OSCE/ODIHR builds capacity of human rights defenders to carry out open source investigations
Building the capacity of human rights defenders to use open source investigation techniques for human rights monitoring projects was the focus of a training workshop, organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in co-operation with the nonprofit technology company Benetech in Berlin from 10 to 14 December 2018.
The workshop was attended by 27 participants (14 women and 13 men) from across the OSCE region. They acquired specific skills needed to verify and analyze videos and images, investigate social media sources, and perform open source data collection and verification in collaboration with others.
“The digital space, as the new public space, contains a wealth of data that can be accessed, verified and used by human rights defenders to shed light on human rights violations,” said David Mark, ODIHR Human Rights Adviser and Capacity Building Co-ordinator. “Knowing how to collect that data, how to verify, analyze and cross-check it with information gathered in the field is a skillset we want to make accessible to as many human rights defenders as possible.”
“The training is very useful and informative for my work,” said Annie Kazarjan from the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. “Using new techniques, like performing advanced social media searches, checking metadata from pictures, and corroborating information from various sources, will allow me to better verify the information we are gathering as part of our human rights monitoring work. I am thankful that I could meet so many like-minded human rights defenders; it is important that we build a stronger community.”
In two sessions dedicated to digital security, participants learned how to use the digital space safely, protecting their sources and the information gathered. Several experts were invited for evening talks to discuss their experience with using open source methods to promote the advancement of human rights.
The workshop was part of ODIHR’s wider efforts to tackle challenges faced by human rights defenders in the OSCE region. Over the past three years, ODIHR has trained over 200 human rights defenders from the OSCE region on human rights monitoring, safety and security.