Investigations Lab

The Human Rights Center’s Investigations Lab equips the next generation of lawyers, journalists, advocates, and researchers with critical investigation tools to tackle human rights challenges in the 21st century. Hundreds of students have been trained in our Lab to conduct hands-on digital investigations related to human rights violations around the world. Our students have come from more than two dozen majors and minors, and have collectively spoken more than 70 languages since the Lab’s founding in 2016. They are trained with resilience at the core of their investigative approach, and recognize the mental and emotional impact of this work. We are working hard to create a pipeline of researchers who are prepared with the technical skills, collaborative mindset, and resiliency tools to lead human rights investigations.

We partner with credible, respected organizations to strengthen their work through sustained relationships, some spanning several years, such as our nine-year, award-winning relationship with Amnesty International. Our Lab takes on up to a dozen investigations each academic year. Our students are divided into peer-led teams to tackle those investigations with our professional partners.

Applications for the 2026–2027 academic year are open from August 21 to August 31, 2026 at 4:00 PM Pacific Time. Click here to learn how to apply to the Lab.

The 2016 launch of the Investigations Lab was accompanied by the launch of the Amnesty International Digital Verification Corps (DVC), a network of universities that trains students to verify videos and photos of potential human rights violations from conflicts and crises across the world. The DVC network was co-created by Alexa Koenig, HRC Co-Faculty Director and Lab Co-Founder, and Sam Dubberley, formerly of Amnesty International and now of Human Rights Watch. The DVC currently trains students at five campuses: the University of California, Berkeley; Universidad Iberoamericano; the University of Toronto; the University of Cambridge; the University of Essex; Bard College (Berlin); and the Hertie School (Berlin). These students directly support Amnesty International’s research teams working to monitor and report on human rights violations globally. Every year, a selection of students from each campus is invited to a summit that bonds the DVC community through advanced open source training, workshops on ethics and resilience, and social activities.