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DATNAV: How to Navigate Digital Data for Human Rights Research

Engine Room;benetech;Amnesty International (2016), 85 pp.

"We assume you know how to do human rights research but wish to expand on your knowledge of how to use digital data and online media for documentation purposes. This is a broad introduction that will set you on the right path to asking your own questions and seeking your own solutions. We aim to ins ... more

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Citizen Media Research and Verification: An Analytical Framework for Human Rights Practitioners

Christoph Koettl

Cambridge: University of Cambridge (2016), 35 pp.

"This paper examines the role of open source research in human rights fact-finding and seeks to address a gap in the current literature, which lacks a human rights perspective, is dominated by journalistic approaches, or focuses on specific tools. It focuses on citizen media, the visual subset of op ... more

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Video as Evidence: Mini Guides

Witness (2016), 32 pp.

Google Scholar (10)

WorldCat (8)

Fixiert: Fotografische Quellen zur Verfolgung und Ermordung der Juden in Europa. Eine pädagogische Handreichung

Christoph Kreutzmüller, Julia Werner

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), Lizenzausg. (2016), 63 pp.

External Link (3)

YouTube and Evidencing Warcrimes: The Role of Digital Video for Transitional Justice in Syria

Josepha Wessels

Tidskriftet POLITIK, volume 19, issue 4 (2016), pp. 30-52

"The enormous collection of user-generated content (UGC) in the form of YouTube videos from the Syrian war provides an unprecedented and diverse collection of shared digital memories of conflict and violence. The central question of this article asks what the value is of UGC on YouTube for legal evi ... dence of war crimes and future Transitional Justice. It is beyond doubt that the surge of uploaded videos from the Syrian uprisings revolutionized the way in which contemporary wars are observed and documented. The sheer amount of user-generated content online has given rise to manifold ways of interpreting what is happening on the ground, inspired creative resistance, led to a surge of professional and independent Syrian documentary films and increased the connectivity between those who undergo the war inside the conflict zone and those who are observing the situation from a safe distance. Many YouTube clips from Syria are likely to be rejected as stand-alone legal evidence though, as it often lacks sourced information about meta-data, date, time, geographical coordinates, identity of the participants, the identity of the perpetrator, and other contextual information crucial to establishing judicial facts for war crimes prosecution. The everexpanding body of videos from Syria will give rise to a wide and varied landscape of interactive media that has surpassed the old approach of political mainstream media to inform and possibly manipulate their audiences for their own agendas, whatever those may be. As a platform of digital memory and space to express moral outrage, YouTube served a crucial and important role in the Syrian crisis and the UGC is of immense value for digital memorialisation and historicization of the Syrian crisis. The vast amount of UGC on YouTube was categorized in 8 different types of footage and we can conclude that only small number of videoclips on YouTube can in fact function as crime-based evidence for war crimes. This does not mean that the UGC on YouTube has no value, however as a legal evidence it can be problematic to use YouTube videos if not corroborated and verified properly. The main issue is the lack of meta-data in many of the UGC on YouTube. The YouTube video revolution in Syria did bring to the surface many brave video activists who are now professionally involved in producing high quality footage for international news broadcasters, the most recent example of that is the important work of Waad al Kataeb inside eastern Aleppo with the British Broadcaster Channel Four News (Channel 4 2016). Through a series of edited 5-6 minute mini stories from the ground, Al Kataeb’s work provides a credible and important source of evidence." (Conclusion, page 22-23) more

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ICTS and Human Rights Practice: A Report Prepared for the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions

Ella McPherson

Cambridge: University of Cambridge;Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR) (2015), 50 pp.

"This report provides a crucial and in depth look at ICT initiatives and trends across the key human rights practices of prevention, fact-finding, and advocacy, identifying both risks and opportunities. In prevention, ICTs can be harnessed to protect human rights defenders, to prevent violations in ... more

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Ethical Guidelines: Using Eyewitness Videos in Human Rights Reporting & Advocacy

Witness (2015), 24 pp.

"The guide’s primary audience is investigators, journalists, advocates, archivists, and others who utilize eyewitness video for reporting, investigating, or documenting human rights issues. While the guide is primarily concerned with videos already produced, many of the ethical considerations disc ... more

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Activists' Guide to Archiving Video

Witness (2013), 96 pp.

"Do you want your videos to be available in the future? Do you want your videos to serve as evidence of crimes or human rights abuses? Do you want your videos to raise awareness and educate future generations? If the answer is yes, it is important to begin thinking about archiving before it is too l ... more

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#ICT4HR: Information and Communication Technologies for Human Rights

Molly Land, Patrick Meier, Mark Belinski, Emily Jacobi

World Bank Institute;Open Development Technology Alliance;ICT4Gov (2012), 45 pp.

"Considerable attention has been focused on the opportunities presented by new information and communication technologies for development (“ICT4D”) and for government (“ICT4GOV”). The purpose of this report is to analyze their impact on human rights (“ICT4HR”). As Philip Alston, the form ... more

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Cameras Everywhere: Current Challenges and Opportunities at the Intersection of Human Rights, Video and Technology

Sameer Padania, Sam Gregory, Yvette Alberdingk-Thijm, Bryan Nunez

New York City: Witness (2011), 35 pp.

External Link (10)

Google Scholar (10)

WorldCat (9)

Journalists, war crimes and international justice

Howard Tumber

Media, War & Conflict, volume 1, issue 3 (2008), pp. 261-269

"The examination of the ethical and moral issues surrounding the reporting of war crimes signals one of the outstanding problems facing journalism in the contemporary era. As the nature of war has changed, so has the nature of the journalism mandated to cover it, and the selection of war crimes tria ... more

External Link (12)

Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism

Sam Gregory, Gillian Caldwell, Ronit Avni, Thomas Harding (eds.)

Peter Gabriel (foreword)

London: Pluto Press;Witness (2005), 323 pp.

"This book is an invitation—an invitation to discover the potential of a simple video camera and the power it holds to spark social change. Every day, all around the world, activists draw upon video in creative, strategic ways and use the results to ensure that silent voices are heard and importan ... more