In Michaelmas term, the Digital Verification Corps (DVC) were delighted to welcome 25 new students to the team. As a collaboration between Amnesty International and CGHR, the DVC promotes international accountability efforts by analysing digital content, supporting Amnesty’s campaigns by recording and verifying allegations of human rights abuses worldwide.
Following an intensive weekend of training led by a senior investigator from Amnesty, the team hit the ground running with a project focused on the repression of protests in Türkiye. Our volunteers archived user-generated content from a variety of social media platforms, before applying their skills in open-source research and geolocation to corroborate claims of rights violations. We documented a number of incidents which took place since January 2024, including examples where less-lethal weapons were used to curtail peaceful assembly. This evidence will be used by Amnesty to inform a larger investigation into the rights of protesters in the region, and our DVC colleagues at Essex University and the Hertie School will continue this important work in the months ahead.
In the meantime, our team in Cambridge has begun preliminary research into environmental damage in southern Lebanon resulting from the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict. We are focusing on the unlawful use of white phosphorus and its impact on agricultural land. The team aims to produce a report on this work for CGHR, to be completed sometime in Lent term.
Tomos Davies
Coordinator – Amnesty International Digital Verification Corps
