(iPoster) The Efficacy of a ‘Digital Witness’ for Transnational Advocacy Organizations

• In Event: Poster Session: Human Rights & Issues in African Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Human Rights

Abstract

What is the influence of digital investigative technologies on transnational advocacy organizations’ (TAOs) network power? Network analysis in international relations highlights three forms of network power: access, brokerage, and exit options. I argue that the ability to create a ‘digital witness’ using digital investigative tools reduces constraints on human rights TAOs by broadening access and brokerage. TAOs engaging in digital investigations gain more access power due to being less constrained by the lack of vested enforcement authority such as subpoenas and search warrants. This new form of access is especially unconstrained as TAOs have become first movers in drafting soft law regarding the use of investigative technologies. TAOs are nodes tied to other nodes/actors (i.e., IOs and international courts) in the transnational advocacy network. By using digital investigative technologies TAOs also play the role of network brokers accessing otherwise weakly accessible rights violators such as North Korea or Sudan. This paper demonstrates how a digital witness increases network (access and brokerage) powers for TAOs, and how TAOs have beome first movers in creating standards governing digital investigations, further decreasing constraints on these organizations. I analyze standards outlined in the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations published by the UNHRC, as well as interviews with 40+ human rights advocates and researchers to demonstrate TAOs’ role in creating new international soft law on digital investigations. The paper also studies two cases in which TAOs increase their access and brokerage powers through the use of digital investigations: I) the case against Russian President Vladimir Putin at the ICC, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine; and II) the case against Rapid Support Forces militias in Darfur Sudan. The Russia case demonstrates increases in TAOs access power, while the Sudan case demonstrates increases in both access and the leverage of brokerage due to the use of a digital witness.

Author

• Kerin Shilla