Tools for Truth Telling
hello folks, this is from a report re: Science in the service of human rights which seems to connect in many ways with fD's work to
empower activism thru the arts / media.
Note : PLEASE let me know if i'm re-posting this-- i just ran a search of fD that turned-up no pings, though i can't recall how I'd found this story [or what website had led me to it] & thus I believe i might be re-iterating / re-posting {especially as I've been up all night & the caffeine & ginseng are clouding my grey matter at this point}.
The page / story can be viewed at the link (below) OR via AUDIO [ streaming & by free mp3 download @ that link ].
".. Schulz (a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress) was formerly the executive director of Amnesty International USA.
..during his tenure he witnessed rapid advances in communication tools that extended advocates’ capabilities through web technologies.
“We were seeing remarkable expansion of our ability to reach literally tens and hundreds of thousands of people very, very quickly with the truth, with the messages,
with the kind of activist inspiration that we wanted to provide,”
he says.
But he also saw that communications tools were just one technology that could support human rights work.
Geographers and geospatial researchers
can use commercial satellite imagery to document the destruction of villages in conflict zones, and
forensic scientists can exhume mass graves, identifying victims and preserving evidence for bringing war criminals to justice.
Schulz, joined by former CAP researcher Sarah Dreier, sat down for a conversation with Science Progress
to talk about science in the service of human rights,
the topic of the new report from the Center,
“New Tools for Old Traumas: Using 21st Century Technologies to Combat Human Rights Atrocities.”
www.scienceprogress.org/2009/10/tools-for-truth-telling/
empower activism thru the arts / media.
Note : PLEASE let me know if i'm re-posting this-- i just ran a search of fD that turned-up no pings, though i can't recall how I'd found this story [or what website had led me to it] & thus I believe i might be re-iterating / re-posting {especially as I've been up all night & the caffeine & ginseng are clouding my grey matter at this point}.
The page / story can be viewed at the link (below) OR via AUDIO [ streaming & by free mp3 download @ that link ].
".. Schulz (a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress) was formerly the executive director of Amnesty International USA.
..during his tenure he witnessed rapid advances in communication tools that extended advocates’ capabilities through web technologies.
“We were seeing remarkable expansion of our ability to reach literally tens and hundreds of thousands of people very, very quickly with the truth, with the messages,
with the kind of activist inspiration that we wanted to provide,”
he says.
But he also saw that communications tools were just one technology that could support human rights work.
Geographers and geospatial researchers
can use commercial satellite imagery to document the destruction of villages in conflict zones, and
forensic scientists can exhume mass graves, identifying victims and preserving evidence for bringing war criminals to justice.
Schulz, joined by former CAP researcher Sarah Dreier, sat down for a conversation with Science Progress
to talk about science in the service of human rights,
the topic of the new report from the Center,
“New Tools for Old Traumas: Using 21st Century Technologies to Combat Human Rights Atrocities.”
www.scienceprogress.org/2009/10/tools-for-truth-telling/
Tags: activism, empowerment, human, media, rights, science, technology, tools
Views: 5
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Robert Mykoff on
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.. SIMILAR use of media-tech from a related yet different angle:: CONGO's conflict minerals scenario..
"The idea of a mapping exercise to better monitor who controls key mines in eastern Congo is not new.
The U.N. Group of Experts, tasked with monitoring Congo's arms embargo,
included mapping of mines as a key recommendation in its 2008 report, which was then taken up by the
Belgian research group IPIS.
They published an ONLINE MAP
[ http://capweb.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1qVEebZ... ]
of militarized mining sites...
Because the context in eastern Congo remains so fluid, a map that shows which armed groups control which mines at a static point in time will only be so useful,
but increasing the transparency of the trade is a crucial precondition for excluding rights abusers from the supply chain.."
...{ from the great folks @ Enough Project ::
http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/mapping-congo%E2%80%99s-militari...
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Permalink Reply by Todd Lester on -
Hi Robert,
Thank you for posting this information. It is new to me ..
todd
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Permalink Reply by Karen Phillips on -
Great post--thank you (you didn't post twice as far as I can tell). This semester I'm in a class on transitional justice. While official truth commissions have an accepted place on the transitional justice menu, alternate or informal truth-telling, I'm finding, is barely talked about.
At the informal meeting of the Young Arab Theater Fund, I met a few art space administrators and artists who have used the arts and technology for truth telling in their spaces (though not so high tech as the Science Progress example):
The Go Down Arts Center in Nairobi dealing with post-election violence: http://www.thegodownartscentre.com/kenya-burning/index.html -- the director of Go Down Arts Center said they had not diffused on the web the images from the show as they were trying to protect them and the photographers who took them.
UMAM in Lebanon (actually a documentation and research center): http://www.umam-dr.org/
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thanx for those links, I checked them out.. these issues remind me a lot of the ideas /systems that
WITNESS.org is based-in, as well as the video & documentation scenarios that the Enough Project have
been getting more dedicated to.
There's a sense that we're getting closer to a time in which a majority of new tools are finally reaching
the grasp of activists & artists—
tools that were still only “great ideas” in the recent past. So I have a sense that
the user friendliness + availability of these things are getting “beyond beta” so to speak..
It has me thinking along the lines of the MaxGladwell list of growth in social media [ Ari Moore had posted
a link to that website/discussion that I recenlty checked out],
from the standpoint that
API's & other tools are closer to becoming part of the group of “available & affordable” tools that basic video & video editing
have become in recent times.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Phillips on
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One more *new* tool for tech and truth telling just launched from the International Center for Transitional Justice:
http://memoryandjustice.org/
It's a forum for discussing how to memorialize human rights abuses.
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That "memoryAndJustice.org" site looks like an excellent project. It brings to mind so many issues.. not just the primary justice-issue that speaks to those treated wrong, but also the touchy-issues re: reconciliation, since it seems to be so difficult to change a powerful regime if those in power become worried about retribution & punishment (even tho they might rightly deserve it).
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