Name: Alexa Koenig

Based in: Berkeley, CA

Current Occupation: Executive Director and Lecturer, Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law

Speaks: English

Website/Blog URL: https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/

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Biography

Alexa Koenig, PhD, JD, is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center (winner of the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions) and a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she teaches classes on human rights and international criminal law with a particular focus on the impact of emerging technologies on human rights practice. She co-founded the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab(link is external), which trains students and professionals to use social media and other digital content to strengthen human rights advocacy and accountability. Alexa is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, co-chair of the Technology Advisory Board of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, co-chair of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Law Committee's Technology and Human Rights working group, a member of the University of California’s Presidential Working Group on Artificial Intelligence (for which she is also co-chair of the human resources subcommittee), an inaugural member of the Technology Advisory Board for the Innovation Lab at Human Rights First, and a member of the board of advisors for Mnemonic/the Syrian Archive. Alexa has been honored with several awards for her work, including the United Nations Association-SF’s Global Human Rights Award, the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence, the Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Teaching Excellence Award, and as a 2020 Woman Inspiring Change by Harvard Law School. She directed the development and was a member of the Coordinating Committee for the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations, and has conducted trainings on online open source investigations for the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, UC Berkeley's Advanced Media Institute, attorneys for the International Criminal Court, and others. Her research and commentary have appeared in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, US News and World Report, and elsewhere. Recent books include Digital Witness: Using Open Source Methods for Human Rights Investigations, Advocacy and Accountability(link is external), with Sam Dubberley and Daragh Murray (Oxford University Press, 2019, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror(link is external), with Eric Stover and Victor Peskin (UC Press, 2016), Extreme Punishment: Comparative Studies in Detention, Incarceration and Solitary Confinement(link is external), editor with Keramet Reiter (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), and The Guantánamo Effect: Exposing the Consequences of U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices, contributor with Eric Stover, Laurel Fletcher, and Stephen Smith Cody(link is external) (UC Press, 2009). Additional research and commentary have appeared in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, US News and World Reports, and elsewhere.

Area(s) of Expertise

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, International Justice, Sexual Violence, War Crimes

Region of Expertise

Global

Country of Focus

United states

Myanmar

Netherlands

Media Experience

PBS Newshour "Myanmar Military Killing Protestors": https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/myanmar-military-killing-protestors-civilians-as-psychological-warfare-after-coup
PBS Newshour "A New Generation of Human Rights Investigators": https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-generation-human-rights-investigators-turns-hi-tech-methods
Activism 2.0: Can Social Media be Used to Solve War Crimes?": https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/11/05/activism-2-0-war-crimes/
“Big Tech Can Help Bring War Criminals to Justice: Social Media Companies Need to Preserve
Evidence of Abuse,” Foreign Affairs, 11 November 2020: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-11-11/big-tech-can-help-bring-war-criminals-justice
“Whose Stories Get Told, and By Whom? Representativeness in Open Source Human Rights
Investigations,” OpinioJuris, 19 Dec. 2019 (with Yvonne McDermott and Daragh Murray): http://opiniojuris.org/2019/12/19/digital-accountability-symposium-whose-stories-get-told-and-by-whom-representativeness-in-open-source-human-rights-investigations/
“Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World”: https://www.bellingcatfilm.com/ (featured expert in documentary film on digital open source
investigations)
“Fake News v. Fact: The Battle for Truth,” The Economist, 21 Feb. 2019 (featured expert on digital
open source investigations): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM1ZAFcu1Vc
“Great Escapes,” History Channel interview for new television series, taped May 27, 2016 (featured
expert on international criminal law).
“Arrest Bashir: How the Sudanese Leader is Getting Away with Murder,” Foreign Affairs, July 13,
2016 (with Eric Stover and Victor Peskin): https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/publications/arrest-bashir-how-sudanese-leader-getting-away-murder
“Genocide with Impunity,” The Open Mind, PBS, July 2, 2016 (half-hour televised interview): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuyuAyUNMN0
“Capturing Karadzic: How the Butcher of Bosnia and his First-in-Command Escaped Justice—and
Finally Got Caught,” Medium, March 24, 2016 (with Victor Peskin and Eric Stover): https://medium.com/humanrightscenter/capturing-karadzic-1cd62afec0d
“Radovan Karadzic and the (Very) Long Arc of Justice,” Foreign Policy, March 24, 2016 (with Eric
Stover and Victor Peskin): https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/24/radovan-karadzic-and-the-very-long-arc-of-justice-serbia-bosnia-the-hague/
“‘When I returned home, it was another hell’: Now’s the time to talk about what we do after
Guantanamo,” Salon, Feb. 25, 2016 (with Eric Stover): https://www.salon.com/2016/02/25/when_i_returned_home_it_was_another_hell_nows_the_time_to_talk_about_what_we_do_after_guantanamo/
“The International Criminal Court at RightsCon: Upping its Cyber Game,” Huffington Post, March 11,
2014: https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/publications/international-criminal-court-rightscon-upping-its-cyber-game
“Department of Justice ‘White Paper’ Full of Contradictions,” U.S. News and World Report, Feb. 6,
2013: https://www.usnews.com/debate-club/has-obama-gone-too-far-with-his-drone-policies/department-of-justice-white-paper-full-of-contradictions
Media Profiles
Boikanyo Tefu, “The Gap Between the Promise and the Practice of the United States,” Medium, 4 July
2020: https://medium.com/humanrightscenter/the-gap-between-the-promise-and-the-practice-of-the-united-states-8f0316d8f160
Lindsay Freeman, “Alexa Koenig,” Atlas, 14 April 2020: https://www.atlaswomen.org/profiles/2020/4/4/alexa-koenig
Roya Pakzad, “Human Rights Advocacy in the Dawning Age of AI: Interview with Dr. Alexa Koenig,
Executive Director, UC Berkeley Human Rights Center,” Medium, 15 February 2018: https://www.royapakzad.co/human-rights-advocacy-in-the-dawning-age-of-ai-interview-with-dr-alexa-koenig-executive-director-uc-berkeley-human-rights-center/
“The Resistance,” San Francisco Magazine, February 2017: https://medium.com/@sanfranmag/the-resistance-2716cbd2fa24
“Alexa Koenig: Human Rights Today,” The Exchange, April 27, 2015: http://theexchangeshow.com/podcast/alexa-koenig-human-rights-today/
Barry Bergman, “From Marin to the Hague, Working for Justice,” NewsCenter, April 30, 2013.
Jason Walsh, “The girl who kicks the hornets’ nests,” Pacific Sun, Feb. 26, 2013.
Richard Halstead, “Koenig applies legal expertise to safeguarding human rights,” Marin Independent
Journal, Feb. 3, 2013

Contact Alexa Koenig