It will also be important that you work impartially and conduct very minimal tampering Other forms of justice of the data. A defense lawyer might argue If these risks are overwhelming, all is not lost. that the data is corrupted, biased, or carries The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre, improper motivations. You will need to conduct an organisation collecting human rights and at least some analysis in order to make your international humanitarian law violations in the documentation searchable and understandable, Syrian conflict, has collected over one million but try to keep the analysis at a minimum. pieces of data over five years. Most of the Risks of engaging with courts documentation — perhaps up to 90 percent — will likely not be accepted in court, but all the By engaging with courts, human rights remaining documentation can be used for other organisations risk being subpoenaed to divulge types of transitional justice processes. confidential evidence, like names and dates, in open court due to a pre-trial procedure that enables each party to see evidence of the other (“rules of discovery”). Transitional justice includes truth commissions, reparations programs, memorialization, and institutional reform, which can all be used to help heal, redress past harms, and move towards If you are working with the prosecution, try reconciliation. In the case of institutional reform, setting up a witness protection system. Many large data sets can show abusive and corrupt court proceedings are public, and all your trends in a country’s judicial sector. This data precautions could instantly go out the window if can help demonstrate aspects of the sector the witness testifies and their name and personal that require reform and can guide a country’s information go public. Avoid engaging with courts legal reform and vetting process. By reforming that do not protect witnesses so your witnesses the justice sector, a country can move towards are not harmed as a result of their testimony. ensuring non-recurrence. 37