EyeWitness to Atrocities: Piecing Together the Pictures of War

EyeWitness to Atrocities: Piecing Together the Pictures of War

By Richard Wright, SF Law

In the age of smartphones and social media, piecing together the events of war to hold violators of international law accountable is a complicated task. According to Bellingcat, investigators using open-source material (meaning the use of information publicly available, such as photographs and videos on social media), have footage of the Syrian Civil War that is longer than the war itself. This creates an oxymoron for investigators of war crimes, such that there is an abundance of evidence but too much to verify, none of which can be taken at face value. One initiative of the International Bar Association (IBA) could offer a solution to this problem. The IBA combined citizen journalists, the law, and technology to create a mobile app: eyeWitness to Atrocities.

Launched in 2015, the app ensures that photographs and videos of war taken on a mobile phone are verifiable, such that they have a clean “chain of custody.” According to Wendy Betts, eyeWitness Director, this means that “you understand where that piece of evidence has been and who’s had access to it and the ability to potentially change it from the point it was created, collected, gathered, found until it goes before the court.”

The app operates by allowing users, including civilians, to photograph war events and upload them directly to an encrypted server operated by LexisNexis Legal & Professional who then catalogues the files. These catalogues are then passed on to legal partners, Debevoise & Plimpton, Hogan Lovells and Linklaters, where pro-bono lawyers use their knowledge of the rules of evidence to review, tag, and compile thousands of files into dossiers – contextualised collections of evidence – which are then transferred to investigators to be used by different actors. In the context of Ukraine, this could include the International Criminal Court, the Ukraine Prosecutor General, or the United Nations.

Betts acknowledged that verification is an intensive and time consuming process but stated that “[w]hile there have been many photos and videos of the situation in Ukraine recorded and circulated online, this footage will have to be verified before it can be relied upon as evidence in investigations.”

In light of Russia's denial of deliberately executing civilians in Bucha, arguing that the bodies with their hands tied were not there as the Russian forces retreated – only to be rebutted by satellite images showing the bodies at the time of Russian occupation – the app could aid in countering such claims as “[t]he goal of eyeWitness is to equip individuals with the ability to record photos and videos that can be quickly and easily verified” rather than waiting for the media to arrive following the liberation of a city.

Moreover, Human Rights Watch has pointed out Russia’s use of cluster munitions, a large bomb that disperses many smaller bombs. While Russia is not a party to The Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international agreement banning these horrific weapons, their use in civilian areas constitutes a war crime under Article 8(2) (b)(xx) of the Rome Statute, prohibiting the employment of “inherently indiscriminate” weapons. While Russia is no longer a party to the Statute since 2016, Ukraine has, pursuant to the Statute, accepted ICC jurisdiction on an open-ended basis for war crimes committed on its territory. Photographic evidence of the remnants of these weapons can be found online. Although, for these images to be submitted as evidence, there needs to be a chain of custody. eyeWitness to Atrocities can ensure this chain, therefore verifying this evidence.

As the war in Ukraine is playing out across people’s smartphones, this technology could play a major role in holding Russia accountable for its actions in Ukraine.

As IBA Director, Mark Ellis stated that, “the documentation of crimes [in Ukraine] through videos and pictures will play a vital role in the Court’s efforts to ensure those who have committed war crimes are brought to justice.”

In coordination with other NGOs in 2018, eyeWitness was responsible for the successful prosecution of two commanders of Democratic Forces for Liberation of Rwanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo after an attack and burning of a village, resulting in the death of 48 civilians. Using the eyeWitness app, 92 photographs were taken of “individual and mass graves, as well as the injuries of surviving victims” which played a major role in the prosecution of the leaders of the attack. This was a “historical moment for both survivors and international law” as it was the first time mobile device evidence was admitted for breaches of international law.

Since the military coup in Myanmar last year, which has killed over 1,500 people according to the United Nations, the app has been translated into Burmese and downloaded over 3,000 times. In regions where there is political violence and a lack of independent media coverage, technology such as this is imperative to ensure that there is means to know what is happening in the country and to prevent impunity.

Often during wartime, bombs begin to fall and cities and villages turn dark, physically and metaphorically, and the rules of society, both legal and social, fade into a shadowy abyss. Within the sphere of such structural violence, there may be a perception of anarchy, yet outside this sphere the rules of war are investigated and applied; the difficulty is obtaining the evidence that ensures their application. Throughout history it has been an uphill battle for researchers and investigators to get conclusive, reliable access to the scenes of atrocities, as they would need to be there physically to witness the immediate aftermath of the violence – a complicated endeavour in situations of martial law, bureaucracy, and in vast areas with multiple theatres of conflict. Alternatively, researchers would need to rely on the difficult-to-verify stories of a shell-shocked population whose recollection of their worst nightmare is overshadowed by the trauma of survival. Technological advancement allows investigators to bypass these roadblocks, utilising witnesses to capture the fresh, untouched crime scenes in all their brutality. From thousands of kilometres away, investigators can shine a light on the darkness and piece together a picture to be used to bring justice to the victims of atrocities.