RightsCon Tunis 2019

Despite periodic excitement about human rights applications of social media, most coverage of human rights violations on social media is unusable by UN human rights mechanisms and inadmissible in court. This session will strategize the expansion of civilian-led monitoring of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa. The experience of a major pilot of civilian-led monitoring in Iraq and numerous civil society initiatives in Syria have shown that a combination of machine and traditional learning techniques is required, but that it is highly context-dependent. Drawing on both human rights and tech experts, the session will discuss different collective intelligence approaches to delivering high-quality violations monitoring in different conflicts. Can civilian-led monitoring fill the dearth of information on human rights violations in high-intensity conflict situations or other no-access zones? Which combination of digital tools, crowd-sourcing, data-mining, training and other support is required to empower civilians to produce human rights documentation of sufficient quality? What best practices can be identified around inclusiveness, quality, verification and security and which impact measures used? The session will be primarily in English but with contributions/questions taken in both English and Arabic.