A picture – or in this case a map – is worth a thousand words. From maps made with global information system (GIS) technology that identify toxic sites to a map recreating demolished neighborhoods to a map that illustrates interconnected systems supporting the use of torture, these maps can be valuable tools.

Panelists

Featured Tactic: Erik Holst, ICAR Foundation, Romania, and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, Denmark Complementary Presentations:

• Michael Amitay, Washington Kurdish Institute, USA
• Donald Parenzee, District Six Museum, South Africa

Featured Tactic:

Erik Holst, ICAR Foundation, Romania, and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, Denmark

• View Erik Holst’s PowerPoint presentation 32 KB

The Center for Victims of Torture gathered a group together to diagram the relationships that support torture in order to develop more effective campaigns to combat torture. Beginning with the relationship between the torturer and the victim the map shows the chain of command that plans, organizes and funds torture. It also illustrates the support systems the victim may have in place. This "tactical map" can be used to assess which relationships can be used to influence the torturer as well as to highlight where people have been focusing their efforts and which areas have been neglected. The initial map diagrammed over 400 relationships, from the local to the international level.

Complementary Presentation

Michael Amitay, Washington Kurdish Institute, USA

• View Michael Amitay’s PowerPoint presentation 12,810 KB

Past conflicts in northern Iraq, including the genocidal use of weapons of mass destruction, continue to take a severe toll on people’shealth and on the environment. The Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI), with its partners the University of Liverpool and the Halabja Postgraduate Medical Institute (a consortium of local physicians and academics) uses Geographic Information Systems analysis to correlate environmental, health and other data with attack sites. This helps local authorities create effective research, environmental safety and medical treatment programs, while adding to the body of knowledge about the long-term effects of chemical weapons that can help preparedness efforts around the world.

Complementary Presentation

Donald Parenzee, District Six Museum, South Africa The racially integrated neighborhood of District Six in Cape Town was razed in 1966 to make way for a new "whites only" development, but construction never took place. As part of a campaign to defend the land and community integrity, a group of former residents built a map of the old neighborhood on the floor of a church and invited their neighbors to place their homes, streets, stores and community spaces on it. This memory-mapping project became the foundation for land reclamation claims.