The Archive preserved +1M forensic digital artifacts to support future investigations and trials

WASHINGTON D.C., BERLIN, BERKELEY, NEW HAVEN & LOS ANGELES – March 18, 2024 –Following the release of the UN Fact-finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s report to the UN Human Rights Council, a coalition of international organizations has announced the launch of the Iranian Archive. This landmark archive forensically preserved +1,000,000 vulnerable digital artifacts recording serious human rights violations committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Woman, Life, Freedom movement protesters. The Iranian Archive is intended to support future investigations and accountability proceedings.

Many of the events documented appear to be serious human rights violations and may amount to crimes against humanity. Evidence collected includes, among others: intentionally blinding protesters, forced disappearances and deaths of children, and targeted abuse based on gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Journalists and other frontline defenders have also been systematically targeted.

The coalition behind the Iranian Archive is led by the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project and Mnemonic, in partnership with The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and the Azadi Archive. The archive joins other standalone archives created to support international investigations on atrocities in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Ukraine.

“Social media remains a crucial tool for capturing human rights violations and elevating their visibility internationally,” said the coalition behind the Iranian Archive. “We rigorously scraped and forensically preserved Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram information shared by Iranian protesters since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022. The evidence illuminates a bleak portrait of Iran’s systematic human rights abuses, but crucially, it also gives us a sophisticated ability to move meaningfully towards accountability.”

“As evidence of serious violations continue to come to light in Iran and people on the ground continue risking their lives and liberty to record human rights violations, the preservation of open source material remains imperative to ensure justice and accountability for the violence carried out by the Islamic Republic remains possible” said Nushin Sarkarati, Deputy Director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, a DC based think tank managing the coalition.

Due to security concerns, the Iranian Archive’s organizers are currently only making the records available to prosecutors, international investigative mechanisms and organizations working towards accountability for the violent crackdowns against civilians during the nationwide protests which began in 2022. Requests can be sent to the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project at szaaimi@atlanticcouncil.org, or to the project manager of the Iranian Archive at Mnemonic at kelly@mnemonic.org and c.c. to rapid-response@mnemonic.org.

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