ICT for Humanity
Information & Communication Technology for Human Rights, Humanitarian action, and social change
From mobile active’s Melissa Ulbricht:
“Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January, thousands of internally displaced persons are living in camps, where it is often not easy to report incidences of violence. An ongoing project from Survivors Connect uses mobile phones to support camp managers and community leaders to protect women and encourage people to report incidences. The project, called Ayiti SMS SOS — Ayiti comes from the Creole word for Haiti — allows individuals to submit reports via SMS.
Survivors Connect is an organization that works to enhance anti-trafficking movements around the world through the use of new media and connective technology. Survivors Connect partners with grassroots organizations to incorporate new technology to help improve on-the-ground efforts toward protection, prosecution, and prevention.”
http://mobileactive.org/case-studies/sms-sos-reporting-gender-based-violence
Fascinating conference put on by Oxfam Australia on integrated early warning systems and technologies to anticipate mass atrocities and human catastrophes. Lots of overlap here with, for example, the work InSTEDD is doing with early infectious disease detection.
I noticed two speakers, who will be familiar to those in the ICT for human rights & humanitarian action field: Patrick Meier, of Crisis Mappers and Ushahidi and Amb. Daniel Stauffacher of ICT4Peace Foundation.
I am attracted to conferences such as these with an action orientated agenda – Oxfam AUS’s 2009 conference on the subject produced this outcome document.
“The program brings together both technology and early-warning specialists, and members of the international development and humanitarian communities concerned with the protection of vulnerable populations and the prevention of mass atrocity crimes. These will include specialists from the UN and regional organisations, non-government organisations, scholars, government representatives and affected communities. Read more about our conference speakers. The conference falls within the context of the international community’s Responsibility to Protect, which is the new international norm developed to protect vulnerable populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.”
Crystal Ballroom, Phnom Penh Hotel, 53 Monivong Boulevard, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 3-4 November, 2010
http://www.oxfam.org.au/act/events/early-warning-for-protection/
