Satellite Sentinel Project/Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), funded by George Clooney's human rights organization, Not On Our Watch, combines satellite imagery analysis and field reports in an effort to deter the resumption of war between North and South Sudan. The project provides an early warning system to deter mass atrocities by focusing world attention and generating rapid responses on human rights and human security concerns.

SSP is an unprecedented collaboration between advocacy group, the Enough Project; UNOSAT (the United Nations UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Program); the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI); Google; satellite imagery provider, Digital Globe; and Internet strategy and development firm, Trellon, LLC. Since late December 2010, the project has focused on monitoring and documenting human rights violations associated with the January 2011 referendum in Sudan and the imminent secession of the South later this year.

This initiative marks the first, sustained public effort to systematically monitor and report on potential threats to security in near real-time with the aim of deterring a humanitarian crisis. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative will be contributing its expertise in Crisis Mapping and Early Warning by providing system-wide research and leading the collection, human rights analysis, and corroboration of on-the-ground reports that contextualizes the satellite imagery.