The future of human rights investigations: Using open source intelligence to transform the documentation and discovery of human rights violations

科技正在迅速改变对侵犯人权行为进行调查的方式。传统上，调查依靠证人证词和现场证据来证明存在侵犯人权的行为。然而，最近，人权调查已转向开源情报（OSINT），如社交媒体内容和卫星图像，以克服收集可靠证据的物理、安全和社会障碍。2017年8月，国际刑事法院根据社交媒体证据发布了第一份逮捕令。OSINT有可能以前所未有的方式使关于国际侵犯人权行为的信息流通民主化。通过允许远程进行调查，并允许直接从证人和受害者那里获得信息，而不是通过中间人，OSINT可以打破在传统调查中压制一些声音并优先考虑其他声音的一些障碍。然而，这些类型的调查产生了新的问题。从社交媒体上获取的大量证据可能会使调查人员难以提取真正有用的信息。还有信息偏见问题，可归因于算法偏见或网上发布的虚假信息，旨在混淆或夸大侵犯人权的行为。通过结合独特的多学科方法，借鉴社会法律、计算机科学和地理空间分析方法，该项目提出了以下问题：“OSINT在多大程度上可以为人权调查和记录做出更系统的贡献？用于分析社交媒体内容的自然语言处理和地理空间方法是否有助于发现和分析过程，并有助于克服可能出现的信息偏见和错误信息的潜在问题？“这将:1。首次概述联合国人权实况调查团使用OSINT的情况。通过与联合国调查委员会和人权调查委员会成员的访谈（其中许多人与我们在其他项目上有过合作）和项目研讨会，我们将确定他们使用OSINT的障碍和保留意见。将这些数据与这些调查产生的报告的系统审查相结合，我们将确定通过OSINT方法收集的信息在多大程度上可以解决传统调查方法固有的一些信息差距。2 .与人权组织合作，开发知识中心框架（KHF），这是一套核心微服务，将提供收集数据和执行特定分析任务的工具，例如比较文档的相似性，识别自由文本中的地名并将其映射，以及根据自动交叉检查，验证和历史准确性为数据源分配权重和置信度评级。通过KHF，在案例研究中使用自然语言处理、文本挖掘和空间分析技术，结合法律分析，展示如何使基于osint的调查更加系统化。我们的案例研究将集中在菲律宾，在那里据称发生了大规模侵犯人权行为，但目前尚未受到联合国人权调查，并且已经目睹了社交媒体账户的扩散，传播有关所谓侵犯人权的反叙述。在一个专门的研讨会上，我们将向利益相关者展示KHF原型。我们稍后将为人权组织提供培训课程。国际刑事调查研究所已同意在海牙举办一次这样的培训班。除了将随着新功能的创建而更新的KHF之外，该项目还将产生三篇学术期刊文章和一份人权组织OSINT指南。它有可能改变人权实况调查。

Technology is rapidly transforming how investigations of human rights abuses are carried out. Traditionally, investigations relied upon witness testimony and on-site evidence to prove the existence of human rights violations. More recently, however, human rights investigations have been turning to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), such as social media content and satellite imagery, to overcome the physical, security, and societal barriers to gathering reliable evidence. In August 2017, the International Criminal Court issued its first arrest warrant based on social media evidence.OSINT has the potential to democratise the flow of information on international human rights violations in an unprecedented way. By allowing investigations to be carried out remotely, and by enabling information to be received directly from witnesses and victims rather than through intermediaries, OSINT can break down some of the barriers that have silenced some voices in traditional investigations and prioritised others. However, new issues arise with these types of investigations. The huge volume of evidence retrievable from social media can make it difficult for investigators to extract truly useful information. There are further issues of informational bias that can be attributed to algorithmic bias or to misinformation posted online, intended to obfuscate or exaggerate human rights abuses.By combining a unique multidisciplinary methodology, drawing on socio-legal, computer science, and geospatial analysis methods, this project asks:"To what extent can OSINT be leveraged to contribute more systematically to human rights investigation and documentation? Can natural language processing and geospatial methods for analysing social media content assist in the discovery and analysis processes, and help overcome potential issues of informational bias and misinformation that may arise?"It will:1. Create the first ever overview of the use of OSINT by UN human rights fact-finding missions. Through interviews with members of UN Commissions of Inquiry and human rights investigations (many of whom we have worked with on other projects) and a project workshop, we will identify the barriers and reservations to their use of OSINT. Combining this data with a systematic review of reports produced by these investigations, we will determine the extent to which information gathered through OSINT methods could address some of the informational gaps inherent to traditional investigative methods.2. Develop, in collaboration with human rights organisations, the Knowledge Hub Framework (KHF), a set of core microservices that will provide tools to gather data and carry out specific analytical tasks, such as comparing documents for similarity, identifying place names within free text and mapping them, and assigning weightings and confidence ratings to data sources based on automated crosschecks, validations, and historical accuracies.3. Through the KHF, use natural language processing, text mining, and spatial analysis techniques, combined with legal analysis, in a case study to demonstrate how OSINT-based investigations could be made more systematic. Our case study will focus on The Philippines, where mass human rights violations have allegedly occurred, but which is not currently subject to a UN human rights inquiry, and which has witnessed a proliferation of social media accounts spreading counter-narratives about alleged human rights abuses. In a dedicated workshop, we will demonstrate the prototype KHF to stakeholders. We will later offer training sessions for human rights organisations. The Institute for International Criminal Investigations has agreed to host one such training session in The Hague.As well as the KHF, which will be updated as new functionalities are created, the project will result in three academic journal articles and a Guide to OSINT for Human Rights Organisations. It has the potential to transform human rights fact-finding.