Social media and digital technologies are increasingly changing the way we document and report on human rights abuses (Photo Credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/GettyImages).

I have previously discussed the many opportunities and pitfalls of social media for human rights research and advocacy, or if social media content could potentially document war crimes in Syria. This week I was invited to participate in a fascinating online discussion on how to incorporate social media into human rights campaigning. The conversation is organized by New Tactics for Human Rights and The Engine Room and is still open until the end of the week. We are off to a great start with around 35 comments, and visitors to the website this week came from more than 100 countries! If you are interested in this topic, I encourage you to share your experience and thoughts.

The conversation provides several examples of how social media has been used as a tactic by various human rights organizations and other NGOs. Examples from Amnesty International include our Bahrain Twitter action or Eyes on Syria campaign and use of a YouTube playlist in our campaign to establish a Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in North Korea. Other case studies come from Greenpeace and El Salvador, among others. A current case study – which is still unfolding – is the #SaveBeatriz campaign.

No Silver Bullet
However, this conversation does of course not just list examples. It is a critical reflection on the factors that determine successes and failures of social media campaigns. Importantly, the discussion also focuses on the risks associated with social media, and the many reasons social media is no silver bullet, but an enabling tactic to complement traditional advocacy and activism.

Other topics that are close to my heart are the potential use of social media content as evidence, and the responsibilities of traditional protection actors using of this content – a very timely topic considering the recent release of the updated Professional Standards for Protection Work, which includes new technologies and social media.

Please consider this blog post as a teaser only – I hope your interest is piqued and you will join the conversation.

Satellite image of likely LRA camp in Kafia Kingi. Click to see full image . (Photo Credit: Digitial Globe 2013).

Now where will the US go on the ICC?
While international justice has seen many milestones over the last months, including the surrender of “The Terminator” Bosco Ntaganda, one of the most well known fugitives from the International Criminal Court (ICC) remains on the loose. Joseph Kony, the Lord Resistance Army’s (LRA) notorious leader, has so far evaded arrest. However, as of today, attempts to locate his whereabouts have gotten a considerable boost. In fact, thanks to satellite imagery, we might know the exact coordinates of his recent location.

We recently provided some support to our colleagues from The Resolve, who today published the most authoritative account to date of the LRA leadership’s movements over the last three years, concluding that the LRA set up an encampment in the Sudanese controlled Kafia Kingi enclave. The report Hidden in Plain Sight: Sudan’s Harboring of the LRA in the Kafia Kingi Enclave, 2009 – 2013, draws on extensive field research, including testimonies from several LRA defectors. Their findings are corroborated by satellite image analysis that tracks in detail the establishment and development of the suspected camp since late 2011. It was abandoned sometime between mid-February and mid-March of this year, likely following an unrelated encounter with a group of LRA fighters that might have revealed the secret LRA location in Kafia Kingi.

Crisis mapping and the LRA
Crisis mapping tools have been used extensively in the context of this conflict, both to track activities of the scattered LRA groups, as well as for geospatial predictive analytics. However, it is the first time we are aware of that commercially available satellite imagery was used to track a suspected war criminal, adding to the growing list of applications of remote sensing for human rights purposes. The analysis was commissioned by our very own Science for Human Rights Program, and conducted by the DigitalGlobe Analytics Center. While this was an exciting proof of concept for someone like me who specializes in utilizing remote sensing for human rights monitoring, there are some important lessons to be drawn.

First, the identification of the likely camp in satellite images was only possible due to the detailed, traditional research conducted by Resolve investigators. As my colleague Michael Poffenberger from The Resolve put it: “To be credible, satellite imagery analysis usually needs to be paired with other sources of information.” I couldn’t agree more.

