Q: What is the expected output of the ICMD initiative?
A: The ICMD will become the first-ever permanent, real-time, global database that monitors compliance of International Humanitarian Law (so-called “laws of war”) in armed conflicts. This will allow the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to make data on compliance available for further analysis by policy makers, researchers, practitioners and states, the database will focus on trends and patterns across armed conflicts.
Q: What types of violations will the ICMD look into? Will it cover genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes?
A: ICMD will focus exclusively on international humanitarian law (IHL) and thereby focus on the conduct of states and non-state armed groups during an armed conflict. International crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes fall outside the scope of ICMD as any findings on individual criminal responsibility must be made by a competent court of law that complies with fair trial guarantees, including the right of the individual to defend him- or herself.
Q: Will RWI hold states accountable for violations of IHL through ICMD?
A: No, RWI is not an international court nor an advocacy organization. ICMD will consolidatedata from the ground that indicate alleged violations of international humanitarian law and analyze the trends and patterns they show. It is then up to the competent authorities to use ICMD as a resource when they decide to initiate procedures that may lead to findings on responsibility and accountability.
Q: How will RWI decide what is an alleged violation of IHL?
A: RWI will conduct a factual and legal analysis of the data gathered by, first, determiningwhether the facts contradict the rules of war, and second, through vetting, corroboration and triangulation, determining whether the data is reliable, credible and relevant. Only data that surpass a specific threshold of certainty and strength will be included in the database.
Q: Where will the data come from?
A: RWI will build a vast network of partners on the ground that will provide the data, which will be verified independently by our own open source, state-of-the-art artificial intelligence tools to corroborate and supplement information from the ground.
Q: Will RWI make public all the collected data? Will ICMD be publicly accessible?
A: RWI takes very seriously legal and ethical obligations in order to comply with ethical and data protection regulations and to guarantee that any published data does not jeopardize victims and partners submitting information under confidentiality agreements. Information that is included in the database will be publicly available to everyone. We hope to see it being used by scholars, practitioners and states in the future.