Summary

This report presents major points of discussion and recommendations from First Responders: An International Workshop on Collecting and Analyzing Evidence of International Crimes, an international conference held on 8–11 September 2014 in Salzburg, Austria. Workshop participants discussed how local and international NGOs, journalists, forensic scientists, health professionals, and other “first responders” to war crimes and human rights violations can most effectively work with courts—and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular—in the collection of evidence of serious international crimes, such as genocide and crimes against humanity. The Human Rights Center (HRC) at the UC Berkeley School of Law and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) hosted the workshop in collaboration with the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Salzburg Global Seminars. The workshop was the fourth in a series organized by the Human Rights Center to improve war crimes investigations and to strengthen relationships among NGOs, technology experts, and ICC investigators. The workshop sought to promote an open exchange of ideas on cooperation between court investigators and first responders in conflict and post-conflict situations.