Second, and most importantly, despite all technological progress, satellite images of the likely location of an ICC fugitive do not yield accountability. I am hoping that Joseph Kony and other ICC inductees from the LRA will soon be arrested in accordance with international law and face a fair trial in The Hague. However, eradicating the root causes that led to the emergence and “survival” of the LRA will take a long time. Only strengthening the rule of law and ending impunity for grave human rights abuses, no matter if committed by armed groups or security forces, will lead to much needed structural changes. This argument increases in urgency as the Central African Republic (CAR) continues to descend into lawlessness and insecurity, providing a potential new safe haven for the LRA.

Will Obama amp up his leadership on international justice?
With likely protracted turmoil in CAR and at a time when countries such as Chad are abrogating their obligations to arrest ICC fugitives, it is crucial that the US reaffirms its commitment to the rule of law and a strong global system for accountability – international justice for the worst crimes under international law goes far beyond Joseph Kony.

International justice mechanisms such as the ICC kick in when domestic mechanisms are not able or willing to hold perpetrators accountability. More than 120 countries have joined the ICC to date. Countries such as the United States, however, who repeatedly claim their support for bringing Kony and other perpetrators of atrocities to justice, have not. And while I applaud the US government’s recent expansion of their War Crimes Rewards Program to include Kony and others, the ultimate signal of leadership on accountability – the reaffirmation of the US signature to the Rome Statute of the ICC – remained until now as elusive as Kony himself.

However, as my colleague Scott Edwards eloquently pointed out recently, “All Roads Lead to Rome” for the Obama Administration. We believe that President Obama has a historic opportunity in his second term to cement the United States’ commitment to international justice by reaffirming its signature to the treaty that established the ICC. With the renewed attention on Joseph Kony and the LRA, we hope you’ll join our campaign calling on President Obama to write just one letter for a letter, and signal your support for leadership in bringing fugitives from the ICC to justice.

This post is also available in Spanish.

With overwhelming support from member states, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the deplorable human rights conditions in North Korea. Today’s development should be considered a milestone for international justice. While an independent investigation will not yield the ultimate impact we want—the much-needed closure of the political prison camps—it represents a crucial first step in uncovering the widespread and systematic nature of the crimes, and could ultimately lead to holding the perpetrators accountable. As an immediate impact, the commission has the potential to pressure North Korean officials to end their outright denial of the existence of the camps. We heavily campaigned for this outcome over the last few months – by putting the vast network of political prison camps on the map, uncovering a new security zone next to the infamous Camp 14, and most importantly, by sharing the powerful stories of survivors of the forgotten prisons, with the world.

The human rights situation in the isolated nation has long been reported on by survivors and defectors, and long-suspected by human rights groups whose access to the country has been limited to none. The Commission will put a much needed spotlight on the country’s abysmal human rights conditions—such as forced hard labor, denying food as punishment and torture—that may amount to crimes against humanity. While a commission is unlikely to get immediate access to the country or the prison camps, numerous sources of evidence are available, including testimony from survivors who escaped, and an increasing amount of satellite imagery.

But to be clear: We should not need to rely on satellites to track developments around the country’s infamous prison camps; that the world is largely dependent on these eyes-in-the-sky to access North Korea and those who languish there only reinforces the urgent need for unfettered access for independent human rights observers, including the newly appointed members of the Commission of Inquiry. Any potential visit by the Commission should include a thorough investigation of the Ch’oma-bong area, where we recently revealed the encirclement of an entire valley and its inhabitants with a new security perimeter and guard towers.

Voices from North Korea rally the global conscience

“…the UN can establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the political prison camps to pressure the North”—Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known North Korean born in a political prison camp to have escaped.

There is another reason why today matters. By establishing the Commission of Inquiry, the 47-member UN Human Rights Council heeded the call from survivors of the political prison camps to scrutinize North Korea’s human rights record. It is their shocking stories—not satellite images or statistics—that rallied the global conscience to take action. As there is no one else to better speak about these human rights conditions than the people who were directly impacted, let me again share our Stories from North Korea’s Prison Camps playlist (put together in cooperation with WITNESS).

