Essex DVU attends Amnesty summit in Geneva

On the 18th-20th of September 2024, Amnesty International in collaboration with Amnesty Switzerland organised the 6th Digital Verification Corps (DVC) Summit in Geneva.

The purpose of the event was to discuss open-source methodologies for the documentation of human rights violations and to allow for the advancement in the field of digital investigations through workshops and skill-sharing sessions.

Some students and staff members of the University of Essex Digital Verification Unit (DVU) were invited to the summit, alongside representatives from the University of Cambridge, Hertie School of Governance, UC Berkely, Universidad Iberoamericana, Bard College and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

The three-day event consisted not only of workshops and panels with specialists, but students were also given the opportunity to brainstorm among themselves, in order to develop proposals for potential future DVC projects with Amnesty International. One of the standout experiences was the visit to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Following a day spent at the ICRC Museum, attendees had the opportunity to engage with a team of ICRC experts, many of whom were former members of the DVU.

These discussions highlighted the critical role of open-source research in tracking conflicts and humanitarian crises, reinforcing the importance of such methodologies in holding governments and corporations accountable for human rights violations.

Industry professionals from organizations like Airwars, Border Forensics, HURIDOCS and Amnesty’s own Evidence Lab shared their knowledge through the discussion of different case studies.

These sessions offered great insight into the various applications of OSINT within different frameworks.

Where the case studies presented by Airwars and Amnesty focused on producing evidence on civilian harm and possible war crimes in Gaza respectively, Border Forensics focused on the use of geospatial analysis and remote sensing to unveil cases of border violence and the reproduction of dehumanisation caused by the (public) documentation thereof.

A complete overview of the public program can be found here.

The summit provided both theoretical and practical resources to open-source investigative tools and techniques- the Open Source Munitions Portal being one of them.

Although the Essex DVU was established in 2016 and has been working with Amnesty International Evidence Lab for a while now, events such as the DVC summit provide us with valuable insights and ready-to-use tools to head into another year full of exciting projects.

As we train our new cohort of students in the verification processes of user-generated content and the use of open-source investigative techniques, these new tools and insights will prove incredibly useful for the verification and documentation of human rights violations in the larger pursuit of accountability.

The Essex DVU is grateful to have been part of this event and is eager to share its knowledge with new students who are passionate about human rights and interested in the work the DVU carries out.

You can find more information on the projects the Essex DVU has worked on here.