CFP: First Symposium on principles for ethical use of digital testimonies

By Eliana Swerdlow - February 11, 2026

Inspired by UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, this call focuses on the rights of victims and witnesses of mass violence, living and dead, who have provided their video testimonies to archival collections and tribunals worldwide. These digital testimonies are vulnerable to cyberattacks while attempts to apply advanced technologies to 'enhance' them for accessibility may inadvertently breach the rights of those who provided them. When shared online, digital testimonies may also be subject to voice cloning, deep fakes, and other digital alterations. This symposium will focus on how law, archival science, and other expertise can contribute to define principles (or guidelines) for the safeguard of the rights and freedoms of those who have provided the testimonies.

This symposium aims to gather experts to discuss:

1. Possible safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in the specific case of online video testimonials on mass violence

2. Defining a meaningful interpretation of what constitutes ethical use of these testimonies collected and processed under any lawful purpose

3. How to satisfy archival, research, and information needs while respecting the rights and dignity of data subjects who are unable to provide or deny consent

4. Providing guidelines to balance the tradeoffs between archive integrity and the protection of data subjects while observing legal and ethical questions

From these discussions, the organizers aim to establish a set of suitable standardized ethical recommendations to protect the rights and freedoms of data subjects in these testimonies, taking into account the context of growing threat of unauthorized dissemination, misuse and cybercrime.

Submissions

Submissions for presentations may focus on all cases of video testimonies of mass violence as long as they have already been constituted as an official digital archive. Digital archives may be available (in part or in whole) online.

Contributions from scholars and practitioners related to the drafting of ethical guidelines are welcome, such as:

  • Right to privacy and data protection
  • IHL principles of ‘do no harm’ and ‘proportionality’
  • Diverse stakeholders and adaptive governance of digitized archival collections
  • Curatorial responsibility, accountability and transparency
  • Sustainability of archival collections
  • Public awareness and education
  • Fairness and non-discrimination when making collections accessible to all

Submissions for presentations should include:

  • A proposal of no more than 300 words
  • The name, affiliation, email, and short biography (200 words max) of the presenter

Please send submissions to schaeffercenter@aup.edu by February 15, 2026. The symposium will be open to the public. If you wish to participate without presenting, please contact the organizers at the previous email with a statement of interest. View this link for more details about the symposium and submissions.