United Nations IIIM
The United Nations' International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) investigates and documents serious crimes committed in Syria, working with legal and investigative teams across multiple jurisdictions. The challenge was not to simplify the subject matter, but to communicate complex investigative methodologies, legal processes and institutional relationships with clarity and precision through reports, publications and information graphics
The Editorial Language
Reports as Systems
The reports became a framework through which investigative findings, statistical graphics and legal material could coexist within a consistent editorial system. Every element formed part of a consistent visual system that allowed readers to navigate highly technical material without losing sight of the broader narrative.
Mapping Relationships
Rather than illustrating isolated facts, many of the graphics revealed relationships between organisations, jurisdictions and investigative processes, allowing readers to understand systems rather than individual events. Rather than reducing complexity, the objective was to give structure to information that is inherently interconnected, allowing readers to understand systems rather than individual events.
Structural Investigation
A structural investigation looks beyond individual events to understand the wider systems in which they occur. It maps relationships between institutions, actors and patterns of behaviour, placing individual crimes within their broader political, legal and social context. The diagram below translates this investigative methodology into a visual framework, allowing complex relationships to be understood as part of a larger whole.
Editorial Context
Mapping Judicial Outcomes
This visualisation compares convictions and sentencing outcomes across multiple jurisdictions, allowing legal decisions to be understood as part of a broader international landscape rather than as isolated cases.
