Landsats Aff

Genocide – Solvency – Prevention

Satellite imaging allows rapid response and prevention of genocides as well as forcing the accountability of actors through the ICC
Bachelet 11 (Michelle, Former president of Chile, globalsolutions.org/files/public/documentes/Minerva38.pdf, April, DA 7/4/11, OST)

The usefulness of satellite images to corroborate information obtained by other methods is increasingly recognized. The RFE/RL account cites as examples: Amnesty International, “at the forefront of using satellites images in its monitoring activities”, being able to confirm reports from the ground of shelling of civilian homes in South Ossetia during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war; and satellite images giving a better sense of the geographical scope of violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2010, identifying ethnic populations at risk beyond specific neighborhoods where reporters were located. This can help reduce the “insufficient verification excuse” for stalling reaction and sometimes prevention. Says Patrick Meier: “I think the idea here is to look at [each situation] as an ecosystem and the Sentinel Project, for example, as one node in this ecosystem, complementing other efforts to try to hold actors accountable.” He reportedly hopes that the next step will be using satellite imagery as evidence in proceedings at the International Criminal Court — “an idea still in its infancy”.

Satellite data raises public awareness of humanitarian abuses and drives action
Blout 8 (P. J., Prof law @ U of Mississippi, rescommunis.wordpress.com/2008/01/page/3/, 1/18, DA 7/4/11, OST)

After a short break, Michelle Aten presented “Geospatial Imagery Search Engines: What People are Seeing and Why They Are Talking About What They are Seeing.” Ms. Aten is the Assistant Director of the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Ms. Aten’s started with a discussion about Google Earth. She asserted that Google Earth has raised awareness of Geospatial Data and its uses within the general public. She illustrated this point with a project that uses Google Earth to help prevent genocide by displaying remotely sensed images from the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. She discussed how organizations are using geospatial data through Google Earth to reach audiences with their messages. Next, Ms. Aten showed how satellite imagery found on Google Earth can influence public opinion. This point was illustrated with an image of a building that appears as a swastika from above and the controversy that has surrounded the building after its image was found on Google Earth. This point was also bolstered with a discussion of imagery activism in which people find images and use them to support causes. Ms. Aten also demonstrated how this technology is used in search and rescue operations. In the case of Steve Fosset’s disappearance, using GeoEye Imagery distributed by Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in order to allow the general public participate in the search and rescue operations.

Satellite imaging key to prevent genocides
Van Wyk 8 (Jo-Ansi, lecturer in International Politics, 74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:JkD1EUCtBqUJ:scholar.google.com/+remote+sensing+prevent+genocide&hl=en&as_sdt=0,48&as_vis=1, DA 7/4/11, OST)

Since the publication of the first issue of Conflict Trends in 1998, several African governments − most notably Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Egypt and Kenya − have increasingly applied space science and technology (S&T) to improve human development in their countries. This was confirmed by, inter alia, the Second African Space Leadership Conference hosted by the South African Department of Science and Technology in Pretoria in 2007. Space S&T is no longer the domain of a small clique of so-called space-faring nations such as the United States (US), France, India and Brazil. Increasingly, commercial actors are operating in the space industry, which makes satellite images, for example, available to its clients. Google Earth1, is also freely available, but it is predominantly a US-driven system, and is sometimes barred in countries with poor human rights records. Whereas satellite imagery has traditionally been applied by states for military and strategic purposes (not discussed here), it is increasingly being used by the United Nations (UN) and international humanitarian groups such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) to track human security in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The notion that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is particularly significant in cases where governments have either denied human rights abuses, or denied access to international humanitarian groups.

Genocide – Solvency – Prevention

Land Sats can prevent genocide
Toney et al 10 (Jeffrey H. Toney Dean of Natural Applied & Health Sciences Kean, Hank Kaplowitz Prof. Psych, Rongsun Pu Ph.D Biology, Feng Qi M.S. in GIS, George Chang Prof Computer Science, November, DA 7/4/11, OST muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/v032/32.4.toney)

Lars Bromley, a geoinformation specialist and Project Director of the Science and Human Rights Program at the AAAS, has been using high-resolution digital imagery obtained from satellites to help document large-scale crisis zones in Darfur, Burma, Ethiopia, and other regions.32 In partnership with human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, AAAS obtains images from commercial satellites based on the spatial coordinates of the regions in crisis and analyzes them for evidence of refugee camps, burned villages, leveled fields, and mass graves.33 In a series of historical satellite images compiled in 2007, using coordinates provided by Physicians for Human Rights (36.65° latitude, 65.70° longitude), Bromley located and analyzed the suspected site of a mass grave in northern Afghanistan (see Figure 1). The images were acquired by QuickBird, Ikonos, TopSat, and SPOT-5 satellites, operated by a combination of US, British, and French companies.34 The satellite images from 2004 indicated the absence of pits at 36.65° latitude, 65.70° longitude, while an image from August 2006 indicated the presence of one pit, as well as two vehicles with dimensions and appearance consistent with those of a dump truck and a hydraulic excavator on top of what later developed into a second pit.35 Images from January and October 2007 indicated the presence of both pits. The timeline of the appearance of the pits and soil disturbance in the alleged site supported allegations of the existence of a mass grave.36 As web-based virtual globes are making the once limited-access imageries available to the general public, large-scale human rights violations all around the world can be witnessed, and such information can be distributed broadly and instantly.37 The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Earth have collaborated to post enormous amounts of evidence of the human rights crisis in Darfur, Sudan.38 Together with the recently available historical [End Page 1016] image viewing function provided by Google Earth, the archived imageries and documents make visible the destructions of over three thousand villages in the region.39 Geospatial tools such as remote sensing and GIS offer a transparent recording of the earth's surface unlike anything available before. Would awareness of an "Eye in the Sky" give a dictator pause, or prevent altogether, an atrocity such as genocide?

Satellite imaging helps to prevent killings and brings attention to the oppressed
Hargreaves & Hattotuwa 10 (Caroline & Sanjana, ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ICTs-for-the-Prevention-of-Mass-Atrocity-Crimes1.pdf, DA 7/4/11, OST)

It is important to note that in addition to preventing mass atrocity crimes, efforts must be made to ensure that if it tragically does occur, it must never occur again – and those responsible for it held accountable for their actions. Embedding ICTs in reconciliation, transitional justice initiatives, truth seeking and accountability mechanisms as well as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms post war / post genocide can strengthen these often fragile initiatives, encourage greater civil society participation and importantly strengthen community level resilience and healing. An good example is the Soweto ’76 archives in South Africa, which is currently building a community based, multi media digital archive for addressing gender roles in the struggle against apartheid, as an effort to document and preserve long silenced voices as well as strengthen social justice in marginalized communities.8 This initiative is suggestive of the emancipatory potential of ICTs. Furthermore, it is pivotal to recognise that even though genocide cannot be easily proved under international law, the perception amongst peoples (especially those at risk or survivors of sustained attacks) that genocidal violence has taken place must be taken into consideration in policies and practices dealing with regimes and States with poor democratic credentials, human rights abuse and a known record of systemic communal oppression. Increasingly, the legal requirement for evidence based investigations of genocide – which takes time, often years and even decades – is being contested by victim narratives and eyewitness accounts made possible by the proliferation and use of ICTs