Digital Witness

From videos of rights violations to satellite images of environmental degradation to eyewitness accounts disseminated on social media human rights practitioners have access to more data today than ever before. 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 abuse - has the potential to revolutionise human rights reporting and documentation as well as the pursuit of legal accountability. <p/>However these new methods for information gathering and dissemination have also created significant challenges for investigators and researchers. For example videos and photographs depicting alleged human rights violations or war crimes are often captured on the mobile phones of victims or political sympathisers. The capture and dissemination of content often happens haphazardly and for a variety of motivations including raising awareness of the plight of those who have been most affected or for advocacy purposes with the goal of mobilising international public opinion. For this content to be of use to investigators it must be discovered verified and authenticated. Discovery verification and authentication have therefore become critical skills for human rights organisations and human rights lawyers. <p/>This book is the first 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.<br>