We engage in innovative research to help ensure that investigations into violations of international law are as effective, efficient, and ethical as possible. For thirty years, we have collaborated with experts using forensic anthropology and genetic research to investigate war crimes and identify the disappeared using DNA analysis to reunite families with children who were abducted or given up for adoption during armed conflict. Today, we continue to set precedent with digital open source investigations. We train students and advocates to collect, preserve, and verify digital open source information of human rights abuses worldwide. We partner with leading human rights, legal, and news organizations, and – when possible – use the evidence we uncover to shape the course of international criminal law.
In 2024, we co-launched the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations in partnership with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Protocol – published in all the languages of the United Nations — sets international standards for the collection, preservation, and verification of digital open source information that can be used in investigations of violations of international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights law. As the world’s first international guidelines on how to responsibly conduct online investigations with the goal of admissibility for international courts, the Protocol is changing the ways we document conflict – updating expert methodologies to reflect the current state of crisis and address how social media has changed the human rights landscape. The Protocol is actively in use around the world, including by Ukrainian prosecutors documenting Russian war crimes. Additionally, as part of our partnership with the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, we are creating international guidelines for digital investigations of systematic and conflict-related sexual violence. This tool is deeply needed to facilitate digital investigations of CRSV in Ukraine, Myanmar, and elsewhere around the world.
We train students at UC Berkeley to gather and verify digital open source information of potential human rights abuses to support professional investigations for leading organizations, including the United Nations, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and countless grassroots organizations. Our Lab model has now been replicated at close to a dozen universities around the world. Beyond our university-based training model, we travel worldwide to hold digital open source investigation training programs for frontline human rights defenders, including civil society groups from Ukraine; journalists and human rights advocates from Libya; and Yemen’s National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights. Further, we hold regular trainings at The Hague in partnership with the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, where we train investigators from the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Criminal Court, among others.
Creating a professional pipeline of practice for our students and the human rights community.
September 14, 2023
Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives
View PublicationMay 23, 2023
Investigating Perpetrators: A Guide to Mapping Parties in Relation to International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Violations
View PublicationJune 10, 2021
Digital Lockers: Archiving Social Media Evidence of Atrocity Crimes
View PublicationMay 17, 2021
Power and Privilege: Investigating Sexual Violence with Digital Open Source Information
View PublicationDecember 2, 2020
Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations
View PublicationDecember 19, 2019
Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation and Accountability
View PublicationNovember 1, 2015
The Victims’ Court: A Study of 622 Victim Participants at the International Criminal Court
View PublicationNovember 1, 2008
Guantánamo and Its Aftermath: U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices and Their Impact on Former Detainees
View PublicationAugust 1, 2008
Living with Fear: A Population-Based Survey on Attitudes about Peace, Justice, and Social Reconstruction in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
View PublicationJuly 1, 2005
Forgotten Voices: A Population-Based Survey on Attitudes about Peace and Justice in Northern Uganda
View PublicationJanuary 10, 2024
Images of war are shocking. They also can strengthen our humanity
As online information channels and social media proliferate worldwide, news consumers are exposed more often to horrifying images of human violence and atrocities. In a new book, two Berkeley scholars explore how we can protect ourselves
April 21, 2023
Burkina Faso investigates alleged abuses by security forces
A mural in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Photo by AP. HRC in the News — Associated Press: Burkina Faso investigates alleged abuses by security forces,
May 15, 2022
The online investigators tracking alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine
ALexa Koenig on 60 Minutes HRC in the News — 60 Minutes: The online investigators tracking alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Alexa Koenig spoke
November 12, 2022
Ukraine is jump-starting its war-crimes investigations with a French mobile DNA lab
The mobile DNA lab provided by French authorities is seen Nov. 4 in Izium, where Ukrainian scientists have been trained to take DNA from bodies to identify them and to gather evidence for potential war-crimes trials.
May 29, 2021
‘Justice looks like telling the story’: the long buried story of the Tulsa race massacre
A still from Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten, which premieres on PBS on Monday. Photograph: University of Tulsa McFarlin Library Special Collections. HRC in the News —