Draft:EyeWitness to Atrocities

• Comment: This seems like a notable subject, however a lot of the article is basically the company discussing itself with the heavy reliance on primary sources to support claims, particularly positive claims about the organization at that. I also think the entire exhaustive listing of the board members can go.
  Please keep in mind, we are a tertiary source that is mostly interested in understanding the views of what secondary sources say about the subject.
  One final complaint, Linkedin is not considered a reliable source and should be removed as a reference. Thanks. Sulfurboy (talk) 08:14, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

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eyeWitness to Atrocities (eyeWitness) is a legal charity founded as an initiative of the International Bar Association and conceived of by IBA Executive Director Mark Ellis in 2015. Using the eyeWitness app, human rights defenders, civil society organizations, and ordinary citizens can record and submit multimedia evidence of alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other serious human rights violations to a secure server for future use by relevant investigatory bodies. eyeWitness to Atrocities is headquartered in London, England.

eyeWitness App

eyeWitness to Atrocities and the eyeWitness app were created to ensure that documentation of human rights abuses captured by those on the frontlines of conflict met the evidentiary standards necessary to be used in courts of law. Footage captured with the app is embedded with metadata confirming its time, date, and location, and cannot be edited. These materials are then encrypted and uploaded to the secure eyeWitness server, hosted by LexisNexis. This process ensures a trusted chain of custody that is key to allowing the videos, photos, and audio recordings captured with the app to be used as evidence in court. Information received by eyeWitness is reviewed by teams of pro-bono lawyers who tag, catalogue, and analyse the evidence. eyeWitness then works to identify appropriate international, regional, or domestic bodies and prepares material for potential use in their investigations or proceedings.

As of 2026, the eyeWitness app is only available for download on Android devices.

Impact

Since 2015, eyeWitness to Atrocities has received over 100,000 pieces of footage in partnership with organizations around the globe and has submitted over 145 dossiers of evidence to relevant bodies or accountability mechanisms.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, evidence captured with the eyeWitness app was crucial in securing the conviction of Gilbert Ndayambaje and Evariste Nizehimana, two commanders of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Ndayambaje and Nizehimana were found of guilty of murder and torture, constituting crimes against humanity, following an attack on two villages in South Kivu province that killed 48 people.

In the United Kingdom, footage collected using the eyeWitness app was submitted to the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in a case by the non-profit organization Lawyers for Palestinian Rights, prompting a review of J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited’s sale of equipment to Israel and its use in the demolition of Palestinian communities.

In Ukraine, documenters using the eyeWitness app have collected over 55,000 photos and videos since 2017. In 2023, eyeWitness and its partners published case studies on Russia’s alleged actions to compromise Ukrainian civilians’ right to health and access to essential care. This evidence was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council as part of Russia’s Universal Periodic Review. Footage collected in Ukraine has also been relied on in four cases before local Ukrainian courts, including the Commercial Court of Kharkiv and Kharkiv District Administrative Court.

In Nigeria, eyeWitness to Atrocities and its local documenting partner the International Committee on Nigeria submitted an urgent joint appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, the Right to Adequate Housing, and the Right to Food in 2025, who later formally contacted the Nigerian government.

eyeWitness and its app were shortlisted in the ‘Tech for Good’ category of the 2022 and 2024 UK Tech Awards.

eyeWitness won the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) Prize for Innovation in Global Security in 2016.

Board of Trustees and Advisory Board

As of July 2026, members of the eyeWitness to Atrocities Board of Trustees include:

• Fatou Bensouda, former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and current Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
• Leila Nadya Sadat, former ICC Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda
• Mark S. Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association
• Richard J. Goldstone, former Constitutional Court of South Africa judge
• Tim Hughes, Deputy Executive Director of the International Bar Association
• David W. Rivkin, independent arbitrator and former president of the International Bar Association
• Philip F. Zeidman, lawyer at DLA Piper and former president of the International Bar Association

As of July 2026, counsellors to the eyeWitness to Atrocities Board of Trustees include:

• David J. Scheffer, lawyer and former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
• David Tolbert, lawyer and current president of the International Center for Transitional Justice

As of July 2026, eyeWitness to Atrocities advisory board members include:

• Javier Agüera, inventer and entrepreneur
• Marcus Bleasdale, photojournalist
• David M. Crane, former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
• Charles C. Jalloh, professor and member of UN International Law Commission
• Cedric Mateosyan Kutlu, investor and entrepreneur
• James Oury, lawyer
• John Owen, former chairman of the Frontline Journalism and Media Club
• L. Kathleen Roberts, founding co-director of Partners in Justice International
• Naomi Roht-Arriaza, lawyer
• Juliana Ruhfus, investigative journalist
• Peter Stern, former Director, Content Policy Stakeholder Engagement at Meta