Jeff Deutch

Journalists and human rights groups need to find and use verified visual evidence in order to accurately report about what’s happening in conflict zones. In the case of Syria, there are more hours of online footage online than there have been hours of conflict.

There is currently no tool that supports finding, collecting, preserving and collaboratively verifying and curating visual evidence from social media platforms: The Syrian Archive is the first to do so. In this talk, members of the Syrian Archive team will give an overview of the Syrian Archive project, explore the technical components and verification procedures, and review investigations completed using open source methodologies. Journalists and human rights groups need to find and use verified visual evidence in order to accurately report about what’s happening in conflict zones. We have currently developed an open source tool in alpha stage in collaboration with developers from Tactical Tech which collects and preserves video evidence from Youtube. We have additionally developed a unique workflow in order to verify video documentation and to conduct our investigations. By aggregating, preserving, cataloging and securing digital documentation relating to human rights violations in Syria, the Syrian Archive project helps Syrian civil society, human rights activists, media offices, journalists and lawyers increase their capacity to respond to human rights violations thorough using documentation and investigations that adhere to international standards, and using better tools to demand accountability against perpetrators of those violations. Findings from investigations have been used by Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Security Council and the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in their work investigating the Syrian conflict. Further, research has been cross-published by Bellingcat, an award-winning open source investigation platform and partner to the project.

Other people: Hadi Al-Khatib

This talk will focus on the potential ability of data disaggregated by race and ethnicity to reduce discriminatory policing in Germany. In the UK, data has been collected during police procedures, allowing for a monitoring and evaluation of discriminatory policing practices. Unfortunately, such an empirically driven policy approach is not currently possible in Germany. This talk will argue that, as a first step, a policy based off the UK approach towards data collection be implemented in Germany to incorporate, rather than ignore, Germany’s diverse identities, and to allow for empirically driven and more effective policing.

As social exclusion and racial discrimination are highly tied to policing practices, it is essential that a reduction of discriminatory policing be part of the larger discussion on addressing social inequalities in developed nations. In Germany, the lack of data disaggregated by race and ethnicity means that there are no figures on the extent of racially or ethnically based discrimination. Germany presents a unique case for examining the collection of disaggregated data due largely to the term race, or Rasse, having negative connotations due to the misuse of such data during the Nazi era. This talk will focus on the potential ability of data disaggregated by race and ethnicity to reduce discriminatory policing in Germany, with a particular focus on ‘stop and search.’ Stop and search is a crime-prevention practice existing in both Germany and the UK which allows police officers to stop individuals they suspect of committing a crime, carrying a weapon, possessing stolen property, or carrying drugs. In Germany, federal police have the added power to stop a person suspected of committing an immigration violation. In the UK – due to pressure from civil society organisations, academics, and government officials – data has been collected during police procedures, allowing for a monitoring and evaluation of discriminatory policing practices. Unfortunately, such an empirically driven policy approach is not currently possible in Germany. This talk will argue that, as a first step, a policy based off the UK approach towards data collection be implemented in Germany to incorporate, rather than ignore, Germany’s diverse identities, and to allow for empirically driven and more effective policing.