Week in Review and How Satellites Could Prove Helpful in the Battle Against Human Rights Violations

From an international law perspective, this past week was quite eventful. On September 25, 2007, the General Assembly commenced its 62nd session of general debate [website] with the appearance of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, being the source of major commotion. In addition, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia rendered another decision sentencing two former senior officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and acquitted another. The press release to the decision can be found here and the decision here.

On another note, National Geographic reported [report, in English] this week that satellite images could help to expose and monitor human rights abuses. A collaboration of three human rights organizations with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) [website] analyzed satellite images of eastern Myanmar. With the help of those images, researchers could back reports of human rights violations in that region. For example, comparison of high resolution satellite images of rural dwellings at two different time points appear to document complete destruction of settlements. Such methods could prove useful in cases where the sending of envoys and journalists to countries suspected of committing human rights violations is either prohibited or very difficult to achieve. The hope is that satellite images providing tangible proof of human rights abuses get accepted by the international community and put human rights violators under pressure by making it more difficult for them to mask their deeds.