place in Jordan to train 49 members of Yemen’s National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights, and in Tunisia to train 20 journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders from Libya. The sessions help investigators who face varied challenges documenting abuses amid conflict in their countries.

“The program was extremely significant due to the wealth of diverse knowledge and skills imparted by a proficient training team from the Human Rights Center,” says Yemen field monitor Maher al Absi, noting that “we’re only at the beginning of our journey in this field” and that the deep-dive sessions “covered a range of crucial topics.”

The center works from the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations it developed — increasingly used in Ukraine and other countries and now translated into the six languages of the United Nations. Workshops address how to verify the authenticity of photos, videos, and other data collected during online research, employ satellite image applications that help pinpoint the geographical coordinates of devices using location services, and prepare a meticulous final report.

Center research manager Brian Nguyen leads the programs. He and colleagues Maggie Andresen and Ceren Fitoz combine foundational training with exercises tailored to the challenges in each country. Nguyen and Fitoz also contribute to legal investigations through the center’s Technology, Law & Policy program.

“At the beginning of these sessions, participants are often overwhelmed by the amount of technical information and processes open source investigations demand,” Nguyen says. “And it’s always the case that at some point in the week, that changes and they begin to run with the ideas we’re showing them. Our ambition is to put ourselves out of a job by building something that can be self-sustaining, and improve the ecosystem for human rights investigations by empowering the investigators and fact finders who are closest to the conflict.”

Yemen commission member Eshraq al-Maqtari relished how the workshops addressed “hurdles for witnesses and victims to provide substantial and admissible evidence.”

Given the difficulties in surfacing sufficient conventional evidence of international human rights abuses, recognizing evidence accessible through social media platforms and websites is vital. That evidence ranges from miscellaneous details to primary sources including video clips, images, tweets, and group chats on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Yemen commission field monitor Entisar al Mijhasi credits the program for addressing how to conduct digital research methodically and scientifically while using the best available technology tools.

“In-depth training courses like this remain essential to attain strategic objectives … and to ensure a high level of accuracy,” she says. “This helps in acquiring, confirming, documenting, and understanding incident-related information directly from the victims themselves or their families.” — Andrew Cohen