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The U.S. State Department on Tuesday announced the launch of a new program to capture and analyze evidence of war crimes and other atrocities allegedly perpetrated by Russia in Ukraine, as Washington seeks to ensure Moscow is held accountable for its actions, Reuters reports.
The Conflict Observatory will capture, analyze, and publicize available evidence of Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine, the State Department adds:
The program is being established with an initial $6 million investment, with future funding to come from the European Democratic Resilience Initiative (EDRI). In March, the White House announced at least $320 million in funds for EDRI to bolster democratic resilience, advance anti-corruption efforts, and promote respect for human rights in Ukraine and its region. This new Conflict Observatory program is part of a range of U.S. government efforts at both national and international levels designed to ensure future accountability for Russia’s horrific actions.
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The Conflict Observatory is a collaboration with Esri, a geographic information systems firm, Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab – Khoshnood, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, and PlanetScape Ai.
In March, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOT), an open source project that works with humanitarian groups around the world using maps to help them deliver aid, stopped all updates to Ukraine on the open source mapping tool OpenStreetMap, WIRED reports. The decision came after the Ukrainian mapping community expressed concern that updates to the maps would only serve to help the invading Russian forces. But that also meant that critical information might no longer be available for outside aid organizations. (HOT has continued adding locations to the map outside Ukraine to help Ukrainian refugees find services in neighboring countries.)
State Dept. Launches ‘Conflict Observatory’ To Document Russian War Crimes In Ukraine https://t.co/Kul8uVu8Ur pic.twitter.com/tjZrUhThit
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