Digital Witness: Using Open Source Info for Human Rights Investigations

To say that mobile technologies, social media, and increased connectivity are having a significant impact on human rights practice would be an understatement. Modern technology - and the enhanced access it provides to information about human rights abuses - has the potential to revolutionise human rights reporting and documentation, as well as the pursuit of legal accountability.

However, these new methods for information gathering and dissemination have also created significant challenges for investigators and researchers.The capture and dissemination of content often happens haphazardly, and for a variety of motivations. For this content to be of use to investigators it must be discovered, verified, and authenticated. These skills have therefore become critical for human rights organisations and human rights lawyers.

This panel, marking the launch of Digital Witness - the first textbook dedicated to open source investigations - brings together leading experts in the open source movement, discussing how open source techniques can be used in human rights investigations, and what the future holds.

Digital Witness is the first book to cover the history, ethics, methods, and best-practice associated with open source research. It is intended to equip the next generation of lawyers, journalists, sociologists, data scientists, other human rights activists, and researchers with the cutting-edge skills needed to work in an increasingly digitized, and information-saturated environment.

Speakers

Sam Dubberley - Research Consultant, Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project, University of Essex and Head of the Crisis Evidence Lab, Amnesty International

Alexa Koenig - Executive Director, Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley

Daragh Murray - Senior Lecturer, School of Law & Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

Paul Myers - BBC journalist

Lindsay Freeman - University of California, Berkeley

Yvonne Ng - WITNESS

Ella McPherson - Cambridge University

Jeff Deutch - Syrian Archive

The discussion will start at 18:30 and finish at 20:00. After the discussion there will be a reception. The book will be on sale before and after the event.

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