Overview
The Human Rights Electronic Evidence Study project is inactive, but its research outputs continue to support CRL’s mission, particularly in digital preservation. Its reports remain relevant to organizations grappling with the long term stewardship of digital evidence.
History: Founding and Context
In 2008, CRL received funding from the MacArthur Foundation to study how human rights organizations were creating and managing digital documentary evidence, especially as digital communication and social media accelerated in the early 2000s. The initiative originated after CRL recognized growing preservation risks associated with born digital human rights documentation, building on CRL’s long standing role as a repository for pre digital human rights archives, including Khmer Rouge records, South African apartheid documentation, and Brazilian military tribunal transcripts.
The project’s development was directly influenced by a 2007 conference co hosted by CRL, the University of Texas Libraries, and Columbia University’s Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research, where the need for systematic assessment of digital evidence practices became clear.
Mission or Core Goals
The project's main objective was to evaluate whether human rights organizations’ digital documentation practices sufficiently supported advocacy, investigation, reporting, and legal processes—and to develop recommendations for libraries, archives, and NGOs responsible for preserving this material.
Ongoing Relevance to CRL’s Mission
Although no longer active, the project’s analyses and reports continue to inform CRL’s broader agenda in digital preservation and documentary evidence integrity.
Funders, Sponsorship, and Partners
- Primary Funder: The MacArthur Foundation
- Partner Institutions: University of Texas Libraries; Columbia University’s Center for Human
Rights Documentation and Research
Additional contributors: Legal and human rights experts who authored commissioned studies
Launch and Scope
The project launched in 2008 with a mandate to investigate digital evidence practices across human rights organizations. Its scope expanded to include commissioned legal studies examining the use and admissibility of electronic documentation in both U.S. courts and international human rights proceedings.
Key Activities
- Assessment of digital documentation workflows in human rights organizations
- Evaluation of long term preservation challenges associated with digital evidence
- Production of a major final report analyzing sector wide practices
- Consultation with human rights advocates, archivists, and legal practitioners Development of recommendations for archives, libraries, and NGOs Commissioned two related legal studies:
- New Wine in Old Wineskins? Admissibility of Electronic Documentation as Evidence in U.S. Courts (PDF)
- Admissibility of Electronic Documentation as Evidence in U.S. Courts focus (PDF)
Content Description
The project outputs include a final analytical report (PDF) and two commissioned legal studies addressing the use, credibility, and admissibility of electronic evidence. Together, these resources offer a foundational examination of the challenges of preserving and validating digital human rights documentation in legal and advocacy settings.