International Justice on the fast track
It was a good week for justice and accountability for the worst crimes under international law. Today’s news on North Korea follows the surrender on Monday of Congolese war lord and ICC fugitive Bosco Ntaganda a.k.a. “The Terminator”. However, much remains to be done. Our ultimate goal must be to set up a strong, universal system of international justice that leaves no space for impunity for perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. As we embark on our new campaign to urge U.S. President Barack Obama to reaffirm the United States Signature to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, let’s hope we can report back soon with another international justice success story.

Citizen video coming out of Syria continues to uncover abuses that would otherwise go unnoticed (Photo Credit: ZAC BAILLIE/AFP/Getty Images)

As the Syrian crisis hits its two-year mark, the toll on civilians continues to grow exponentially. Peaceful protests that started in March 2011 were quickly met by government authorities responding with deadly force, leading to systematic and widespread human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity. Followed by the escalation into a full-fledged armed conflict by mid-2012, today, both government and armed opposition forces continue pursuing a military solution to the conflict. Caught in the middle are civilians, paying a horrendous price for this deadly stalemate.

Based on field research conducted over the last weeks, an Amnesty researcher inside Syria uncovered new evidence of the government’s assault on civilians, and its outright disregard for the laws of war. This is most dramatically symbolized by the government’s recent ballistic missile strikes against eastern Aleppo, flattening entire blocks and killing 160 residents; or by the increased use of internationally banned cluster bombs.

In a separate briefing, Amnesty documents the mounting number of war crimes committed by armed opposition groups in Syria. This is most evident in the scores of summary killings of captured members of government and security forces, pro-government shabiha militias and suspected informers or collaborators. Many of those killed by the armed opposition groups were civilians, including journalists working for pro-government media and members of minority communities perceived as loyal to President al-Assad. Other war crimes and serious human rights abuses committed by armed opposition groups include indiscriminate attacks, the use of children in a military capacity, torture, abductions and the holding of hostages.

Similar to the findings by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Amnesty’s findings indicate that the vast majority of war crimes and other gross violations continue to be committed by government forces. However, the mounting evidence of war crimes on the side of the armed opposition is of grave concern, especially as France and Great Britain are pushing for supplying arms to the opposition. Any state considering supplying arms to armed opposition groups in Syria should first carry out a rigorous human rights risk assessment and establish a robust monitoring process, which would enable all arms transfer proposals to be carefully considered before any approval is granted.

Turning Citizen Video Into Evidence
A couple of month ago, I discussed the question if video could be used as evidence to document possible war crimes in Syria. My answer was a qualified yes – if “embedded in thorough research”. Our new briefings are a good case study for this argument. Citizen video coming out of Syria continues to uncover abuses that would otherwise go unnoticed. A thorough, traditional investigation—including direct access to witnesses or other relevant persons through field research and  phone interviews—can turn these videos into strong evidence, which I hope, someday will be used to hold the perpetrators accountable and to provide justice to survivors.

What follows are excerpts of the excellent research done by one of my colleagues, dissecting the circumstances of the infamous video [extremely graphic] showing a kid beheading a captive, which emerged in late November and early December 2012 (full briefing):

Colonel Fou’ad Abd al-Rahmanand Colonel Izz al-Din Badr, for example, were abducted by an armed opposition group on 16 August 2012 in Deir al-Zour where they were involved in a military course required for students at al-Furat University. Both families interviewed by Amnesty International separately said that the abductors introduced themselves as members of an armed opposition group called the ‘Osoud al-Tawhid Battalion’. They called both families between one to three days after the abduction and asked for a ransom. (…)

The negotiations continued sporadically with both families. Then one of the abductors told Colonel Badr’s wife that she should not keep working on her husband’s case because he and Colonel Abd al Rahman had been killed and buried in al-Hamidiyeh Garden in Deir al-Zour. A few days later, video footage of the killing of both captive officers emerged. (…)

Colonel Fou’ad Abd al-Rahman’s widow described that terrible moment [Phone interview conducted by Amnesty International on March 1, 2013]:

 It was around 11am. My daughter [aged 21] shouted to me, ‘mum, come and see dad… quick.’ He was on TV… as he was shown being killed, I pushed my daughter away to block her from viewing the scene… but she did see. She had a nervous breakdown… she’s become so volatile, she’s traumatized… it’s not easy to see her father in that way… We now want his body back, and we want those who did this to be held accountable.

