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Fact-Finding Online – a Fair Trial Offline?

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Fact-Finding Online – a Fair Trial Offline? FACULTY OF LAW Lund University Disa Janfalk Fact-Finding Online – A Fair Trial Offline? An Analysis of the Admissibility of Digital Open-Source Evidence in Relation to Trial Fairness at the International Criminal Court JAMM07 Master Thesis International Human Rights Law 30 higher education credits Supervisor: Christoffer Wong Term: Spring 2021 Contents Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Sammanfattning ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 3 Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Purpose and Research Question ........................................................................................ 9 1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 10 1.3.1 Sources of Law Applied by the ICC ................................................................................. 10 1.3.2 Interpretation at the ICC ................................................................................................... 12 1.4 Material ................................................................................................................................ 13 1.5 Theoretical Perspective ..................................................................................................... 14 1.6 Contribution to Existing Scholarship ............................................................................... 16 1.7 Delimitations ....................................................................................................................... 16 1.8 Terminology ........................................................................................................................ 17 1.9 Structure of the Thesis ...................................................................................................... 20 2 Digital Open-Source Evidence ................................................................................................... 21 2.1 Online Open-Source Investigations: Actors, Objectives and Techniques .................. 21 2.2 The ICC’s Evidentiary Problems: Digital Open-Source Evidence as the Solution ...... 25 2.3 Digital Open-Source Evidence in the ICC to Date ........................................................... 27 2.4 The Potential of Digital Open-Source Evidence .............................................................. 29 2.4.1 The Structure of International Crimes .............................................................................. 29 2.4.2 The Investigatory Uses of Digital Open-Source Information ........................................... 31 2.4.3 The Potential of Digital Open-Source Evidence in the Prosecution of Cases ................. 32 2.5 Interim Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 37 3 The Right to a Fair Trial at the ICC ............................................................................................ 38 3.1 The Applicable Standard of Fairness at the ICC ............................................................. 38 3.1.1 Adversarial, Inquisitorial, Mixed or Sui Generis Proceedings – Fairness the Overarching Requirement ........................................................................ 38 3.1.2 International Human Rights Law – Minimum Procedural Guarantees Below Which the ICC Cannot Go ........................... 40 3.2 The Right to a Fair Trial in International Human Rights Law......................................... 41 3.3 The “Codification” of the Right to a Fair Trial in the ICCSt ........................................... 43 3.4 Some Relevant Human Rights Considerations ............................................................... 45 3.4.1 The Principle of Equality of Arms ..................................................................................... 45 3.4.2 The Right to Examine and Test Evidence ....................................................................... 48 3.4.3 The Right to be Tried Without Undue Delay .................................................................... 49 3.4.4 The Exclusion of Improperly Obtained Evidence ............................................................ 51 3.5 Interim Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 53 2 4 The Admissibility and Exclusion of Evidence at the ICC ....................................................... 54 4.1 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 54 4.2 The ICC’s Interpretation and Application of the General Admissibility Test ............... 57 4.2.1 Step One: Relevance ....................................................................................................... 57 4.2.2 Step Two: Probative value ............................................................................................... 59 4.2.3 Step Three: Prejudicial Effect on Trial Fairness .............................................................. 71 4.2.4 The Exclusionary Rule ..................................................................................................... 74 4.3 Interim Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 77 5 The Admissibility and Exclusion of Digital Open-Source Evidence and Trial Fairness at the ICC ...................................................................................................................................... 78 5.1. Identified Risks – Bias and Inequality of Arms ............................................................... 78 5.2 The Admissibility of Digital Open-Source Evidence ...................................................... 80 5.2.4 Step One: Relevance of Digital Open-Source Evidence ................................................. 80 5.2.5 Step Two: Probative Value of Digital Open-Source Evidence ......................................... 81 5.2.6 Step Three: Prejudicial Effect of Digital Open-Source Evidence ..................................... 85 5.2.7 The Exclusion of Improperly Obtained Digital Open-Source Evidence ........................... 87 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 89 3 4 Summary The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) faces massive evidentiary problems due to flawed state-cooperation, limited access to sites of atrocity and an insufficient budget. Meanwhile, potentially relevant digital open-source information abounds, as citizens increasingly turn to social media to spread awareness of human rights violations and possible international crimes. Using YouTube videos, Facebook posts, and other publicly available digital content as evidence at the ICC may mitigate the limitations inherent in the OTP’s traditional dependence on state-cooperation to obtain evidence, hence increasing the efficiency of international criminal justice and furthering the objective of crime control. However, using digital open-source information as evidence presents new challenges of its own, with particular implications for the accused’s right to a fair and expeditious trial, which is an equally important objective of the ICC procedural framework. The OTP has long made use of evidence from open sources, and the ICC chambers have often allowed for the admission of reports from United Nations (UN) missions, non- governmental organisations (NGOs), and news agencies in the past. However, establishing facts in our “post-truth” times is an increasingly complex affair. The spread of fakes, forgery and misattributed content online, coupled with unresolved questions relating to the authentication and verification of such materials, suggest that there are reasons for the ICC bench to be cautious about admitting Instagram photos, Tweets and other online content into evidence. Furthermore, there is an ever-increasing number of private stakeholders engaged in online fact-finding, which raises questions of bias and exacerbates already existing concerns as to the equality of arms between the Prosecutor and the defence. It must therefore be assessed whether the ICC procedural framework remains effective, appropriate and capable of guaranteeing the fair-trial rights of the accused in the face of the particular challenges posed by the acquisition and use of the newest forms of evidence available online. Decisions on admissibility – i.e. on what evidence the ICC judges may base their findings – assume particular importance in this regard. The present study thus sets out to analyse the admissibility of digital open-source evidence in
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