# Remote Sensing for International Peace and Security: Its Role and Implications
## 3 Results
### Remote Sensing and Human Rights  
From 2006 onward, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project has globally aligned with human rights organizations. The remote sensing data has been used for human rights in two distinct ways, namely documentation and analysis, and as scientific evidence in the court of law [89]. In courts, scientific proof has been used to supplement other, more conventional evidence. In the context of the former Yugoslav's case, the satellite imagery was used to validate the witness accounts of civilian killings by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICT). The Amnesty International [89] has suggested using remote sensing as evidence in courts for bringing the perpetrators to the book [89]. Still, there is a lack of consensus on the admissibility of such evidence in different courts [90]. In addition, this has made it difficult to make generalized conclusions about the consistent use of remote sensing in the field of jurisprudence. Various remote sensing techniques viz. radiometric, SAR, aerial photography, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and thermal imaging, etc. play a vital role in various aspects of human rights, such as equality, freedom, education, dignity, prosperity, justice, and speech. Figure 11 depicts the interconnection of remote sensing techniques with the various aspects of human rights. Although remote sensing platforms provide useful data, it can be interpreted differently by different users and algorithms. During a dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the remote sensing evidence presented before the court had conflicting interpretations [90]. To establish the legitimacy of using satellite data in legal proceedings, it is important to create universal standards for the interpretation and validation of data across different courts worldwide. To date, it has been used on an ad hoc basis by the European Court of Human Rights for the conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, the African Commission, and the African Court of Human and People's Rights in the case of forced evictions in Zimbabwe, and the International Criminal Court in the case of human rights violations in Darfur [91]. Different tools are being used to document and understand human rights violations. For instance, the imagery processed from Afghanistan in 2006-2007 supported the findings of Physicians for Human Rights on the suspicions of mass graves in Northern Afghanistan [92]. On the other hand, the review of different images in Myanmar compared to the reports on attacks against civilians in Karen State by the government in 2006-2007 and 2009 provided proof of destruction and the construction of new military occupation camps [93]. In collaboration with the Amnesty International and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, AAAS has also looked into evidence of attacks against civilians in Chad and Darfur, Sudan. In 2008, AAAS and Amnesty International in Georgia assessed the damage of the region of Tskhinvali in conflict with Russia. In 2005, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for  
Figure 11: Remote sensing and human rights [15]. Human Rights used remote sensing techniques in assessing the damage caused by the demolition of houses by the government [89]. In the human rights field, remote sensing has opened a new window of opportunity to reach into areas of the world that are not easily accessible either for geographical or political reasons. In these circumstances, remote sensing data serves to supplement and validate reports of human rights abuse and violations coming from the ground. For instance, satellite images confirmed the increased number of prison camps in North Korea over the years [94]. It has also been ingeniously used to create a web resource serving as an open-source of information for human rights violations in places like Pakistan and to identify the location of individuals at risk [95].