(…) Amnesty International asked four Syrian nationals separately to check the dialect of the men heard speaking on the video. All four said the dialect sounded like that spoken in Deir al-Zour or other areas in eastern Syria. A Europe-based human rights organization specializing in Syria told Amnesty International that its source in Deir al-Zour reported that the killings had taken place in al-‘Ommal neighbourhood in Deir al-Zour. Such information is consistent with both families’ claim that the two men were being held in Deir al-Zour.

Colonel Fou’ad Abd al-Rahman, from the village of Qarfess near the city of Jablehin the governorate of Latakia, was the father of two sons and three daughters aged between 13 and 23. Colonel Izz al-Din Badr from the village of Dahr Barakat near Jablehhas three children aged between 10 and 15.

PS: To learn more about the topic of video as evidence, join our panel International Justice and Activism in the Handheld Age, with presenters from Amnesty, Resolve and Witness.

(c) DigitalGlobe 2013. Panchromatic Imagery, February 7, 2013. 39 38 02 N, 125 59 52 E

This posting is part of the North Korea Revealed blogging series, published in the context of efforts to establish a Commission of Inquiry at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council (February 25 – March 22). Join the conversation through #NKRevealed.

Amnesty International is releasing new satellite images today that raise fears that the North Korean government is starting to blur the line between the country’s horrendous political prison camps and regular villages. This disturbing new development gives further fuel to a previous warning by a UN expert that authorities are turning the country into “one big prison,” and stress the urgent need for the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent Commission of Inquiry.

We commissioned satellite imagery analysis from DigitalGlobe after reading reports about a potential new political prison camp. The original speculations were based on Google Earth satellite imagery from the fall of 2011. We were able to secure imagery from February 2013, allowing us to provide the most up-to-date snapshot possible of worrisome developments in a valley adjacent to prison camp 14.

Images reveal increase of control and security
The analysis of the Ch’oma-Bong valley, 70km north-northeast of Pyongyang, demonstrates that a 20 km perimeter had been established around the valley and its inhabitants, in addition to controlled access points, and a number of probable guard towers.

The analysis based on imagery from 2006 to 2013 tracks the establishment of the 20 km long perimeter, which has been fully established by 2010 and which borders on the Kaechun prison camp (Camp 14). In 2008, the first entrance to the valley with a checkpoint was observed, with expansion of the entrance in 2010, 2011, and in 2013 to include a guard station, new buildings, and an entrance arch. Analysts also found the construction of new buildings, which appear to house workers, likely associated with increased mining activity in the region.

The activity points to a tightening in the control of movement of the local population adjacent to Camp No. 14, thus muddying the line between those detained in the political prison camp and the valley’s inhabitants. This raises concern for the current conditions facing the population within the perimeter and the North Korean government’s future intentions with regard to them.

Will the Human Rights Council act?
In the context of North Korea, these developments are extremely worrisome. As described in my previous blog post, the government runs an expansive system of prison camps, in which tens of thousands of North Koreans suffer horrific abuses. As satellite image analyses commissioned by Amnesty International and others have previously documented, the prison camps are actually expanding. Just last week, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea released a new analysis showing Camp 25 had recently expanded by 72 percent.

Our concerns are exacerbated by the complete lack of access for independent observers, making it impossible to further investigate the mystery of the Ch’oma-Bong valley. While a government representative recently claimed that observers such as Amnesty International and others have had access over the last 10 years, the North Korean government has in fact repeatedly denied entry to independent observers. (Amnesty International delegates last visited the country in the early 1990s).

