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42 Liverpool L. Rev. 339 (2021)
Promoting the Rights of Victims in under-Resourced Places by Using Science and Technology That Can Be Used by Ordinary People, to Deal with Human Rights Violations: Bolstering the Right to the Truth

handle is hein.journals/lvplr42 and id is 339 raw text is: Liverpool Law Review (2021) 42:339-360 https:I/doi.org/l0.1007/si0991-021-09276-1 Promoting the Rights of Victims in Under-Resourced Places by Using Science and Technology That Can be Used by Ordinary People, to Deal with Human Rights Violations: Bolstering the Right to the Truth Jeremy Julian Sarkin' Accepted: 21 January 2021 / Published online: 26 March 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract This article argues that while the right to the truth has come to the fore over the last few decades, victims around the world have not really felt its practical effect. It is argued that for the right to have real impact, human rights violations need to be documented and investigated, and the victims identified. This has, however, been limited in the past for a variety of reasons, including the inability to document violations to the extent needed. The article therefore considers how scientific and technological tools can help with this. It is argued that while the right to the truth has been assisted by the advent of DNA analysis, this tool is often not available in large parts of the world because of a lack of resources. Thus, it is argued that other types of techniques can, and must, be used to identify victims of human rights abuses. The article considers how ordinary people and NGOs can use a range of other tools, including a variety of apps and social media, to collect evidence of human rights violations, find people and fight impunity. The article also discusses why there ought therefore to be a greater reliance on open-source information and how it can be used to improve documentation and investigations of human rights violations. Examples that best embody the advantages and disadvantages of these scientific and technological tools are provided, as well as ideas on how to overcome the challenges they present. Keywords Right to the truth - Victims - Science and technology - Human rights violations - Human rights documentation My thanks to Katarina Branovacki for her assistance with this article. E Jeremy Julian Sarkin Jeremy.Sarkin@ymail.com NOVA School of Law, NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon Portugal and University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa Springer

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