Articles of War Symposium on Prosecuting War Crimes: “Evidentiary Challenges” contribution by Chris Engels

In his contribution to the Symposium, CIJA’s Director of Investigations and Operations Chris Engels provides a clear-sighted summary of the experiences and challenges of gathering and authenticating evidence in combat zones, drawing on CIJA’s long-standing investigations into the armed conflict in Syria. Engels identifies several crucial measures necessary to ensure the robust collection and authentication of evidence, including:

·      Awareness and continuous monitoring of the security situation and risks posed to the investigation and to different team members;

·      Preparing appropriate collection plans that include clear goals, objectives and risk-thresholds;

·      Ensuring safe transit of materials out of the conflict zone with procedures that are realistic and consistent;

·      Maintaining the integrity of information including through proper chain of custody record keeping;

·      Preserving and authenticating materials;

The post is drawn from the remarks made by Chris Engels at an expert workshop convened by the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare in partnership with the U.S. State Department Office of Global Criminal Justice and the United States Institute of Peace in late 2022. According to a summary provided by Professor Sean Watts and Jennifer Maddocks the workshop addressed “the practical difficulties that arise when charging, prosecuting, and defending against war crimes charges, as well as investigative and evidentiary challenges in mass-crime contexts. The workshop additionally addressed the acute problems of guaranteeing both protection and justice to victims, particularly when those victims are situated in cultural settings that are unfamiliar to the international and private organizations that increasingly conduct war crimes investigations and prosecutions.”

Read the post here: https://lieber.westpoint.edu/evidentiary-challenges/