These facts underscore the urgent need for the establishment of an independent Commission of Inquiry to comprehensively document the North Korean human rights crisis. Such a commission would establish an invaluable record of the abuses and put the authorities in a much-needed spotlight. Despite the difficulty of gaining access, the commission could rely on escapees and defectors, as well as novel tools human rights watchdogs have at their disposal in the 21^st century. One just has to look at the impressive work of the Syrian Commission of Inquiry, which despite denial of access produces detailed accounts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and which partially relies on videos and satellite imagery.

UN Human Rights Council member states have the unique opportunity to send a strong and unified signal to North Korean authorities that the world is not standing quietly by as they are turning the country into one big prison. We will know by March 22 if countries live up to these expectations. In the meantime, please join the campaign and add your voice by publicly speaking out against the widespread and systematic human rights violations in North Korea.

Explore the system of political prison camps in North Korea

This is the first of several postings of the North Korea Revealed blogging series, published in the context of efforts to establish a Commission of Inquiry at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council (February 25 – March 22). Join the conversation through #NKRevealed.

I was born in North Korea in 1982. I was born in a political prison camp (…) and lived there until I escaped in 2005 (…) I was born to an imprisoned mother and father. —Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known North Korean born in a political prison camp to have escaped.

Shin’s shocking story personifies the horrors of North Korea’s vast network of political prison camps, believed to house over a hundred thousand prisoners. His story is emblematic for the daily forced hard labor, calculated starvation and torture that prisoners have to endure. It also reflects the system of collective punishment that results in the incarceration of several generations of one family, often for life. You can hear more from Shin on a new video playlist, together with testimonies of other escapees and exiles. Their voices urge immediate action to stop the horrors of the prison camps.

I have put together this new video playlist with the help of our friends at WITNESS. We are publishing it—together with other materials such as a map and satellite images of the camps on Google Earth—ahead of the release of a new satellite image analysis later this week (check back on this blog). The materials explain the abysmal human rights situation—described by the UN as being in “its own category”—and give the context to our forthcoming findings.

The impossible playlist
The playlist also includes a shocking account of a former prison guard from Camp 22 and expert opinions. The Human Rights Channel that hosts the playlist normally presents citizen journalism to expose underreported human rights abuses—in the case of North Korea, an impossible task. North Korea regularly ranks near the top of lists of most censored countries. While some incredible citizen journalism from North Korea has started to emerge over the last year, we were barely able to locate any footage of the actual political prison camps. Having that said, I am curious if recent developments in North Korea will help to expand the country’s “digital underground.” The last week already saw the first Tweets and Instagram pics emerge from North Korea—of course, these mobile social media options are still limited to foreigners.

My hope is that the video testimonies and maps will help tell a story that go beyond the geopolitical focus people normally associate with North Korea. Looking beyond the nuclear issue is important, as the UN Human Rights Council is preparing for an important vote to establish an independent Commission of Inquiry on the widespread and systematic human rights violations in North Korea.

If you are as outraged about these stories and the political prison camps in North Korea as I am, please share these online materials as widely as possible. Governments currently represented at the Human Rights Council have to hear that people globally care about this issue.

Reveal North Korea’s secret
Many people and organizations—including Amnesty International—have to rely on satellite imagery to circumvent the rigid restrictions in and limited access to North Korea. In fact, using a free tool such as Google Earth puts the camps at every Internet user’s fingertips. I urge you to watch and share our teaser video and explore images of the camps for yourself by downloading our Google Earth layer.

Revealing and widely publicizing the camp system is the first step in countering the North Korean government’s outright denial of the existence of the camps. The more people know about their existence, the more difficult it will get for authorities to continue their denial. Shining a light on such abuses is at the core of Amnesty International’s work, originating in the appeal for amnesty for “The Forgotten Prisoners.” While in the 21^st century we might rely on satellites, video and social media to shine that light on North Korea’s forgotten prisons, the power of collective action to unveil the most egregious abuses remains the key for positive change. I invite you to join me.

