CFP: Principles for Ethical Use of Digital Testimonies of Victims and Witnesses of Mass Violence – June 22-24, 2026 – Paris
First symposium organized by the UNESCO Chair on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights and The George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention.
Inspired by UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, this call focuses on the rights of victims and witnesses of mass violence, living and dead, who have provided their video testimonies to archival collections and tribunals worldwide. These digital testimonies are vulnerable to cyberattacks while attempts to apply advanced technologies to ‘enhance’ them for accessibility may inadvertently breach the rights of those who provided them. When shared online, digital testimonies may also be subject to voice cloning, deep fakes, and other digital alterations. This symposium will focus on how law, archival science, and other expertise can contribute to define principles (or guidelines) for the safeguard of the rights and freedoms of those who have provided the testimonies.
This symposium aims to gather experts to discuss:
- Possible safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in the specific case of online video testimonials on mass violence
- Defining a meaningful interpretation of what constitutes ethical use of these testimonies collected and processed under any lawful purpose
- How to satisfy archival, research, and information needs while respecting the rights and dignity of data subjects who are unable to provide or deny consent
- Providing guidelines to balance the tradeoffs between archive integrity and the protection of data subjects while observing legal and ethical questions
From these discussions, the organizers aim to establish a set of suitable standardized ethical recommendations to protect the rights and freedoms of data subjects in these testimonies, taking into account the context of growing threat of unauthorized dissemination, misuse and cybercrime.
See the call for papers.