18TH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES TO THE ROME STATUTE
Day 2 (3 December 2019)
Name of the Event: Technology and 21st Century Fact-Finding: Setting & Standardizing Processes for International Criminal Investigations (Side event co-hosted by Liechtenstein, Berkeley Human Rights Centre, and Global Rights Compliance)
Overview by: Kelly van Eeten, Junior Research Associate PILPG-NL
Main Highlights:
The documentation by (civil society) organizations must improve so it can be more often used in court.
The Basic Investigative Standards (BIS) APP might contribute to this improvement since it guides users to use more professional documentation methods.
Summary of the Event:
H.E. Mr. Christian Wenaweser, Ambassador of Liechtenstein and former ASP president, opened the event by stressing the importance of technology in current fact-finding in international criminal proceedings. Former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen J. Rapp was next to speak. He talked about the ICC and the possibility of UNSC referral of situations. He stressed the need for reinforcement of civil society documentation in that matter.
Ambassador Rapp continued by providing two “exciting” examples of journalist platforms and CSOs on documentation and investigation. The first example was about Bellingcat, an independent international collective of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists. He mentioned Bellingcat’s investigation with regard to the downing of MH17. Bellingcat’s research had been crucial in finding those responsible. Secondly, he mentioned the investigation into hospitals bombings in Syria by Russia. An analysis of unpublished Russian Air Force radio recordings, plane spotter logs, and witness testimonies enabled The Times in May to trace attacks on four hospitals in just 12 hours and tie Russian pilots to each one. Ambassador Rapp continued with an example related to the Rohingya in Myanmar: Facebook is full of anti-Rohingya material and calls for violence. He stated that on the down side, perpetrators can more easily incite mob violence, on the plus side, however, there is a lot of material to tie perpetrators to acts on the ground.
After his speech, Ambassador Rapp gave the floor to Ashley Jordana, senior legal consultant at Global Rights Compliance. Jordana started her talk with an explanation on an app GRC developed. The Basic Investigative Standards (BIS) app is developed to assist those working in the field of human rights violations. It is a freely available app, which is also operational in areas with little internet connection. The app enables the user not only to document, but also provides guidance on operations in their mandates and minimum standards for the investigation of international crimes. GRC developed a pilot in July in several countries, including in Bangladesh, Mali, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen. The pilot phase will end in January 2020 after which the app will be ready for the global market.
After an explanation of the app, Jordana continued by stressing the need for improvement of documentation by CSO’s and other organizations. She referred to Syria, where a lot of footage on the war is available. However, this footage can’t be used since it isn’t correctly preserved and the chain of custody is incomplete. This led to the question whether CSO’s should engage in documentation at all. Jordana stated that the reality is that they do. Therefore GRC tries to guide and assist CSOs so that evidence documentation improves.
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley, continued by stressing the need to “speak on the same level” when it comes to cooperation with several different disciplines. She identified a need for general terminology in the field of collecting evidence to better capture the knowledge available.
The last person that took the floor was Lindsay Freeman, senior legal researcher for the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley and head of drafting the International Protocol on Open Source Investigations. Lindsay also referred to the downing of MH17. She pointed out the issue of methodology of the Bellingcat investigation. Bellingcat started investigating and piecing together information just hours after the crash. However, they did not have guidance on this, which made their research difficult to apply in a court situation. She recalled that documentation should be operational and practical, but also usable in a court.
PILPG Junior Research Associate Kelly van Eeten enquired into the outsourcing of open source investigation by organizations like Bellingcat. Ms. Freeman replied, stating that outsourcing can become dangerous quickly. In situations like this, a crowd mentality can turn violent and this violence can turn to the offline world from the online space. This does not mean that crowdsourcing in itself is bad, but the proper way to do it has yet to be developed.