Syrian youths, inside a vehicle, film a protest against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with their phones in the northern city of Aleppo on October 12, 2012. (Photo: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)

Social media is increasingly helpful to not only monitor emerging human rights emergencies, but also to uncover incorrect information. A recent example is when Twitter helped me to spot incorrect contextual information on a newly uploaded execution video from Syria. This is just one instance in which crowdsourced expertise from social media can open up new opportunities for human rights organizations. Having that said, the challenges and pitfalls are numerous. I thought about these issues a lot while preparing for a Truthloader debate last week on how citizen journalism is changing the world. Current case in point is the upcoming elections in Kenya, which are probably the best (citizen) monitored elections in history.

Of course, citizen journalism is not a new phenomenon―think of the Rodney King case in the early 1990s, to name just one well known example. However, it is the digital revolution and the emergence of social media that has significant implications for human rights work. I have previously blogged examples of the use of social media for mobilizing and about the use of video to document possible war crimes in Syria. Today, I am assessing the general value of social media for monitoring and documentation (the issues highlighted below are by no means comprehensive).

The crime scene at your fingertips

Similar to journalists, human rights researchers cannot cover all places at once and may be denied access to a potential crime scene altogether. The surge in citizen journalism and social media platforms over the last decade has led to a torrent of potential evidence of human rights violations. Combined with powerful tools such as Google Earth, investigators now have hundreds of potential crime scenes at their fingertips (see examples).

In early December, a gruesome video came across my screen that depicted a child taking part in a beheading, reportedly the weekend of December 8, 2012, in Homs. As previously mentioned, turning to a curated Syria Twitter list quickly led me to discover that the scene was at least several weeks old, and that the reported location may have been incorrect. To be clear, these new findings do not diminish the crime; however, identifying the place and time of an incident is crucial for determining International Humanitarian Law compliance. This video has also been mentioned in the official UN inquiry into war crimes and human rights violations in Syria, which was released earlier this week.

Social media as evidence

Mark Little identifies three central steps in Storyful’s (a social media news agency) curation process: Discovery – Verification – Delivery. In human rights research and advocacy, there is strong overlap with the first two steps of this process (discovery and verification). However, I would argue that there is a clear difference to journalism around the final step (delivery). While journalists look at how to “turn that content into stories,” we are looking into turning stories into evidence for use in advocacy and courts. While a YouTube video showing Syrian rebels shooting down a helicopter might be a newsworthy story, it is of less interest to a human rights investigator, as the depicted scene is likely to conform to the rules of armed conflict.

Videos that are directly relevant to a human rights investigator are ones such as a series that document the assault on a Syrian army checkpoint near Idlib. The videos conclude with the summary execution of the captured soldiers by armed opposition fighters, which depicts a possible war crime in progress. At Amnesty International, we were quick to publicly deplore this act. Unfortunately, the amount of videos coming out of Syria is quite overwhelming, and a lot of footage is difficult to verify.

Using such content in court is a different game altogether. First, there is an urgent need for guidelines on the reliability and admissibility rules of social media and video evidence. Second, we need to develop tools and apps that record metadata―such as exact location, time and date―in order to increase the value to human rights investigators and prosecutors. Luckily, some progress is already underway on both fronts: More people are looking into admissibility questions, and thanks to Witness, a groundbreaking prototype for a photo and video authentication app (InformaCam) is currently under development. A related mobile app (by Physicans for Human Rights, DataDyne and InformCam) “will equip doctors and nurses with critical tools for collecting, documenting and preserving court-admissible forensic evidence of mass atrocities including sexual violence and torture.”

Limitations

We have to be careful not to view social media (and accompanying mobile apps) as a universal solution to tackle the challenges of human rights monitoring. In fact, disparities in infrastructure, access to technology and state surveillance can easily lead to the underreporting of human rights violations. Relying excessively on citizen journalism and social media thus bears the risk of overlooking abuses―just because it doesn’t show up in my Twitter feed doesn’t mean it’s not happening. One of my current projects is focused on political prison camps in North Korea. You can imagine how challenging (and dangerous) it is to provide and collect citizen provided content from there.

