The Justice & Accountability Unit
A joint project of Bellingcat and Global Legal Action Network (GLAN).
We leverage open source evidence for legal action against atrocity crimes.
A partnership between investigators & lawyers
The Justice & Accountability Unit (J&A Unit) is a unique partnership between open source investigators from Bellingcat and lawyers from Global Legal Action Network.
The J&A Unit’s investigators receive legal training to guide their research and follow a rigorous, co-designed methodology which we have developed to meet criminal evidentiary standards.
The J&A Unit is a self-contained entity which is separated (‘firewalled’) from the rest of Bellingcat, ensuring that journalistic work and accountability work is conducted independently, preventing possible bias.
Using Bellingcat’s pioneering investigative techniques and GLAN’s legal expertise, the J&A Unit works to enhance legal accountability processes such that when victims and witnesses legitimately record the commission of atrocity crimes or their aftermath, that evidence can be relied on in court.
See our explainer video for more info and keep reading to learn more →
Why is the J&A Unit needed?
Traditional evidence falls short in international conflicts
Too often, perpetrators of the world’s most heinous crimes are not prosecuted or successfully convicted. The UN Office on Genocide Prevention has said, “impunity destroys the social fabric of societies and perpetuates mistrust among communities.” Proving guilt in atrocity crimes is extremely difficult due to the destruction of traditional evidence in conflict zones.
Alleged perpetrators of atrocity crimes in most jurisdictions are rightly only convicted if their guilt is “beyond reasonable doubt.” However, gathering traditional forms of evidence in conflict situations is exceedingly hard—physical evidence gets destroyed, eyewitnesses are killed, and trials for international crimes often occur years after the event.
There is more documentation of conflict than ever
In almost every conflict situation, people document what is happening to them. They put their lives at risk to record the horrors taking place before their eyes. They upload videos, photos, and written accounts of their experiences to social media. They want the world to know. They want accountability.
New methods are needed for legal use of open source evidence
Internationally, courts and lawyers are struggling with how to test and rely on open source evidence in criminal trials. In an era of “fake news,” courts can be wary of this kind of evidence, fearing that it may not be possible to authenticate such evidence to a standard upon which it is reasonable to convict or acquit someone.
Our Mission
At the Justice & Accountability Unit, we aim to:
Conduct online open source investigations in a manner that can be properly tested and admitted in judicial processes,
Demonstrate the viability of online open source information in judicial processes, and by doing so
Help ensure accountability for atrocity crimes.
Timeline of the J&A Unit
2023
Investigations & Training
We worked on our first full set of investigations into cluster munitions attacks in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, and began accepting requests for information from legal authorities and NGO’s conducting litigation. We continued developing our methodology through in-depth legal research, and seeking regular input from key actors in the field. Under the leadership of Swansea University’ Yvonne McDermott Rees, we conducted a mock trial, which sought to test the jury’s response to open source evidence. We also continued disseminating our methodology, via providing training and consultation as requested.
2022
Ukraine & Reports
GLAN and Bellingcat launched the Justice & Accountability Unit in March 2022. As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Unit decided to conduct its first series of investigations into alleged atrocity crimes taking place in the course of that conflict. In October, we published two reports addressing the use of open source investigations as evidence in legal proceedings, and in December we published the Methodology.
2021
Mock Trial
To test the evidentiary aspects of the methodology, GLAN and Bellingcat, in partnership with Swansea University, designed and convened a mock hearing which tested the admissibility of a piece of open source evidence discovered using the methodology. The mock hearing was ‘judged’ by Judge Joanna Korner CMG QC, now of the International Criminal Court, and demonstrated the notional admissibility of open source evidence in the courts of England and Wales.
2020
Methodology Development
GLAN and Bellingcat continued to revise the methodology while conducting further investigations into attacks causing grave civilian harm in Yemen. Under the leadership of GLAN’s Dr Ioannis Kalpouzos, students at Harvard Law School scrutinised the Yemen Project investigations for their significance in assessing international humanitarian law compliance.
2019
Hackathon & Yemen Project
To test the investigative workability of the methodology, GLAN and Bellingcat convened an interdisciplinary “Hackathon” at which highly skilled open source investigators from many different organisations trialled the methodology by investigating alleged airstrikes in Yemen. The Hackathon teams’ investigations were continued and subsequently published as the Yemen Project.
2018
GLAN and Bellingcat Convene
GLAN convened a workshop which brought together investigative journalists, human rights researchers, technologists, open source investigators and lawyers in order to understand the opportunities and obstacles for generating legal accountability with respect to the conflict in Yemen. GLAN and Bellingcat identified the need for a comprehensive methodology to facilitate the use of open source investigations in legal accountability processes.