eDiscovery solutions aiding war crime investigations

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Wednesday, October 20, 2010) | Category : eDiscovery

A report recently released by Network World found eDiscovery solutions have played a key role in United Nations war crimes investigations. UN attorneys are currently investigating and prosecuting war crimes cases against alleged perpetrators of massacres in Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Rwanda.

With various data management solutions, UN investigators have successfully archived data from electronic files. At first, scanned documents and other media posed substantial issues, but developing searchable archives has expedited the process greatly, according to Network World. Similarly, the presence of multiple dialects and scripts delayed investigations. However, data management and eDiscovery solutions have greatly mitigated these issues.

Gonzalo de Cesare, information officer at the Council of the European Union, told the news provider that the investigation in Rwanda yielded substantial audio data. Without data management and eDiscovery solutions, it would take investigators too much time to properly inspect all the information.

de Cesare further explained that new technology has reduced the expected timetable for the cases to fewer than two years. Previously, it was impossible for the UN to set any expectations for the investigations' conclusions.