Скачать или смотреть Using mobile phone footage as evidence in human rights investigations|ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize

Mobile phones are everywhere. Because of this, conflicts are increasingly being recorded by eyewitnesses and uploaded to the internet.

This open-source audio and video footage has potential to inform human rights investigations and trials into war crimes and mass atrocities. However, there are challenges in finding this information, verifying authenticity, eliminating bias and, with huge volumes of data, processing, and cataloguing evidence.

The OSR4Rights research group aimed to strengthen the use and understanding of open-source information by investigators, lawyers and, judges in the pursuit of justice for human rights violations.

The team created technical tools to make investigations more efficient and systematic. They also provided training and guidance to organisations, like UN fact-finding bodies and Europol, on evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of open-source information.

The project has helped investigators and legal practitioners to overcome some of the barriers faced in conducting open-source research, and, in doing so, helped achieve justice for victims of human rights violations.

The OSR4Rights research group led by Professor Yvonne McDermott Rees, Swansea University, is shortlisted for the ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize 2024. The Prize, now in its 12th year, is an opportunity to recognise the success of ESRC-funded researchers in achieving and enabling outstanding economic or societal impact from their research.