Evidence Management
In line with its mandate, UNITAD is guided by the objective of ensuring evidence is used to support accountability for the crimes committed by Da’esh/ISIL through fair and independent criminal proceedings.
Since accountability for Da’esh/ISIL international crimes may be pursued well into the future, UNITAD is committed to ensuring that its evidence holdings are managed, standardized and safeguarded for effective use in the future in Iraq and third States with competent jurisdiction.
Understanding the evidence management and analysis process and how it impacts UNITAD’s work and goals:
In pursuing this goal, UNITAD works through:
- Implementing the flagship European Union (EU) funded digitization project that helps Iraqi courts with organizing, preserving and digitizing of Da’esh/ISIL-related documents and evidentiary materials within the repository of Iraqi courts;
- Established Forensic Science Unit: which provides integral support to the Iraqi Mass Graves Directorate (MGD) and Iraq Medico-Legal Directorate (MLD) in excavation of mass graves of ISIL victims and identification of human remains. It also provides on-site capacity building, as well as trainings to Iraqi specialists on information management, digital forensics, processing battlefield evidence among others;
- Exploitation of rapidly evolving and cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence-driven tools (Zeteo, relativity and others).
