Alexandre A. Bizri
Alexandre A. Bizri
Common Witness is an open platform for collective documentation of protests in solidarity with Palestine in Berlin. It is designed to provide a platform to the people affected by the suppression of these protests to document, log, and organize evidence, testimonials, and memories. By intentionally flipping the traditional dynamic of institutional investigation, the platform proposes a grass-roots investigation method, where members of the community collect evidence to self-advocate for the accountability of state actors. It is both a collective archive and an investigative tool.
Common Witness is focused on documenting the suppression of protests since October 7th 2023, while recognizing that police violence in Berlin is hardly a new phenomenon. Submissions are open to video, photos, sounds, news articles, and documents. Incidents can be located on a map, logged with tags, and placed on a timeline. The ordering, tagging, and organizing of data is done collaboratively with a consensus voting system. There is a complementary discussion section for each entry, and a general “agora” where users can contribute to the ongoing ethical discussion raised by our methodology. Finally, the platform is designed with accessibility in mind: someone with no experience in Open Source Investigation techniques should be able to contribute meaningfully to the project.
At the foundation, this is a project designed by students to research and develop tools that disrupt the top-down human rights investigative techniques typical of institutional investigations. How can tools be developed for grass-roots movements to empower communities to lead their own investigations, while prioritising accessibility and safeguarding for the people affected? With this in mind, the Common Witness platform intends to provide an environment in which those who are affected by systemic and police suppression in Berlin can collaborate for a collective, grass-roots investigation.
Alexandre A. Bizri
Alexandre A. Bizri
Alexandre A. Bizri
Alexandre A. Bizri