AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Remote Sensing for Human Rights Project

The AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program has been awarded a grant of $800,000 by the Oak Foundation, based in London. The two-year grant will support the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project to:

(1) determine the human rights-related applications of new high resolution and technically advanced satellite technologies, as well as underutilized lower resolution sensors; and

(2) increase understanding among human rights courts and human rights organizations regarding the evolving and potential applications of geospatial technologies and associated research methodologies in human rights litigation.

The increased use of geospatial technologies for human rights purposes has been made possible by continued technological and analytical developments led by organizations such as AAAS and the United Nations. With the support of the new Oak grant, AAAS will continue to expand the types of human rights abuses that can be documented using high-resolution image analysis, for example, by applying the expanded spectral range of high resolution sensors to allow more detailed and accurate identification of on-the-ground features.

In addition to high-resolution satellite images, however, there are many older satellite products that were created for purposes such as meteorology, volcanology, sea ice monitoring, mining, and agricultural management that can have valuable human rights applications. For example, AAAS recently used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to document the ongoing gas flaring in the Niger Delta, which continues despite a 2008 moratorium. The use of this free daily product allowed a large area, multi-year analysis that would not have been feasible using high-resolution imagery. With the support of the new grant, AAAS plans to further explore how such older satellites could be adapted to human rights research.

Finally, AAAS will pursue opportunities for applying geospatial analysis in human rights-related litigation at the international and regional levels to strengthen the capacity of legal accountability institutions to respond to human rights abuses. In the past, AAAS has been approached on an ad hoc basis to provide satellite remote sensing analysis for use in human rights litigation, including with regard to: the conflict in South Ossetia, Georgia (European Court of Human Rights), forced evictions in Zimbabwe (African Commission and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights), and mass human rights violations in Darfur (International Criminal Court). The new grant will allow AAAS to provide support to the courts in a systematic way. With the support of the Oak Foundation grant, AAAS will provide training in remote sensing analysis to the judges, investigation teams and prosecutors of international criminal courts and tribunals, as well as the regional human rights courts and commissions. With an improved understanding among judges and other relevant court personnel of the value of remote sensing analysis, it is expected that geospatial evidence will be integrated more frequently into human rights litigation, and that the work of these human rights courts and commissions will be strengthened as a result.

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Project Staff

Susan Wolfinbarger
Project Director
Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project

Susan Wolfinbarger, Ph.D., is the Project Director for the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the Ohio State University and an M.A. in Geography from the George Washington University. Her work focuses on the conceptualization, development, and deployment of geospatial technologies and information for human rights-related issues. Her research interests focus on the use of satellite remote sensing as evidence in legal cases, particularly those related to human rights; advancing human rights outcomes through geospatial documentation; feminist and critical views of technology; and the implications and ethics related to the rapid rise in the use of geographic technologies, including volunteered geographic information.

Jonathan Drake
Program Associate
Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project

Jonathan Drake received his bachelor's degree in physics from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and completed a masters degree at Arizona State University, where he mapped periglacial geomorphology on Mars using the THEMIS instrument aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. A former research assistant at the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Hawaii Institute for Geophysics and Planetology, his experience spans the domains of astronomy and planetary science, including earth-based photometry of main-belt asteroids and observations of the Martian surface from orbit. At AAAS, he has been involved in developing applications of imaging radar to problems relevant to human rights, as well as analyzing visible and near infrared imagery in support of program objectives.

Eric Ashcroft
Senior Project Coordinator
Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project

Eric Ashcroft is a Senior Project Coordinator with the Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program. Eric received a M.A. degree in Geography from the George Washington University. While there, he worked as a research assistant mapping health and wealth in Accra, Ghana using GIS and remotely sensed imagery. He has also used remotely sensed data to monitor riparian health in Victoria, Australia. His primary interests focus on the use of satellite remote sensing to map human and environmental phenomena.

Mark Frankel
Director
Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Mark S. Frankel, Ph.D., directs the Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program and is responsible for developing and managing AAAS activities related to science, human rights, ethics, and law. He serves as Staff Officer to two AAAS committees--the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility and the AAAS-American Bar Association National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. He is editor of Professional Ethics Report, the Program's quarterly newsletter, and is a Fellow of AAAS.

Jessica Wyndham
Associate Director
Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Jessica Wyndham is the Associate Director for the Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program. Her main interest is in the practical application of international human rights and humanitarian standards, including in relation to internal displacement, combating terrorism, torture, and the death penalty. She has worked extensively with national human rights institutions throughout Asia, the Pacific, Africa and the Americas, including as Legal Adviser for a project of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ecuador. Prior to joining the Association, she was the Legal Adviser on IDP Issues for the Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement. Jessica holds an LLB (Hons.) (J.D. equivalent) from the Australian National University and an LLM from the University of New South Wales.

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page updated 11/07/2012