How pro bono lawyers have contributed to eyeWitness’s mission
eyeWitness to Atrocities was set up to provide human rights defenders, investigators, journalists and courageous ordinary citizens with a tool that could increase the impact of footage documenting grave international crimes, by ensuring that the images could be authenticated for use in criminal investigations or trials. The eyeWitness mobile camera app allows users to capture photos and video that are embedded with metadata to verify where and when the footage was taken, and whether the image was altered or not. The user then sends the footage to eyeWitness’s secure server, to establish a trusted chain of custody to allow the footage to be used in court. A core component of the project is to review and curate this information for potential use by investigators.
To achieve this goal, we have been fortunate to benefit from a significant amount of pro bono legal support along the way. Law firms around the world are increasingly engaged with pro bono practice, which provides a great opportunity for NGOs to fulfil their mandate with a more efficient use of their resources.
We knew early in the project that it would not be possible to predict the amount of material we would receive on a regular basis. The information flow would be dictated by many factors outside of eyeWitness’s control, for example intermittent access to the Internet for some users, spikes of violence in conflict countries, or new outbreaks of war. Therefore, from the outset eyeWitness envisaged having a standing rota of pro bono lawyers to review the material submitted through the app as needed, rather than a full time cadre of analysts.
“The information flow would be dictated by many factors outside of eyeWitness’s control, for example intermittent access to the Internet for some users, spikes of violence in conflict countries, or new outbreaks of war.”
eyeWitness considered the question of whether it was necessary to staff the rota with lawyers. Any court of justice or investigative body using footage captured with the app would conduct their own analysis, so our work is limited in this regard to cataloguing, tagging and objectively describing the material in order to compile dossiers of information concerning a particular situation. However, even though we are not compiling a legal case, we determined there are advantages to lawyers reviewing the information. Lawyers, even if lacking specialisation in atrocity crimes, have foundational knowledge of the rules of evidence. Additionally, lawyers are well versed in conducting this type of detail-oriented task.
In January 2016, eyeWitness began conversations with eight law firms to assess their interest in participating in the roster. The aim was to pilot the roster with three or four law firms and ten to twelve lawyers in total. Having a small group would facilitate communication among members and allow for closer monitoring and feedback. By July 2016, eyeWitness had secured the agreement of three firms to participate in the project. The firms were Debevoise & Plimpton, Linklaters, and Hogan Lovells.
“it was important to us to be sensitive to the [vicarious trauma] needs of the analysts”
Once the pilot roster was established, the next step was to train the participants. In addition to covering the project mission, objectives, and procedures, the training addressed the issue of vicarious trauma that may arise from exposure to graphic content. Human rights organisations are generally less prepared for the psychological challenges that traumatic imagery poses than other professions, and it was important to us to be sensitive to the needs of the analysts in this regard. Finally, the roster participants undertook a calibration exercise to understand how different biases and backgrounds could affect the analysis of the material.
The roster began its work in earnest in January 2017. To date, the roster members have donated approximately 140 hours of pro bono assistance to the project. The enthusiastic engagement of the participating law firms has been integral to helping eyeWitness fulfil our mandate. Based on the success of the roster so far and the increased amount of footage eyeWitness now receives, we intend not only to continue, but also to expand the program, adding new members in 2018.
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