However, there are some workarounds to circumvent restrictions even in such closed countries as North Korea―more on this in my upcoming blog posts over the next weeks.

Humanitarian Aid for Syria. Click to explore interactive map.

Ahead of a crucial donors conference for Syria tomorrow, UN officials are warning of a funding shortfall that severely might affect the response to the spiraling humanitarian crisis. John Ging, the Director of Operations for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), cited “a funding shortfall that is affecting the ability of the UN and its partners to deliver vital assistance, including food, water and medical supplies”, according to the UN News Centre.

Already last week, Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, urged more funding ahead of the donors conference:

We also need more resources. The humanitarian community has requested US$1.5 billion to help displaced people and the communities hosting them in Syria – and in neighbouring countries – for the next six months.

There is a funding conference on the 30th of this month, in Kuwait, which will be hosted by the Secretary-General of the UN and the Emir of Kuwait. We hope that the conference will yield the resources we need. If we do not receive these funds, we will not be able to reach the poorest and most vulnerable families who so desperately need our help.

The funding concerns are even more worrisome considering the acute humanitarian situation in the region. As of today, more than 700,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring countries. Over the last month alone, 30,000 refugees fled to Jordan. Satellite images of the rapidly expanding Zaatari refugee camp are emblematic of the growing displacement crisis.

While the situation in Syria remains extremely volatile, one thing is certain: the prolonged humanitarian emergency will require a sustained commitment by the international community to support affected Syrians and the neighboring countries that receive refugees.

Who Is Funding The Syrian Humanitarian Response?

We have produced a simple map that tracks funding to the various humanitarian appeals, both for the 2012 and the current appeal: In the first half of 2013, the UN seeks $1.5 billion in funding to respond to the humanitarian crisis. Around two-thirds of the requested funding is intended for assistance of refugees seeking shelter in neighboring countries, and is based on a projection of 1 million refugees by mid-2013 (see detailed numbers of Syrians refugees on our tracker). The total funding requests, including for relief inside Syria, “comprise the largest short-term humanitarian appeal ever.” The international community largely failed so far to meaningfully respond to the egregious human rights violations and to ensure accountability by referring the situation to the International Criminal Court. Let’s hope countries will at least donate generously to the UN humanitarian appeal.

Learn more. Watch this short video about Syrian refugees fleeing to Jordan. 

Note on the data of the funding map: The map is based on data provided by the Financial Tracking Service (FTS) of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The map shows funding by individual countries to the Syrian crisis (appeals and other reported funding) as reported to FTS and UNHCR only. Due to a time lag in reporting, it does not include most recent numbers, such as the $155 million in additional funding by the United States announced today.

The UN is expecting up to one million Syrian refugees by mid 2013. Click to explore full map.

Faced with shelling and shortages of food, water and fuel, civilians have fled their homes, becoming refugees in neighboring countries or finding themselves internally displaced. Towns and villages across Latakia, Idlib, Hama and Dara’a governorates have been effectively emptied of their populations. Entire neighbourhoods in southern and eastern Damascus, Deir al-Zour and Aleppo have been razed. The downtown of Homs city has been devastated.
—Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria. December 20, 2012.

The impact of Syria’s spiraling conflict can be increasingly seen in neighboring countries, as indiscriminate attacks are sending hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing from their homes across borders in search of safety and shelter. According to the latest update from the Independent International inquiry on Syria—released just hours ago—entire towns and villages have been emptied of their populations. The intensified fighting around Damascus and the mounting atrocities across the country are accompanied by increasing reports of sectarian violence. While we can’t predict the outcome of the conflict, one thing seems certain: the cycle of violence and displacement of civilians will go on for months.

One million refugees-how will the world respond?

