Chapter 11
In: Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions
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Abstract
Since the birth of humanity, we have relied upon our senses to enable us to interpret and make decisions about the world around us. Our deepest instincts are driven by these senses, but they are increasingly being challenged by the rapid development of technology. Deepfakes, disinformation and misinformation through media manipulation are becoming so sophisticated that human senses are increasingly displaced in favour of artificial ones to discover the ‘truth’. For atrocity crimes, these campaigns of disinformation, propagated by states as well as by so-called ‘cyberwarriors’, create an environment in which reliance on our natural instincts in prosecutions may need to be rethought. Thus, in a world in which reliance on human senses is in question, it is worth examining the role evidence may play in international criminal prosecutions and the subsequent challenges that arise for the judiciary.
Over recent years there has been a substantial increase in the availability of digital evidence for international criminal trials, most notably the evidence currently being collected in relation to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Whilst this growth in available information may be widely regarded as beneficial for international criminal justice to help overcome previous lacunae and provide a more accurate account of events, it presents its own challenges. This chapter is focused on raising the question of disinformation and reliance on the judiciary to be able to ignore, disregard or appropriately weigh evidence which is misleading or intentionally fabricated. This chapter discusses cognitive biases and assesses examples of human reliance on machine-derived information. Through this the impact of the visceral nature – the sights, sounds, and silences – of digitally derived evidence will be examined.