Le Conseil de la Fondation Prix Henry Dunant est heureux d’attribuer le Prix Henry Dunant – Recherche pour l’année 2023 ex aequo à Mme Rodanthi Violaki ainsi qu’à M. Edward Madziwa.
Concernant le mémoire de Mme Rodanthi Violaki, « L’érosion du droit d’asile en Europe : Contentieux stratégique pour les victimes de pratiques néfastes devant la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme dans leur demande d’asile », les membres du jury ont relevé l’impressionnante étendue de ses recherches dans la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme, par le nombre des décisions qu’elle a étudiées et analysées, et plus encore par la remarquable synthèse qu’elle a effectuée de ces décisions.
Les membres du jury ont également été sensibles à l’objectif visé par Mme Violaki consistant, par-delà l’objectif académique, à établir, à la lumière de la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme, une stratégie en vue de défendre avec succès les droits des demandeurs d’asile devant cette juridiction et, en définitive, le droit d’asile, dont on sait combien il est aujourd’hui menacé par les mouvements populistes et les égoïsmes nationaux. En d’autres termes, l’auteur vise, d’une certaine manière, à prendre par la main les avocats des demandeurs d’asile et à leur indiquer, à la lumière de la jurisprudence de la Cour, le cheminement qui offrira les meilleures chances de faire valoir les droits de leurs clients.
En ce qui concerne le mémoire de M. Edward Madziwa, « Faire progresser l’honneur et la dignité dans la mort des victimes des conflits armés : explorer les défis et les opportunités de l’intelligence artificielle et de l’apprentissage automatique dans l’action médico-légale humanitaire en vertu du droit humanitaire international », le jury a relevé le choix d’un sujet très intéressant et actuel, alliant tradition et modernité, ainsi qu’une approche interdisciplinaire mariant le droit international humanitaire, le droit des droits de l’homme et les nouvelles technologies.
L’auteur a conduit des recherches approfondies dans ces trois domaines en ne prenant pas seulement en compte les potentialités de ces nouvelles technologies dans le domaine de la recherche des disparus et de l’identification des dépouilles mortelles, mais également les risques inhérents au recours à ces nouvelles technologies.
En outre, M. Madziwa soumet des propositions de développements normatifs et opérationnels en vue de maximiser les potentialités et de minimiser les risques inhérents au recours à ces nouvelles technologies.
Les membres du jury ont relevé que le sujet traité par M. Madziwa va bien au-delà du respect dû aux morts, mais qu’il s’agit bien davantage de protéger la dignité des vivants par-delà la mort, d’une part, et les droits des familles et des proches des disparus d’autre part. L’expérience prouve en effet que les proches d’un disparu ne peuvent véritablement faire le deuil de la personne disparue aussi longtemps que sa dépouille n’a pu être retrouvée et identifiée ; le conjoint ou la conjointe ne pourra se remarier ni reconstruire sa vie et les enfants ne pourront bien souvent hériter de ses biens, ou alors seulement après d’interminables délais. La disparition est un deuil sans cesse renouvelé.
Ces deux mémoires se situent dans le droit fil de l’engagement le plus constant d’Henry Dunant, la lutte contre toutes les formes de persécution et la protection des victimes de persécutions concernant le mémoire de Mme Violaki et la protection des victimes de la guerre et l’allègement, dans toutes les mesures du possible, de leurs souffrances en ce qui concerne celui de M. Madziwa.
Au vu de l’excellente facture de ces deux mémoires, qui traitent de sujets différents selon des approches différentes, le Conseil de Fondation a accepté, dans un souci d’équité et à titre exceptionnel, d’octroyer deux prix en 2023.
Biographies
Rodanthi Violaki has an academic background in public international and human rights law, specializing in refugee law and migration from Panteion University in Athens. Her interest in advancing her legal competencies in the intersection between human rights and refugee law to better support asylum seekers in her professional career led her to follow the LL.M. at the Geneva Academy. Prior to the Programme, Rodanthi worked with the Greek migration authorities, as an Asylum Case Officer adjudicating applications of international protection, a capacity that enabled her to monitor the compliance of asylum decisions with the international legal framework and standards. She also has field experience at Lesbos refugee camp in Greece, where she focused on the improvement of the living conditions, the establishment of protection mechanisms for vulnerable applicants, and access to asylum proceedings. Before coming to Geneva, she worked with Médecins Sans Frontières at the Balkan Migration Mission, where she supported medical projects providing life-saving activities to people on the move. During her studies at the Geneva Academy, Rodanthi participated in the Pictet Competition, reaching the semi-finals and interned with Asylex on strategic litigation before judicial and quasi-judicial human rights bodies on behalf of refugees fearing refoulement.
Edward Madziwa is a registered Legal Practitioner, Conveyancer and Notary Public of the High Court and Superior Courts of Zimbabwe. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) Degree (2019), an LLM in Constitutional and Human Rights Law (2022) from Midlands State University and an LLM from the Geneva Academy (2023). After his graduation in 2019, Edward interned at the International Committee of the Red Cross where he conducted comprehensive research on Zimbabwe’s legal domestic and normative framework concerning the missing and management of the dead pursuant to the 2018 ICRC’s Missing and Deceased Migrants Pilot Project for Zimbabwe and South Africa. After his internship, he transitioned into the role of a Human Rights Complaints Handling and Investigations Officer at the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission. In this capacity, he diligently received, reviewed, and investigated human rights and maladministration-related complaints. He also spearheaded impactful human rights awareness campaigns and monitoring initiatives. During his tenure at the Geneva Academy, he further honed his skills and knowledge by interning with Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre, making notable contributions to various research endeavours. Currently, he is a Graduate Professional in the Security and Technology Programme at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.