Based on these daunting trends, the United Nations yesterday released the largest, short-term humanitarian appeal ever, requesting $1.5 billion for the next six months, to assist Syrians both within the country and those fleeing abroad. The appeal is based on an expectation that the number of refugees will almost double to 1 million Syrians by mid-2013.

While the international community has spectacularly failed to provide a unified response to the Syrian human rights crisis—most visibly, the failure to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court—I hope the humanitarian response will be less shameful. A cardinal principle of international law is to grant protection to those fleeing from violence, or who would otherwise face threats to their lives if at home. Thus, neighboring countries must ensure their borders remain open to the thousands of Syrian men, women and children who are fleeing crimes against humanity and war crimes. While countries such as Turkey, Jordon or Iraq have already allowed tens of thousands of Syrians to seek protection within their borders, unfortunately there also continues to be reports of border closings and stranded, internally-displaced Syrians.

However, the responsibility cannot be left alone with neighboring countries. The international community must not only continue, but must step up financial support so that international relief agencies and host countries have the necessary resources to protect Syrians who have been forced to flee their homes. Ensuring a strong response to the newest UN humanitarian appeal would be a good start (over the last months, the Syrian Regional Response plan was only half-funded). This appeal has nothing to do with charity, but everything to do with ensuring that Syrians—who the international community has widely failed for almost two years now—at the very least, can fulfill their most basic needs, as long as they are denied the ability to return to their homes for fear of violence, atrocity, and targeting.

Learn more about the crisis by watching a series of five videos here:

Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the city of Kyaukphyu, Rakhine state. This Digital Globe satellite image from October 25th captures the aftermath. (c) DigitalGlobe 2012

In the Rakhine state (also called “Arakan” by some) of Myanmar, the unfortunate evolution of discrimination, unequal application of the law, and forced displacement into violence and humanitarian crisis has come to bear. Since June, fits of violence between Buddhist and Muslim Rakhine, and Muslim Rohingya communities have likely left tens of thousands displaced and scores dead.

In the most recent incident of ethnic clashes, thousands of Rohingya muslim, but also Rakhine Buddhist, homes have reportedly been burned down. Part of the destruction was captured by a satellite image (courtesy of Digital Globe): The image of Kyaukphyu from October 25 shows a cindery scar on the face of the earth where hundreds of homes used to be (see the area before the destruction here).

It’s one of the most striking satellite images I have ever seen (and remarkable for an area that often provides challenges for remote sensing due to vegetation and regular cloud coverage; for more background, please take a look at a previous Myanmar project done by the American Association for the Advancement of Science). Let’s hope that this disturbing visual evidence will help to garner the necessary attention to this widely ignored human rights crisis in the making.

Getting access to the affected area through satellite becomes even more important as foreigners are generally not permitted to travel freely in Rakhine state, and despite the enormity of the crisis emerging there, local and international aid agencies do not have unfettered access to those without adequate food, water, and shelter.

What has to happen

The situation in Rakhine state remains tense. Recent news reports told of a “mob” of “several thousand” descended upon a Muslim Rakhine village. Another report talks about communities arming themselves, yet another indication of the risk of further violence. In order to address the crisis in the medium and short term, the following steps should be taken:

• Humanitarian aid groups should be given immediate and unfettered access to the conflict impacted areas
• A commission of inquiry (set up in August) should independently and impartially investigate the causes of violence and reports of human rights violations by all parties to the conflict.
• Those responsible for human rights violations including Rakhine Buddhists, Rohingya Muslims and the security forces must be brought to justice
• Myanmar authorities must address the root causes of the current violence, which is systematic discrimination. The government must end discriminatory policies and practices against Rohingya Muslims and amend or repeal its citizenship laws to ensure that the Rohingya are no longer rendered stateless. (We will monitor closely if recent public statements by authorities to address this issue will be followed through with concrete actions).

PS: If you are interested in a more detailed damage assessment, our colleagues from Human Rights Watch have conducted an analysis of the satellite image.