IHRP Working Group: Cameroon Atrocities Project

Verifying Incidents of Human Rights Abuses for Future Accountability

By: Allison Zhao (2L) and Parker Hopkins (2L)

Credit: Creative Commons

Group Leads: Allison Zhao (2L JD/MGA) and Parker Hopkins (2L)

Group Members: Ritica Ramesh (1L), Bruce Yao (1L), Matthew Crocker (1L), Simren Sharma (1L), Alexia Lee (1L), Maryam Helmy (1L), Rebecca Dragusin (2L JD/MGA), Qiyang Hong (2L), Ella Stoyan (2L), Thomas Mora (2L), Adrien Piecyk (3L), Natalie St Pierre-Jubb (GPLLM), Jose Quevedo (GPLLM)

When and why was this working group instituted? What are the objectives of this working group? 

The working group was established as a part of the Database of Atrocities’ response to the outbreak of the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis, which has been ongoing since 2016. The Crisis has been severely underreported in international news, and civilians have been subjected to acts like killings, school burnings, rapes, kidnappings, and enforced lockdowns. Perpetrators of these acts are found in both government and non-state Anglophone minority separatist forces. Thus, the objectives of the working group in expanding this database include countering the prevalent culture of impunity as the Crisis continues, verifying and storing evidence for future accountability procedures, assisting activists and journalists, and deterring the parties to the conflict from committing further atrocities. To accomplish these objectives, student volunteers investigate incidents that are submitted to the database and verify as much information as they can about each incident’s location, time, and perpetrators. Students then write and submit reports on each incident to be preserved in the database. The database is apolitical and nonpartisan and incidents are investigated and reported accordingly. 

How has the work of this group changed in recent years?

For 2024-2025 our team has expanded to take on more volunteers, allowing for more detailed investigations and multiple streams of verification for each incident. We are continuing to refine our research techniques and verification mechanisms as new incidents arise. 

How does this working group contribute to the IHRP experience?  

Student volunteers have the unique opportunity to be trained in using open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques that are not typically encountered in law classes. These include using satellite, weather and sun data, and social media in order to pinpoint locations and times at which photo and video evidence was collected. The Cameroon Atrocities Project aims to draw attention to a lesser-known human rights crisis, and allows students hands-on experience in fact-checking evidence on reported human rights abuses, in addition to strengthening their writing skills for public-facing reports. 

The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities can be accessed at https://borealisdata.ca/dataverse/cameroon. The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities will be updated with the 2024-2025 cohort’s work in the summer of 2025.