The Human Rights Investigations Lab trains UC Berkeley students in cutting edge, open-source research methods to address specific, well-defined public health and human rights issues. Berkeley students receive training from top-notch open source intelligence specialists and conduct supervised research on suspected human rights violations and other public health issues with an eye towards accountability and impact.
The initial cohorts for Human Rights Investigations Lab Lab Interns include:
- Fall 2016: 42 students from fourteen majors , including Computer Science and Economics, English and Environmental Economics and Policy. also includes Journalism, Jurisprudence and Social Policy. includes Computer Science, Economics and English. has 14 majors . has Law, Legal Studies. Master of Development Practice. Media Studies. Sociology. and the Human Rights minor. They spoke 16 languages, which included Arabic (Egyptian and Syrian dialects), English, Burmese and Farsi. More than a dozen students came from over a dozen countries including Bangladesh, Burma and Chile, Columbia. Iran, Pakistan. Palestine, Russia. Singapore, Syria. Turkey, and the United States (list is not exhaustive).
- Spring 2016: 57 students registered from 24 majors. Collectively, they speak 20 languages.
- Spring 2017, 62 students registered who speak more than 20 languages together and are from 25 different majors or minors.
- Fall 2017: 53 students registered from 19 majors. Collectively, they speak 26 languages.
- Spring 2018: 82 students registered from 22 majors who collectively speak more than 30 languages
This intensive training was provided by OSINT experts to these students. They learned how to verify photos and videos using geolocation applications. They worked together in groups to analyze video of protests or bombings, drawing on their collective knowledge and skills to verify and debunk the information. They also received “resiliency” training in order to be able to handle the stress of remote investigations into human rights violations.
Students are taught how to authenticate hundreds of hours worth of video footage and photos of war crimes and human rights violations from conflict zones in over a dozen countries, including Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Myanmar. Open source tools are also used by students to collect evidence of genocide, crimes versus humanity, and other war crimes for national or international criminal courts.
The Lab was created with minimal startup cost thanks to the expertise of Berkeley’s multilingual faculty and students. It also draws on the expertise and knowledge of journalists who have worked with pioneers in open-source investigations such as Bellingcat, Storyful, and First Draft News.
The Lab partners with Amnesty International and the Digital Verification Corps, which also includes Cambridge University, University of Essex, University of Pretoria and University of Toronto. Amnesty experts train Berkeley students on verification and discovery techniques. Students then work with them to verify content, sometimes in just hours or days for international reports. Berkeley hosted the first Digital Verification Corp Student Summit in June. brought together students from participating schools and leading open-source experts for training, evaluation, planning, and coordination.