Abstract

This chapter examines the use of a specialized case of Information Communication Technologies —geospatial technologies, particularly the use of satellite-based remote sensing—in human rights documentation and litigation. Geospatial technologies are a subset of information technologies and are concerned with data that have an explicit geographic context. The technologies encompass next-generation cartographic techniques, Global Positioning Systems, crowdsourced information with specific geographic information, and remote sensing by both space-borne and aerial vehicles. These technologies are used for a range of applications supporting human rights documentation, from the mapping of human rights abuses to monitoring areas of social and political uprising using geotagged texts and photographs.