Using technology to improve CRSV investigations through survivor-centered and gender sensitive methods.

Courts and investigative bodies – both international and domestic – are increasingly turning to technology to document sexual and gender-based crimes (SGBC) in armed conflicts around the world. This policy brief, based on a longer research paper, explores case studies to examine how actors are using technology through survivor-forward, trauma-informed, and gender sensitive methods. It presents the risks posed by using technology in handling SGBC in specific contexts, highlighting where improvements are needed. Case studies explore the investigation of SGBC in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and areas in northern Iraq and Syria occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A third case study examines the long-term management of SGBC evidence and information stemming from the interlinked Sierra Leone/Liberia conflicts of the 1990s.