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- Analytical products: This refers to the combination of factual and legal analysis that the IIIM develops with a view to share with competent jurisdictions alongside information and evidence. These products take many forms depending on the material being shared. For example, analysis of information and evidence in the central repository could allow conclusions to be made on whether crimes occurred, in addition to providing linkage between organisational structures and crimes as well as individuals within those structures.
- Case files: Are prepared with a view to supporting either criminal law or civil law proceedings, either now or in the future. For criminal proceedings, the decision to open a case file depends on a range of factors and will generally be linked to the identification of specific perpetrators for specific core international crimes committed in Syria. A case file could be triggered by work done within the IIIM’s Structural Investigation or by a request to the IIIM to provide sustained assistance to a competent jurisdiction.
- Central Repository of Information and Evidence: Refers to the ‘vault’ of information and evidence collection of the IIIM. As inferred from its name, the Central Repository consolidates the data collected allowing the IIIM to maximise its usage in a variety of ways, from making material findable and searchable, to linking different data collections to each other, as well as housing it securely to preserve for ongoing and future accountability processes.
- Collection requests: Refers to a formal written request made by the IIIM to third parties to be provided with information and/or evidence for inclusion in the IIIM’s Central Repository.
- Competent Jurisdictions: The jurisdictions that the IIIM can share information with, refers to courts and tribunals being understood as encompassing law enforcement agencies, investigative authorities, prosecutorial authorities, and judges that:
- Have jurisdiction to investigate, prosecute and try the crimes covered by the IIIM’s mandate.
- Respect international human rights laws and standards.
- Would not apply the death penalty for the offences being considered.
- The IIIM can also assist with non-criminal law judicial proceedings that concern liability for crimes in Syria falling under the IIIM’s mandate in jurisdictions, in line with the IIIM’s terms of reference.
- Computer Vision: An interdisciplinary scientific field, which studies how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. It seeks to understand and automate tasks that the human visual system can do, for example, object recognition – one of the sub-domains of computer vision.
- eDiscovery (Electronic Discovery): The process of identifying, obtaining, analysing, and exchanging electronically stored information (ESI) that is evidence or has the potential of becoming evidence, in legal proceedings or in preparation for legal proceedings.
- Request for Assistance (RFA): Refers to a request addressed to the IIIM for the sharing of information, evidence, analytical work or tools, work product and/or expertise in the possession of the IIIM for the purpose of supporting investigations, prosecutions or judicial proceedings.
- Structural investigation: Refers to the mapping of overarching crimes patterns, the structures of power wielded by the parties to the conflict, relevant actors (particularly those within the structures of power but also other actors, including civilians, who may be operating outside of these structures but nevertheless have played a significant role in the commission of crimes) and the broader context within which all of the relevant events took place (the constitutional and legislative frameworks, the geopolitical landscape and the political, economic, social, cultural and religious context).
