Evidence of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure has been found by Aeden. He will get a photo or video from the internet assigned to him, and he will be tasked with using tools like aerial satellite imagery and street view to verify the location. A Bellingcat researcher independently verified the information once Aeden and a fellow volunteer agreed on a location. The cycle begins all over again.
The Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, has a law and policy director who says the sheer number and diversity of efforts presents a challenge. Some may fall short of the burden of proof required to prosecute war crimes despite their good intentions.
The images are from AnastaSIA VLASOVA.
Until recently, there was no single document or group that laid out rules for how to properly collect, archive, and present data from conflict zones. It is a problem that reflects the sprawl of international organizations like the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and an array of human rights and aid organizations that have varying powers and jurisdiction.
The Berkeley Protocol is an effort to codify the ethical use of open-source intelligence. The United Nations backed protocol offers a rulebook on how to handle and file digital data. A lot of the document was written by Syria, and the fact that different formats made data collection difficult there.
The Protocol is a first step towards creating a system for the data coming in from Ukraine, but it isn't enough. Many aid groups have adopted the Protocol, but others have their own internal systems for filing information.
The Berkeley Protocol doesn't really address the issue of crowdsourcing, which is a huge factor in the war in Ukraine, as well as other conflicts over the years. Increased citizen access to technology and social media has made it easier to get information directly from those in power, but the Protocol ignores the question of how to properly document this information.
The International Criminal Court favors official sources like closed-circuit TVs and phone footage over shaky, pixelated camera footage in some trials.
The Berkeley Protocol shows the tug of war between what the International Criminal Court deems to be valid evidence and the efforts to collect it. The Protocol is a huge first step in creating a more solid case against war criminals, but it is also an acknowledgment of how people use technology, both as victims of war as well as outsiders looking in. The International Criminal Court did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
I sometimes worry that the impact of this work might come too late for the victims of this conflict, but I believe that justice achieved retroactively is still better than none at all.
Correction: A previous version of the story that said Lindsay Freeman helped found the Berkeley Protocol has been corrected to state she helped lead the drafting of the Berkeley Protocol. We regret the error.
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