Building on longstanding work in the field, the Human Rights Center launched a Technology and Human Rights Program in 2015 to strengthen the use of emerging technologies in human rights investigations and prosecutions. We have since created the first university-based Human Rights Investigations Lab of its kind to conduct open source investigations for international organizations, news outlets, and courts. The lab collaborates with Amnesty International’s...
For more than 23 years, the Human Rights Center has been engaged in cutting-edge human rights investigations worldwide. Faculty Director Eric Stover organized exhumations of mass graves in Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and elsewhere. At the request of the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Stover conducted a mass grave survey in Rwanda—the first of its kind—that later linked several accused to genocide. This evidence helped convict scores of accused, including Radovan Karadzic, Saddam Hussein, and Jean-Paul Akayesu.
HRC's Tech, Law, and Policy Director Lindsay Freeman authored the op-ed "Russian Cyberattacks Need an International Criminal Court Response" in the Center for European Policy Analysis. "We should not wait for a catastrophic cyber event with severe human casualties before we act," Freeman wrote. "War crimes prosecutors should innovate and push for legal evolution to address the new character of war."...
HRC executive director Alexa Koenig and Tech, Law, and Policy director Lindsay Freeman co-authored "Cutting-Edge Evidence: Strengths and Weaknesses of New Digital Investigation Methods in Litigation," in the UC Hastings Law Journal. The piece delves into the risks present with the use of OSINT investigation methods in litigation, with an eye towards challenging the investigator, the methods, the evidence, the analytical findings, the testimony...
Published both on HRC's Blog and on Responsibledata.io, this piece co-authored by HRC's Alexa Koenig, Videre est Credere's Jacqueline Geis, and JustPeace Labs' Jennifer Easterday presents urgent considerations for those currently collecting, investigating & analyzing open source information in Ukraine & beyond...
Call for Applications! The Human Rights Investigations Lab is accepting applications for the spring 2023 semester from January 10-January 22. If you are an undergraduate, please apply through the 