Our world's history has been rife with war and unrest. I just Googled the question "What is the number of years without war in documented history?" The answer: less than 5%. We aren't strangers to hearing news of warring nations, political unrest, or aggressive moves made in self-defense. Just look at the last decade.
But when news starts to surface about entire people groups being targeted -- men, women, and children killed solely because of their culture -- I feel disbelief. How is this possible? Why doesn't anyone step in? Is it really possible for millions of people to die without anyone realizing what's happening? The Holocaust. Rwandan Genocide. It has happened. It could happen again.
In a little more than a week, January 9, Sudanese people are going to vote whether South Sudan can have independence from the rest of Sudan. Many fear that this will dissolve a peace treaty signed 6 years ago, and send the country back into civil war. Where is the good news?
We feel a bit helpless in averting war and genocide from our little niche in the world. I don't personally have much clout or know-how with people in Sudan, nor would my plea for peace really get to the root of their conflict. But there are people with clout, celebrity even, who can access large quantities of money, pull together organizations, and who may be able to minimize, or perhaps even avert, war crimes and atrocities.
"A new human rights project -- initiated by Not On Our Watch board member George Clooney -- will combine satellite imagery analysis and field reports with Google's Map Maker technology to deter the resumption of war between North and South Sudan.
Launched today, the Satellite Sentinel Project will use satellite imagery analysis and crowd-sourced mapping to monitor the tense border between North and South Sudan.
Oil-rich southern Sudan will vote next month in a referendum on independence from the rest of Sudan. Analysts say that this could plunge the country back into civil war and may spark the world’s next genocide.
The unprecedented collaboration between Not On Our Watch, the human rights organization co-founded by actor and Sudan advocate George Clooney; the Enough Project, an anti-genocide group; UNOSAT (the United Nations UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme); the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Google; and Internet strategy and development firm Trellon, LLC, will provide an early warning system to focus world attention and generate rapid responses on human rights and human security concerns.
“We want to let potential perpetrators of genocide and other war crimes know that we’re watching, the world is watching,” Clooney said. “War criminals thrive in the dark. It’s a lot harder to commit mass atrocities in the glare of the media spotlight.”
The project works like this: Commercial satellites passing over the border of northern and southern Sudan are able to capture possible threats to civilians, observe the movement of displaced people, detect bombed and razed villages, or note other evidence of pending mass violence. UNOSAT leads the collection and analysis of the images and collaborates with Google and Trellon to design the web platform for the public to easily access the images and reports. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative provides system-wide research and leads the collection, human rights analysis, and corroboration of on-the-ground reports that contextualizes the satellite imagery. The Enough Project contributes field reports, provides policy analysis, and, together with Not On Our Watch, puts pressure on policymakers by urging the public to act. Not On Our Watch has funded a six-month start-up phase.
The Satellite Sentinel Project marks the first sustained, public effort to systematically monitor and report on potential hotspots and threats to security along a border, in near real-time (within 24-36 hours), with the aim of heading off humanitarian disaster and human rights crimes before they occur.
"Deterrence is our objective," says Enough Project Co-founder John Prendergast. "We want to contribute to the prevention of war between North and South Sudan. If war does ignite, we want to hold accountable those responsible, and hopefully deter human rights crimes that would be committed in the context of war."
