Human Rights & ICTs. A presentation delivered on 1 April 2017 to Amnesty International's 2017 Chairs Assembly and Director's Forum (CADF), held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

1. Human Rights & ICTs
Digital loci of activism and advocacy around HR today
Sanjana Hattotuwa

3. 95.4%

4. Sri Lanka’s debt situation is severe. The country is currently in $58.3 billion deep to
foreign financiers, and 95.4% of all government revenue is currently going towards
paying back its loans.
This means that out of every hundred dollars the government brings in only $4.60
is going towards essentials like education and public services.
China Tells Sri Lanka: We Want Our Money, Not Your Empty Airport
http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/07/31/china-to-sri-lanka-we-want-our-money-not-your-empty-
airport/#3dcaa4481169

5. discursive loci

6. discursive loci

7. what’s new?
• Democratisation of the technologies of bearing witness
• Social media as the new Trafalgar Squares
• Acts of journalism. More media, less journalism.
• Information glut vs. intelligence paucity.

8. How can technology help?
Bearing witness within cycles of violence

9. Recording for posterity
Wordpress, Blogger,
Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, YouTube, Vimeo,
Bundlr, Storify, Vimeo,
SoundCloud, Flickr,
Infogr.am, Typeform,
Google Maps, Google
Earth, Timeline.js, Tiki
Toki, Ushahidi CrowdMap,
OpenStreetMap, SMS,
Mobile Apps, HTML5,
Adobe Spark, Microsoft
Sway, Atavist, WhatsApp

10. A safe space
Civility, agree to disagree

11. Curation
• ~7.5 million words in 50,260
comments
• ~8.4 million words over 3,375 articles
• no break in ten years

16. The end of war
Zero civilian casualties vs. ground realities

17. Mass graves
From 2009 to end of 2011

18. Moving Images
Photography to capture change | www.movingimages.asia

19. Mediated
Using art to shape perceptions |
saskiafernandogallery.com/
exhibitionsmain.php?id=22.

20. 30 Years Ago
New media to capture Black July anti-Tamil pogrom | www.30yearsago.asia

21. Short & Sweet
Using fiction to interrogate a violent past

22. Technology & theatre
Using theatre to interrogate texts

23. Watch This Space
Art, Transitional Justice and Accountability

24. Corridors of Power
Merging architecture and constitutional theory

25. World Changing Ideas 2017: Finalist
Urban Design

26. Citizen archivist
Archiving the ephemeral for posterity | http://sitesatrisksl.wordpress.com

27. 1.Army (8)
2.Berghof Foundation (2)
3.Bhashawa.lk (1)
4.CaFFE – Election Monitoring (1)
5.CIMIC – Jaffna (1)
6.Citizens Commission (1)
7.Citizens Commission on Expulsion of Muslims – October
1990 (1)
8.Citizens.lk (1)
9.COI (1)
10.Colombo Art Biennale 2014 (1)
11.Colomboscope (1)
12.Constitutional Assembly of Sri Lanka (1)
13.Cost of War (1)
14.CPA (1)
15.Department of Government Printing (1)
16.Dept. of Census and Statistics (1)
17.Desmond de Silva (1)
18.Development (1)
19.Deyata Kirula (1)
20.Eastern Revival (1)
21.External Resources Department (1)
22.FMM (1)
23.Government Information Department (1)
24.Groundviews (1)
25.Groundviews Facebook (1)
26.IIGEP (2)
27.InfoShare (1)
28.Jayantha Dhanapala (1)
29.JVP (2)
30.Lanka Logistics & Technologies Ltd (1)
31.LLRC Action Plan (3)
32.LLRC NAP (3)
33.LTTE Dept. of IR (1)
34.LTTE Peace Secretariat (2)
35.Mahinda Rajapaksa (2)
36.Maithripala Sirisena (2)
37.Manthri.lk (1)
38.MCNS (1)
39.Media at risk (1)
40.Megapolis (1)
41.Mihin Lanka (1)
42.Milinda Moragoda (1)
43.Ministry of Defence (1)
44.Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) (1)
45.Ministry of Mass Media (1)
46.Momentum (1)
47.Namal Rajapaksa (1)
48.National Freedom Front (1)
49.National Housing Policy (1)
50.National Movement for Social Justice (1)
51.National Peace Council (1)
52.NESOHR (1)
53.News.lk (1)
54.NGO Secretariat (1)
55.OCDS (1)
56.Official Languages Commission (1)
57.ONUR (1)
58.PACT (1)
59.Political parties (9)
60.President's Media Division (PMD) (1)
61.Presidential Commission To Investigate into Complaints
Regarding Missing Persons (1)
62.Presidential Secretariat (1)
63.Prime Minister's Website (1)
64.Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited (1)
65.Regaining Sri Lanka (1)
66.Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs (1)
67.RTI Watch (1)
68.SCOPP (3)
69.Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms
(1)
70.SLFP (1)
71.SLPI & SLCJ (1)
72.Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) (1)
73.Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (1)
74.Tamil National Alliance (1)
75.Tamilnet (1)
76.Tharunyata Hetak (1)
77.TNA (2)
78.Tsunami (1)
79.Udayanga Weeratunga (1)
80.UNF-LTTE Peace Process (1)
81.United National Party – UNP (1)
82.UTHR(J) (1)
83.Vikalpa (1)
84.WRMPP (2)
85.Your Constitution (1)

29. Their stories matter
Tech secondary

30. ‘birds of a feather, flock together’
digital echo chambers
homiphily

31. adult literary vs. media illiteracy
fake news

32. cognitive neuroscientists, social marketers,
telcos
not in the room

33. The future is already here —
it's just not very evenly
distributed.
William Gibson

34. thank you
sanjanah@cpalanka.org