ABSTRACT
Human rights organizations turn to a variety of digital tools and scientific methods when investigating potential abuses; they including crowdsourcing on digital networks, commercial remote sensing satellites, and forensic science. This chapter argues that digital technology and techniques used by forensic scientists help create public accounts of war crimes and abuse. It illustrates forensic science in a framing contest in a case found in Mexico beginning in 2014. In face of strongly-stated denials, human rights organizations sometimes find themselves defending the veracity of their reports concerning war crimes and human rights abuses. Much of the back and forth recriminations take place in news media. The emergence of forensic science as a tool for human rights investigations can be traced back to two seminal periods in second half of 20th century. The first was the campaign of terror in 1970s and 80s at the hands of right-wing dictatorships in South America; the second was the aftermath the civil wars in Yugoslavia.
