Digital evidence changing the paradigm of human rights protection

In a "digital world" like ours, vast Information and Communication Technology (ICT)infrastructures are highways where run extensive flows of information, dictating therhythm of our day-to-day lives. Such a deep influence, close to be an addiction for us, turnsICT an unquestioned feature of modern life.These premises well portrait the landscape in which the diverse spectrum of actorscommitted to promote, defend and restore the human rights operate. Therefore, the risk isto mistake the means with the ends; but, even if the subject of this work, Digital Evidence,is technology-related, the purpose of the study is the goal to which it tends: human rightsand their protection.Moreover, the wide diffusion of "capturing devices" that allow the documentation of humanrights abuses throughout massive streams of data from diverse sources will raise newneeds: in primis a careful collection and interpretation of the most relevant ones, and thenthe establishment of mechanisms to ensure the validity and reliability of newly acquiredinformation.The whole chain that connects all the required steps in order to turn digital data into"digital legal evidence" relevant for the protection of human rights, represents a challengefor human rights practitioners, as individual activists, as well as organizations. Every singlestep is fundamental: collection, management, preservation, analysis and security of data,along with an effective communication and strategic use of evidence.Twitter tweets, Facebook and Blogs posts, Instagram photos and Youtube videos, evenwhen considered too weak for a conviction to be founded on, can play an importantrole outside of a courtroom, establishing the grounds for prosecution indictments or, ingeneral, creating awareness of human rights abuses.Consequently, new forms of human rights activism, like the so-called "hashtag activism",pass through social media and have the power to generate a real change at both legal andawareness level. The risk to be avoided is to mortify this power using social media as ashortcut to be politically active or socially trendy making a mere "clictivism".Hence, the core of this work revolves around the pivotal question of legal sufficiency ofthe digital means employed in recording human rights abuses and the consolidation ofstandards and procedures regulating the admissibility of collected evidence in the court oflaw. The purpose is to provide an answer from a tri-folded point of view.The U.S. legal system leads in the regulation of the requirements for digital evidence to beadmitted at trial; nonetheless, also International courts like ICC, ICTY and ICTR followrules and procedure for that purpose, based on authenticity, protection of privacy, chainof possession and reliability of the electronic evidence. At the European level, instead, thelack of a common legislation relevant to the admissibility of d-evidence at trial required acomparative study of the respective provisions contained in many Europeans countries'procedural law. For these three levels a special attention is reserved to the analysisof the lifecycle of digital evidence, from the creation and use of digital digital humanrights documentation for immediate purpose to its later admission as evidence in legalproceedings, as well as to the authentication issue.At the last stage a collection of the most relevant case law form the principal U.S. courtsand International courts is provided.