Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley

In 2015, the MacArthur Foundation gave a $1 million grant to the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley. That funding — a version of MacArthur's "Genius" awards for institutions — helped transform the center and its work, co-faculty director Alexa Koenig said. HRC used the money to create a training center for investigators looking into some of the world's biggest crises and conflicts, including in Gaza and Ukraine.

"After we won the award, we were trying to think about how do we best leverage this moment and this opportunity to really take advantage of the fact that we were a small non-profit that's based on one of the biggest public research universities in the world and create an experiential learning program that would act as a bridge between academia and the broader communities around us," Koenig said.
https://bit.ly/47ZTtgn

The Arabic version of the on Digital Open Source Investigations–the first set of global guidelines for digital investigations–is officially live! We've now published English, Russian & Arabic versions of the Berkeley Protocol, which sets minimum global standards for the identification, collection, documentation and preservation of digital evidence of potential human rights abuses and war crimes. Keep an eye out for the French, Spanish, and Mandarin versions of the Protocol coming out later this year, and stay tuned for upcoming in-person launch events!

Check out the Protocol, co-authored by Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law and United Nations' OHCHR, below:

Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations: A Practical Guide on the Effective Use of Digital Open Source and Information in Investigating Violations of International Criminal, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law The Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations identifies international standards for conducting online research of alleged violations of international criminal, human rights, and humanitarian law. The Protocol provides guidance on methodologies and procedures for gathering, analysing,....