There’s a new app that could critically shape the way war crimes and other atrocities are reported. Eyewitness to Atrocities, a free app on Android devices, was co-developed by the International Bar Association and the data hosting tech company LexisNexis, and is intended to allow users to safely and verifiably document crimes in order to help secure convictions and deter crime.
In the ongoing debates about human and civil rights abuse, smartphones are becoming an increasingly important tool for documenting crimes, yet credibility remains a huge issue. In fact, the app was inspired by the difficulties prosecutors faced during the Sri Lankan Civil War in verifying footage of the alleged execution of Tamil Tigers. Because the court could not verify the exact timing and origin of the videos, it deemed the images inadmissible.
EyeWitness to Atrocities hopes to solve this problem of authenticity by allowing users to record photos, videos or sound that are automatically stamped with time, date, sensor data and GPS coordinates. Moreover, the app incorporates a counter that records the number of pixels in order to show that the images have not been altered.
In the interest of user security, once captured, images are saved to a password-protected gallery. Moreover, EyeWitness to Atrocities includes a “Panic Delete” option, which eliminates all traces of the app in case a user fears arrest or confiscation.
In order to report a crime, you can submit your images to a database maintained by EyeWitness to Atrocities that is accessible only by a group of legal experts.
Though certainly a useful tool, the app is certainly not without its problems. For one, many people living in war-ravaged areas likely will not have easy access to Android phones. Though the promised adaptation of the app to other devices will certainly ameliorate this issue, the problem of accessibility remains.
Furthermore, there seems to be the potential for data overload in the submission of images. EyeWitness’s legal experts may have a difficult time sorting through the influx of reports in order to pin down the most compelling threats.
The app may not be a perfect solution to documenting human rights abuses, but it is definitely a good one. Though it may not capture all atrocities, it will certainly increase the level of credible documentation and likely up the conviction rate of war criminals.
Many users have already realized the awesome potential of the app, giving it a 4.9/5 rating on Google Play. More important than any rating though will be judging the app’s impact in securing global justice.
