The Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law and the Institute of International Criminal Investigations in The Hague have partnered to offer two comprehensive open source investigation courses focused on the investigation of violations of international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights law. Course participants are trained on the methodology of the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations, the first professional standards and guidelines for digital investigations, consistent with the practices of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.  Both courses highlight the importance of ethics, resiliency, security, and legal compliance.

The “Foundational Open Source Investigation Course” provides the essential hands-on skills necessary for any form of high quality open source investigation. It is suitable for those with a limited existing knowledge or those who want to refresh or check their skills.

In this course, you will learn:

• How to develop an online investigation plan
• How to assess the digital landscape
• How to assess digital risks and threats
• How to conduct due diligence and select tools
• How to effectively search the surface and deep web
• How to search social media platforms and audio-visual content
• How to capture and preserve online content
• How to verify online content
• How to conduct a reverse image search for collection and verification purposes
• How to geolocate and chronolocate images and videos
• How to set up a secure workstation for anonymous online activities
• How to create a virtual identity for safe social media monitoring
• How to set up an online monitoring dashboard
• How to investigate with a sensitivity to ethical and legal considerations
• 15. How to present the findings of an open source investigation

Prerequisites: there are no required skills or prerequisites for this course, however, prior experience as an investigator, analyst, journalist or lawyer is preferred.