AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Project Kosovo: GIS and War Crimes Evidence


Project Kosovo is a Rule of Law Through Technology initiative sponsored by the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Chicago-Kent School of Law. Its mission is to use database and GIS technologies to provide better access to evidence used to prosecute war criminals. The Project Kosovo team created a database application, the War Crimes Documentation Database, that records and analyzes war crimes data gathered from different human rights organizations in the Balkans and may be used in future areas of conflict. The application uses ESRI's MapObjects to create a GIS module that allows users to spatially query the war crimes database. This paper will discuss the potential for using GIS as evidence in war crimes cases, the limitations of data and technology, and how GPS technology and satellite imagery may also be applied.