Summary of thesis
Rodanthi Violaki
Witnessing the scarcity of legal aid available to asylum seekers who undergo human rights violations in their pursuit of asylum, this paper serves as a roadmap for strategic litigation before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). It explores an under-researched topic, yet its conclusions are of significant importance for the victims in their efforts to seek justice and accountability.
In its first part, the paper introduces the obligations incumbent on states under Articles 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) and the key legal notions they consist of. In view of Article 3, it underscores the absolute prohibition of exposing individuals to irreversible harm in situations of extradition, removal or interception and outlines the general principles that expulsions must conform to. In light of refoulement-in-chain, the paper sheds light on situations of removal to an intermediary state without sufficient individual guarantees ensuring access to asylum proceedings.
The paper then proceeds with a comparative legal analysis between vulnerable and non-vulnerable applicants following the Court’s dichotomy on the minimum standards of living conditions at migration and detention facilities. It explores the parameters under the Court’s scrutiny for evaluating the existence of the minimum standards and focuses on higher positive obligations of contracting parties towards children. Lastly, the paper specializes in the requirements detention facilities must meet to avoid causing distress besides the inescapable minimum.
In light of the protection from arbitrary interference with their liberty, the focus on Article 5 is driven by the institutionalization of administrative detention under the Common European Asylum System. The author challenges detention in inappropriate conditions, that is not free from arbitrariness and bad faith nor connected with the permissible grounds under domestic law. The paper encourages submissions from detainees pending deportation without reasonable prospect of removal, given the encouraging caselaw on the subject.
In the second part, the author first suggests legal avenues for removals under Article 3 that trigger states’ responsibility due to deficit asylum systems at the destination state and summary returns without prior risk assessment. She continues by presenting the successful elements of the caselaw where the Court held that the living conditions were at variance with human dignity. It focuses on suggested legal avenues for certain vulnerable profiles, such as pregnant women or children and presents the well-settled notions of the Court and concludes with the adjudication of cases regarding the extreme material.
For alleged violations under Article 5, the author enumerates the standards detention must comply with according to the Court’s caselaw and proposes legal arguments to substantiate the violation of each standard. It commences with the existence of a legal basis under domestic law that prescribes the permissible grounds, procedural safeguards, and procedures of detention. It then supports victims who have been deceived in violation of the principle of good faith and encourages those who are detained in substandard conditions to challenge the legality of detention, such as border police stations or transit zones. Aligned with the migration, it concludes with cases regarding the absence of habeas corpus guarantees at the national level, the undeniable value of which is strongly highlighted by the Court, as a requirement to contest the arbitrariness of detention.
The paper ultimately demonstrates in view of the timid European Court to challenge states’ prerogatives, asylum seekers shall rely upon well-crystalized notions to maximize their chances of successful litigation. The author hopes that the paper will serve as a tool for justice for everyone who, by seeking asylum, fell victim to Europe’s non-entrée politics.
Edward Madziwa
Data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are progressively transforming the humanitarian field, yet their role in the forensic identification of dead bodies remains unexamined. The correct and early identification of dead bodies is important, not just to afford them their honour and dignity or to ensure that their families have closure and know the fate of their loved ones but also to have broader implications for human rights and international humanitarian law. Drawing from the law, forensic science, computer science, and transitional justice disciplines, the paper examines the opportunities and challenges of AI and ML in advancing honour and dignity in death for armed conflict victims in humanitarian forensic action under international human rights law.
It draws from recent studies to show how geospatial intelligence can be employed in forensic investigations to look for spatial patterns of the dead or mass graves in post-conflict situations and highlight the limitation in its applications, primarily on the battlefield. I argue that it can also be used for identifying the unidentified armed conflict victims.
It starts by providing conceptual definitions of key terms like AI, ML, and humanitarian forensic action. It further provides an overview of how AI and ML are currently used in forensic action in peacetime and armed conflict situations, for example, its integration into civil protection activities to reduce disaster-related deaths, identify vulnerabilities, detect hazards, and predict their development in peacetime.
To contextualise the discussion, the paper examines current developments and the application of AI and ML in humanitarian forensic action. It acknowledges the development of tools and software like Commingled Remains Analytics (CoRA), which the United States of America is currently using to identify the US service members who died in the Korean War; the use of forensic facial imaging software which applies to craniofacial identification processes like facial approximation and photographic superimposition in reconstructing faces of the deceased and Skeleton ID, a software that uses physical anthropological methods like craniofacial imposition, biological profiling, comparative radiography and facial comparison as means of identification. It also highlights the extensive use of AI and ML in geospatial intelligence in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War, particularly in sensitive geopolitical locations for analysing open-source data like social media photos and satellite imagery.
It proceeds to analyse the international humanitarian law obligations for humanitarian forensic action in both International Armed Conflicts and Non-International Armed Conflicts. This analysis is further complemented by identifying human rights, such as the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and the right to truth, among other rights pertinent to treating and managing the dead. It further outlines the opportunities for new technologies regarding speed, efficiency, and accuracy in human identification. Additionally, it acknowledges the inherent challenges of utilizing such technologies, such as the potential bias and discrimination, right to privacy, data vulnerability, dehumanization of humanitarian forensic action, and the asymmetry between parties to a conflict.
The paper proposes recommendations for the future use of AI and ML in humanitarian forensic action, including the adoption of a legally binding international instrument governing their use, the development of guidelines for their use, the creation of an International Humanitarian Forensic Action Taskforce, the training of forensic actors on IHL and human rights law and the use of new technologies in humanitarian action. It concludes by noting that the application of AI and ML in humanitarian forensic action has the potential to revolutionise and improve the identification of the deceased. This will consequently guarantee that the families know the fate of their loved ones and that the deceased are afforded dignified burials according to their religious and cultural rites.