Digitization Project in the Courts

UNITAD’s flagship digitization project, funded by the European Union, has been supporting the Iraqi judiciary since 2020 in digitization and preservation of ISIL related documents. It provides Iraqi specialists with the necessary technology and sustainable expertise to collect and analyze evidence of ISIL crimes according to international standards and best practices. By doing so, it allows for revolutionizing Iraq’s evidence management systems, and more efficiently developing case files on Da’esh/ISIL perpetrators by reducing search times of databases from days to minutes, as reported by several Iraqi investigative judges.

 Overall, it helps Iraq make full and better use of their own data and records, and signals lasting change as a result of these innovative efforts. This project is vital to enable efficient and fair legal proceedings, and critical to preserving the historical record of Da’esh/ISIL’s international crimes in Iraq.

As of March 2024, 15 million pages have been digitized and archived. The project has engaged 20 Iraqi courts in various governorates. Moreover, to ensure sustainability of digitization efforts within the Iraqi judiciary system, UNITAD built the capacities of national specialists in digitization and archiving.

Building on the achievements of this project, UNITAD, in consultation with the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, initiated a project for the creation of a central archive for ISIL records, in which a unified repository of all digitized evidence against Da’esh/ISIL will be created at the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq. As a perspective for the future, this central repository will play a key role to support prosecutions of ISIL perpetrators for their international crimes in Iraq. Moreover, it could be a milestone to founding a comprehensive e-justice system in Iraq, which can be upheld as a leading example, not only in the region, but also globally.