The International Bar Association (IBA)-founded eyeWitness to Atrocities initiative (eyeWitness) has reached a significant milestone: 100,000 items of footage captured using its mobile phone app, helping to preserve potential evidence of human rights violations, war crimes and other international crimes around the world.
For victims and survivors of atrocities, documenting what happened can be a critical first step towards justice. However, investigators and lawyers need to establish where and when material was recorded, demonstrate that it has not been manipulated and preserve items in a way that can support legal proceedings.
The free eyeWitness app is designed to address these challenges. Each item of footage captured with the app is embedded with metadata designed to strengthen its evidentiary value - including time, date and location information - and securely transferred to a server hosted by LexisNexis . Each item is preserved in a manner intended to maintain authenticity and chain of custody, which are critical components to build cases and admissibility before courts and investigative bodies, thus supporting lawyers, investigators and accountability mechanisms as they seek to establish the facts.
The 100,000-item milestone highlights the scale of documentation taking place globally and the growing role individuals can play in recording potential violations. It also underscores the importance of protecting digital evidence so that it can be assessed and, where appropriate, used in efforts to secure accountability.
Claudio Visco, IBA President, stated: 'The ability to document serious violations and preserve reliable evidence is fundamental to the pursuit of justice. Reaching 100,000 submissions marks a significant milestone, reflecting the commitment of individuals around the world to ensure that potential crimes are recorded and not forgotten. The legal profession has an important role to play in ensuring that such evidence can support accountability and help uphold the rule of law. Through eyeWitness, the IBA has been at the forefront of harnessing innovative technology to advance the cause of justice, demonstrating how technological innovation can strengthen the legal profession's response to some of the world's most serious crimes. The initiative reflects the IBA's commitment to embracing new technologies and applying them in meaningful ways to support accountability and protect human rights.'
The impact of eyeWitness footage is already evident in legal proceedings and wider accountability efforts
The significance of eyeWitness extends beyond the volume of material collected. Footage captured using the app has already contributed to legal proceedings and wider accountability efforts, demonstrating how carefully-preserved digital evidence can help investigators and lawyers pursue cases that might otherwise be difficult to substantiate.
In Ukraine, authenticated footage captured using the eyeWitness app has been relied upon in four court cases, including civil claims before the Commercial Court of Kharkiv and rulings in the Kharkiv District Administrative Court. The material has also contributed to a joint report, Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia's Assault on Ukraine's Health Care System , published in February 2023 by eyeWitness, Insecurity Insight , Media Initiative for Human Rights , Physicians for Human Rights and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center . It also supported the online map, Attacks on Health Care in Ukraine
