Memorializing IHL violations in the age of AI: opportunities and risks for transitional justice

Memorialization, one of the five pillars of transitional justice, plays a vital role in preserving the memory of international humanitarian law (IHL) violations and gross human rights violations, supporting accountability, and preventing recurrence. Building an accurate and inclusive collective memory of past atrocities is a resource-intensive process, fraught with challenges ranging from limited access to archives and conflict zones to the risk that dominant narratives overshadow marginalized voices. Artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technologies are increasingly used to ease these burdens, from cross-referencing dispersed records to expanding public access to memorialization projects.

In this post, Paola Forgione and Megah Bintang Mahadinah examine the opportunities and risks that AI presents for memorialization processes. The authors argue that while AI can accelerate documentation and broaden the reach of memorialization efforts, it cannot substitute for the human judgement, empathy, and contextual understanding that transitional justice ultimately depends on.