The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has embarked on a project to migrate its video recordings to high-resolution digital video files for the purpose of ensuring the long-term preservation of these unique records. This new development aims at enabling the Tribunal to permanently preserve the recordings which are expected to be 30,000 hours long at the end of the ICTR’s mandate.

Recently, therefore, the Tribunal entered into a contract with the internationally renowned Front Porch Digital (FPD) to conduct the digitization of the video recordings. FPD is a global leader in the migration and preservation of video tape to digital files, and is dedicated to developing technical solutions for the preservation, access and management of digital content.

The Tribunal has since 1999 produced video recordings of its trial proceedings. However video tape is subject to deterioration over time thus the need to transfer the video recordings to a new medium.

The digitization of the video recordings of the ICTR is part of a larger project undertaken by the ICTR to ensure the long-term preservation and to enhance the accessibility of the audio-visual recordings of the trial proceedings. Also conducted within the framework of this project is the in-house digitization of master audio recordings of the trial proceedings.

The process will also enhance the accessibility of these video recordings to the users of the ICTR’s archives, while also ensuring their long-term viability.

All digital audio and video files created as a result of this project will be reviewed and edited by the Court Management Section’s Audio-Visual Redaction staff. As a result, redacted versions of all recordings of the trial proceedings will be generated, which can then be made available to researchers, legal professionals, broadcasters and news agencies, the people of Rwanda, and the international community at large.