17
overnight... I fi rmly believe that we
will be able to change the way inter-
national justice is being administered
as well in the aftermath of this war.”
Fedorov’s ministry quickly real-
ized that their prewar project to dig-
itize the country’s government ser-
vices had now become an invaluable
tool for documenting war crimes.
In order to make a report through
the e-Enemy chatbot, users have to
log in through a portal launched in
2020 that lets Ukrainians share digi-
tal identifying documents on their
smartphones for more than 50 gov-
ernment services. Roughly 40% of
Ukrainian citizens use the app, ac-
cording to Fedorov. “We use rigor-
ous authentication in order to weed
out fake content,” Fedorov says. “As
a result, about 80% to 90% of the
user-submitted content is usable.”
More than 253,000 people have
sent reports and footage of Rus-
sian forces’ movements and actions
through the chatbot. More than
66,000 have submitted evidence of
damage to their homes and cities.
The dashboard on the government’s
war-crimes portal lists almost 6,
submissions of photos, videos, and
other documentation. One graphic,
cataloging “crimes against children,”
counts at least 191 killed and another
349 wounded.
Another section is labeled “En-
emy’s personal data,” allowing the
user to provide any identifying in-
formation about Russian troops.
As of April 14, the offi ce said it has
identifi ed 570 “suspects,” includ-
ing Russian military and political
offi cials, ministers, and heads of
law enforcement.
Holding them accountable will be
a complicated process. “Trying war
criminals is incredibly diffi cult be-
cause the burden of proof is so high,”
says Flynn Coleman, an international
human-rights lawyer. Still, the value
of Ukraine’s crowdsourced evidence
goes beyond what can be proven in
international court. “It’s a basic right
for all the survivors and families,”
Coleman says. “We need a record for
humanity of what happened here:
not just justice, but a record, because
memories fade.” □
IN 2014, NADIA MURAD’S HOME-
town of Kocho, Iraq, was cap-
tured by the Islamic State. Sev-
eral members of her family were
killed, and she, along with other
women and girls from the town,
were abducted and held as sex
slaves. After months in captivity,
Murad escaped and found refuge
in Germany. She has since dedi-
cated herself to raising aware-
ness about the use of rape and
sexual violence against women
and children as a weapon of war,
and was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize for her eff orts. She recently
launched the Murad Code, which
off ers guidelines on how to sensi-
tively collect evidence from sur-
vivors and witnesses during war-
time. I spoke to her about recent
reports of sexual violence being
used against women and chil-
dren during the Russian invasion
of Ukraine.A.J.: There is evidence that this
violence is done to intention-
ally destroy the human being,
the family, the community.
Could you help those who don’t
under stand why it is a weapon?
N.M.: Terrorist groups use rape
as a way to destroy women be-
cause they know that this can
stay with women. They know
that the stigma and the shame
in many communities follow a
woman after sexual slavery and
rape. For my family these days,
whenIseemysisters-in-law
afterwhattheyhaveb
through,nothingisth
sameforus.Whenwe
talk,thereisnothingf
ustotalkaboutasan
mal family anymore.With Ukraine,
what do you hope
governments are
doing at this timethat might help with account-
ability? When the international
coalition was formed to defeat
ISIS, they made the mistake of
not considering specifi cally that
violence against women was a
main element of this war. Vio-
lence against women and sexual
violence in particular in confl ict
zones is considered a side eff ect.
World leaders need to under-
stand that whether it’s in Yemen
or Ukraine or any other place,
violence against women will
occur, and we should make sure
that we have that in mind when
planning to deal with these
confl icts.There has been a lack of
accountability for these crimes
that has really emboldened
people to behave this way, and
not consider it a crime of war.
It is my belief as a survivor that
we cannot separate account-
ability from prevention. If we do
not hold those who have commit-
ted these crimes accountable, it
will not prevent this from hap-
pening to other women.I have so much admiration
for women like you who have
held together and continued
to do this work in the absence
of justice. Someone has to say
what happened to us. I know it’s
the right thing to do because I
know I will not be the last one to
facethistypeofviolence.
i t ’sgoingto
longtime,but
wi t ’stheright
gtodo.isaTIMEcon-
utingeditor
specialenvoy
ftheU. N.High
Commissioner
for RefugeesQ&A
Activist Nadia Murad on sexualviolence as a weapon of war
BY ANGELINA JOLIE