The goal is to archive potential evidence of war crimes against civilians and violations of international law in such a manner that it may be used in the future to contribute to legal case building efforts.
In today’s volatile political landscape, archived documentation will be kept private and only used by partner organisations and institutions to support reporting, advocacy, and accountability processes.
Mnemonic will use its track record of high-quality investigation work to hire and train the Ukrainian Archive team and, by using open-source materials they have archived and verified, will also publish open-source investigations.
The Alfred Landecker Foundation is contributing to funding and supporting Mnemonic’s efforts to build the Ukrainian Archive right from the start.
How is Mnemonic building its capacities for the Ukrainian Archive?
- Internal training: Building and training a team dedicated to the Ukrainian Archive, as well as communicating and coordinating with various organisations on how to preserve their documentation with the technical infrastructure of the Ukrainian Archive.
- External training: The Mnemonic team will conduct a needs assessment with Ukrainian civil society organisations to better understand needs regarding preservation and verification of audiovisual content.
- Archiving content that is at risk of being deleted and verification of open-source media: Supporting monitoring efforts to make sure that the monitored documentation is securely preserved using the Ukrainian Archive technical infrastructure. The team will also identify additional sources and records, archive sensitive content, and verify and support open-source publications.
- Cataloguing and processing audiovisual content: This will include setting up Mnemonic's media analysis platform to identify relevant documentation for investigations.
- Consolidating and providing access to evidence: The Ukrainian Archive team will assist in the identification of incidents of human rights violations based on verified audiovisual content. The databases and materials will be shared and selectively made accessible to international and national accountability mechanisms to be used in the future to contribute to legal case building efforts.
"What is happening in Ukraine must be collected, preserved, and archived to be used for accountability and all calls for justice for the people of Ukraine. At Mnemonic, we are doing everything we can to send a strong message to perpetrators that they cannot escape scrutiny. We are glad to be working hand in hand with Alfred Landecker Foundation in supporting the collection of evidence in the war of Ukraine." - Hadi Al Khatib, Executive Director Mnemonic
Who is Mnemonic?
Mnemonic is a non-profit organisation made up of human rights advocates, archivists, technologists, and open-source investigators dedicated to preserving, memorialising and adding value to publicly available information related to human rights violations. They use their unique position as a cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary organisation to help human rights defenders hold power to account.
Mnemonic works in collaboration with archival groups, lawyers, policymakers, human rights advocates, technologists and journalists. The team is embedded in the region and is part of the communities that are directly impacted – this allows to quickly understand local needs as well as the technical, legal, and geopolitical ecosystems human rights advocates work within. Their user-centred approach focuses on enabling and supporting human rights advocates whilst streamlining the digital workflows that connect them to one another – allowing digital data to be safely captured, preserved, and analysed, maximising its legal and journalistic value.