In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

11 Dec

[Julia Emtseva is assistant professor of law at HEC Paris] I had never considered myself a law and technology person. Likewise, I never imagined that open-source investigations (OSINT) would touch me directly, beyond distant and abstract conflicts where technology was used to trace evidence of international crimes. That changed in September 2022, when my country, Kyrgyzstan, stood on the brink of full-scale armed conflict with its...

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11 Dec

[Pedro R. Borges de Carvalho is a PhD candidate at KU Leuven, Institute for International Law and a research fellow at ATHENE – German National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity] Mass atrocities often leave scars on the Earth’s surface that forensic methodologies can decrypt given the right technological capabilities. High-resolution satellite imagery analysis is one such method, and it is fundamental for both forensics...

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10 Dec

[Christine Carpenter is an international lawyer, and a Gates Cambridge Scholar and PhD Candidate in international relations and politics at the University of Cambridge] To live in a crisis zone today is to be watched, recorded, and broadcasted—often without one’s knowledge or consent. Digital evidence plays a central role in investigating international crimes and human rights abuses—as has been demonstrated vis-à-vis Israel’s atrocities...

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09 Dec

[Dr. Giuliana Rotola is a space law and policy specialist whose work spans sustainability, governance, Indigenous methodologies, and post-colonial approaches to space norms. She is fellowship coordinator at the Palestine Space Institute.] Earth Observation as Witness to Systematic Destruction International law defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy a protected group. Amnesty International's December 2024 report argues that Israel’s offensive on Gaza includes such prohibited...

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09 Dec

[Laliv Melamed is a professor of digital film cultures at Goethe University, Frankfurt] On the evening of 27 October 2023, the IDF spokesperson released a CGI (computer-generated imaging) model of Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex. The model draws on what is by now a familiar arsenal of digital forensics. It is based on data collected from aerial imagery, maps, and...

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08 Dec

[Dr. Akanksha Bisoyi is a post-doctoral researcher at the Professorship of Law, Innovation and Legal Design, Technical University of Munich in Germany]  Introduction Photographs as legal tools for truth-telling reflect the aphorism ‘seeing is believing’. These images range from visual depictions of war crimes to human rights violations, affirming their role in the objective portrayal of historical events. Photographs are forensic evidentiary mediums that are, paradoxically,...

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08 Dec

[Marina Aksenova is an associate professor of international and comparative criminal law at IE University] Introduction The two projects inspiring this post – Cartography of Genocide by Forensic Architecture and Anatomy of Genocide by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 – have in common the idea of a multi-dimensional approach to international law. In the case...

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08 Dec

[Stefania Di Stefano is a postdoctoral researcher in online content moderation at Cnam, Paris.  Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi is an assistant professor of public international law at Sciences Po Law School, Paris. Barrie Sander is an assistant professor of international law at Leiden University – Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. Dimitri Van Den Meerssche is senior lecturer in law at Queen Mary University of...

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08 Dec

[Antonia Mulvey is a British lawyer, and the founder and executive director of Legal Action Worldwide. She has also served as a UN investigator on the Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and advised UN agencies and governments on sexual and gender-based violence and access to justice.  Terry Flyte is an international lawyer and programme lead at Legal Action Worldwide. He works at...

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08 Dec

[Alice Autin is international justice researcher at Human Rights Watch.  Jörn Oliver Eiermann served as senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch from September to November 2025.] The December 2024 fall of the Bashar al-Assad government marks a historic turning point for Syria, and after decades of atrocities, potentially for justice. Despite extensive information and evidence of serious crimes, the Assad...

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06 Dec

[Professor Alanna O’Malley is Chair of Global Governance & Wealth at Erasmus University and an ERC Laureate with a research project entitled: ‘Challenging the liberal world order from within, the Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South.’ Her second book, Decolonising Global Order is forthcoming.] Among proclamations of the ‘crisis’ of multilateralism and the peril facing the rules-based...

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04 Dec

[Merna Aboul-Ezz is a scholar of international law and human rights. She has worked with victims and survivors of human rights violations, advocating for their meaningful participation in transitional justice and accountability mechanisms.] On 17 October 2025, the Portuguese parliament approved a bill proposed by the far-right Chega party banning face coverings worn for “gender or religious motives” in most public...

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