Google and George Clooney Aim Satellites at Sudan, Become “Anti-Genocide Paparazzi”

Ahead of an former January referendum , the two partners , along with Harvard and the United Nations , want Sudanese rebels to know that they are being watch out .

George Clooney is link Google , the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative , and the United Nations in an exploit forebode theSatellite Sentinel Projectto monitor violence and human right violations in Sudan as the country gear up to vote on January 9 on whether or not to split into two nations — North and South Sudan .

The expressed goal of the partnership is deterrence — Clooney and his mate require to verify that Sudan does not conflagrate in another civil war . Some low pockets of ferocity have already been reported and the engagement of satellites is meant to give war - mongers on the ground the message that the humankind is watching and genocide will not be suffer .

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Clooney ’s interest in Sudan is not new — back in 2007 he was featured in the infotainment film , Darfur Now , co - produced by doer Don Cheadle . And he has maintained his interest in the embattled country since then , paying a late visit amidst preparations for the upcoming referendum .

The partnership pull on the diverse strengths of the participating organisation — Clooney and his organization , Not On Our Watch , add star mightiness — not to mention awareness mightiness — and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Programme ( UNOSAT ) will collect and analyze the satellite images . The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative , meanwhile , will provide field inquiry and Google is setting up a vane platform to bring home the bacon public access code to information with the goal of pressuring public official . ( We profiled an independent , Ushahidi - backed vote monitoring project just a twosome of weeks ago — carried out by aSudan - gestate Texan . )

UNOSAT has done this before — in fact it is their foreign mission to crack orbiter images in subject of such catastrophe , but in the case of Sudan they ’ve more or less been on standby to see what happens and will start photograph artificial satellite image as shortly as they receive requests from their theatre stave and better half administration to do so . “ It ’s a good thing that we have n’t yet had to take many range of a function in Sudan , ” Lars Bromley of UNOSAT tells Fast Company .

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So the musical theme is not entirely Clooney ’s alone ( despite what aTime clip articlesuggests ) . I had speak to UNOSAT several week ago , prior to the announcement of Clooney ’s project , and , for them , this is essentially everyday work .

But there is one dispute this clip around . It ’s Clooney who has employ the satellites . That have in mind there is more exemption to snap away in whatever geographic areas and on whatever basis the grouping desire , as oppose to the U.N. , which has certain rules and guidelines to play within . Specifically , Clooney will monitor the movement of troops , whereas UNOSAT ’s basal — and most flexible — prerogative is the monitoring of innate disasters , not man - made ones .

“ We are the anti - genocide paparazzi , ” Clooney toldTime . “ We want them to enjoy the grade of fame attention that I ordinarily get . If you know your action mechanism are pop off to be covered , you tend to behave much differently than when you operate in a vacuum . ”

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The project as a whole is a multi - layered approach and the programming and monitoring capabilities of multiple crisis mapping shaft , websites , and organisation are being pulled together . The work of theSudan Vote Monitor — who we profile earlier this calendar month — will soon be incorporated and the Google single-valued function component was really build off the piece of work of two Pakistani - British entrepreneurs who builtLOCAL , a monitoring website for the Pakistan deluge .

“ What is newfangled and transforming is the concept of leveraging Google Map Maker into a public human rights and human security early warning system to stop a war before it come out , ” Jonathan Hutson of the Enough Project , another partner , tells Fast Company .

“ We ’d wish to engage the world-wide , volunteer community of interests of Google power mappers , ” adds Hutson , “ and combine their efforts with on - the - background champaign reports from the Enough task and crowd - sourced , crisis reaction information from groups like Ushahidi , analyze it , tot context and concise clear vociferation to action , and put out it all on a public platform to detect and deter war crimes , including likely race murder . ”

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