Course
Documenting Scenes Of War Crimes And Human Rights Violations
The objective of the course is to demonstrate and instil a systematic approach to processing scenes of international crimes and grave human rights violations and how to utilise sketches to supplement notes, video-recordings and photographs in documenting scenes.
This course consists of a blend of theory and practical exercises using artificial crime scenes to acquire and apply skills to identify relevant physical evidence and document it in a manner that maintains its evidentiary value.
It includes:
- Security challenges facing crime scene investigators including understanding the inherent dangers in conflict and post conflict environments; recognising unexploded ordinance, improvised explosive devices and munitions
- Search techniques
- Logistics
- Photographic skills and techniques
- Digital images as evidence
- Collection, storage and transport of evidence
- Ammunition, weapons and weapon systems
- Tool marks and craters caused by projectiles
- Mass graves and execution sites
- Detention and torture sites
- Use of scales and markers
- Using GPS to obtain coordinates at a crime scene
- Report writing and evidence management.